Check if a record exists in a VB6 collection? - vb6

Question

I've inherited a large VB6 app at my current workplace. I'm kinda learning VB6 on the job and there are a number of problems I'm having. The major issue at the moment is I can't figure out how to check if a key exists in a Collection object. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

My standard function is very simple. This will work regardless of the element type, since it doesn't bother doing any assignment, it merely executes the collection property get.
Public Function Exists(ByVal oCol As Collection, ByVal vKey As Variant) As Boolean
On Error Resume Next
oCol.Item vKey
Exists = (Err.Number = 0)
Err.Clear
End Function

Answer 2

#Mark Biek Your keyExists closely matches my standard Exists() function. To make the class more useful for COM-exposed collections and checking for numeric indexes, I'd recommend changing sKey and myCollection to not be typed. If the function is going to be used with a collection of objects, 'set' is required (on the line where val is set).
EDIT: It was bugging me that I've never noticed different requirements for an object-based and value-based Exists() function. I very rarely use collections for non-objects, but this seemed such a perfect bottleneck for a bug that would be so hard to track down when I needed to check for existence. Because error handling will fail if an error handler is already active, two functions are required to get a new error scope. Only the Exists() function need ever be called:
Public Function Exists(col, index) As Boolean
On Error GoTo ExistsTryNonObject
Dim o As Object
Set o = col(index)
Exists = True
Exit Function
ExistsTryNonObject:
Exists = ExistsNonObject(col, index)
End Function
Private Function ExistsNonObject(col, index) As Boolean
On Error GoTo ExistsNonObjectErrorHandler
Dim v As Variant
v = col(index)
ExistsNonObject = True
Exit Function
ExistsNonObjectErrorHandler:
ExistsNonObject = False
End Function
And to verify the functionality:
Public Sub TestExists()
Dim c As New Collection
Dim b As New Class1
c.Add "a string", "a"
c.Add b, "b"
Debug.Print "a", Exists(c, "a") ' True '
Debug.Print "b", Exists(c, "b") ' True '
Debug.Print "c", Exists(c, "c") ' False '
Debug.Print 1, Exists(c, 1) ' True '
Debug.Print 2, Exists(c, 2) ' True '
Debug.Print 3, Exists(c, 3) ' False '
End Sub

Answer 3

I've always done it with a function like this:
public function keyExists(myCollection as collection, sKey as string) as Boolean
on error goto handleerror:
dim val as variant
val = myCollection(sKey)
keyExists = true
exit sub
handleerror:
keyExists = false
end function

Answer 4

As pointed out by Thomas, you need to Set an object instead of Let. Here's a general function from my library that works for value and object types:
Public Function Exists(ByVal key As Variant, ByRef col As Collection) As Boolean
'Returns True if item with key exists in collection
On Error Resume Next
Const ERR_OBJECT_TYPE As Long = 438
Dim item As Variant
'Try reach item by key
item = col.item(key)
'If no error occurred, key exists
If Err.Number = 0 Then
Exists = True
'In cases where error 438 is thrown, it is likely that
'the item does exist, but is an object that cannot be Let
ElseIf Err.Number = ERR_OBJECT_TYPE Then
'Try reach object by key
Set item = col.item(key)
'If an object was found, the key exists
If Not item Is Nothing Then
Exists = True
End If
End If
Err.Clear
End Function
As also advised by Thomas, you can change the Collection type to Object to generalize this. The .Item(key) syntax is shared by most collection classes, so that might actually be useful.
EDIT Seems like I was beaten to the punch somewhat by Thomas himself. However for easier reuse I personally prefer a single function with no private dependencies.

Answer 5

Using the error handler to catch cases when the key does not exists in the Collection can make debugging with "break on all errors" option quite annoying. To avoid unwanted errors I quite often create a class which has the stored objects in a Collection and all keys in a Dictionary. Dictionary has exists(key) -function so I can call that before trying to get an object from the collection. You can only store strings in a Dictionary, so a Collection is still needed if you need to store objects.

Answer 6

The statement "error handling will fail if an error handler is already active" is only partly right.
You can have multiple error handlers within your routine.
So, one could accommodate the same functionality in only one function.
Just rewrite your code like this:
Public Function Exists(col, index) As Boolean
Dim v As Variant
TryObject:
On Error GoTo ExistsTryObject
Set v = col(index)
Exists = True
Exit Function
TryNonObject:
On Error GoTo ExistsTryNonObject
v = col(index)
Exists = True
Exit Function
ExistsTryObject:
' This will reset your Err Handler
Resume TryNonObject
ExistsTryNonObject:
Exists = False
End Function
However, if you were to only incorporate the code in the TryNonObject section of the routine, this would yield the same information.
It will succeed for both Objects, and non-objects.
It will speed up your code for non-objects, however, since you would only have to perform one single statement to assert that the item exists within the collection.

Answer 7

Better solution would be to write a TryGet function. A lot of the time you are going to be checking exists, and then getting the item. Save time by doing it at the same time.
public Function TryGet(key as string, col as collection) as Variant
on error goto errhandler
Set TryGet= col(key)
exit function
errhandler:
Set TryGet = nothing
end function

Answer 8

see
http://www.visualbasic.happycodings.com/Other/code10.html
the implementation here has the advantage of also optionally returning the found element, and works with object/native types (according to the comments).
reproduced here since the link is no longer available:
Determine if an item exists in a collection
The following code shows you how to determine if an item exists within a collection.
Option Explicit
'Purpose : Determines if an item already exists in a collection
'Inputs : oCollection The collection to test for the existance of the item
' vIndex The index of the item.
' [vItem] See Outputs
'Outputs : Returns True if the item already exists in the collection.
' [vItem] The value of the item, if it exists, else returns "empty".
'Notes :
'Example :
Function CollectionItemExists(vIndex As Variant, oCollection As Collection, Optional vItem As Variant) As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrNotExist
'Clear output result
If IsObject(vItem) Then
Set vItem = Nothing
Else
vItem = Empty
End If
If VarType(vIndex) = vbString Then
'Test if item exists
If VarType(oCollection.Item(CStr(vIndex))) = vbObject Then
'Return an object
Set vItem = oCollection.Item(CStr(vIndex))
Else
'Return an standard variable
vItem = oCollection.Item(CStr(vIndex))
End If
Else
'Test if item exists
If VarType(oCollection.Item(Int(vIndex))) = vbObject Then
'Return an object
Set vItem = oCollection.Item(Int(vIndex))
Else
'Return an standard variable
vItem = oCollection.Item(Int(vIndex))
End If
End If
'Return success
CollectionItemExists = True
Exit Function
ErrNotExist:
CollectionItemExists = False
On Error GoTo 0
End Function
'Demonstration routine
Sub Test()
Dim oColl As New Collection, oValue As Variant
oColl.Add "red1", "KEYA"
oColl.Add "red2", "KEYB"
'Return the two items in the collection
Debug.Print CollectionItemExists("KEYA", oColl, oValue)
Debug.Print "Returned: " & oValue
Debug.Print "-----------"
Debug.Print CollectionItemExists(2, oColl, oValue)
Debug.Print "Returned: " & oValue
'Should fail
Debug.Print CollectionItemExists("KEYC", oColl, oValue)
Debug.Print "Returned: " & oValue
Set oColl = Nothing
End Sub
See more at: https://web.archive.org/web/20140723190623/http://visualbasic.happycodings.com/other/code10.html#sthash.MlGE42VM.dpuf

Answer 9

While looking for a function like this i designed it as following.
This should work with objects and non-objects without assigning new variables.
Public Function Exists(ByRef Col As Collection, ByVal Key) As Boolean
On Error GoTo KeyError
If Not Col(Key) Is Nothing Then
Exists = True
Else
Exists = False
End If
Exit Function
KeyError:
Err.Clear
Exists = False
End Function