Problem when iterating through custom dictionary based collection with FOR...EACH...NEXT

[Martin Widmer]

Hi Folks.

When I iterate through my custom designed collection, I always get the
error:

"Unable to cast object of type 'System.Collections.DictionaryEntry' to type
'ContentObjects.ContentBlock'."

The error occurs at the "For...Each" line if this method:

Public Function GetContentBlock(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As ContentBlock
Dim oContentBlock As ContentBlock

For Each oContentBlock In Me.ContentBlocks
If oContentBlock.DBKey = nDBKey Then
Return oContentBlock
End If
Next
Return Nothing
End Function

And the collection class is built as follows:

Public Class ContentBlocksCollection
Inherits DictionaryBase
'Object variables for attributes
'Attributes
Default Public Property Item(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As ContentBlock
Get
Return MyBase.Dictionary.Item(nDBKey)
End Get
Set(ByVal value As ContentBlock)
MyBase.Dictionary.Item(nDBKey) = value
End Set
End Property
'Methods
Public Sub Add(ByVal oContentBlock As ContentBlock)
MyBase.Dictionary.Add(oContentBlock.DBKey, oContentBlock)
End Sub
Public Sub Remove(ByVal nDBKey As Long)
MyBase.Dictionary.Remove(nDBKey)
End Sub
Public Function Contains(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As Boolean
Return MyBase.Dictionary.Contains(nDBKey)
End Function
End Class

What am I doing wrong?

Martin

 

[Larry Lard]

Hi Folks.

When I iterate through my custom designed collection, I always get the
error:

"Unable to cast object of type 'System.Collections.DictionaryEntry' to type
'ContentObjects.ContentBlock'."

The error occurs at the "For...Each" line if this method:

When you For Each over a dictionary, what you are enumerating are not
the values, nor the keys, but the dictionary entries - each of which is
a key-value pair. To be specifc, quoting the docs for DictionaryBase:

The [For Each statement] requires the type of each element in the
collection. Since each element of the DictionaryBase is a key-and-value
pair, the element type is not the type of the key or the type of the
value. Instead, the element type is DictionaryEntry. For example:

[Visual Basic]
Dim myDE As DictionaryEntry
For Each myDE In myDictionary
...
Next myDE

Public Function GetContentBlock(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As ContentBlock
Dim oContentBlock As ContentBlock

For Each oContentBlock In Me.ContentBlocks
If oContentBlock.DBKey = nDBKey Then
Return oContentBlock
End If
Next
Return Nothing
End Function

I should say that here you appear to be duplicating the existing
functionality of the DictionaryBase - the point of a dictionary is to
be able to retrieve values given keys. Why can't you just say
ContentBlocks(nDBKey) ?

And the collection class is built as follows:

Public Class ContentBlocksCollection
Inherits DictionaryBase
'Object variables for attributes
'Attributes
Default Public Property Item(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As ContentBlock
Get
Return MyBase.Dictionary.Item(nDBKey)

This suggests you're running without Option Strict On. It's generally
recommended that Option Strict should always be On - the additional
typing sometimes required is more than outweighted by the strict type
safety granted.

End Get
Set(ByVal value As ContentBlock)
MyBase.Dictionary.Item(nDBKey) = value
End Set
End Property
'Methods
Public Sub Add(ByVal oContentBlock As ContentBlock)
MyBase.Dictionary.Add(oContentBlock.DBKey, oContentBlock)
End Sub
Public Sub Remove(ByVal nDBKey As Long)
MyBase.Dictionary.Remove(nDBKey)
End Sub
Public Function Contains(ByVal nDBKey As Long) As Boolean
Return MyBase.Dictionary.Contains(nDBKey)
End Function
End Class

I'm not sure what all the .Dictionary references add: you might just as
well say MyBase.Item, MyBase.Add and so on.