How to work with Dictionaries using scripting.dictionary object in QTP

Dictionary Object stores data key, item pairs. Each item is associated with a unique key.The key is used to retrieve an individual item and is usually a integer or a string, but can be anything except an array.

Creating a dictionary object:

We can create an instance of dictionary object as shown below:
Set odict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
odict.add "country", "India"
odict.add "Capital", "Delhi"  
 
We have created a dictionary object odict, and added 2 key item collection in the dictionary object.
 

Below are the methods of dictionary object:

1.  Add Method - Adds a key and item pair to a Dictionary object.

odict.add "Currency", "Rupee" 

2.  Exists Method - Returns true if a specified key exists in the Dictionary object, false if it does not.

odict.exists(“country”) will return true  for dictionary defined in above examples.

3.  Items Method - Returns an array containing all the items in a Dictionary object.aite = odict.items(“country”)

4.  Keys Method - Returns an array containing all existing keys in a Dictionary object.aite = odict.keys(1)

5.  Remove Method - Removes a key, item pair from a Dictionary object.odict.remove("Currency")

6. RemoveAll Method - The RemoveAll method removes all key, item pairs from a Dictionary object.odict.removeAll()

Properties of Dictionary object

1. Count Property - Returns the number of items in a collection or Dictionary object.Intcount = odict.count

2. Item Property - Sets or returns an item for a specified key in a Dictionary object. For collections, returns an item based on the specified key.ItemVal = odict.Item("Capital")   - gets value of the keyodict.Item("Capital") = “MUMBAI” – sets value of  the key.

3. Key Property - Sets a key in a Dictionary object.odict.Key("Capital") = "City"odict.item(“City”) will now give value of item stored in key Capital before. 

Comparing Dictionaries Vs Arrays

Below is the comparison between array and dictionary objects

•  Dictionary  has methods to add new items and check for existing items.
•  On Deleting a particular item from a dictionary, all the subsequent items automatically shift up.
• You use keys to identify dictionary items. Keys can be any data type while arrays have numeric values as key
•  A dictionary can't be multidimensional while array can be.
•  It is much easier to find an item value based on keys as compared to arrays.
•  Keys in Dictionary can have unique values only
•  Dictionary can be used as Global variable declaration. so that any test can access the values from it in the run time. Will discuss this in detail in a separate post.