Name
Dictionary.Item Property
Syntax
The syntax for setting an item is:
dictionaryobject
.Item(key
) =item
The syntax for returning an item is:
value
=dictionaryobject
.Item(key
)
dictionaryobject
Use: Required
Data Type: Dictionary object
A reference to a Dictionary object.
key
Use: Required
Data Type: String
A unique string key for this Dictionary object.
item
Use: Optional
Data Type: Any
The data associated with
key
.
Data Type
Any
Description
Sets or returns the data item to be linked to a specified key in a Dictionary object.
Rules at a Glance
The Item property is the default member of the Dictionary object.
The data type is that of the item being returned.
Unlike the Item property of most objects, the Dictionary object’s Item property is read/write. If you try to set
item
to a nonexistent key, the key is added to the dictionary, and the item is linked to it as a sort of “implicit add.”
Programming Tips and Gotchas
The Dictionary object doesn’t allow you to retrieve an item by its ordinal position.
If you provide a nonexistent key when trying to retrieve an item, the dictionary exhibits rather strange behavior: it adds
key
to the Dictionary object along with a blank item. You should therefore use the Exists method prior to setting or returning an item, as the example shows.If the item to be assigned or retrieved from the Dictionary object is itself an object, be sure to use the
Set
keyword when assigning it to a variable or to the Dictionary object.The comparison of
key
with member keys is defined by the ...
Get VBScript in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.