How do I determine if an array is initialized in VB6?

Passing an undimensioned array to the VB6's Ubound function will cause an error, so I want to check if it has been dimensioned yet before attempting to check its upper bound. How do I do this?

Solution 1:

Note: the code has been updated, the original version can be found in the revision history (not that it is useful to find it). The updated code does not depend on the undocumented GetMem4 function and correctly handles arrays of all types.

Note for VBA users: This code is for VB6 which never got an x64 update. If you intend to use this code for VBA, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/32539884/11683 for the VBA version. You will only need to take the CopyMemory declaration and the pArrPtr function, leaving the rest.

I use this:

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
(ByRef Destination As Any, ByRef Source As Any, ByVal length As Long)

Private Const VT_BYREF As Long = &H4000&

' When declared in this way, the passed array is wrapped in a Variant/ByRef. It is not copied.
' Returns *SAFEARRAY, not **SAFEARRAY
Public Function pArrPtr(ByRef arr As Variant) As Long
  'VarType lies to you, hiding important differences. Manual VarType here.
  Dim vt As Integer
  CopyMemory ByVal VarPtr(vt), ByVal VarPtr(arr), Len(vt)

  If (vt And vbArray) <> vbArray Then
    Err.Raise 5, , "Variant must contain an array"
  End If

  'see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms221627%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
  If (vt And VT_BYREF) = VT_BYREF Then
    'By-ref variant array. Contains **pparray at offset 8
    CopyMemory ByVal VarPtr(pArrPtr), ByVal VarPtr(arr) + 8, Len(pArrPtr)  'pArrPtr = arr->pparray;
    CopyMemory ByVal VarPtr(pArrPtr), ByVal pArrPtr, Len(pArrPtr)          'pArrPtr = *pArrPtr;
  Else
    'Non-by-ref variant array. Contains *parray at offset 8
    CopyMemory ByVal VarPtr(pArrPtr), ByVal VarPtr(arr) + 8, Len(pArrPtr)  'pArrPtr = arr->parray;
  End If
End Function

Public Function ArrayExists(ByRef arr As Variant) As Boolean
  ArrayExists = pArrPtr(arr) <> 0
End Function

Usage:

? ArrayExists(someArray)

Your code seems to do the same (testing for SAFEARRAY** being NULL), but in a way which I would consider a compiler bug :)

Solution 2:

I just thought of this one. Simple enough, no API calls needed. Any problems with it?

Public Function IsArrayInitialized(arr) As Boolean

  Dim rv As Long

  On Error Resume Next

  rv = UBound(arr)
  IsArrayInitialized = (Err.Number = 0)

End Function

Edit: I did discover a flaw with this related to the behavior of the Split function (actually I'd call it a flaw in the Split function). Take this example:

Dim arr() As String

arr = Split(vbNullString, ",")
Debug.Print UBound(arr)

What is the value of Ubound(arr) at this point? It's -1! So, passing this array to this IsArrayInitialized function would return true, but attempting to access arr(0) would cause a subscript out of range error.

Solution 3:

Here's what I went with. This is similar to GSerg's answer, but uses the better documented CopyMemory API function and is entirely self-contained (you can just pass the array rather than ArrPtr(array) to this function). It does use the VarPtr function, which Microsoft warns against, but this is an XP-only app, and it works, so I'm not concerned.

Yes, I know this function will accept anything you throw at it, but I'll leave the error checking as an exercise for the reader.

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
  (pDst As Any, pSrc As Any, ByVal ByteLen As Long)

Public Function ArrayIsInitialized(arr) As Boolean

  Dim memVal As Long

  CopyMemory memVal, ByVal VarPtr(arr) + 8, ByVal 4 'get pointer to array
  CopyMemory memVal, ByVal memVal, ByVal 4  'see if it points to an address...  
  ArrayIsInitialized = (memVal <> 0)        '...if it does, array is intialized

End Function

Solution 4:

I found this:

Dim someArray() As Integer

If ((Not someArray) = -1) Then
  Debug.Print "this array is NOT initialized"
End If

Edit: RS Conley pointed out in his answer that (Not someArray) will sometimes return 0, so you have to use ((Not someArray) = -1).

Solution 5:

Both methods by GSerg and Raven are undocumented hacks but since Visual BASIC 6 is no longer being developed then it is not a issue. However Raven's example doesn't work on all machines. You have to test like this.

If (Not someArray) = -1 Then

On some machines it will return a zero on others some large negative number.