[arrays] Excel VBA - How to Redim a 2D array?

In Excel via Visual Basic, I am iterating through a CSV file of invoices that is loaded into Excel. The invoices are in a determinable pattern by client.

I am reading them into a dynamic 2D array, then writing them to another worksheet with older invoices. I understand that I have to reverse rows and columns since only the last dimension of an array may be Redimmed, then transpose when I write it to the master worksheet.

Somewhere, I have the syntax wrong. It keeps telling me that I have already Dimensionalized the array. Somehow did I create it as a static array? What do I need to fix in order to let it operate dynamically?

WORKING CODE PER ANSWER GIVEN

Sub InvoicesUpdate()
'
'Application Settings
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual

'Instantiate control variables
Dim allRows As Long, currentOffset As Long, invoiceActive As Boolean, mAllRows As Long
Dim iAllRows As Long, unusedRow As Long, row As Long, mWSExists As Boolean, newmAllRows As Long

'Instantiate invoice variables
Dim accountNum As String, custName As String, vinNum As String, caseNum As String, statusField As String
Dim invDate As String, makeField As String, feeDesc As String, amountField As String, invNum As String

'Instantiate Workbook variables
Dim mWB As Workbook 'master
Dim iWB As Workbook 'import

'Instantiate Worksheet variables
Dim mWS As Worksheet
Dim iWS As Worksheet

'Instantiate Range variables
Dim iData As Range

'Initialize variables
invoiceActive = False
row = 0

'Open import workbook
Workbooks.Open ("path:excel_invoices.csv")
Set iWB = ActiveWorkbook
Set iWS = iWB.Sheets("excel_invoices.csv")
iWS.Activate
Range("A1").Select
iAllRows = iWS.UsedRange.Rows.Count 'Count rows of import data

'Instantiate array, include extra column for client name
Dim invoices()
ReDim invoices(10, 0) 

'Loop through rows.
Do

    'Check for the start of a client and store client name
    If ActiveCell.Value = "Account Number" Then

        clientName = ActiveCell.Offset(-1, 6).Value

    End If

    If ActiveCell.Offset(0, 3).Value <> Empty And ActiveCell.Value <> "Account Number" And ActiveCell.Offset(2, 0) = Empty Then

        invoiceActive = True

        'Populate account information.
        accountNum = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Value
        vinNum = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Value
        'leave out customer name for FDCPA reasons
        caseNum = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 3).Value
        statusField = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 4).Value
        invDate = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 5).Value
        makeField = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 6).Value

    End If

    If invoiceActive = True And ActiveCell.Value = Empty And ActiveCell.Offset(0, 6).Value = Empty And ActiveCell.Offset(0, 9).Value = Empty Then

        'Make sure something other than $0 was invoiced
        If ActiveCell.Offset(0, 8).Value <> 0 Then

            'Populate individual item values.
            feeDesc = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 7).Value
            amountField = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 8).Value
            invNum = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 10).Value

            'Transfer data to array
            invoices(0, row) = "=TODAY()"
            invoices(1, row) = accountNum
            invoices(2, row) = clientName
            invoices(3, row) = vinNum
            invoices(4, row) = caseNum
            invoices(5, row) = statusField
            invoices(6, row) = invDate
            invoices(7, row) = makeField
            invoices(8, row) = feeDesc
            invoices(9, row) = amountField
            invoices(10, row) = invNum

            'Increment row counter for array
            row = row + 1

            'Resize array for next entry
            ReDim Preserve invoices(10,row)

         End If

    End If

    'Find the end of an invoice
    If invoiceActive = True And ActiveCell.Offset(0, 9) <> Empty Then

        'Set the flag to outside of an invoice
        invoiceActive = False

    End If

    'Increment active cell to next cell down
    ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate

'Define end of the loop at the last used row
Loop Until ActiveCell.row = iAllRows

'Close import data file
iWB.Close

This question is related to arrays excel vba multidimensional-array

The answer is


I stumbled across this question while hitting this road block myself. I ended up writing a piece of code real quick to handle this ReDim Preserve on a new sized array (first or last dimension). Maybe it will help others who face the same issue.

So for the usage, lets say you have your array originally set as MyArray(3,5), and you want to make the dimensions (first too!) larger, lets just say to MyArray(10,20). You would be used to doing something like this right?

 ReDim Preserve MyArray(10,20) '<-- Returns Error

But unfortunately that returns an error because you tried to change the size of the first dimension. So with my function, you would just do something like this instead:

 MyArray = ReDimPreserve(MyArray,10,20)

Now the array is larger, and the data is preserved. Your ReDim Preserve for a Multi-Dimension array is complete. :)

And last but not least, the miraculous function: ReDimPreserve()

'redim preserve both dimensions for a multidimension array *ONLY
Public Function ReDimPreserve(aArrayToPreserve,nNewFirstUBound,nNewLastUBound)
    ReDimPreserve = False
    'check if its in array first
    If IsArray(aArrayToPreserve) Then       
        'create new array
        ReDim aPreservedArray(nNewFirstUBound,nNewLastUBound)
        'get old lBound/uBound
        nOldFirstUBound = uBound(aArrayToPreserve,1)
        nOldLastUBound = uBound(aArrayToPreserve,2)         
        'loop through first
        For nFirst = lBound(aArrayToPreserve,1) to nNewFirstUBound
            For nLast = lBound(aArrayToPreserve,2) to nNewLastUBound
                'if its in range, then append to new array the same way
                If nOldFirstUBound >= nFirst And nOldLastUBound >= nLast Then
                    aPreservedArray(nFirst,nLast) = aArrayToPreserve(nFirst,nLast)
                End If
            Next
        Next            
        'return the array redimmed
        If IsArray(aPreservedArray) Then ReDimPreserve = aPreservedArray
    End If
End Function

I wrote this in like 20 minutes, so there's no guarantees. But if you would like to use or extend it, feel free. I would've thought that someone would've had some code like this up here already, well apparently not. So here ya go fellow gearheads.


here is updated code of the redim preseve method with variabel declaration, hope @Control Freak is fine with it:)

Option explicit
'redim preserve both dimensions for a multidimension array *ONLY
Public Function ReDimPreserve(aArrayToPreserve As Variant, nNewFirstUBound As Variant, nNewLastUBound As Variant) As Variant
    Dim nFirst As Long
    Dim nLast As Long
    Dim nOldFirstUBound As Long
    Dim nOldLastUBound As Long

    ReDimPreserve = False
    'check if its in array first
    If IsArray(aArrayToPreserve) Then
        'create new array
        ReDim aPreservedArray(nNewFirstUBound, nNewLastUBound)
        'get old lBound/uBound
        nOldFirstUBound = UBound(aArrayToPreserve, 1)
        nOldLastUBound = UBound(aArrayToPreserve, 2)
        'loop through first
        For nFirst = LBound(aArrayToPreserve, 1) To nNewFirstUBound
            For nLast = LBound(aArrayToPreserve, 2) To nNewLastUBound
                'if its in range, then append to new array the same way
                If nOldFirstUBound >= nFirst And nOldLastUBound >= nLast Then
                    aPreservedArray(nFirst, nLast) = aArrayToPreserve(nFirst, nLast)
                End If
            Next
        Next
        'return the array redimmed
        If IsArray(aPreservedArray) Then ReDimPreserve = aPreservedArray
    End If
End Function

i solved this in a shorter fashion.

Dim marray() as variant, array2() as variant, YY ,ZZ as integer
YY=1
ZZ=1

Redim marray(1 to 1000, 1 to 10)
Do while ZZ<100 ' this is populating the first array
marray(ZZ,YY)= "something"
ZZ=ZZ+1
YY=YY+1 
Loop
'this part is where you store your array in another then resize and restore to original
array2= marray
Redim marray(1 to ZZ-1, 1 to YY)
marray = array2

You could do this array(0)= array(0,1,2,3).

Sub add_new(data_array() As Variant, new_data() As Variant)
    Dim ar2() As Variant, fl As Integer
    If Not (isEmpty(data_array)) = True Then
        fl = 0
    Else
        fl = UBound(data_array) + 1
    End If
    ReDim Preserve data_array(fl)
    data_array(fl) = new_data
End Sub

Sub demo()
    Dim dt() As Variant, nw(0, 1) As Variant
    nw(0, 0) = "Hi"
    nw(0, 1) = "Bye"
    Call add_new(dt, nw)
    nw(0, 0) = "Good"
    nw(0, 1) = "Bad"
    Call add_new(dt, nw)
End Sub

A small update to what @control freak and @skatun wrote previously (sorry I don't have enough reputation to just make a comment). I used skatun's code and it worked well for me except that it was creating a larger array than what I needed. Therefore, I changed:

ReDim aPreservedArray(nNewFirstUBound, nNewLastUBound)

to:

ReDim aPreservedArray(LBound(aArrayToPreserve, 1) To nNewFirstUBound, LBound(aArrayToPreserve, 2) To nNewLastUBound)

This will maintain whatever the original array's lower bounds were (either 0, 1, or whatever; the original code assumes 0) for both dimensions.


I know this is a bit old but I think there might be a much simpler solution that requires no additional coding:

Instead of transposing, redimming and transposing again, and if we talk about a two dimensional array, why not just store the values transposed to begin with. In that case redim preserve actually increases the right (second) dimension from the start. Or in other words, to visualise it, why not store in two rows instead of two columns if only the nr of columns can be increased with redim preserve.

the indexes would than be 00-01, 01-11, 02-12, 03-13, 04-14, 05-15 ... 0 25-1 25 etcetera instead of 00-01, 10-11, 20-21, 30-31, 40-41 etcetera.

As only the second (or last) dimension can be preserved while redimming, one could maybe argue that this is how arrays are supposed to be used to begin with. I have not seen this solution anywhere so maybe I'm overlooking something?


Here is how I do this.

Dim TAV() As Variant
Dim ArrayToPreserve() as Variant

TAV = ArrayToPreserve
ReDim ArrayToPreserve(nDim1, nDim2)
For i = 0 To UBound(TAV, 1)
    For j = 0 To UBound(TAV, 2)
        ArrayToPreserve(i, j) = TAV(i, j)
    Next j
Next i

Here ya go.

Public Function ReDimPreserve(ByRef Arr, ByVal idx1 As Integer, ByVal idx2 As Integer)

    Dim newArr()
    Dim x As Integer
    Dim y As Integer

    ReDim newArr(idx1, idx2)

    For x = 0 To UBound(Arr, 1)
        For y = 0 To UBound(Arr, 2)
            newArr(x, y) = Arr(x, y)
        Next
    Next

    Arr = newArr

End Function

Examples related to arrays

PHP array value passes to next row Use NSInteger as array index How do I show a message in the foreach loop? Objects are not valid as a React child. If you meant to render a collection of children, use an array instead Iterating over arrays in Python 3 Best way to "push" into C# array Sort Array of object by object field in Angular 6 Checking for duplicate strings in JavaScript array what does numpy ndarray shape do? How to round a numpy array?

Examples related to excel

Python: Pandas pd.read_excel giving ImportError: Install xlrd >= 0.9.0 for Excel support Converting unix time into date-time via excel How to increment a letter N times per iteration and store in an array? 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.16.0' provider is not registered on the local machine. (System.Data) How to import an Excel file into SQL Server? Copy filtered data to another sheet using VBA Better way to find last used row Could pandas use column as index? Check if a value is in an array or not with Excel VBA How to sort dates from Oldest to Newest in Excel?

Examples related to vba

Copy filtered data to another sheet using VBA Better way to find last used row Check if a value is in an array or not with Excel VBA Creating an Array from a Range in VBA Excel: macro to export worksheet as CSV file without leaving my current Excel sheet VBA: Convert Text to Number What's the difference between "end" and "exit sub" in VBA? Rename Excel Sheet with VBA Macro Extract Data from PDF and Add to Worksheet Quicker way to get all unique values of a column in VBA?

Examples related to multidimensional-array

what does numpy ndarray shape do? len() of a numpy array in python What is the purpose of meshgrid in Python / NumPy? Convert a numpy.ndarray to string(or bytes) and convert it back to numpy.ndarray Typescript - multidimensional array initialization How to get every first element in 2 dimensional list How does numpy.newaxis work and when to use it? How to count the occurrence of certain item in an ndarray? Iterate through 2 dimensional array Selecting specific rows and columns from NumPy array