cant figure out Collection

i've been looking for a way to do this for days now, i'm not very talented myself im quite new to VB but heres my prob.

i want to create a collection i think, or instances of a class or something like that, right now i have a class called 'Entity' with property 'keycomments' this is just one of the properties i have a few irrelevant ones.

when i click my button i want the text entered in KeyvalID to use as the name of my new instance of Entity, shown as follows:


If KeyvalID.Text = "" Then
MsgBox ("You must enter an ID.")
End If

Dim temp
temp = KeyvalID.Text

Dim bla(temp) As New Entity

'in a function later on this lower section will happen
'and for now it assumes the KeyvalID.Text earlier was "npc_roll"

bla(npc_roll).keycomments = "It Works!"

KeyvalComments.Text = bla(npc_roll).keycomments 'this is on screen for the user to see.


i know this doesnt work because i have to have a constant expression when making the bla(temp), and 'temp' is not constant, but how can i go about achieving this, all i want is the ability to type

bla(npc_roll).keycomments = "It Works!"

i have to be able to create an instance of the class Entity with the name of the users choice.

also if i'm going to have to use a collection, can you explain very carefully because no matter how much i look at tutorials and examples on MSDN or other sites, i just cant figure them out! for a start i cant type

public class bla
...
end class


it doesnt allow any of it.

i'm just totally stumped on making collections.

Read on if your willing to help find an alternative :):
if theres an alternative you can think of then i'll be just as happy, i'm taking a few values that have been entered and trying to store them for saving later on. there can be any number of them and each will have a few values inside, some wont include some of the values, and in a special case, some will need to create extras (called Choice1, Choice2, Choice3... etc.) if possible i'd also like to create all these inside other classes, for example:

No1.ID
No1.Name
No1.Keyvals.1.ID
No1.Keyvals.1.Name
No1.Keyvals.1.Comments
No1.Keyvals.2.ID
No2.ID
...

this is basically the exact system i want. i just dont have the skill to do it, and i cant find out how to create something like keyvals, where it has a second or third list of properties inside it.


sorry for the long post.

how about using a Private Type.

Option Explicit
Private Type StringKeys
Keycomments As String
Irrelivantstuff As String
End Type

'then you can

Dim bla(5) As StringKeys 'just threw 5 in, dont know what you want here

bla(0).Keycomments = "some stuff"
bla(0).Irrelivantstuff = "some other stuff"

Debug.Print bla(0).Keycomments & " " & bla(0).Irrelivantstuff

is this what you are looking for ?

almost, is there a way to make a type with more than just

bla(0).comment

so i could have

bla(0).key1.comment?

EDIT: oh yea and is it possible to just add 1 on the end of that, say it starts with 8 in and i add 1 so it becomes bla(9) or do i need to have bla(1000) at the beginning as a set limit.

also using this method is it possible to start off with

bla(0).ID
bla(0).Keycomment

and later on add

bla(0).Choice1

try this then

Option Explicit

Private Type StringKeys
Keycomments As String
Irrelivantstuff As String
End Type

Private Type skeys
key1 As StringKeys
End Type

'then

Dim bla(5) As skeys

bla(0).key1.Keycomments = "blahblah"
bla(0).key1.Irrelivantstuff = "blahblahblah"

Debug.Print bla(0).key1.Keycomments & " " & bla(0).key1.Irrelivantstuff

excellent, now all i need is a way to create key2, key3... and so on while its running, since both key's and bla's can be added and deleted, have u got any ideas on this?

EDIT: wait this isnt all i need, i need a way to create these keys and bla's using 'I' in a For loop, because i'll need to see how many have already been created, if theres really no way to do this i think it'll be ok just setting limits to how many you can make, but i'd prefer a more efficient way.