finding a value in an array

Hi.
does anybody know if there is a quick way to find which value in an array occurs most frequently ?

For example if I had a list of first names assigned to
strName()

and I wanted to know which name came up most often in the list, how could i do that efficiently?

I know that if I use a couple of for next loops, i can make a very slow one.

Any ideas?


Along these lines, is there a way to use code like InStr to search through an array without a loop?

try this:

Code:

---

Dim inxFound() As Integer
Dim strNames(40) As String

Function SearchArray(SearchString As String)
Dim foundCount As Integer
Counter = 0
foundCount = 0
inxcount = 5
ReDim inxFound(inxcount)
For Each Item In strNames
If Item = SearchString Then
inxFound(foundCount) = Counter
foundCount = foundCount + 1
End If
Counter = Counter + 1
If foundCount = inxcount + 1 Then
inxcount = inxcount + 5
ReDim inxFound(inxcount)
End If
Next Item
End Function

---

this only searches the values, you will have to write something else for determining which value occurs most,

Hi. Thanks guys. This is what I'm using for now. It isn't terribly slow.

The idea is to find the ten most frequently occurring directors in a long list of movies. I used a "backup" set of arrays so that I could destroy them in the process.


For intTimes = 1 To 10
intTopDirMovies(intTimes) = 0
For intCount = 0 To intNumRecords
intNumMovies(intCount) = 0
For x = 0 To intNumRecords
If strDirector(intCount) <> "" And strDirector(intCount) = strDirector(x) Then intNumMovies(intCount) = intNumMovies(intCount) + 1
Next x
If intNumMovies(intCount) > intTopDirMovies(intTimes) Then
strTopDirector(intTimes) = strDirector(intCount)
intTopDirMovies(intTimes) = intNumMovies(intCount)
End If
Next intCount
For x = 0 To intNumRecords
If strDirector(x) = strTopDirector(intTimes) Then strDirector(x) = ""
Next x
Next intTimes

you can put your code inside code footers by this:
[code] to end it: [/code]