problem reading in records

I am trying to read in a file and sort it with sort merge. I have this so far, but it gives me a object not set to instance of object error.
Im new to vb and probably doing something dumb any help you could give me would be very helpful thanx


Dim intfilenumber1, intfilenumber2 As Integer
Dim array As ArrayList
Dim index As Integer = 0
Dim record1 As record


TextBox1.Clear()
TextBox1.Text = count

'Open the file for read
intfilenumber1 = FreeFile()
FileOpen(intfilenumber1, "C:\file.txt", OpenMode.Input, OpenAccess.Read)
Do While Not (EOF(intfilenumber1))
'read in one record
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.intaccountnum)
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.strlastname)
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.strfirstname)
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.strmiddle)
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.balance)
Input(intfilenumber1, record1.dtdate)
'put in array
error here-> array.Add(record1)
Loop
FileClose(intfilenumber1)
MergeSort(array, 0, array.Count - 1)
'open for write
intfilenumber2 = FreeFile()
FileOpen(intfilenumber2, "C:\newfile.txt", OpenMode.Output)
'write sorted file
FileClose(intfilenumber2)
End Sub

First: Why dont you use System.IO classes and members?
Second: You shoud use

VB Code:

Dim array as New ArrayList