array in a class - object reference not set to an instance

[lamy]

im trying to make a class with an array object in it but somehow reference is lost whenever i add a new item to it

 

   Public Class MyMenu
       Public parent()() As String
       Public Function AddParent(ByVal title As String, ByVal link As String) As Int16
           Dim id As Int16 = 0
           If Not parent Is Nothing Then
               id = parent.Length
           End If

           ReDim parent(id)

           parent(id) = New String() {title, link}

           Return id
       End Function
   End Class

 

doing this works

       Dim id As Int16

       id = m.AddParent("1", "1.htm")
       MsgBox(m.parent(0)(1))
       id = m.AddParent("2", "2.htm")
       MsgBox(m.parent(1)(1))
       id = m.AddParent("3", "3.htm")
       MsgBox(m.parent(2)(1))

but this doesnt

 

       Dim id As Int16

       id = m.AddParent("1", "1.htm")
       id = m.AddParent("2", "2.htm")
       id = m.AddParent("3", "3.htm")
       MsgBox(m.parent(0)(1))
       MsgBox(m.parent(1)(1))
       MsgBox(m.parent(2)(1))

 

anyone?

[PlausiblyDamp]

You will probably need to use Redim Preserve parent(id) - otherwise it doesn't keep the array contents.

 

Also you might find the code cleaner if you create a class or structure to manage the pair of strings as a single item rather than creating an array of a string array.

Also you may want to look at using a collection class rather than an array as constantly redimming an array can cause unnecessary memory allocations / deallocations.