Library code snippets

UBound() and LBound()

When you use a For...Next loop to iterate through an array, you may
be inclined to hard code the starting and ending counter values.  For
instance, suppose you created the following array

MusicGenres = Array("Blues", "Classic Rock", "Country",
"Dance", "Disco", "Funk", "Grunge", "Hip -Hop",
"Jazz", "Metal", "New Age", "Oldies", "Other")


you might think to loop through the array like so

For x = 0 To 12
    Debug.Print MusicGenres(x)
Next x


However, because you may want to add more items to the array at a later
time, it's best to use the LBound() and UBound() functions to delimit
the counter's boundaries, as in

For x = LBound(MusicGenres) To UBound(MusicGenres)
Debug.Print MusicGenres(x)
Next x


This way, no matter how many times you add items to the array, you
won't need to modify the For...Next loop at all. Also, keep in mind
that you don't need to subtract 1 from the UBound() value because the
function returns the array's largest available subscript NOT the number
of items in the array.

Comments

  1. 10 Dec 2002 at 16:56

    Another handy place to use the UBound is with the ParamArray option of subs and fuctions


    Private Sub Command1_Click()
      MyCode "a", "b", 1
      MyCode "Z", 1, "y", 4, "X"
    End Sub


    Sub MyCode(ParamArray Data() As Variant)
      For x = 0 To UBound(Data)
         Debug.Print Data(x)
      Next
    End Sub

  2. 01 Jan 1999 at 00:00

    This thread is for discussions of UBound() and LBound().

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