Binaryworld - CombSort - A compact routine that sorts data in place ... [ VB -> Datastructure ]

' return the list of US States and their abbreviations
'
' returns a bi-dimensional array organized in this way
'     res(n, 0) holds the state's name
'     res(n, 1) holds the state's abbreviation
' the array is sorted on states' names
'
' Example: load the states' names and abbreviations in a combobox
'     Dim st() As String, i As Integer
'     st() = GetUSStates()
'     For i = 0 To UBound(st)
'       Combo1.AddItem st(i, 1) & vbTab & st(i, 0)
'     Next

Function GetUSStates() As String()
  Dim temp() As String
  Dim states(0 To 49, 0 To 1) As String
  Dim i As Integer

  ' semi-colon delimited list of US states
  ' note that it can't be longer than 10 lines
  Const STATES_LIST = "Alabama;AL;Alaska;AK;Arizona;AZ;Arkansas;AR;California;" _
    & "CA;" & "Colorado;CO;Connecticut;CT;Delaware;DE;Florida;FL;Georgia;GA;" _
    & "" & "Hawaii;HI;Idaho;ID;Illinois;IL;Indiana;IN;Iowa;IA;" & _
    "Kansas;KS;Kentucky;KY;Louisiana;LA;Maine;ME;Maryland;MD;" & _
    "Massachusetts;MA;Michigan;MI;Minnesota;MN;Mississippi;MS;Missouri;MO;" _
    & "Montana;MT;Nebraska;NE;Nevada;NV;New Hampshire;NH;New Jersey;NJ;" & _
    "New Mexico;NM;New York;NY;North Carolina;NC;North Dakota;ND;Ohio;OH;" _
    & "Oklahoma;OK;Oregon;OR;Pennsylvania;PA;Rhode Island;RI;South " _
    & "Carolina;SC;" & _
    "South Dakota;SD;Tennessee;TN;Texas;TX;Utah;UT;Vermont;VT;" & _
    "Virginia;VA;Washington;WA;West Virginia;WV;Wisconsin;WI;Wyoming;WY"
  ' get a temporary array
  temp() = Split(STATES_LIST, ";")

  ' load into the result array
  For i = 0 To UBound(states)
    states(i, 0) = temp(i * 2)
    states(i, 1) = temp(i * 2 + 1)
  Next

  ' assign to the result
  GetUSStates = states
End Function