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Recently I decided VB6's Collection wasn't enough for my needs, so I decided to implement something like C#'s List<T>. Here's the class that resulted, I'd like to know if the implementation could be made better /more efficient, especially with Insert and Sort methods; also I'd like another pair of eyes to examine the errors being raised and see if it all makes sense - the idea isn't to throw every error that's possible to get with a List<T>, but I might have missed throwing an error that could help usability.

I've been using this List class in VB6 code for a little less than a week now, and seriously, it's like the best thing since sliced bread - being able to add items inline is awesome, and all those members make Collection look awfully boring and make me want to implement a keyed version, which I'm guessing could wrap a Dictionary instead.

Class definition and private functions

As with all classes I write, I start with declaring a Private Type that defines what the class encapsulates, and then I make a private instance of that type which I call this and in the rest of the code I refer to this, which does not have the same meaning as Me (Me refers to the current instance of the List class, while this refers to the encapsulated stuff - as you'll notice I only use Me when I have to).

I have a debate with myself as to whether the RaiseErrorXXXX procedures should be made public or not - doing so would document the errors thrown at the API level, but wouldn't serve any real purpose.

Attribute VB_Name = "List"
Private Type tList
    Encapsulated As Collection
    ItemTypeName As String
End Type

Private this As tList
Option Explicit

Private Function IsReferenceType() As Boolean
    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function
    IsReferenceType = IsObject(this.Encapsulated(1))
End Function

Private Function IsComparable() As Boolean
    If IsReferenceType Then
        IsComparable = TypeOf First Is IComparable
    End If
End Function

Private Function CompareReferenceTypes(value As Variant, other As Variant) As Integer

    Dim comparable As IComparable

    If IsComparable Then

        Set comparable = value
        CompareReferenceTypes = comparable.CompareTo(other)

    Else

        RaiseErrorMustImplementIComparable "CompareReferenceTypes()"

    End If

End Function

Private Function CompareValueTypes(value As Variant, other As Variant) As Integer

    If value < other Then

        CompareValueTypes = -1

    ElseIf value > other Then

        CompareValueTypes = 1

    End If

End Function

Private Function IsEquatable() As Boolean
    If IsReferenceType Then
        IsEquatable = TypeOf First Is IEquatable
    End If
End Function

Private Function EquateReferenceTypes(value As Variant, other As Variant) As Boolean

    Dim equatable As IEquatable
    If IsEquatable Then

        Set equatable = value
        EquateReferenceTypes = equatable.Equals(other)

    Else

        Debug.Print "WARNING: Reference type doesn't implement IEquatable, using reference equality."
        EquateReferenceTypes = (ObjPtr(value) = ObjPtr(other))

    End If

End Function

Private Function EquateValueTypes(value As Variant, other As Variant) As Boolean

    EquateValueTypes = (value = other)

End Function

Private Function ValidateItemType(value As Variant)

    If this.ItemTypeName = vbNullString Then this.ItemTypeName = TypeName(value)
    ValidateItemType = IsTypeSafe(value)

End Function

Private Sub RaiseErrorUnsafeType(member As String, suppliedType As String)
    Err.Raise 13, StringFormat("{0}.{1}", ToString, member), _
                  StringFormat("Type Mismatch. Expected: '{0}', '{1}' was supplied.", this.ItemTypeName,  suppliedType)
End Sub

Private Sub RaiseErrorMustImplementIComparable(member As String)
    Err.Raise 5, StringFormat("{0}.{1}", ToString, member), "Invalid operation: method requires a list of numeric, date or string values, or a list of objects implementing the IComparable interface."
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    Set this.Encapsulated = New Collection
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
    Set this.Encapsulated = Nothing
End Sub

Public Properties

Public Property Get Item(ByVal Index As Long) As Variant
Attribute Item.VB_UserMemId = 0
'Gets the element at the specified index.

    If IsReferenceType Then
        Set Item = this.Encapsulated(Index)
    Else
        Item = this.Encapsulated(Index)
    End If

End Property

Public Property Let Item(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal value As Variant)
'Sets the element at the specified index.

    If Not IsTypeSafe(value) Then RaiseErrorUnsafeType "Item(Let)", TypeName(value)

    RemoveAt Index
    If Index = Count Then
        Add value
    Else
        Insert Index, value
    End If

End Property

Public Property Set Item(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal value As Variant)
'Sets the element at the specified index.

    If Not IsTypeSafe(value) Then RaiseErrorUnsafeType "Item(Set)", TypeName(value)

    RemoveAt Index
    If Index = Count Then
        Add value
    Else
        Insert Index, value
    End If

End Property

Public Property Get NewEnum() As IUnknown
Attribute NewEnum.VB_UserMemId = -4
Attribute NewEnum.VB_MemberFlags = "40"
'Gets an enumerator that iterates through the List.

    Set NewEnum = this.Encapsulated.[_NewEnum]

End Property

Public Property Get Count() As Long

    Count = this.Encapsulated.Count

End Property

Public Methods/Functions

Those are listed in alphabetical order:

Public Sub Add(value As Variant)
'Adds an object to the end of the List.

    If Not ValidateItemType(value) Then RaiseErrorUnsafeType "Add()", TypeName(value)

    this.Encapsulated.Add value

End Sub

Public Sub AddArray(values() As Variant)
'Adds the specified elements to the end of the List.

    Dim value As Variant, i As Long
    For i = LBound(values) To UBound(values)
        Add values(i)
    Next

End Sub

Public Sub AddRange(ByRef values As List)
'Adds the specified elements to the end of the List.

    Dim value As Variant
    For Each value In values
        Add value
    Next

End Sub

Public Sub AddValues(ParamArray values())
'Adds the specified elements to the end of the List.

    Dim value As Variant, i As Long
    For i = LBound(values) To UBound(values)
        Add values(i)
    Next

End Sub

Public Sub Clear()
'Removes all elements from the List.

    Do Until Count = 0
        this.Encapsulated.Remove 1
    Loop

End Sub

Public Function Contains(value As Variant) As Boolean
'Determines whether an element is in the List.

    Contains = (IndexOf(value) <> -1)

End Function

Public Function First() As Variant
'Returns the first element of the List.

    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function
    If IsReferenceType Then
        Set First = Item(1)
    Else
        First = Item(1)
    End If

End Function

Public Function GetRange(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal valuesCount As Long) As List
'Creates a copy of a range of elements in the source List.

    Dim result As List
    If Index > Count Then Err.Raise 9 'index out of range

    Dim lastIndex As Long
    lastIndex = IIf(Index + valuesCount > Count, Count, Index + valuesCount)

    Set result = New List

    Dim i As Long
    For i = Index To lastIndex
        result.Add Item(i)
    Next

    Set GetRange = result

End Function

Public Function IndexOf(value As Variant) As Long
'Searches for the specified object and returns the 1-based index of the first occurrence within the entire List.

    Dim found As Boolean
    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    Dim i As Long

    If Count = 0 Then IndexOf = -1: Exit Function
    For i = 1 To Count

        If isRef Then

            found = EquateReferenceTypes(value, Item(i))

        Else

            found = EquateValueTypes(value, Item(i))

        End If

        If found Then IndexOf = i: Exit Function

    Next

    IndexOf = -1

End Function

Public Sub Insert(ByVal Index As Long, value As Variant)
'Inserts an element into the List at the specified index.

    Dim tmp As List
    Set tmp = GetRange(Index, Count)

    RemoveRange Index, Count

    Add value
    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Sub InsertArray(ByVal Index As Long, values() As Variant)
'Inserts the specified elements into the List at the specified index.

    Dim tmp As List
    Set tmp = GetRange(Index, Count)

    RemoveRange Index, Count

    AddArray values
    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Sub InsertRange(ByVal Index As Long, values As List)
'Inserts the specified elements into the List at the specified index.

    Dim tmp As List
    Set tmp = GetRange(Index, Count)

    RemoveRange Index, Count

    AddRange values
    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Sub InsertValues(ByVal Index As Long, ParamArray values())
'Inserts the specified elements into the List at the specified index.

    Dim valuesArray() As Variant
    valuesArray = values

    InsertArray Index, valuesArray

End Sub

Public Function IsSortable() As Boolean
'Determines whether the List can be sorted.

    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function

    Dim firstItem As Variant
    If IsReferenceType Then
        Set firstItem = First
    Else
        firstItem = First
    End If

    IsSortable = IsNumeric(firstItem) _
                Or IsDate(firstItem) _
                Or this.ItemTypeName = "String" _
                Or IsComparable

End Function

Public Function IsTypeSafe(value As Variant) As Boolean
'Determines whether a value can be safely added to the List.

'Returns true if the type of specified value matches the type of items already in the list,
'or it the type of specified value is a numeric type smaller than the type of items already in the list.
'This means a List<Long> can contain Integer values, but a List<Integer> cannot contain Long values.

    Dim result As Boolean

    'most common cases: this.ItemTypeName isn't yet defined, or matches TypeName(value):
    result = this.ItemTypeName = vbNullString Or this.ItemTypeName = TypeName(value)
    If result Then IsTypeSafe = result: Exit Function

    'all other cases demand more processing:
    IsTypeSafe = result _
        Or this.ItemTypeName = "Integer" And StringMatchesAny(TypeName(value), "Byte") _
        Or this.ItemTypeName = "Long" And StringMatchesAny(TypeName(value), "Integer", "Byte") _
        Or this.ItemTypeName = "Single" And StringMatchesAny(TypeName(value), "Long", "Integer", "Byte") _
        Or this.ItemTypeName = "Double" And StringMatchesAny(TypeName(value), "Long", "Integer", "Byte", "Single") _
        Or this.ItemTypeName = "Currency" And StringMatchesAny(TypeName(value), "Long", "Integer", "Byte", "Single", "Double")

End Function

Public Function Last() As Variant
'Returns the last element of the List.

    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function
    If IsReferenceType Then
        Set Last = Item(Count)
    Else
        Last = Item(Count)
    End If

End Function

Public Function LastIndexOf(value As Variant) As Long
'Searches for the specified object and returns the 1-based index of the last occurrence within the entire List.

    Dim found As Boolean
    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    LastIndexOf = -1
    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To Count

        If isRef Then

            found = EquateReferenceTypes(value, Item(i))

        Else

            found = EquateValueTypes(value, Item(i))

        End If

        If found Then LastIndexOf = i

    Next

End Function

Public Function Max() As Variant
'Returns the maximum value in the List.

    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    Dim largest As Variant
    Dim isLarger As Boolean

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To Count

        If isRef Then

            If IsEmpty(largest) Then Set largest = Item(i)
            isLarger = CompareReferenceTypes(Item(i), largest) > 0

            If isLarger Or IsEmpty(Max) Then
                Set largest = Item(i)
                Set Max = largest
            End If

        Else

            If IsEmpty(largest) Then largest = Item(i)
            isLarger = CompareValueTypes(Item(i), largest) > 0

            If isLarger Or IsEmpty(Max) Then
                largest = Item(i)
                Max = largest
            End If

        End If


    Next

End Function

Public Function Min() As Variant
'Returns the minimum value in the List.

    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    Dim smallest As Variant
    Dim isSmaller As Boolean

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To Count

        If isRef Then

            If IsEmpty(smallest) Then Set smallest = Item(i)
            isSmaller = CompareReferenceTypes(Item(i), smallest) < 0

            If isSmaller Or IsEmpty(Min) Then
                Set smallest = Item(i)
                Set Min = smallest
            End If

        Else

            If IsEmpty(smallest) Then smallest = Item(i)
            isSmaller = CompareValueTypes(Item(i), smallest) < 0

            If isSmaller Or IsEmpty(Min) Then
                smallest = Item(i)
                Min = smallest
            End If

        End If


    Next

End Function

Public Sub Reverse()
'Reverses the order of the elements in the entire List.

    Dim tmp As New List
    Do Until Count = 0

        tmp.Add Item(Count)
        RemoveAt Count

    Loop

    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Sub Remove(ParamArray values())
'Removes the first occurrence of specified object(s) from the List.

    Dim i As Long
    Dim Index As Long

    For i = LBound(values) To UBound(values)

        Index = IndexOf(values(i))
        If Index <> -1 Then RemoveAt Index

    Next

End Sub

Public Sub RemoveAt(ByVal Index As Long)
'Removes the element at the specified index of the List.

    this.Encapsulated.Remove Index

End Sub

Public Sub RemoveRange(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal valuesCount As Long)
'Removes a range of elements from the List.

    Dim i As Long
    For i = Index To Index + valuesCount - 1

        RemoveAt Index

    Next

End Sub

Public Sub Sort()
'Sorts the elements in the entire List.

    Dim tmp As List
    Dim minValue As Variant

    If Not IsSortable Then RaiseErrorMustImplementIComparable "Sort()"

    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    Set tmp = New List
    Do Until Count = 0

        If isRef Then

            Set minValue = Min

        Else

            minValue = Min

        End If

        tmp.Add minValue
        Remove minValue

    Loop

    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Sub SortDescending()
'Sorts the elements in the entire List, in descending order.

    Dim tmp As List
    Dim maxValue As Variant

    If Not IsSortable Then RaiseErrorMustImplementIComparable "SortDescending()"

    Dim isRef As Boolean
    isRef = IsReferenceType

    Set tmp = New List
    Do Until Count = 0

        If isRef Then
            Set maxValue = Max
        Else
            maxValue = Max
        End If

        tmp.Add maxValue
        Remove maxValue

    Loop

    AddRange tmp

End Sub

Public Function ToArray() As Variant()
'Copies the elements of the List to a new array.

    Dim result() As Variant
    ReDim result(1 To Count)

    Dim i As Long
    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function

    If IsReferenceType Then
        For i = 1 To Count
            Set result(i) = Item(i)
        Next
    Else
        For i = 1 To Count
            result(i) = Item(i)
        Next
    End If

    ToArray = result

End Function

Public Function ToString() As String
'Returns a string that represents the current List object.

    ToString = StringFormat("{0}<{1}>", TypeName(Me), Coalesce(this.ItemTypeName, "Variant"))

End Function

Interfaces

This List uses two interfaces adapted from C#, namely IComparable and IEquatable, for the same reasons List<T> needs them - I believe they would work just as well if I changed the instancing from MultiUse to PublicNotCreatable, but that's one foggy area of my VB6 knowledge, so I left it as is:

IComparable:

Option Explicit

Public Function CompareTo(other As Variant) As Integer
End Function

IEquatable:

Option Explicit

Public Function Equals(other As Variant) As Boolean
End Function

A couple helper functions are also used here and there in the class' code - I'm not asking for a review of those, but if you are interested to see more, StringFormat is a custom C#-style VB6/VBA implementation of string.Format() covered here, StringMatchesAny is a custom string helper function covered here, and Coalesce is a simple null-replacement function that considers an empty string as a null value.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think Add() should take a ParamArray and call AddArray(), so AddValues() could be removed as redundant, just like Remove() does. ...And I'm probably missing a RemoveArray() method. Or is that too many "overload" members? \$\endgroup\$ Oct 18, 2013 at 18:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ One thing : Attribute NewEnum.VB_MemberFlags = "40" is not supported in VBA. It's meant to hide the member from Object Browser and Intelli-sense but has no effect. \$\endgroup\$
    – user28366
    Oct 24, 2014 at 13:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ @vba4all indeed. However this code was originally written in VB6 ;) \$\endgroup\$ Oct 24, 2014 at 13:26
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ No problem. Any idea if there is a way to hide a member in VBA? (not through COM though - a regular VBA class member ) \$\endgroup\$
    – user28366
    Oct 24, 2014 at 13:28
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @MarkHurd it is. But user code can't be hidden, seems they "dumbed down" the VBE to not recognize the member attribute that would hide it. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 5, 2016 at 13:11

3 Answers 3

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OK, went through the code and gave this a bit of thought over the past couple of days. As far as the implementation goes, I don't see a whole lot that I would change (that you didn't identify in the answer above) other than a couple nit-picky things. First, is the use of the this variable identifier. I couldn't find anything that justifies the naming and data structure other than imitating a .NET keyword. The Me keyword (as ridiculous as it sounds after writing C# for a while) is obvious to a VB6 programmer - this is not. I would personally stick with individual member variables instead of the Type, but if using the Type I would name it something like memberData. The fact that you were compelled to explain in the post what this refers to in the class is a red flag because it isn't immediately obvious.

The second nit-pick is also related to using .NET metaphors that do not directly map to a VB6 context, but this one comes from the opposite direction (and falls into the "errors being raised" category). A .NET programmer will expect assignments that are not type-safe to fail at compile time, not runtime. For example, this snippet in VB6 compiles and runs without complaint:

Dim first as Variant
Dim second as Variant

first = "String"
second = 1234

first = second

'First is now an integer.
Debug.Print(TypeName(first))

The analogous code in C# doesn't:

var first = "String";
var second = 1234;

//This fails due to implicit conversion:
first = second;

So if the intention is to enforce type safety, the better meta solutions would be to not use Variant types if they can be avoided or to use an IDE plug-in to make sure your assignments are type safe. If the intention is to simply replicate the functionality of the .NET List object, this is an entirely different matter (and one that is both useful and well executed, BTW).

Nit-picking aside, let's get down to the "better /more efficient" side of things. Given that the Collection object in VB6 isn't much more than a glorified array (4 methods - seriously?), I would just skip it entirely and just wrap an array directly. The vast majority of the class just uses the Collection for storage space, and the fact that the intention is to ensure strong typing makes the memory management a lot easier. Note that I am not recommending an array of Variants, and am at risk of getting into StackOverflow territory.

VB6 is based on Window COM, and uses a SAFEARRAY structure to store all of its arrays internally. This (vastly simplified) defines the size of each array element, tracks the number of elements in each dimension, stores a couple COM flags, and holds a pointer to the array data. Since VB6 is COM based, it also has a couple of undocumented functions like for pointer resolution and manipulation and can directly access the Windows API. This gives you the ability to do inserts and deletes into the middle of arrays with memory copy operations instead of iterating over the array or the a Collection.

You can get the underlying data structure like this:

Private Const VT_BY_REF = &H4000&

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (pDst As Any, pSrc As Any, ByVal ByteLen As Long)

'STRUCTS FOR THE SAFEARRAY:
Private Type SafeBound
    cElements As Long
    lLbound As Long
End Type

Private Type SafeArray
    cDim As Integer
    fFeature As Integer
    cbElements As Long
    cLocks As Long
    pvData As Long
    rgsabound As SafeBound
End Type

Private Function GetArrayInfo(vArray As Variant, uInfo As SafeArray) As Boolean

    'NOTE, the array is passed as a variant so we can get it's absolute memory address.  This function
    'loads a copy of the SafeArray structure into the UDT.

    Dim lPointer As Long, iVType As Integer

    If Not IsArray(vArray) Then Exit Function               

    With uInfo
        CopyMemory iVType, vArray, 2                        'First 2 bytes are the subtype.
        CopyMemory lPointer, ByVal VarPtr(vArray) + 8, 4    'Get the pointer.

        If (iVType And VT_BY_REF) <> 0 Then                 'Test for subtype "pointer"
            CopyMemory lPointer, ByVal lPointer, 4          'Get the real address.
        End If

        CopyMemory uInfo.cDim, ByVal lPointer, 16           'Write the safearray to the passed UDT.

        If uInfo.cDim = 1 Then                              'Can't do multi-dimensional
            CopyMemory .rgsabound, ByVal lPointer + 16, LenB(.rgsabound)
            GetArrayInfo = True
        End If
    End With

End Function

The beauty of this approach is that because you now have the underlying data structure of the array in a variable, you can just change the pvData pointer to any memory that has been allocated, and set cbElements to the SizeOf() the data type of the list. An Add() function is then just shifting memory one element higher in memory from your insert offset and dropping in the new item, and Remove() is the opposite. What makes this really slick is that you can just point an Variant back at the SafeArray, and VB6 won't even blink because it is exactly what it expects to see.

About now, you're probably wondering when I'm going to get to typing. Gimme a second, because I want to go over Variants first. Again, keep in mind that we are dealing with a COM object and not strictly a VB object. Microsoft put Variants into COM specifically to allow loosely typed languages a way to marshal data via the API to and from strongly typed languages. The way this works is by passing a structure that includes all of the information that the receiving API needs to determine what the underlying data represents. In that VB6 only implements a very small sub-set of the available data types that a Variant can represent (see the MSDN link a couple sentences back), you could conceivably enforce data typing that VB6 doesn't even natively know about.

All you have to do is to examine the Variant as a memory structure instead of passing it through the built in TypeName() function. This is basically what it is doing anyway (and although I can't verify this, I believe the casting functions use the Variant's union to determine whether a Variant can be cast to a strong type). By directly examining these you can bypass the VB runtime and also avoid all of the string handling involved with using TypeName(). This article is a good place to start, although most of the links seem to have died.

Finally, and not for the faint of heart - if you want to have your List return its type without using the ToString function, you can always hook the VB runtime dll itself and intercept function calls to native VB functions. I wouldn't do this in production code personally, but you can get a good start on that here if you want to really start mucking around in the internals. Scroll down and read about trampoline functions. I've never hooked the VB runtime itself, but it shouldn't be different than any other dll as long as you are really careful what functions you use while you're shuffling its memory around.

Disclaimer

If you try this, you will crash your IDE at least once while you are debugging it. Make a habit of never starting a debugging session when you are manually handling memory without saving your source code first.

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Public Function ToString() As String
'Returns a string that represents the current List object.

    ToString = StringFormat("{0}<{1}>", TypeName(Me), _
                                        Coalesce(this.ItemTypeName, "Variant"))

End Function

This means the string representation of this List is "List<Variant>" when this.ItemTypeName is empty or vbNullString.

This function should be somewhere at the very top:

Private Function ValidateItemType(value As Variant)

    If this.ItemTypeName = vbNullString Then this.ItemTypeName = TypeName(value)
    ValidateItemType = IsTypeSafe(value)

End Function

This is where the string representation of the List stops being "List<Variant>" and becomes List<T>


Given this information, there's a flaw in the IsReferenceType function, which might return the wrong result if the list originally contained objects and then was emptied so that Count = 0:

Private Function IsReferenceType() As Boolean
    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function
    IsReferenceType = IsObject(this.Encapsulated(1))
End Function

The correct code should be:

Private Function IsReferenceType() As Boolean
    If this.ItemTypeName = vbNullString Then Exit Function
    IsReferenceType = IsObject(this.Encapsulated(1))
End Function

In these snippets:

Private Function IsComparable() As Boolean
    If IsReferenceType Then
        IsComparable = TypeOf First Is IComparable
    End If
End Function

Private Function IsEquatable() As Boolean
    If IsReferenceType Then
        IsEquatable = TypeOf First Is IEquatable
    End If
End Function

It is assumed that only reference types can implement IComparable and IEquatable, and that is correct in VB6. Therefore, the presence of CompareValueTypes and EquateValueTypes functions is somewhat awkward, but their usage makes a quite enjoyable reading:

    If isRef Then

        '...
        isSmaller = CompareReferenceTypes(Item(i), smallest) < 0
        '...

    Else

        '...
        isSmaller = CompareValueTypes(Item(i), smallest) < 0
        '...

    End If

The Attribute Item.VB_UserMemId = 0 setting in the getter for the Item property makes that getter the type's default property, making Item(i) also be accessible with Me(i). Cool stuff. Even better:

Public Property Get NewEnum() As IUnknown
Attribute NewEnum.VB_UserMemId = -4
Attribute NewEnum.VB_MemberFlags = "40"
'Gets an enumerator that iterates through the List.

    Set NewEnum = this.Encapsulated.[_NewEnum]

End Property

Attribute NewEnum.VB_UserMemId = -4 instructs VB to use this method in For Each loop constructs; this enables AddRange(values As List) to do what it does:

For Each value In values
    Add value
Next

Given AddArray(values() As Variant), I think AddValues(ParamArray values()) could easily replace Add(value As Variant) - if there's only 1 value to add, both methods can be used and that makes it an ambiguous API. Add, AddRange and AddArray should be rewritten as follows:

Public Sub Add(ParamArray values())
'Adds the specified element(s) to the end of the List.

    Dim valuesArray() As Variant
    valuesArray = values

    AddArray valuesArray

End Sub

Public Sub AddRange(values As List)
'Adds the specified elements to the end of the List.

    AddArray values.ToArray

End Sub

Public Sub AddArray(values() As Variant)
'Adds the specified elements to the end of the List.

    Dim value As Variant, i As Long
    For i = LBound(values) To UBound(values)
        If ValidateItemType(value) Then 
            this.Encapsulated.Add values(i)
        Else
            RaiseErrorUnsafeType "AddArray()", TypeName(value)
        End If
    Next

End Sub

If Count = 0 Then Exit Function, wherever it's used, is an opportunity for some RaiseErrorListContainsNoElement, instead of returning an empty Variant or a meaningless False value.


Insert(ByVal Index As Long, value As Variant) and InsertValues(ByVal Index As Long, ParamArray values()) have exactly the same issue as Add and AddValues have; InsertValues should disappear and be replaced with this:

Public Sub Insert(ByVal Index As Long, ParamArray values())
'Inserts the specified element(s) into the List at the specified index.

    Dim valuesArray() As Variant
    valuesArray = values

    InsertArray Index, valuesArray

End Sub

The conditions for IsSortable are somewhat redundant and the firstItem variable only hides intent - accessing the first item isn't expensive enough to take this readability hit (besides this isn't called in a loop), so IsSortable() could be rewritten like this, and again If Count = 0 Then Exit Function is an opportunity for some RaiseErrorListContainsNoElement:

Public Function IsSortable() As Boolean
'Determines whether the List can be sorted.

    If Count = 0 Then RaiseErrorListContainsNoElement "IsSortable()"
    If IsReferenceType Then

        IsSortable = IsComparable

    Else

        IsSortable = IsNumeric(First) _
                Or IsDate(First) _
                Or this.ItemTypeName = "String"

   End If

End Function

IsTypeSafe is interesting. It works, but it's a little too stiff and a bit more effort could be put into accepting Long values within Integer range in a List<Integer>, and so on.


Remove(ParamArray values()) is already consistent with the changes made to Add and Insert, however RemoveRange breaks the naming convention established with AddRange and InsertRange which both take a List as a parameter. Since RemoveRange should keep its .net List<T> meaning, AddRange and InsertRange should be renamed AddList and InsertList, which would be consistent with AddArray and InsertArray.


That's all I can see.

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1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ If I could just change on thing I would modify the IndexOf() method a bit. See my answer for a clue how you can change the IndexOf() and Contains() you could eliminate a few loops which would speed it up a bit \$\endgroup\$
    – user28366
    Jan 15, 2014 at 8:29
9
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  • Your implementation of Sort would be optimised by implementing IndexOfMin so that Min = Item(IndexOfMin) (with a caveat for an empty List), but you can then use the O(1) RemoveAt instead of the O(n) Remove at the end of the Do Until loop. Similarly for IndexOfMax, Max and SortDescending, of course. I'd consider making IndexOfMin and IndexOfMax Public to allow other code to use the same optimisation.

  • IMHO, especially from a VB6 POV and contrary to Mat's Mug, sorting an empty List should succeed and return the empty List, not throw an error. I.e. IsSortable should start:

    IsSortable = True
    If Count = 0 Then Exit Function
    

    Your existing Sort and SortDescending implementations don't need to change for this.

  • (EDIT: Added 6 months later :-) ) Your implementation of LastIndexOf should actually be the same as IndexOf, but with For i = Count To 1 Step -1.

Minor quibbles

  • This is more readable (from a VB6 POV, anyway), and, of course, minusculely faster:

    Public Sub RemoveRange(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal valuesCount As Long)
    'Removes a range of elements from the List.
    
        Dim i As Long
        For i = 1 To valuesCount
    
            RemoveAt Index
    
        Next
    
    End Sub
    
  • value is unused in AddValues.

  • Clear should use RemoveAt 1. (I've forgotten my VB6 optimisations: I know RemoveAt 1 is the standard idiom, but is RemoveAt Count faster? NO: I've checked it and RemoveAt 1 is 9 orders of magnitude faster!)

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