Thread: Is the debugger lying to me?

I have a class, "OB3Slide", which has a sub "addText(sText as String)".

Dim x as new OB3Slide
dim sTemp as string
sTemp = extractText(oShape)
x.addText sTemp

The debugger stops with the entire last line highlighted in yellow, and the error:

Runtime error '438' Object doesn't support this property or method

If I then press F8, it immediately steps into the 'addText' sub which works perfectly fine. But it interrupts the program to tell me what appears to be a non-error.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this?

It might be the code that is in the addText sub, can you post this? The debugger will not highlight errors in custom classes.

This doesn't look right:

err:
    ReDim theArray(0)
    theArray(0) = New OB3Slide
    Set theArray(0) = theValue
End Sub

shouldn't it be:

err:
    ReDim theArray(0)
    Set theArray(0) = New OB3Slide
    Set theArray(0) = theValue
End Sub

Though I don't know what you are doing

I don't know anything about class modules but is it acceptable to have a subroutine which is the same as a VBA reserved word? The Add method is defined in the VBA Help as:

Add Method (Visual Basic for Applications)

Adds a member to a Collection object.

Syntax

object.Add item, key, before, after

Regards, TMS

It's generally not a good idea, though it raises the question of why you aren't using a collection anyway MoochooPork. Seems like it may be a better object for you as you don't need to redim preserve

I doubt it is related to the issue in hand, but it is not good practice to use Dim ... As New ... in my opinion. Declare in one line and initialise explicitly when you want to create the object.
Just my 2c.

PS As regards the class, you can call the routines whatever you like really (subject to naming rules): since you will need to call them as methods of the object in question, there is no confusion for the compiler. In many ways it is good practice to use the sort of syntax that people are familiar with - such as using Add if you have created your own collection class, as an example.

Yep, you should initialise it separately as above you can then check where it is initialise, you can't if you create it at the beginning of the code (because it is created then)

Wow thanks guys! I'm most experienced with C-family languages and while I spent a lot of time in VB6 back in the day, I've done bugger-all VBA and I find it the most different language I've come across (it's been about 13 years since I touched VB).

I'm essentially trying to loop through all the Slides in a PPT presentation, then loop through all the Shapes on the Slide, and create an instance of my class using the information derived from the Shapes.

I would have expected this to work:

Dim oOB3Slides() as OB3Slide
Dim oThisSlide as OB3Slide

For each oSlide in ActivePresentation.Slides
    set oThisSlide = new OB3Slide
    For Each oShape in oSlide.Shapes
        ... set oThisSlide's properties ...
    next oShape
    ... add oThisSlide to oOB3Slides ...
next oSlide

but VBA doesnt seem to create a NEW OB3Slide each time, it keeps the old one. It doesn't matter if I put the "Dim oSlide as OB3Slide" line before the loop, or "Dim oSlide as new OB3Slide" inside the first loop. It's damn annoying, and goes against everything I've learnt about programming... guess that's what you get for using a non-OO language. I wish MS would give us something better than VB6 to use behind Office.

Kyle123: Thanks for pointing out the missing "set", but it didnt change a thing However, I'll now go and change my array to a collection - I wasn't aware such a thing existed.

TMShucks: Scope will determine when VBA will use the Collection.Add() method versus my Module1.add() method.

Thank you all very much

I cannot see how that code would run or compile since you are trying to use an array as a Collection (arrays do not have methods such as Add).

In the code you just posted

    oOB3Slides.add(oThisSlide)

but oOB3Slides is an array.

From what it looks like you're doing, you want something like:

Sub kyle()

Dim oThisSlide As Slide
Dim oShape As PowerPoint.Shape
Dim oOB3Slides As Collection
Dim oCustom As oOB3Slide
Dim x As Integer

Set oOB3Slides = New Collection

For Each oThisSlide In ActivePresentation.Slides
    For Each oShape In oThisSlide.Shapes
        Set oCustom = New oOB3Slide
            With oShape
                oCustom.Something = .TextFrame.TextRange.Text
                'assign other stuff to the class
            End With
        oOB3Slides.Add oCustom
    Next oShape
Next oThisSlide

For x = 1 To oOB3Slides.Count
    Debug.Print oOB3Slides(x).Something
Next x

End Sub

The collection will then hold that instance of the class, leaving you to create a new instance in each iteration