cant figure out Collection - Xtreme Visual Basic Talk

07-04-2004, 07:20 AM

under_seeg under_seeg is offline

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 64

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:

Code:

    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

Code:

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

Code:

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.

07-04-2004, 07:42 AM

stevo

Senior Contributor

* Expert *

Join Date: May 2004

Location: Manchester, England.

Posts: 1,254

how about using a Private Type.

Code:

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 ?

07-04-2004, 07:47 AM

under_seeg under_seeg is offline

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 64

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

Last edited by under_seeg; 07-04-2004 at 07:53 AM.

07-04-2004, 08:00 AM

stevo

Senior Contributor

* Expert *

Join Date: May 2004

Location: Manchester, England.

Posts: 1,254

try this then

Code:

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

07-04-2004, 08:04 AM

under_seeg under_seeg is offline

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 64

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.