VB Data Structure

http://vb.net-informations.com/collections/vb.net_collections_tutorials.htm

Visual Basic supports a number of data structures called Collections that holds
data in different ways for flexible operations. The important data structures in
the Collection Classes are ArrayList , HashTable , Stack , Queue etc. From
the following chapters you can see how to manage these data structures in
your visual Basic.net programs.

 How to use VB.NET ArrayList ArrayList Example

 How to use VB.NET HashTable HashTable Example
 How to use VB.NET Stack Stack Example
 How to use VB.NET Queue Queue Example
 How to use VB.NET Arrays Arrays Example
 How to use VB.NET Dyanamic Arrays Dyanamic Arrays Example
 How to use VB.NET NameValueCollection NameValueCollection Example
 How to use VB.NET List List Example
 VB.Net Dictionary example Dictionary example
 How to: Declare a Structure Structure
How to VB.NET ArrayList
ArrayList is one of the most flexible data structure from VB.NET Collections. With the Array list

you can add elements to your array dynamically and it accepts null as a valid value and also

allows duplicate elements. Normally Collection class allow you to access an item using either

a numeric index or a String key, but ArrayList allows only a numeric index. ArrayList is flexible

because we can add items without any size information.

vb-arraylist

Important functions from ArrayList Object

Add : Add Items in an ArrayList

Insert : Insert Items to a specified position in an ArrayList

Remove : Remove an Item from ArrayList

RemoveAt: remove an item from a specified position

Sort : Sort Items in an ArrayList

How to add Items in an ArrayList ?

Syntax : ArrayList.add(Item)

Item : The Item to be add the ArrayList

Dim ItemList As New ArrayList()

ItemList.Add("Item4")

How to Insert Items in an ArrayList ?

Syntax : ArrayList.insert(index,item)

index : The position of the item in an ArrayList

Item : The Item to be add the ArrayList

ItemList.Insert(3, "item6")

How to remove an item from arrayList ?

Syntax : ArrayList.Remove(item)

Item : The Item to be add the ArrayList

ItemList.Remove("item2")

How to remove an item in a specified position from an ArrayList ?

Syntax : ArrayList.RemoveAt(index)

index : the position of an item to remove from an ArrayList

ItemList.RemoveAt(2)

How to sort ArrayList ?

Syntax : ArrayListSort()

From the following Visual Basic source code you can see some important operations from an

ArrayList Object

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim i As Integer

Dim ItemList As New ArrayList()

ItemList.Add("Item4")

ItemList.Add("Item5")

ItemList.Add("Item2")

ItemList.Add("Item1")

ItemList.Add("Item3")

MsgBox("Shows Added Items")

For i = 0 To ItemList.Count - 1

MsgBox(ItemList.Item(i))

Next

'insert an item

ItemList.Insert(3, "Item6")

'sort itemms in an arraylist

ItemList.Sort()

'remove an item

ItemList.Remove("Item1")

'remove item from a specified index

ItemList.RemoveAt(3)
 MsgBox("Shows final Items the ArrayList")

For i = 0 To ItemList.Count - 1

MsgBox(ItemList.Item(i))

Next

End Sub

End Class

When you execute this program , it add five items in the arraylist and displays using a for loop

statement. Then again one more item inserted in the third position , and then sort all items.

Next it remove the item1 and also remove the item from the third position . Finally it shows

the existing items.

How to VB.Net HashTable
HashTable stores a Key Value pair type collection of data . We can retrive items from

hashTable to provide the key . Both key and value are Objects.

The common functions using in Hashtable are :

Add : To add a pair of value in HashTable

Syntax : HashTable.Add(Key,Value)

Key : The Key value

Value : The value of corrosponding key

ContainsKey : Check if a specified key exist or not

Synatx : HashTable.ContainsKey(key)

Key : The Key value for search in HahTable

ContainsValue : Check the specified Value exist in HashTable

Synatx : HashTable.ContainsValue(Value)

Value : Search the specified Value in HashTable

Remove : Remove the specified Key and corrosponding Value

Syntax : HashTable.Remove(Key)

Key : The argument key of deleting pairs

The following source code shows all important operations in a HashTable

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim weeks As New Hashtable

Dim day As DictionaryEntry

weeks.Add("1", "Sun")

weeks.Add("2", "Mon")

weeks.Add("3", "Tue")

weeks.Add("4", "Wed")

weeks.Add("5", "Thu")

weeks.Add("6", "Fri")

weeks.Add("7", "Sat")

'Display a single Item

MsgBox(weeks.Item("5"))

'Search an Item

If weeks.ContainsValue("Tue") Then

MsgBox("Find")

Else

MsgBox("Not find")

End If
 'remove an Item

weeks.Remove("3")

'Display all key value pairs

For Each day In weeks

MsgBox(day.Key " -- " day.Value)

Next

End Sub

End Class

When you execute this program it add seven weekdays in the hashtable and display the item

5. Then it check the item "Tue" is existing or not . Next it remove the third item from

HashTable. Finaly it displays all item exist in the HashTable.

How to Create VB.Net Stack
Stack is one of another easy to use VB.NET Collections . Stack follows the push-pop

operations, that is we can Push Items into Stack and Pop it later also it follows the Last In First

Out (LIFO) system. That is we can push the items into a stack and get it in reverse order. Stack

returns the last item first.

Commonly used methods :

Push : Add (Push) an item in the stack datastructure

Syntax : Stack.Push(Object)

Object : The item to be inserted.

Pop : Pop return the item last Item to insert in stack

Syntax : Stack.Pop()

Return : The last object in the Stack

Contains : Check the object contains in the stack

Syntax : Stack.Contains(Object)

Object : The specified Object to be search

The following VB.NET Source code shows some of commonly used functions :

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

 ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim stackTable As New Stack

stackTable.Push("Sun")

stackTable.Push("Mon")

stackTable.Push("Tue")

stackTable.Push("Wed")

stackTable.Push("Thu")

stackTable.Push("Fri")

stackTable.Push("Sat")

If stackTable.Contains("Wed") Then

MsgBox(stackTable.Pop())

Else

MsgBox("not exist")

End If

End Sub

End Class

When you execute this program add seven items in the stack . Then its checks the item "Wed"

exist in the Stack. If the item exist in the Stack , it Pop the last item from Stack , else it shows

the msg "Not Exist"

How to VB.Net Queue
The Queue is another adtastructure from VB.NET Collections . Queue works like First In First

Out method and the item added first in the Queue is first get out from Queue. We can

Enqueue (add) items in Queue and we can Dequeue (remove from Queue ) or we can Peek

(that is get the reference of first item added in Queue ) the item from Queue.

The commonly using functions are follows :

Enqueue : Add an Item in Queue

Syntax : Stack.Enqueue(Object)

Object : The item to add in Queue

Dequeue : Remove the oldest item from Queue (we don't get the item later)

Syntax : Stack.Dequeue()

Returns : Remove the oldest item and return.

Peek : Get the reference of the oldest item (it is not removed permenantly)

Syntax : Stack.Peek()

returns : Get the reference of the oldest item in the Queue

The following VB.NET Source code shows some of commonly used functions :

Public Class Form1

 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,_

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim queueList As New Queue

queueList.Enqueue("Sun")

queueList.Enqueue("Mon")

queueList.Enqueue("Tue")

queueList.Enqueue("Wed")

queueList.Enqueue("Thu")

queueList.Enqueue("fri")

queueList.Enqueue("Sat")

MsgBox(queueList.Dequeue())

MsgBox(queueList.Peek())

If queueList.Contains("Sun") Then

MsgBox("Contains Sun ")

Else

MsgBox("Not Contains Sun ")

End If

End Sub

End Class

When you execute the program it add seven items in the Queue. Then it Dequeue (remove)
the oldest item from queue. Next it Peek() the oldest item from Queue (shows only , not

remove ). Next it check the Item "Sun" contains in the Queue.

How to VB.Net Arrays
Arrays are using for store similar data types grouping as a single unit. It is a fixed collection of

same data type that are stored contiguously and that are accessible by an index We specify

their length and we can initialize arrays with data. We can access Array elements by its

numeric index.

vb.net array

Integer Array

Declaring and Initializing an Integer Array

Dim array As Integer() = New Integer(3) {}

array(0) = 10

array(1) = 20

array(2) = 30

array(3) = 40

In the above code we declare an Integer Array of four elements and assign the value to array

index . That means we assign values to array index 0-3.

We can retrieve these values from array by using a for loop.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
 Dim array As Integer() = New Integer(3) {}

array(0) = 10

array(1) = 20

array(2) = 30

array(3) = 40

For i As Integer = 0 To array.Length - 1

MessageBox.Show(array(i))

Next

End Sub

End Class

We can declare and initialize an array in one statement.

Dim array As Integer() = New Integer() {10, 20, 30, 40}

Note that in the above code we did not specify the length of the array so the compiler will do

it for us.

How to find the length of an Array ?

array.Length

We can use array.Length to find the length of an Array.

String Array
Declaring and Initializing a String Array

Dim week(6) As String

The above Vb.Net statements means that , an Array named as week declared as a String type

and it can have the capability of seven String type values.

week(0) = "Sunday"

week(1) = "Monday"

In the above statement , we initialize the values to the String Array. week(0) = "Sunday"

means , we initialize the first value of Array as "Sunday" ,

Dim weekName as String = week(1)

We can access the Arrays elements by providing its numerical index, the above statement we

access the second value from the week Array.

In the following program , we declare an Array "week" capability of seven String values and

assigns the seven values as days in a week . Next step is to retrieve the elements of the Array

using a For loop. For finding the end of an Array we used the Length function of Array Object.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim i As Integer

Dim week(6) As String

week(0) = "Sunday"
 week(1) = "Monday"

week(2) = "Tuesday"

week(3) = "Wednesday"

week(4) = "Thursday"

week(5) = "Friday"

week(6) = "Saturday"

For i = 0 To week.Length - 1

MsgBox(week(i))

Next

End Sub

End Class

How to resize an array ?

An array can be resized with Array.Resize < T > Method , that means We make an array

bigger or smaller. Array.Resize < T > Method Changes the number of elements of a

one-dimensional array to the specified new size.

Array.Resize < T > - T is the type of the elements of the array.

This method should be used with only one dimensional Array. This method allocates a new

array with the specified size, copies elements from the old array to the new one, and then

replaces the old array with the new one.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click

Dim sArray As Char() = New Char(4) {}

sArray(0) = "A"

sArray(1) = "B"

sArray(2) = "C"

sArray(3) = "D"

sArray(4) = "E"

For i As Integer = 0 To sArray.Length - 1

MessageBox.Show(sArray(i).ToString())

Next

Array.Resize(sArray, 3)

For i As Integer = 0 To sArray.Length - 1

MessageBox.Show(sArray(i).ToString())

Next

End Sub

End Class

Array.Resize(sArray, 3)
In the above code we resize the array to 3 elements.

How to Use For Each loop with Arrays ?

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click

Dim array As Integer() = {10, 30, 50}

'array declaration

For Each element As Integer In array

MsgBox(element)

Next

End Sub

End Class

Array Sort

sort array in VB.Net ascending descending Reverse array

You can sort the arrays in ascending order as well as descending . We can use Array.Sort

method for sorts the elements in a one-dimensional array. Also we can use Array.Reverse

method for reverses the sequence of the elements in the entire one-dimensional Array. Click

the following link to see .... How to sort VB.Net Arrays

The following source code shows how to sort an integer Array in ascending order.
Dim arr As Integer() = New Integer() {3, 1, 4, 5, 2}

Array.Sort(arr)

For Each str As Integer In arr

MsgBox(str)

Next

The following code shows how to sort an Integer array in reverse order.

Dim arr As Integer() = New Integer() {3, 1, 4, 5, 2}

Array.Sort(arr)

Array.Reverse(arr)

For Each str As Integer In arr

MsgBox(str)

Next

How to Create an Array with different data types

You can create an array with elements of different data types when declare the array as

Object. Since System.Object is the base class of all other types, an item in an array of Objects

can have a reference to any other type of object. More about.... Multiple data types in an

Array - VB.Net

System.Array.CopyTo and System.Array.Clone()

The System.Array.CopyTo method copies the elements into another pre-existing array

starting from a given index. The System.Array.Clone() method returns a new array object,

which means that the destination array need not exist yet since a new one is created from

scratch with containing all the elements in the original array. More about the difference

between .... System.Array.CopyTo and System.Array.Clone()

How to check if a value exists in an array ?

The following program shows how to find a specified value from an Array.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click

Dim stringToCheck As String = "GHI"

Dim stringArray As String() = {"ABC", "DEF", "GHI", "JKL"}

For Each x As String In stringArray

If x.Equals(stringToCheck) Then

MessageBox.Show("Find the string ..." + x)

End If

Next

End Sub

End Class
When you execute this program you will get the Days in a Week .
How to VB.Net Dyanamic Array
Dynamic Arrays can resize the capability of the Array at runtime .when you are in a situation

that you do not know exactly the number of elements to store in array while you making the

program. In that situations we are using Dynamic Array .

Initial declaration

Dim scores() As Integer

Resizing

ReDim scores(1)

If you want to keep the existing items in the Array , you can use the keyword Preserve .

ReDim Preserve scores(2)

In this case the Array dynamically allocate one more String value and keep the existing values.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim i As Integer

Dim scores() As Integer

ReDim scores(1)
 scores(0) = 100

scores(1) = 200

For i = 0 To scores.Length - 1

MsgBox(scores(i))

Next

ReDim Preserve scores(2)

scores(2) = 300

For i = 0 To scores.Length - 1

MsgBox(scores(i))

Next

End Sub

End Class

When you execute this source code , the first loop shows first two values stored in the Array.

Next loop shows the whole value stored in the Array.

How to VB.Net NameValueCollection
NameValueCollection is used to store data like Name, Value format. It is very similar to

Vb.Net HashTable, HashTable also stores data in Key , value format . NameValueCollection

can hold more than one value for a corresponding Key.

Adding new pairs

Add(ByVal name As String, ByVal value As String)

Add("High","80")

Get the value of corresponding Key

GetValues(ByVal name As String) As String()

String values() = GetValues("High")

Imports System.Collections.Specialized

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim markStatus As New NameValueCollection

Dim key As String

Dim values() As String

 markStatus.Add("Very High", "80")

markStatus.Add("High", "60")

markStatus.Add("medium", "50")

markStatus.Add("Pass", "40")

For Each key In markStatus.Keys

values = markStatus.GetValues(key)

For Each value As String In values

MsgBox(key & " - " & value)

Next value

Next key

End Sub

End Class

When you execute this source code , you will get each Key/Value sets.
How to VB.Net Dictionary
A Dictionary class is a data structure that represents a collection of keys and values pair of

data. Each item is a combination of a key and a value. ( key-value pair)

Syntax:

vb.net dictionary sample

Parameters :

TKey - The type of the keys in the dictionary.

TValue - The type of the values in the dictionary.

e.g.

Dim dict As New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)()

Adding Values to Dictionary

Add method in Dictionary takes two parameters, one for the key and one for the value.

Syntax:

public void Add(TKey key,TValue value)

e.g.

dictionary.Add("dozen",12)

Key in a Dictionary should not be null, but a value can be, if TValue is a reference type.

Dim dict As New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)()

dict.Add("one", 1)
dict.Add("two", 2)

dict.Add("three", 3)

dict.Add("four", 4)

Retrieve Key-Value pair from Dictionary

We can retrieve values from Dictionary using foreach loop

For Each pair As KeyValuePair(Of String, Integer) In dict

MsgBox(pair.Key & " - " & pair.Value)

Next

Search for a Key

We can search a Key in Dictionary by using the ContainsKey method to test whether a key

exists or not. ContainsKey computes the hashcode for its argument and checks the internal

structures in the Dictionary.

If dict.ContainsKey("four") = True Then

MessageBox.Show(dict("four").ToString())

Else

MessageBox.Show("Key does not exist")

End If

Iterate over a Dictionary

There are many different ways to iterate over a Dictionary in VB.Net. From the following link

you can see in detail .... How to Iterate over a Dictionary

Dictionary Versus HashTable

VB.Net Dictionary and HashTable

Dictionary is a generic type, Hashtable is not. That means you get type safety with Dictionary,

because you can't insert any random object into it, and you don't have to cast the values you

take out. Since both Dictionary and Hashtable are internally hashtables, so fast access to

many-item data according to key, also both need immutable and unique keys. More about....

Dictionary Vs HashTable

Dictionary Versus List

VB.Net Dictionary and List

Both lists and dictionaries are used to store collections of data. The Dictionary is based on a

hash table, that means it uses a hash lookup, which is a rather efficient algorithm to look up

things, on the other hand, a list you have to go element by element until it finds the result

from beginning to the result each time.

More about.... Dictionary vs List

Following vb.net program is a full source code of adding and retrieving key values pairs in
Dictionary

Dim dict As New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)()

dict.Add("one", 1)

dict.Add("two", 2)

dict.Add("three", 3)

dict.Add("four", 4)

For Each pair As KeyValuePair(Of String, Integer) In dict

MsgBox(pair.Key & " - " & pair.Value)

Next
How to use VB.NET List
VB.NET List examples

Generic lists were introduced with .Net 2.0 and are the way to go. List is a generic

implementation of ArrayList. List can store only one type of objects, that type supplied as its

generic parameter. List class is a collection and defined in the System.Collections.Generic

namespace and it provides the methods and properties like other Collection classes such as

add, insert, remove, search etc.

To use List(Of T), however, you have to understand how to implement the many methods that

the .NET Framework provides

List(Of T)

The parameter T is the type of elements in the list.

How to add items in List ?

Add integer values in the List

Dim iList As New List(Of Integer)()

iList.Add(2)

iList.Add(3)

iList.Add(5)

iList.Add(7)

Add string values in the List

 Dim numbers As New List(Of String)()

numbers.Add("One")

numbers.Add("Two")

numbers.Add("Three")

How to count number of items exists in a List ?

List.Count property gives you the number of items exists in List

numbers.Count

How to retrieve items from List ?

You can retrieve items from List collection by using for loops.

for each loop

For Each number As String In numbers

MessageBox.Show(number)

Next

for loop

For i As Integer = 0 To numbers.Count - 1

MessageBox.Show(numbers(i))

Next
How to insert an item in the List ?

You can use insert(index,item) method to insert an in the specified index.

numbers.Insert(1, "zero")

In the above code the number "zero" is inserted in the index position 1.

How to remove an item from List collection?

List.Remove() can use to remove item from List.

numbers.Remove("zero");

How to check if an item exist in the List ?

You can use List.Contains() method to check an item exists in the List

if (numbers.Contains("Two"))

MessageBox.Show("Number Two exist in the list");

How to copy an Array to a List ?

Dim strArr As String() = New String(2) {}

strArr(0) = "Red"

strArr(1) = "Blue"

strArr(2) = "Green"
 //here to copy array to List

Dim arrlist As New List(Of String)(strArr)

Finally clear method remove all the items from List collection.

arrlist.Clear()

Difference between list and dictionary in VB.Net

In VB.Net applications both lists and dictionaries are used to store collections of data. List

(ICollection ) is simply a set of items and Dictionary(IDictionary) is a set of key-value pairs. The

essential difference therefore is in how the containers are indexed data in your VB.Net

application. If you want to know more details.....What is the difference between list and

dictionary in VB.Net?

The following VB.Net program shows the implementation of the above functionalities in List

collection.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click

Dim numbers As New List(Of String)()

'add items in a List collection

numbers.Add("One")

numbers.Add("Two")

numbers.Add("Three")

'insert an item in the list

numbers.Insert(1, "Zero")

'retrieve items using foreach loop

For Each number As String In numbers

MessageBox.Show(number)

Next

'remove an item from list

numbers.Remove("Zero")

'retrieve items using for loop

For i As Integer = 0 To numbers.Count - 1

MessageBox.Show(numbers(i))

Next
If numbers.Contains("Two") Then

MessageBox.Show("Number two exist in the list")

Else

MessageBox.Show("Not exist")

End If

'copy array to list

Dim strArr As String() = New String(2) {}

strArr(0) = "Red"

strArr(1) = "Blue"

strArr(2) = "Green"

Dim arrlist As New List(Of String)(strArr)

For Each str As String In strArr

MessageBox.Show(str)

Next

'call clear method

arrlist.Clear()

MessageBox.Show(arrlist.Count.ToString())
 End Sub

End Class
 How to: Declare a Structure

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4ft0z102.aspx

1. Create the beginning and ending statements for the structure.

You can specify the access level of a structure using the Public, Protected, Friend, or Private

keyword, or you can let it default to Public.

Private Structure employee

End Structure

2. Add elements to the body of the structure.

A structure must have at least one element. You must declare every element and specify an

access level for it. If you use the Dim Statement without any keywords, the accessibility

defaults to Public.

Example:

Private Structure employee

Public givenName As String

Public familyName As String

Public phoneExtension As Long

Private salary As Decimal

Public Sub giveRaise(raise As Double)

salary *= raise

End Sub

Public Event salaryReviewTime()

 End Structure

The salary field in the preceding example is Private, which means it is inaccessible outside the

structure, even from the containing class. However, the giveRaise procedure is Public, so it

can be called from outside the structure. Similarly, you can raise the salaryReviewTime event

from outside the structure.