VBA - Dictionary

Use a VBA dictionary to create a collection of key-value pairs. The VBA dictionary object links keys to items so you can get your items later by simply calling the key by name. The VBA dictionary is a top-level object in the Microsoft Scripting Runtime object library.
Dictionaries in VBA can be a tough concept to grasp. In this tutorial we’ll first give you a formal definition of what a dictionary is, to avoid any confusion with indexed arrays and collection objects.

In computer science, the formal dictionary definition states that “a dictionary is an abstract data type composed of a collection of key-value pairs such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection. That is, each key in the dictionary is unique.

Similarly, in an indexed array, each index number is unique and to retrieve the nth value of the indexed array, you simply reference the nth index of it. In dictionaries, on the other hand, the key itself is used to reference the associated value of the key. That means you don’t have to know the index of the value to retrieve it; you only need to know the key.

Because of this functionality, dictionaries are also known as associative arrays. Using these terms interchangeably makes sense in many computer languages, but not so much in VBA, since in VBA you must work with dictionaries through the dictionary object. You cannot simply construct an associative array in VBA with the typical array syntax.

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