How to: Access Outlook Contacts

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Outlook 2003 Outlook 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

This example finds all contacts whose last names contain a specified search string.

Example

Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
    AccessContacts("Na")
End Sub 

Private Sub AccessContacts(ByVal findLastName As String)
    Dim folderContacts As Outlook.MAPIFolder = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer() _
        .Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders _
        .olFolderContacts)
    Dim searchFolder As Outlook.Items = folderContacts.Items
    Dim counter As Integer = 0
    For Each foundContact As Outlook.ContactItem In searchFolder
        If foundContact.LastName.Contains(findLastName) Then
            foundContact.Display(False)
            counter = counter + 1
        End If 
    Next
    MessageBox.Show("You have " & counter & _
        " contacts with last names that contain " _
        & findLastName & ".")
End Sub

private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    AccessContacts("Na");
}

private void AccessContacts(string findLastName)
{
    Outlook.MAPIFolder folderContacts = this.Application.ActiveExplorer().Session.
        GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts);
    Outlook.Items searchFolder = folderContacts.Items;
    int counter = 0;
    foreach (Outlook.ContactItem foundContact in searchFolder)
    {
        if (foundContact.LastName.Contains(findLastName))
        {
            foundContact.Display(false);
            counter = counter + 1;
        }
    }
    MessageBox.Show("You have " + counter +
        " contacts with last names that contain "
        + findLastName + ".");
}

Compiling the Code

This example requires:

• Contacts whose last names contain the string "Na" (for example, Tzipi Butnaru) in the Contacts folder.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Add an Entry to Outlook Contacts

How to: Search for a Specific Contact

How to: Search for an E-Mail Address in Contacts

How to: Delete Outlook Contacts

Concepts

Working with Contact Items