VBMAN.Collection - Enhanced Collection Object

Overview

VBMAN.Collection provides more powerful functionality than VB6's built-in Collection, supporting key-based access, existence checks, Keys/Items array retrieval, etc., compatible with common Dictionary operations.

Core Features

• Key-Value Pair Storage: Supports accessing elements using Key
• Dictionary Compatible: Compatible with common Dictionary operations
• Existence Check: Supports checking if a Key exists
• Array Export: Supports exporting Keys and Items arrays
• Update Support: Supports updating existing elements

Properties

Property	Type	Description
Item(KeyOrIndex)	Variant	Get or set element (default member)
RawCollection	Collection	Raw Collection object
Count	Long	Number of elements (method)

Methods

Add

Add element

Public Sub Add(ByVal Item As Variant, Optional ByVal Key As String = "")

Parameters:

• Item - Element to add
• Key - Key name (optional, if provided and already exists, it will be replaced)

Example:

' Add element without key
VBMAN.Collection.Add "Value1"

' Add element with key
VBMAN.Collection.Add "Zhang San", "name"
VBMAN.Collection.Add 25, "age"

' Add object
VBMAN.Collection.Add New cJson, "config"

Remove

Delete element

Public Sub Remove(ByVal KeyOrIndex As Variant)

Example:

' Delete by Key
VBMAN.Collection.Remove "name"

' Delete by index (starts from 1)
VBMAN.Collection.Remove 1

RemoveAll

Clear all elements

Public Sub RemoveAll()

Example:

VBMAN.Collection.RemoveAll

Exists

Check if Key exists

Public Function Exists(ByVal Key As String, Optional CompareCase As Boolean) As Boolean

Example:

If VBMAN.Collection.Exists("name") Then
    Debug.Print VBMAN.Collection("name")
End If

Update

Update existing element

Public Function Update(ByVal Item As Variant, ByVal Key As String) As Boolean

Example:

If VBMAN.ToolsDic.Update("Li Si", "name") Then
    Debug.Print "Update successful"
End If

Keys

Return array of all Keys

Public Function Keys() As String()

Example:

Dim keyArray() As String
keyArray = VBMAN.Collection.Keys

Dim i As Long
For i = LBound(keyArray) To UBound(keyArray)
    Debug.Print keyArray(i)
Next i

Items

Return array of all Values

Public Function Items() As Variant()

Example:

Dim itemArray() As Variant
itemArray = VBMAN.Collection.Items

KeyByIndex

Get Key by index

Public Function KeyByIndex(ByVal Index As Long) As String

Example:

Dim key As String
key = VBMAN.Collection.KeyByIndex(1)

Count

Return number of elements

Public Function Count() As Long

Example:

Debug.Print "Total " & VBMAN.Collection.Count & " elements"

Comprehensive Examples

Example 1: Basic Operations

Private Sub BasicOperations()
    ' Clear
    VBMAN.Collection.RemoveAll

    ' Add data
    VBMAN.Collection.Add "Zhang San", "name"
    VBMAN.Collection.Add 25, "age"
    VBMAN.Collection.Add "Beijing", "city"

    ' Access data
    Debug.Print VBMAN.Collection("name")  ' Zhang San
    Debug.Print VBMAN.Collection("age")   ' 25

    ' Modify data
    VBMAN.Collection("age") = 26

    ' Check existence
    If VBMAN.Collection.Exists("name") Then
        Debug.Print "name exists"
    End If

    ' Delete data
    VBMAN.Collection.Remove "city"
End Sub

Example 2: Iterate Collection

Private Sub IterateCollection()
    ' Method 1: By index
    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To VBMAN.Collection.Count
        Dim key As String
        key = VBMAN.Collection.KeyByIndex(i)
        If key <> "" Then
            Debug.Print key & " = " & VBMAN.Collection(key)
        End If
    Next i

    ' Method 2: By Keys array
    Dim keys() As String
    keys = VBMAN.Collection.Keys

    Dim k As Variant
    For Each k In keys
        Debug.Print k & " = " & VBMAN.Collection(CStr(k))
    Next k
End Sub

Example 3: Store Objects

Private Sub StoreObjects()
    Dim json1 As New cJson
    json1("id") = 1
    json1("name") = "Product A"

    Dim json2 As New cJson
    json2("id") = 2
    json2("name") = "Product B"

    ' Store objects
    VBMAN.Collection.Add json1, "product1"
    VBMAN.Collection.Add json2, "product2"

    ' Read objects
    Dim product As cJson
    Set product = VBMAN.Collection("product1")
    Debug.Print product("name")
End Sub

Best Practices

1. Key Naming Convention: Use meaningful key names, recommend camelCase or snake_case naming
2. Existence Check: Use Exists to check if key exists before accessing
3. Type Awareness: VB6 is weakly typed, pay attention to type conversion when storing and reading
4. Object Release: When storing objects, pay attention to object lifecycle management