Common Programming Pattern References

Does anyone know a resource for programming patterns, beginner level.

The project I'm working on loops through an Excel list and builds Word documents from the list. Some of these items need to be combined into one item and placed on the same Word doc. So I have to store the previous item and compare with the next item. Lucky for me that the items that need combining are one after the other on this list. So that would be another problem, what if they weren't one after the other? I sure I could come up with some long, nested if statement or something, but I'm sure there's a better way.

Is programming patterns the right term? Resources?

For each Item found

Code:

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Dim TempVar As string

'Do your loop
  'other code to find Item
  If Not CBool(Instr(TempVar, Item)) Then TempVar = TempVar & ", " & Item
'end your loop

'Clean up TempVar leading comma space.
TempVar = Mid(TempVar, 3)

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Skeleton of approach

Didn't do anything actually using Word, but you can see where you'd include your code

Code:

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Option Explicit


Sub List2Word()
    Dim rList As Range, rList1 As Range
    Dim i As Long, j As Long
    Dim sPretendWordDoc As String
    Dim aryList As Variant, v As Variant
   
    'sort inputs
    With ActiveSheet
        Set rList = .Range("A1").CurrentRegion
        Set rList1 = rList.Cells(2, 1).Resize(rList.Rows.Count - 1, rList.Columns.Count)


       
        With .Sort
            .SortFields.Clear
            .SortFields.Add Key:=rList1, SortOn:=xlSortOnValues, Order:=xlAscending, DataOption:=xlSortNormal
       
            .SetRange rList
            .Header = xlYes
            .MatchCase = False
            .Orientation = xlTopToBottom
            .SortMethod = xlPinYin
            .Apply
        End With
    End With
   
    'make into array
    aryList = Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(rList.Columns(1))
   
    'combine same values
    For i = UBound(aryList) To LBound(aryList) + 1 Step -1
        If aryList(i) = aryList(i - 1) Then
            aryList(i - 1) = aryList(i - 1) & Chr(1) & aryList(i)  '  Chr(1) is just marker
            aryList(i) = Empty
        End If
    Next i
       
    'do wonderful stuff with MS Word
    For i = LBound(aryList) + 1 To UBound(aryList)
        If Not IsEmpty(aryList(i)) Then
           
            sPretendWordDoc = "The Word doc will use ... " & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
           
            v = Split(aryList(i), Chr(1))
            For j = LBound(v) To UBound(v)
                sPretendWordDoc = sPretendWordDoc & vbTab & v(j) & vbCrLf
            Next j


            MsgBox sPretendWordDoc
        End If
    Next i


End Sub

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Thanks Sam and Paul for the examples.

Does it make any sense to create 2 classes and create objects for every item(they are unique) and create objects for each location(if not already created). If they used a few of the same properties then they would have a relationship, and the logic would be easier? I dont know. what do you think.


Loop....

dim i as string
i = element.offset(0,2)
dim i as new myItem
with i
.type
.location
.section
end with

dim x as string
x= element.offset(0,5)
dim x as new myLocations
with x
. location
. section
. etc....
end with

Would something like this work?

Quote:

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Does it make any sense to create 2 classes and create objects for every item(they are unique) and create objects for each location(if not already created). If they used a few of the same properties then they would have a relationship, and the logic would be easier? I don't know. What do you think.

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Well ... IMHO, unless I'm majorly misunderstanding what you want to to, it seems like a over complication.

It's not hard to use CreateObject to make an instance of Word, and then create - update - save documents as required

I'm now totally confused.
Please upload (Use the Advanced button) a sheet with a few "Items" on it.