bubble sorting a dictionary object ?

I have a dictionary consisting of an array of words as the keys and the number of occurences of each word as the items. I want sort this dictionary by number of occurences of each key, in descending order, so that I may be able to take the top 20 most used words. I want to use a bubble sort but I seem to be having trouble passing my dictionary to the sort function. Here is some of my code...

VB Code:

dict = bubble_sort(dict.items)
 
Private Function bubble_sort(dict)
Dim i As Long, n As Long, tempN As Long, allOk As Boolean
For n = 0 To UBound(dict)
   allOk = True 
   For i = 0 To UBound(dict) - 1
   If dict(i) > dict(i + 1) Then
       allOk = False
       tempN = dict(i)
       dict(i) = dict(i + 1)
       dict(i + 1) = tempN 
   End If    Next
   If allOk Then Exit For
Next 
End Function

What do I appear to be doing incorrectly?

1. To Format your posts use [vbcode*] [/vbcode*] tags around the whole of the code (without the *s)

2 Change your function back to

Private Function bubble_sort(arrInt) or replace all mentions of arrInt with dict within that procedure!

3. Pass it an array NOT an object - So in your case the first step would be to Bubble_Sort(Dict.Items)

OK. But it appears that I am losing the sort when I leave my sort function. I don't think I am passing my parameters (dictionary) correctly. Any ideas?

Is it even possible to sort\re-order a dictionary object like this? I have to have tried a hundred different things and as of yet unable to accomplish this?

.

try to return a dict obj :

VB Code:

Dim dict as variant ()
 
dict = bubble_sort(dict.items)
 
Private Function bubble_sort(dict2 as Variant()) As Variant ()
Dim i As Long, n As Long, tempN As Long, allOk As Boolean
For n = 0 To UBound(dict2)
   allOk = True 
   For i = 0 To UBound(dict2) - 1
   If dict2(i) > dict2(i + 1) Then
       allOk = False
       tempN = dict2(i)
       dict2(i) = dict2(i + 1)
       dict2(i + 1) = tempN 
   End If    Next
   If allOk Then Exit For 
Next 
bubble_sort = dict2
End Function

try it in that fashion

Still not functioning correctly. It is only returning the sorted occurences. It does not sort the occurences with thier respective word.

if your dict.items is only the occurences, the function will only sort the occurences then. Include the words in the array.

You could use a multidimensional as follows :

Dim MyArray(20,1) as variant

You fill the array with the occurances in the first and the corresponding word in the second.

Sort this array with the function.

Duhhh..Of course. Yes, you are right. I should have thought of that first thing. Thanks for the wake up call!