bubble sorting a dictionary object ?

[dani61265]

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...

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?

[MartinSmith]

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)

[dani61265]

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?

[dani61265]

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?

[dani61265]

.

[Wally Pipp]

try to return a dict obj :

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

[dani61265]

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

[Wally Pipp]

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.

[dani61265]

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