Dollar sign after Right/Left function in VBA?

[Enigmachrysalis]

I keep seeing Right$(arg,arg) in VBA examples, but I am not sure what the dollar sign is doing.

Is it acting like a string declaration?

 

[VoG]

I keep seeing Right$(arg,arg) in VBA examples, but I am not sure what the dollar sign is doing.

Is it acting like a string declaration?

Yep but it is probably unnecesary since it will be coerced to a string anyway. It might be faster with the $ than without.

 

[Norie]

I've seen the $ sign used too but I've never actually found an adequate explanation f it has advantages or not.

I think basically what the $ does is make the function explicitly return a String variable, whereas without it you get a Variant.

Might be an issue for something but I really can't think what.

 

[Travis]

I believe that was part of the function name (implying it's a string function) in old versions of VB (like VB4)...just a legacy convention from the old version provided today for compatibility.

It's exactly the same as "Right" without the "$"

 

[Enigmachrysalis]

It may evaluate similarly, but it isn't explicitly identical.

I found this is the RVBA Coding Conventions:

http://www.xoc.net/standards/rvbacc.asp#DollarSignFunctions

I have also seen ! used in expressions, but I have yet to discover its use outside of the legacy data typing convention. What's the word on that?

 

[Travis]

with respect to data types
@ is currency
# is double
% is integer
& is long
! is single
$ is string

 

[Enigmachrysalis]

This is the context I intended, which is why I indicated "outside of the legacy data typing convention", meaning standard variable declaration.

http://www.xoc.net/standards/rvbacc.asp#DefaultProperties

This is where I saw ! in the same RVBA reference.

 

[Norie]

I really wouldn't bother about the difference between Left or Left$ and other similar functions.

Next you'll be dabbling with Len and LenB, and we all know that could lead to.

 

[Enigmachrysalis]

Well, I saw the $ used in some slick code examples in a book I have, so I figured it was worth learning.

So, no luck on the ! character then?

 

[Norie]

In that link the only thing I can seem to find that uses ! is when using a recordset with ADO.

As far as I'm aware that just something you would use to refer to a field in the recordset.

Perhaps similar to the . (dot qualifier) you use in Excel VBA, which you can also use in Access VBA.

I can't off the top of my head whether there are advantages/disadvantages of using one or the other.