VBA - Setting multidimensional array values in one line

Question

Right, so using Python I would create a multidimensional list and set the values on one line of code (as per the below).

aryTitle = [["Desciption", "Value"],["Description2", "Value2"]]
print(aryTitle[0,0] + aryTitle[0,1])

I like the way I can set the values on one line. In VBA I am doing this by:

Dim aryTitle(0 To 1, 0 To 1) As String
aryTitle(0, 0) = "Description"
aryTitle(0, 1) = "Value"
aryTitle(1, 0) = "Description2"
aryTitle(1, 1) = "Value2"
MsgBox (aryTitle(0, 0) & aryTitle(0, 1))    

Is there a way to set the values in one line of code?

Answer 1

Not natively, no. But you can write a function for it. The only reason Python can do that is someone wrote a function to do it. The difference is that they had access to the source so they could make the syntax whatever they like. You'll be limited to VBA function syntax. Here's a function to create a 2-dim array. It's not technically 'one line of code', but throw it in your MUtilities module and forget about it and it will feel like one line of code.

Public Function FillTwoDim(ParamArray KeyValue() As Variant) As Variant

    Dim aReturn() As Variant
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lCnt As Long

    ReDim aReturn(0 To ((UBound(KeyValue) + 1) \ 2) - 1, 0 To 1)

    For i = LBound(KeyValue) To UBound(KeyValue) Step 2
        If i + 1 <= UBound(KeyValue) Then
            aReturn(lCnt, 0) = KeyValue(i)
            aReturn(lCnt, 1) = KeyValue(i + 1)
            lCnt = lCnt + 1
        End If
    Next i

    FillTwoDim = aReturn

End Function

Sub test()

    Dim vaArr As Variant
    Dim i As Long
    Dim j As Long

    vaArr = FillTwoDim("Description", "Value", "Description2", "Value2")

    For i = LBound(vaArr, 1) To UBound(vaArr, 1)
        For j = LBound(vaArr, 2) To UBound(vaArr, 2)
            Debug.Print i, j, vaArr(i, j)
        Next j
    Next i

End Sub

If you supply an odd number of arguments, it ignores the last one. If you use 3-dim arrays, you could write a function for that. You could also write a fancy function that could handle any dims, but I'm not sure it's worth it. And if you're using more than 3-dim arrays, you probably don't need my help writing a function.

The output from the above

 0             0            Description
 0             1            Value
 1             0            Description2
 1             1            Value2