I have a dictionary and I am trying to trim it down to the N smallest
items. For example, myDict usually contains around 3500 to 5500 items,
and I only want the smallest 10 (usually). The code I'm using now is :

'// loop, removing largest distance until we're down to the number of
points we want
Do Until myDict.Count = N
maxDist = -1
For Each i In myDict.Keys
If myDict.Item(i) maxDist Then
maxDist = myDict.Item(i)
mx = i
End If
Next i
myDict.Remove mx
Loop

The problem is that this is super slow; it loops through thousands of
times, and this snippet of code is used thousands of times too. Is
there a faster way to get the smallest N items?

'This loads the 5 smallest numbers from a dictionary object
'back into the dictionary.
'--
Sub MakeSmaller()
'Jim Cone - Portland, Oregon USA - Oct 2008
Dim dic As Scripting.Dictionary
Dim N As Long
Dim M As Long
Dim howMany As Long
Dim arr As Variant

Set dic = New Scripting.Dictionary
'Desired size of dictionary
howMany = 5

'Load dictionary with 500 random numbers
Randomize
For N = 1 To 500
M = Int(555555 * Rnd + 5000)
dic.Add N, M
Next

'Store all random numbers from dictionary in variant array.
arr = dic.Items
dic.RemoveAll

'Reload the dictionary with the "howmany" smallest numbers.
For N = 0 To howMany - 1
M = Application.Small(arr, N + 1)
dic.Add N, M
'Used for testing
MsgBox dic.Items(dic.Count - 1)
Next
Set dic = Nothing
End Sub
--
Jim Cone
Portland, Oregon USA


"Nick"
wrote in message
I have a dictionary and I am trying to trim it down to the N smallest
items. For example, myDict usually contains around 3500 to 5500 items,
and I only want the smallest 10 (usually). The code I'm using now is :

'// loop, removing largest distance until we're down to the number of
points we want
Do Until myDict.Count = N
maxDist = -1
For Each i In myDict.Keys
If myDict.Item(i) maxDist Then
maxDist = myDict.Item(i)
mx = i
End If
Next i
myDict.Remove mx
Loop

The problem is that this is super slow; it loops through thousands of
times, and this snippet of code is used thousands of times too. Is
there a faster way to get the smallest N items?

On Oct 21, 6:26*pm, "Jim Cone" wrote:
'This loads the 5 smallest numbers from a dictionary object
'back into the dictionary.
'--
Sub MakeSmaller()
'Jim Cone - Portland, Oregon USA - Oct 2008
Dim dic As Scripting.Dictionary
Dim N As Long
Dim M As Long
Dim howMany As Long
Dim arr As Variant

*Set dic = New Scripting.Dictionary
'Desired size of dictionary
*howMany = 5

'Load dictionary with 500 random numbers
*Randomize
*For N = 1 To 500
* * *M = Int(555555 * Rnd + 5000)
* * *dic.Add N, M
*Next

'Store all random numbers from dictionary in variant array.
*arr = dic.Items
*dic.RemoveAll

'Reload the dictionary with the "howmany" smallest numbers.
*For N = 0 To howMany - 1
* * *M = Application.Small(arr, N + 1)
* * *dic.Add N, M
* * 'Used for testing
* * *MsgBox dic.Items(dic.Count - 1)
*Next
*Set dic = Nothing
End Sub
--
Jim Cone
Portland, Oregon *USA


Thanks Jim, but that doesn't totally solve my problem.
For exmaple, say I have a dictionary and I want only the 3 smallest
Key Item
1 9
2 8
3 4
4 2
5 12
6 1
7 7
8 7

Your code would result in:
Key Item
0 1
1 2
2 4

When what I want is
Key Item
6 1
4 2
3 4

Your question was: "Is there a faster way to get the smallest N items?"
Since you want both items and keys an approach you could try is...

Lay both the items and keys arrays into adjoining blank columns on a worksheet.
Sort both columns by the items column.
Extract the items and keys from the first N rows.
--
Jim Cone
Portland, Oregon USA



"Nick"
wrote in message
Thanks Jim, but that doesn't totally solve my problem.
For exmaple, say I have a dictionary and I want only the 3 smallest
Key Item
1 9
2 8
3 4
4 2
5 12
6 1
7 7
8 7

Your code would result in:
Key Item
0 1
1 2
2 4

When what I want is
Key Item
6 1
4 2
3 4