Comments on: Arrays in Arrays

By: John Tolle

John Tolle — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 22:41:00 +0000

If you have an 1-D array of 1-D arrays (all the same non-zero length of course) that you need to get into a 2-D array, you can do it without looping. Excel will coerce it if you return it from a UDF. You can also use Application.Index(arr, 0, 0) when you're not returning from a UDF. See this for examples:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3992717/how-can-i-redim-preserve-a-2d-array-in-excel-2007-vba-so-that-i-can-add-rows-n/3993119#3993119

By: Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 01:44:00 +0000

You could try something like

Dim vaTest As Variant
Dim vaTemp As Variant
Dim i As Long

vaTest = Array(Array(1, 2, 3), Array(4, 5, 6))
For i = LBound(vaTest) To UBound(vaTest)

vaTemp = Application.Index(vaTest, i - LBound(vaTest) + 1, 0)
Cells(1, i - LBound(vaTest) + 1).Resize(UBound(vaTemp) - LBound(vaTemp) + 1).Value = Application.Transpose(vaTemp)
Next i

although I wouldn't bank on it being faster than Dick's suggestion.

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Victor: You can’t. Value can take one two-dimensional array, but not an array of arrays. If you had to write a bunch of array within arrays, it might be quicker to combine all the arrays into one, then right that one. It’s still looping, but only one cell-write call.

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:01:00 +0000

Excellent info, Dick.
But how do you output the entire array of arrays to a range, without looping? (supposedly I manipulated the data or loaded the array from some other source)

Typically, you'd go something like:

Sheet2.Range("A1:D4") = vaRangeArr

But this outputs nothing. However, I can output one line at a time like so:

Sheet2.Range("A1:A4") = vaRangeArr(1)

Thanks in advance,
Victor

By: Ross

Ross — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Hey Dick, thanks for all the helpful background info, I'll be picking it to pieces as I usefully extract it into my program. I do have the ranges (r1,r2,r3,r4) defined dynamically (only the number of rows will change), I neglected to copy that code over before. And, I'm becoming a fan of the Hungarian notation now too.

However, I have given up on the Array of Arrays or trying to over reach my current understanding level of the Cell/Row as an Object of the Range Object (for an implicit array, if you will), and just looped through the cells in each range. It actually gives a nice effect when I turn ScreenUpdating on (=True) to let the user literally see the Macro work for them. Thankfully my ranges aren't too ridiculously large.

Also, thanks for the LBound & UBound explanation, MS does an atrocious job at explaining Objects/Methods/Properties and their Examples are foolishly worse. So you help clarified that for me.

Onto the next task... till next time, thanks!
Ross

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:53:00 +0000

Ross: Redim vaRngArray(1 to 4) creates a one-dimensional array with four empty slots in it. All you're doing with Redim (or Dim) is allocating memory to the array, you're not actually filling it with anything. The index values are 1, 2, 3, and 4. You could Redim vaRngArray(0 to 3) to create a one-dimensional array with four empty slots and indexes of 0, 1, 2, and 3. In your example, your For Each loop and your array indexes don't match. You could change either one. I prefer starting at 1 for arrays, but others prefer 0.

For a best practice, you would code

For j = LBound(vaRngArray) to UBound(vaRngArray)

and it wouldn't matter what your indexes are. It would always go from the lower bound to the upper bound, whatever they are.

In your example, you Dim r1 through r4, but you don't assign any ranges to them. If you want to use the r variables, it would look more like this

Set r1 = ActiveSheet.Range("A1:A10")
vaRngArray(1) = r1.Value

The error you're getting is because the code doesn't know what r1 refers to. If you tell me what r1 through r4 are supposed to refer to, I can show you the best way to code it.

It's a shame that MS doesn't Dim their variables. For Each should look like this

Dim rCell as Range
For Each rCell In Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:D10").Cells

I use rCell as my variable name and they use c. You can use either (or any valid variable name), but I prefer to prefix my range object variables with r and to make the name descriptive. If I were looping through rows, I would use

Dim rRow as Range
For Each rRow in Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:D10").Rows

Both rCell and rRow are Range objects, but in the For Each, they would refer to different things because I'm returning the Cells collection in the first and the Rows collection in the second. Cells and Rows are both Range objects, but return different subsets of A1:D10.

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Hey Dick, thanks for the suggestion, I'm testing your method out and here's my code. I'm getting an "Application or 'Object' definted error and I'm not sure what's the root cause. I have tried a few permutations of properties and left you with my most recent (failed) attempt of .Cells.Value. Also does ReDim with "(1 To 4)" dimension an array 1×4 (or 4×1) with index values 0,1,2,3?

I've begun learning VBA (Excel 2000, VBE v6.3) this summer, diving in pretty deep, but you can you or anyone else tell me more about using a For Each Loop with the Cells (Collection)Object of the Range Object? M$ claims this here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221353(office.11).aspx but I couldn't get it to work. Their 'c' variable/counter/object isn't defined clearly...
______________________________________________________________
Dim r1, r2, r3, r4 As Range
Dim vaRngArray() As Variant

ReDim vaRngArray(1 To 4)
With ActiveSheet
For j = 0 To 3
Select Case j
Case j = 1
vaRngArray(j) = .Range(r1).Cells.Value
Case j = 2
vaRngArray(j) = .Range(r2).Value
Case j = 3
vaRngArray(j) = .Range(r3).Value
Case j = 4
vaRngArray(j) = .Range(r4).Value
End Select
Next j
__________________________________________________________________
Thanks! I really appreciate the help!
~Rawesome

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:09:00 +0000

Ross: You don't need to put them in their own array variables, unless you need to do it for some other reason. Let's say you have data in A1:D4 and you want each column to be a separate array inside a larger array.

Sub RangeArrays()

Dim vaRangeArr As Variant
Dim i As Long

ReDim vaRangeArr(1 To 4)

For i = 1 To 4
vaRangeArr(i) = Sheet1.Range("A1:A4").Offset(0, i - 1).Value
Next i

For i = 1 To 4
Debug.Print vaRangeArr(i)(i, 1)
Next i

End Sub

First Redim vaRangeArr so it can hold four elements. Then put the Value of the range into each element. I use a loop because my ranges are all neatly arranged, but you could do it more explicitly like

vaRangeArray(1) = Sheet1.Range("A1:A4").Value
vaRangeArray(2) = Sheet1.Range("B1:B4").Value
vaRangeArray(3) = Sheet1.Range("C1:C4")Value
vaRangeArray(4) = Sheet1.Range("D1:D4").Value

The next loop just prints one element from each array. Note that the higher level array is one dimension (vaRangeArr(i)), but the arrays inside it are two dimensions.

By: Ross

Ross — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:33:00 +0000

My question is about Dim-ing the Array. I see you've created vaTest as Variant. I have 4 ranges called r1,r2,r3 and r4. I used 'transpose' to put them into 2D arrays(ie - ar1, ar2, ar3, ar4), and I now want to make an Array of those arrays. How do I create/define/set RngArray()() to consist of RngArray(ar1,ar2,ar3,ar4)?

Do I need to put it as RngArray = Array(Array(ar1), Array(ar2), Array(ar3), Array(ar4))? Do I need quotes?

Also, I've found elsewhere using Cells as a Collection within a Range to cycle/loop through and perform a test or filter on cell contents (either value or string), does anyone have a good resource/advice with regard to this? It's an alternative, possibly simpler solution.

Thanks in advance!
Ross

By: P. Michael

P. Michael — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:06:00 +0000

Say I have vaTest = Array(Array(Banana, Orange, Apple), Array(5, 3, 7))
I want to sort the quantity of the fruits and list out with thew name of the fruit against the quantity like this:

Orange - 3
Banana - 5
Apple - 7
How to sort? Pl. help.