PRB: "Object not a Collection" Trying to Read Array Element (129871)

SYMPTOMS

If a public member of a class of type variant is assigned an array, you get the following error message when trying to read an element of the array by directly indexing the variant member:

Object not a Collection.

This happens only if the instance of the class object is late bound; that is, the instance is dimensioned "As Object."

RESOLUTION

Dimension the object instance as being of the exact type of the class, so that it is Early Bound. -or-
Index the variant member with another level of parenthesis. For example, in the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior" section of this article, use:
```
      Debug.Print x.arr()(0)
						
```
Instead of:
```
      Debug.Print x.arr(0)
						
```
This explicitly specifies that the variant holds an array.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
Choose Module from the Insert menu to add a new standard module (Module1)

Add the following code to Module1:

      Sub main()
         Dim a(2) As Integer
         a(0) = 5

         Dim x As Object
         Set x = New Class1

         x.arr = a
         Debug.Print x.arr(0)
      End Sub

Choose Class Module from the Insert menu to add a new class module (Class1).
Add the following code to Class1:
```
      Public arr As Variant
						
```
Press the F5 key to run the program. You will get the error message on the Debug.Print line.

Example Workaround

To work around the behavior, declare the object with a specific object type instead of Object. In Step 3 above, replace:

   Dim x As Object

with:

   Dim x As New Class1

Then change the Set statement into a comment. After making these changes, run the program again. You should see a value of 5 in the Debug Window.