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excelvbamacosdictionary

VBA (Excel) Dictionary on Mac?


I have an Excel VBA project that makes heavy use of Windows Scripting Dictionary objects. I recently had a user attempt to use it on a Mac and received the following error:

Compile Error: Can't find project or library

Which is the result of using the Tools > References > Microsoft Scripting Runtime library.

My question is, is there a way to make this work on a Mac?

The following are the 3 cases I can think of as being possible solutions:

  1. Use a Mac plugin that enables use of Dictionaries on Macs (my favorite option if one exists)
  2. Do some kind of variable switch like the following:

    isMac = CheckIfMac
    If isMac Then
        ' Change dictionary variable to some other data type that is Mac friendly and provides the same functionality 
    End If
    
  3. Write 2 completely separate routines to do the same thing (please let this not be what needs to happen):

    isMac = CheckIfMac
    If isMac Then
        DoTheMacRoutine
    Else
       DoTheWindowsRoutine
    End If
    

Solution

  • Pulling the Answer from the comments to prevent link rot.

    Patrick O'Beirne @ sysmod wrote a class set that addresses this issue.

    Be sure to stop by Patirk's Blog to say thanks! Also there is a chance he has a newer version.

    save this as a plain text file named KeyValuePair.cls and import into Excel

    VERSION 1.0 CLASS
    BEGIN
      MultiUse = -1  'True
    END
    Attribute VB_Name = "KeyValuePair"
    Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
    Attribute VB_Creatable = False
    Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False
    Attribute VB_Exposed = False
    Option Explicit
    'Unrestricted class just to hold pairs of values together and permit Dictionary object updating
    Public Key As String
    Public value As Variant
    

    save this as a plain text file named Dictionary.cls and import into excel

    VERSION 1.0 CLASS
    BEGIN
      MultiUse = -1  'True
    END
    Attribute VB_Name = "Dictionary"
    Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
    Attribute VB_Creatable = False
    Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False
    Attribute VB_Exposed = False
    Option Explicit
    
    'Collection methods: Add, Count, Item, Remove
    'Dictionary : .Add(Key as string, Item as variant), .CompareMode, .Count, .Exists(Key); _
       .Item(Key) - writeable, .Items, .Keys, .Remove(Key), .RemoveAll
    'plus KeyValuePairs collection, KeyValuePair(Index as long), Tag as variant
    ' 25-11-2011 KeyValuePair helper object
    
    Public KeyValuePairs As Collection ' open access but allows iteration
    Public Tag As Variant            ' read/write unrestricted
    
    Private Sub Class_Initialize()
       Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub Class_Terminate()
       Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing
    End Sub
    
    ' in Scripting.Dictionary this is writeable, here we have only vbtextCompare because we are using a Collection
    Public Property Get CompareMode() As VbCompareMethod
       CompareMode = vbTextCompare   '=1; vbBinaryCompare=0
    End Property
    
    Public Property Let Item(Key As String, Item As Variant)    ' dic.Item(Key) = value ' update a scalar value for an existing key
       Let KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item
    End Property
    
    Public Property Set Item(Key As String, Item As Variant)    ' Set dic.Item(Key) = value ' update an object value for an existing key
       Set KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item
    End Property
    
    Public Property Get Item(Key As String) As Variant
       AssignVariable Item, KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value
    End Property
    
    ' Collection parameter order is Add(Item,Key); Dictionary is Add(Key,Item) so always used named arguments
    Public Sub Add(Key As String, Item As Variant)
       Dim oKVP As KeyValuePair
       Set oKVP = New KeyValuePair
       oKVP.Key = Key
       If IsObject(Item) Then
          Set oKVP.value = Item
       Else
          Let oKVP.value = Item
       End If
       KeyValuePairs.Add Item:=oKVP, Key:=Key
    End Sub
    
    Public Property Get Exists(Key As String) As Boolean
       On Error Resume Next
       Exists = TypeName(KeyValuePairs.Item(Key)) > ""  ' we can have blank key, empty item
    End Property
    
    Public Sub Remove(Key As String)
       'show error if not there rather than On Error Resume Next
       KeyValuePairs.Remove Key
    End Sub
    
    Public Sub RemoveAll()
       Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing
       Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection
    End Sub
    
    Public Property Get Count() As Long
       Count = KeyValuePairs.Count
    End Property
    
    Public Property Get Items() As Variant     ' for compatibility with Scripting.Dictionary
    Dim vlist As Variant, i As Long
    If Me.Count > 0 Then
       ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1) ' to get a 0-based array same as scripting.dictionary
       For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist)
          AssignVariable vlist(i), KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).value ' could be scalar or array or object
       Next i
       Items = vlist
    End If
    End Property
    
    Public Property Get Keys() As String()
    Dim vlist() As String, i As Long
    If Me.Count > 0 Then
       ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1)
       For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist)
          vlist(i) = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).Key   '
       Next i
       Keys = vlist
    End If
    End Property
    
    Public Property Get KeyValuePair(Index As Long) As Variant  ' returns KeyValuePair object
        Set KeyValuePair = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + Index)            ' collections are 1-based
    End Property
    
    Private Sub AssignVariable(variable As Variant, value As Variant)
       If IsObject(value) Then
          Set variable = value
       Else
          Let variable = value
       End If
    End Sub
    
    Public Sub DebugPrint()
       Dim lItem As Long, lIndex As Long, vItem As Variant, oKVP As KeyValuePair
       lItem = 0
       For Each oKVP In KeyValuePairs
          lItem = lItem + 1
          Debug.Print lItem; oKVP.Key; " "; TypeName(oKVP.value);
          If InStr(1, TypeName(oKVP.value), "()") > 0 Then
             vItem = oKVP.value
             Debug.Print "("; CStr(LBound(vItem)); " to "; CStr(UBound(vItem)); ")";
             For lIndex = LBound(vItem) To UBound(vItem)
                Debug.Print " (" & CStr(lIndex) & ")"; TypeName(vItem(lIndex)); "="; vItem(lIndex);
             Next
             Debug.Print
          Else
             Debug.Print "="; oKVP.value
          End If
       Next
    End Sub
    
    'NB VBA Collection object index is 1-based, scripting.dictionary items array is 0-based
    'cf Scripting.Dictionary Methods s.Add(Key, Item), s.CompareMode, s.Count, s.Exists(Key); _
       s.Item(Key) - updateable, s.Items, s.Key(Key), s.Keys, s.Remove(Key), s.RemoveAll
    'Scripting.Dictionary has no index number; you can index the 0-based variant array of Items returned
    '  unlike Collections which can be indexed starting at 1
    'Efficient iteration is For Each varPair in thisdic.KeyValuePairs
    'Another difference I introduce is that in a scripting.dictionary, the doc says
    '  If key is not found when changing an item, a new key is created with the specified newitem.
    '  If key is not found when attempting to return an existing item, a new key is created and its corresponding item is left empty.
    'but I want to raise an error when addressing a key that does not exist
    'similarly, the scripting.dictionary will create separate integer and string keys for eg 2