Collection Class

The Visual Basic Collection object provides a convenient way to refer to a related group of items as a single object. The items, or elements, in a collection need only be related by the fact that they exist in the collection. Elements of a collection do not have to share the same data type.

You can create a collection the same way you create other objects, as the following example illustrates.

Dim coll As New Microsoft.VisualBasic.Collection()

Once you have created a collection, you can do any of the following:

• Add an element with the Add method.

• Remove an element with the Remove method.

• Remove all elements with the Clear method.

• Find out how many elements the collection contains with the Count property.

• Check whether a specific element is present with the Contains method.

• Return a specific element from the collection with the Item property.

• Iterate through the entire collection with the For Each...Next Statement (Visual Basic).

  Note
  Although the Visual Basic Collection object has functionality identical to the Collection object in Visual Basic 6.0, the two cannot interoperate in a COM environment.

  Caution

  Iterating through a Visual Basic Collection is not a thread-safe procedure. Even if the collection is synchronized, other threads can still modify the collection, causing the enumerator to throw an exception. To guarantee thread safety during enumeration, either lock the collection or catch the exceptions resulting from changes made by other threads. For more information on locking a programming element, see SyncLock Statement.

The following example creates the Collection object names and a dialog box with which a user can add objects (names) to the collection. It then displays the names in the collection, and finally empties the collection without disposing of the Collection object itself.

To see how this works, choose the Add Class command from the Project menu and declare a public variable called instanceName at the module level of nameClass (type Public instanceName) to hold the names of each instance. Leave the default name as nameClass. Copy and paste the following code into the General section of another module, and then start it with the statement classNamer in another procedure. (This example works only with host applications that support classes.)

Public Class nameClass
    Public instanceName As String
End Class
Sub classNamer()
    ' Create a Visual Basic Collection object.
    Dim names As New Microsoft.VisualBasic.Collection()
    Dim key As Integer
    Dim msg As String
    Dim name As String
    Dim nameList As String = ""
    ' 1. Get names from the user to add to the collection.
    Do
        Dim inst As New nameClass()
        key += 1
        msg = "Please enter a name for this object." & vbCrLf &
              "Press Cancel to see names in collection."
        name = InputBox(msg, "Name the Collection items")
        inst.instanceName = name
        ' If user entered a name, add it to the collection.
        If inst.instanceName <> "" Then
            names.Add(inst, CStr(key))
        End If
    Loop Until name = ""
    ' 2. Create and display a list of names from the collection.
    For Each oneInst As nameClass In names
        nameList &= oneInst.instanceName & vbCrLf
    Next oneInst
    MsgBox(nameList, , "Instance Names in names Collection")
    ' 3. Remove elements from the collection without disposing of the collection.
    For count As Integer = 1 To names.Count
        names.Remove(1)
        ' Since Visual Basic collections are reindexed automatically, 
        ' remove the first member on each iteration.
    Next count
End Sub

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference