Remove an Element from an Array

The RemoveElement function checks each element in an array for a target value. If the target value is found, that item is removed from the array.

How It Works

This function requires an array and target search value. The function loops through each element in the array and compares the value to the search string. If the values do not match, the element is added to a temporary array. If the values do match, it is skipped and thus not included in the array. After all elements are checked, the temporary array is returned with all references to the target search value removed.

Implementation

This function requires two parametersan array of values and the search value.

Function RemoveElement (varFromList As Variant, varTarget As Variant) As Variant

 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 ' Removes an element from an array.
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Redim ReturnArray(0) As Variant
 Dim i As Integer
 i = 0

 Forall varElement In varFromList
 Redim Preserve ReturnArray (i) As Variant
 If varElement <> varTarget Then
 ReturnArray(i) = varElement
 i = i + 1
 End If
 End Forall

 RemoveElement = ReturnArray

End Function

The following illustrates how the function could be called from an action button. In this example, the name "Tom" is removed from the array theTeam (see Figure 13.3). After the function call, the returned array will contain "Henry", "Mark", and "Steve".

Sub Click(Source As Button)

 Dim newTeam As Variant
 Dim theTeam (0 To 3) As String
 theTeam (0) = "Tom"
 theTeam (1) = "Henry"
 theTeam (2) = "Mark"
 theTeam (3) = "Steve"
 Msgbox Implode ( theTeam, ", "), , "Original Team"
 newTeam = removeElement ( theTeam, "Tom" )
 Msgbox Implode (newTeam, ", "), , "New Team"

End Sub

Figure 13.3. Remove an element from an array

Compare Two Arrays