How do I Merge two Arrays in VBA

Question

Given   Dim arr1 As Variant Dim arr2 As Variant Dim arr3 As Variant  arr1   Array  A   1   B   2  arr2   Array  C   3   D   4    What kind of operations can I do on arr1 and arr2 and store result in arr3 such that     arr3     A    C   1  3   B    D   2  4

User · Answer

My preferred way is a bit long  but has some advantages over the other answers    It can combine an indefinite number of arrays at once It can combine arrays with non-arrays  objects  strings  integers  etc   It accounts for the possibility that one or more of the arrays may contain objects It allows the user to choose the base of the new array  0  1  etc     Here it is   Function combineArrays ByVal toCombine As Variant  Optional ByVal newBase As Long   1   Combines an array of one or more 1d arrays  objects  or values into a single 1d array  newBase parameter indicates start position of new array  0  1  etc    Example usage       combineArrays Array Array 1 2 3  Array 4 5 6  Array 7 8    - gt  Array 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8       combineArrays Array  Cat  Array 2 3 4    - gt  Array  Cat  2 3 4       combineArrays Array  Cat  ActiveSheet   - gt  Array  Cat  ActiveSheet       combineArrays Array ThisWorkbook   - gt  Array ThisWorkbook       combineArrays  Cat   - gt  Array  Cat        Dim tempObj As Object     Dim tempVal As Variant      If Not IsArray toCombine  Then         If IsObject toCombine  Then             Set tempObj   toCombine             ReDim toCombine newBase To newBase              Set toCombine newBase    tempObj         Else             tempVal   toCombine             ReDim toCombine newBase To newBase              toCombine newBase    tempVal         End If         combineArrays   toCombine         Exit Function     End If      Dim i As Long     Dim tempArr As Variant     Dim newMax As Long     newMax   0      For i   LBound toCombine  To UBound toCombine          If Not IsArray toCombine i   Then             If IsObject toCombine i   Then                 Set tempObj   toCombine i                  ReDim tempArr 1 To 1                  Set tempArr 1    tempObj                 toCombine i    tempArr             Else                 tempVal   toCombine i                  ReDim tempArr 1 To 1                  tempArr 1    tempVal                 toCombine i    tempArr             End If             newMax   newMax   1         Else             newMax   newMax    UBound toCombine i     LBound toCombine i   - 1          End If     Next     newMax   newMax    newBase - 1       ReDim newArr newBase To newMax      i   newBase     Dim j As Long     Dim k As Long     For j   LBound toCombine  To UBound toCombine          For k   LBound toCombine j   To UBound toCombine j               If IsObject toCombine j  k   Then                 Set newArr i    toCombine j  k              Else                 newArr i    toCombine j  k              End If             i   i   1         Next     Next      combineArrays   newArr  End Function

User · Answer

I tried the code provided above  but it gave an error 9 for me  I made this code  and it worked fine for my purposes   I hope others find it useful as well   Function mergeArrays ByRef arr1   As Variant  arr2   As Variant  As Variant      Dim returnThis   As Variant     Dim len1 As Integer  len2 As Integer  lenRe As Integer  counter As Integer     len1   UBound arr1      len2   UBound arr2      lenRe   len1   len2     ReDim returnThis 1 To lenRe      counter   1      Do While counter  lt   len1  get first array in returnThis         returnThis counter    arr1 counter          counter   counter   1     Loop     Do While counter  lt   lenRe  get the second array in returnThis         returnThis counter    arr2 counter - len1          counter   counter   1     Loop  mergeArrays   returnThis End Function

User · Answer

Try this   arr3   Split Join arr1        amp       amp  Join arr2

User · Answer

Or even a way that either variable can be uninitialised or an empty array or an array of objects  eg Dictionary objects   Only handles one dimension at a time  though  Also  it APPENDS arr2 to arr1 rather than merges   Function appendArray ByVal arr1 As Variant  ByVal arr2 As Variant  As Variant     Dim holdarr As Variant     Dim ub1 As Long     Dim ub2 As Long     Dim i As Long     Dim newind As Long                                Allows for one or both variants to not be arrays     If IsEmpty arr1  Or Not IsArray arr1  Then         arr1   Array       End If      If IsEmpty arr2  Or Not IsArray arr2  Then         arr2   Array       End If                               Now we assume we DO have two ARRAYS  even if one or the other                               has no elements     ub1   UBound arr1      ub2   UBound arr2       If ub1   -1 Then         appendArray   arr2         Exit Function     End If      If ub2   -1 Then         appendArray   arr1         Exit Function     End If                Copy the first array  We know it is not empty      holdarr   arr1                Grow it to the final size we need  keeping the current contents     ReDim Preserve holdarr ub1   ub2   1                 Set the starting new index     newind   UBound arr1    1                Append the second array  allowing that it might be an array of objects     For i   0 To ub2         If VarType arr2 i     vbObject Then             Set holdarr newind    arr2 i          Else             holdarr newind    arr2 i          End If         newind   newind   1     Next i               Return the appended array     appendArray   holdarr End Function

User · Answer

To join Array1 and Array2  create a new array say JointArray  Dim JointArray As Variant ReDim JointArray UBound Array1    UBound Array2    1  As Variant For i   0 To UBound JointArray      If i  lt   UBound Array1  Then     JointArray i    Array1 i      Else     JointArray i    Array2 i - UBound Array1  - 1      End If Next

User · Answer

Function marr arr1 As Variant  arr2 As Variant  As Variant Dim item As Variant     For Each item In arr1         i   i   1     Next item     For Each item In arr2         i   i   1     Next item ReDim MergeData 0 To i  i   1     For Each item In arr1         MergeData i    item         i   i   1     Next item     For Each item In arr2         MergeData i    item         i   i   1     Next item     marr   MergeData End Function

User · Answer

Here s a version that uses a collection object to combine two 1-d arrays and pass them to a 3rd array  Doesn t work for multi-dimensional arrays   Function joinArrays arr1 As Variant  arr2 As Variant  As Variant  Dim arrToReturn   As Variant  myCollection As New Collection  For Each x In arr1  myCollection Add x  Next  For Each y In arr2  myCollection Add y  Next   ReDim arrToReturn 1 To myCollection Count   For i   1 To myCollection Count  arrToReturn i    myCollection Item i   Next  joinArrays   arrToReturn End Function

User · Answer

Unfortunately  the Array type in VB6 didn t have all that many razzmatazz features  You are pretty much going to have to just iterate through the arrays and insert them manually into the third  Assuming both arrays are of the same length  Dim arr1   As Variant Dim arr2   As Variant Dim arr3   As Variant  arr1     Array  A   1   B   2  arr2     Array  C   3   D   4   ReDim arr3 UBound arr1    UBound arr2    1   Dim i As Integer For i   0 To UBound arr1      arr3 i   2    arr1 i      arr3 i   2   1    arr2 i  Next i   Updated  Fixed the code  Sorry about the previous buggy version  Took me a few minutes to get access to a VB6 compiler to check it

User · Answer

This function will do as JohnFx suggested and allow for varied lengths on the arrays  Function mergeArrays ByVal arr1 As Variant  ByVal arr2 As Variant  As Variant     Dim holdarr As Variant     Dim ub1 As Long     Dim ub2 As Long     Dim bi As Long     Dim i As Long     Dim newind As Long          ub1   UBound arr1    1         ub2   UBound arr2    1          bi   IIf ub1  gt   ub2  ub1  ub2           ReDim holdarr ub1   ub2 - 1           For i   0 To bi             If i  lt  ub1 Then                 holdarr newind    arr1 i                  newind   newind   1             End If              If i  lt  ub2 Then                 holdarr newind    arr2 i                  newind   newind   1             End If         Next i          mergeArrays   holdarr End Function

User · Answer

It work if Lbound is different than 0 or 1  You Redim once at start  Function MergeArrays ByRef arr1 As Variant  ByRef arr2 As Variant  As Variant   Test if not isarray then exit If Not IsArray arr1  And Not IsArray arr2  Then Exit Function  Dim arr As Variant Dim a As Long  b As Long  index Array Dim len1 As Long  len2 As Long  nb of item   get len if array don t start to 0 len1   UBound arr1  - LBound arr1    1 len2   UBound arr2  - LBound arr2    1  b   1  position of start index  dim new array ReDim arr b To len1   len2   merge arr1 For a   LBound arr1  To UBound arr1      arr b    arr1 a             b   b   1  move index Next a  merge arr2 For a   LBound arr2  To UBound arr2      arr b    arr2 a      b   b   1  move index Next a   final MergeArrays   arr  End Function

User · Answer

Unfortunately there is no way to append   merge   insert   delete elements in arrays using VBA without doing it element by element  different from many modern languages  like Java or Javascript    It s possible using split and join to do it  like a previous answer has showed  but it is a slow method and it is not generic   For my personal use   I ve implemented a splice functions for 1D arrays  similar to Javascript or Java  splice get an array and optionally delete  some elements from a given position and also optionally insert an array in that position                                                                                         Fill N1 N2     Create 1 dimension array with values from N1 to N2 step 1                                                                Function Fill N1 As Long  N2 As Long  As Variant Dim Arr As Variant If N2  lt  N1 Then   Fill   False   Exit Function End If Fill   WorksheetFunction Transpose            Evaluate  Row    amp  N1  amp       amp  N2  amp        End Function                                                                                                   Slice AArray   N1 N2      Slice an array between indices N1 to N2                                                                          Function Slice VArray As Variant  Optional N1 As Long   1                  Optional N2 As Long   0  As Variant Dim Indices As Variant If N2   0 Then N2   UBound VArray  If N1   LBound VArray  And N2   UBound VArray  Then    Slice   VArray Else   Indices   Fill N1  N2    Slice   WorksheetFunction Index VArray  1  Indices  End If End Function                                                                      AddArr V1 V2   V3      Concatena 2 ou 3 vetores                                                     Function AddArr V1 As Variant  V2 As Variant     Optional V3 As Variant   0  Optional Sep        As Variant Dim Arr As Variant Dim Ini As Integer Dim N As Long  K As Long  I As Integer   Arr   V1   Ini   UBound Arr    N   UBound V1  - LBound V1    1   UBound V2  - LBound V2    1   ReDim Preserve Arr N    K   0   For I   LBound V2  To UBound V2      K   K   1     Arr Ini   K    V2 I    Next I If IsArray V3  Then   Ini   UBound Arr    N   UBound Arr  - LBound Arr    1   UBound V3  - LBound V3    1   ReDim Preserve Arr N    K   0   For I   LBound V3  To UBound V3      K   K   1     Arr Ini   K    V3 I    Next I End If AddArr   Arr End Function                                                                                                    Slice AArray Ind    NElme  Vet       Delete NELEM  default 0  element from position IND in VARRAY    and optionally insert an array VET in that postion                                                                          Function Splice VArray As Variant  Ind As Long     Optional NElem As Long   0  Optional Vet As Variant   0  As Variant Dim V1  V2 If Ind  lt  LBound VArray  Or Ind  gt  UBound VArray  Or NElem  lt  0 Then   Splice   False   Exit Function End If V2   Slice VArray  Ind   NElem  UBound VArray   If Ind  gt  LBound VArray  Then   V1   Slice VArray  LBound VArray   Ind - 1    If IsArray Vet  Then      Splice   AddArr V1  Vet  V2    Else      Splice   AddArr V1  V2    End If Else   If IsArray Vet  Then      Splice   AddArr Vet  V2    Else      Splice   V2   End If End If  End Function   For testing  Sub TestSplice   Dim V  Res Dim J As Integer V   Fill 100  109  Res   Splice V  2  2  Array 201  202   PrintArr  Res  End Sub                                                                       PrintArr VArr     Print the array VARR                                                     Function PrintArr VArray As Variant  Dim S As String S   Join VArray        MsgBox  S  End Function   Results in  100 201 202 103 104 105 106 107 108 109

User · Answer

Following the  johannes solution  but merging without loosing data  it was missing first elements        Function mergeArrays ByRef arr1   As Variant  arr2   As Variant  As Variant      Dim returnThis   As Variant     Dim len1 As Integer  len2 As Integer  lenRe As Integer  counter As Integer     len1   UBound arr1      len2   UBound arr2      lenRe   len1   len2   1     ReDim returnThis 0 To lenRe      counter   0      For counter   0 To len1  get first array in returnThis         returnThis counter    arr1 counter      Next       For counter   0 To len2  get the second array in returnThis         returnThis counter   len1   1    arr2 counter      Next mergeArrays   returnThis End Function

[arrays] How do I Merge two Arrays in VBA?

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