I'm using VB6 and I need to do a ReDim Preserve to a Multi-Dimensional Array:
Dim n, m As Integer
n = 1
m = 0
Dim arrCity() As String
ReDim arrCity(n, m)
n = n + 1
m = m + 1
ReDim Preserve arrCity(n, m)
Whenever I do it as I have written it, I get the following error:
runtime error 9: subscript out of range
Because I can only change the last array dimension, well in my task I have to change the whole array (2 dimensions in my example) !
Is there any workaround or another solution for this?
As you correctly point out, one can ReDim Preserve
only the last dimension of an array (ReDim Statement on MSDN):
If you use the Preserve keyword, you can resize only the last array dimension and you can't change the number of dimensions at all. For example, if your array has only one dimension, you can resize that dimension because it is the last and only dimension. However, if your array has two or more dimensions, you can change the size of only the last dimension and still preserve the contents of the array
Hence, the first issue to decide is whether 2-dimensional array is the best data structure for the job. Maybe, 1-dimensional array is a better fit as you need to do ReDim Preserve
?
Another way is to use jagged array as per Pieter Geerkens's suggestion. There is no direct support for jagged arrays in VB6. One way to code "array of arrays" in VB6 is to declare an array of Variant
and make each element an array of desired type (String
in your case). Demo code is below.
Yet another option is to implement Preserve
part on your own. For that you'll need to create a copy of data to be preserved and then fill redimensioned array with it.
Option Explicit
Public Sub TestMatrixResize()
Const MAX_D1 As Long = 2
Const MAX_D2 As Long = 3
Dim arr() As Variant
InitMatrix arr, MAX_D1, MAX_D2
PrintMatrix "Original array:", arr
ResizeMatrix arr, MAX_D1 + 1, MAX_D2 + 1
PrintMatrix "Resized array:", arr
End Sub
Private Sub InitMatrix(a() As Variant, n As Long, m As Long)
Dim i As Long, j As Long
Dim StringArray() As String
ReDim a(n)
For i = 0 To n
ReDim StringArray(m)
For j = 0 To m
StringArray(j) = i * (m + 1) + j
Next j
a(i) = StringArray
Next i
End Sub
Private Sub PrintMatrix(heading As String, a() As Variant)
Dim i As Long, j As Long
Dim s As String
Debug.Print heading
For i = 0 To UBound(a)
s = ""
For j = 0 To UBound(a(i))
s = s & a(i)(j) & "; "
Next j
Debug.Print s
Next i
End Sub
Private Sub ResizeMatrix(a() As Variant, n As Long, m As Long)
Dim i As Long
Dim StringArray() As String
ReDim Preserve a(n)
For i = 0 To n - 1
StringArray = a(i)
ReDim Preserve StringArray(m)
a(i) = StringArray
Next i
ReDim StringArray(m)
a(n) = StringArray
End Sub