Lastly, adding, deleting items in an array is difficult but an arraylist provides methods for adding, deleting and inserting items. Two different types of data can be stored in the arraylist. Members/ data of arraylist can be accessed using integer indexes. It is a flexible list that can be resized dynamically unlike the arrays in C++. If you delete an item in an array, it keeps that position empty, whereas in an arraylist that position is occupied by the next element. Arraylist is a collection that is used to store different types of data. This article attempts to explain them with very basic examples once you go through this article I hope the next time you will feel a little more comfortable deciding what to choose and why. Difference between arraylist and list collection. Array elements are accessed using a single name and an index number representing the position of the element within the array.

The values in an array are called array elements. Traversing the data in the ararylist can be done by using for.each loop or using enumerators or using indexers. Array, ArrayList, List and Dictionary all represent a collection of data but each is designed to satisfy different requirements. An array is a collection of values of the same data type. ToArray is usefulit is not the same as the ToArray extension from System.Linq. With it we get an Object array from an ArrayList. Or sometimes your code has been working for. This is possible with the ToArray Function. You may encounter the VB Run-time Error -2146232576 Automation Error when trying to get the ArrayList to work. In a single Arraylist we can store any data type - integer, string and any type of object inherited from System.Object.īriefly, an array contains one datatype whereas arraylist can contain many data types, the data in an array is accessed by indexes. An ArrayList can be converted to an array. And ArrayList stores any type of data inherited from System.Object.

We can add, insert and delete items into an ArrayList very easily. ReDim Preserve myarray(Ubound(myArray + 1)ĪrrayList is similar to an array but grows automatically as the number of items are added to the arrayList. Basic differences are: Array is static - once created you can not change the size of Array.

Visual basic array vs arraylist