Syntax

String

Description

A data type capable of holding a number of characters.

Comments

Strings are used to hold sequences of characters, each character having a value between 0 and 255. Strings can be any length up to a maximum length of 32767 characters.

Strings can contain embedded nulls, as shown in the following example:

  s$ = "Hello" + Chr$(0) + "there"  'String with embedded null

The length of a string can be determined using the Len function. This function returns the number of characters that have been stored in the string, including unprintable characters.

The type-declaration character for String is $.

String variables that have not yet been assigned are set to zero-length by default.

Strings are normally declared as variable-length, meaning that the memory required for storage of the string depends on the size of its content. The following script statements declare a variable-length string and assign it a value of length 5:

  Dim s As String
  s = "Hello"    'String has length 5.

Fixed-length strings are given a length in their declaration:

  Dim s As String * 20
  s = "Hello"    'String has length 20 (internally pads with spaces).

When a string expression is assigned to a fixed-length string, the following rules apply:

If the string expression is less than the length of the fixed-length string, then the fixed-length string is padded with spaces up to its declared length.

If the string expression is greater than the length of the fixed-length string, then the string expression is truncated to the length of the fixed-length string.

Fixed-length strings are useful within structures when a fixed size is required, such as when passing structures to external routines.

The storage for a fixed-length string depends on where the string is declared, as described in the following table:

Strings Declared

Are Stored

In structures

In the same data area as that of the structure. Local structures are on the stack; public structures are stored in the public data space; and private structures are stored in the private data space. Local structures should be used sparingly as stack space is limited.

In arrays

In the global string space along with all the other array elements.

Local routines

On the stack. The stack is limited in size, so local fixed-length strings should be used sparingly.

See Also

Currency (data type);Date (data type); Double (data type); Integer (data type); Long (data type); Object (data type); Single (data type); Variant (data type); Boolean (data type); DefType (statement); CStr (function).

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