Strange nested dictionary behaviour

[DHS100]

Hi. I'm trying to check for the existance of nested dictionaries. It seems the very act of checking for them creates a new key?

Public Sub Test()
Dim dic As Dictionary
Set dic = New Dictionary

Debug.Print dic.Count 'Gives 0
On Error Resume Next
Debug.Print dic("test").Exists
Debug.Print dic.Count 'Gives 1?
End Sub

Is this meant to happen?

 

[Zot]

This is something new to me. If you try to display any non-existing key also like Debug.Print dic(1), the count added one more. If you loop the routine, the count will no more increases

 

[Fluff]

You're code is not checking for the existence of nested dictionaries, in fact it doesn't even work.
When you use dic("Test") it will automatically add the key "Test" if it doesn't already exist.

 

[DHS100]

You're code is not checking for the existence of nested dictionaries, in fact it doesn't even work.
When you use dic("Test") it will automatically add the key "Test" if it doesn't already exist.

I should have pointed out the code above is not the code that checks the nested dics, that is more like "If Not mDic(S(0))(S(1)).Exists(S(2)) Then". I was unaware that dictionaries had this aspect to them so was getting unexpected results in my old code. The code above was just to demonstrate.

 

[Fluff]

In order to ensure it doesn't add a new key you can use

Public Sub Test()
Dim dic As Object
Set dic = CreateObject("scripting.dictionary")

Debug.Print dic.count 'Gives 0
'On Error Resume Next
dic.Add "test", CreateObject("scripting.dictionary")
Debug.Print dic.Item("test").Exists("abc")
dic.Item("test").Add "abc", CreateObject("Scripting.dictionary")
Debug.Print dic.Item("test").Exists("abc")
Debug.Print dic.Item("test").Item("abc").Exists("xyz")
Debug.Print dic.count 'Gives 1?
End Sub