VBA (Excel) Dictionary on Mac?

Question

I have an Excel VBA project that makes heavy use of Windows Scripting Dictionary objects. I recently had a user attempt to use it on a Mac and received the following error:

Compile Error: Can't find project or library

Which is the result of using the Tools > References > Microsoft Scripting Runtime library.

My question is, is there a way to make this work on a Mac ?

The following are the 3 cases I can think of as being possible solutions:

1. Use a Mac plugin that enables use of Dictionaries on Macs ( my favorite option if one exists )

2. Do some kind of variable switch like the following:

    isMac = CheckIfMac If isMac Then ' Change dictionary variable to some other data type that is Mac friendly and provides the same functionality End If

3. Write 2 completely separate routines to do the same thing ( please let this not be what needs to happen ):

    isMac = CheckIfMac If isMac Then DoTheMacRoutine Else DoTheWindowsRoutine End If

Answer 1

Pulling the Answer from the comments to prevent link rot.

Patrick O'Beirne @ sysmod wrote a class set that addresses this issue.

Be sure to stop by Patirk's Blog to say thanks! Also there is a chance he has a newer version.

save this as a plain text file named KeyValuePair.cls and import into Excel

 VERSION 1.0 CLASS BEGIN MultiUse = -1 'True END Attribute VB_Name = "KeyValuePair" Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False Attribute VB_Creatable = False Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False Attribute VB_Exposed = False Option Explicit 'Unrestricted class just to hold pairs of values together and permit Dictionary object updating Public Key As String Public value As Variant

save this as a plain text file named Dictionary.cls and import into excel

 VERSION 1.0 CLASS BEGIN MultiUse = -1 'True END Attribute VB_Name = "Dictionary" Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False Attribute VB_Creatable = False Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False Attribute VB_Exposed = False Option Explicit 'Collection methods: Add, Count, Item, Remove 'Dictionary : .Add(Key as string, Item as variant), .CompareMode, .Count, .Exists(Key); _ .Item(Key) - writeable, .Items, .Keys, .Remove(Key), .RemoveAll 'plus KeyValuePairs collection, KeyValuePair(Index as long), Tag as variant ' 25-11-2011 KeyValuePair helper object Public KeyValuePairs As Collection ' open access but allows iteration Public Tag As Variant ' read/write unrestricted Private Sub Class_Initialize() Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection End Sub Private Sub Class_Terminate() Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing End Sub ' in Scripting.Dictionary this is writeable, here we have only vbtextCompare because we are using a Collection Public Property Get CompareMode() As VbCompareMethod CompareMode = vbTextCompare '=1; vbBinaryCompare=0 End Property Public Property Let Item(Key As String, Item As Variant) ' dic.Item(Key) = value ' update a scalar value for an existing key Let KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item End Property Public Property Set Item(Key As String, Item As Variant) ' Set dic.Item(Key) = value ' update an object value for an existing key Set KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item End Property Public Property Get Item(Key As String) As Variant AssignVariable Item, KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value End Property ' Collection parameter order is Add(Item,Key); Dictionary is Add(Key,Item) so always used named arguments Public Sub Add(Key As String, Item As Variant) Dim oKVP As KeyValuePair Set oKVP = New KeyValuePair oKVP.Key = Key If IsObject(Item) Then Set oKVP.value = Item Else Let oKVP.value = Item End If KeyValuePairs.Add Item:=oKVP, Key:=Key End Sub Public Property Get Exists(Key As String) As Boolean On Error Resume Next Exists = TypeName(KeyValuePairs.Item(Key)) > "" ' we can have blank key, empty item End Property Public Sub Remove(Key As String) 'show error if not there rather than On Error Resume Next KeyValuePairs.Remove Key End Sub Public Sub RemoveAll() Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection End Sub Public Property Get Count() As Long Count = KeyValuePairs.Count End Property Public Property Get Items() As Variant ' for compatibility with Scripting.Dictionary Dim vlist As Variant, i As Long If Me.Count > 0 Then ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1) ' to get a 0-based array same as scripting.dictionary For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist) AssignVariable vlist(i), KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).value ' could be scalar or array or object Next i Items = vlist End If End Property Public Property Get Keys() As String() Dim vlist() As String, i As Long If Me.Count > 0 Then ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1) For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist) vlist(i) = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).Key ' Next i Keys = vlist End If End Property Public Property Get KeyValuePair(Index As Long) As Variant ' returns KeyValuePair object Set KeyValuePair = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + Index) ' collections are 1-based End Property Private Sub AssignVariable(variable As Variant, value As Variant) If IsObject(value) Then Set variable = value Else Let variable = value End If End Sub Public Sub DebugPrint() Dim lItem As Long, lIndex As Long, vItem As Variant, oKVP As KeyValuePair lItem = 0 For Each oKVP In KeyValuePairs lItem = lItem + 1 Debug.Print lItem; oKVP.Key; " "; TypeName(oKVP.value); If InStr(1, TypeName(oKVP.value), "()") > 0 Then vItem = oKVP.value Debug.Print "("; CStr(LBound(vItem)); " to "; CStr(UBound(vItem)); ")"; For lIndex = LBound(vItem) To UBound(vItem) Debug.Print " (" & CStr(lIndex) & ")"; TypeName(vItem(lIndex)); "="; vItem(lIndex); Next Debug.Print Else Debug.Print "="; oKVP.value End If Next End Sub 'NB VBA Collection object index is 1-based, scripting.dictionary items array is 0-based 'cf Scripting.Dictionary Methods s.Add(Key, Item), s.CompareMode, s.Count, s.Exists(Key); _ s.Item(Key) - updateable, s.Items, s.Key(Key), s.Keys, s.Remove(Key), s.RemoveAll 'Scripting.Dictionary has no index number; you can index the 0-based variant array of Items returned ' unlike Collections which can be indexed starting at 1 'Efficient iteration is For Each varPair in thisdic.KeyValuePairs 'Another difference I introduce is that in a scripting.dictionary, the doc says ' If key is not found when changing an item, a new key is created with the specified newitem. ' If key is not found when attempting to return an existing item, a new key is created and its corresponding item is left empty. 'but I want to raise an error when addressing a key that does not exist 'similarly, the scripting.dictionary will create separate integer and string keys for eg 2

Answer 2

Patirk's implementation doesn't work for MS Office 2016 on Mac. I made use of the implementation by Tim Hall. Here is the link: https://github.com/VBA-tools/VBA-Dictionary

Also import of cls files into Excel doesn't work in MS Office 2016 on Mac as of September 2017. So I had to create a class module and to copy and paste the contents of Dictionary.cls manually in that module while removing meta info from Dictionary.cls such as VERSION 1.0 CLASS , BEGIN , END , Attribute .

Answer 3

I have at last updated the files for Excel 2016 for Mac. http://www.sysmod.com/Dictionary.zip (capital D in Dictionary)

Unzip this and import the class files (tested in Excel 2016 for Mac 16.13 Build 424, 27-Apr-2018)

My bug report to MS is at answers.microsoft.com Excel 16.13 for Mac User Defined Class passed as parameter all properties are Null

Let me know if I've missed anything else! Good luck,

Patrick O'Beirne