Redim statement - Why?

[pedie]

Hi, several times i have seen this word "redim something(6) as string" often...
What does it mean and when we as need to use it?

Thanks

 

[Kenneth Hobson]

Press F1 with the cursor in or near the word Redim to get help in the VBE.

It is used for arrays to redimesion them. Redim Preserve is often used to both redimension the array and preserve existing content.

 

[kpark91]

Hi, pedie.
Redim is usually used for resizing an array.

For example, if you had a array declared in the beginning of a Sub or w/e.

Error:

Sub Test()
Dim strData() As String
strData(2) = "Hi"
MsgBox strData(2)
End Sub

and you want to store a value in index:=2 with Option Explicit on.
You will be unable to assign value to it because it doesn't have a specified range array.

However, when you do have a fixed array
Fixed:

Sub Test2()
    Dim strData(0 To 5) As String
    strData(2) = "Hi"
    MsgBox strData(2)
End Sub

Altho you will be able to declare it and assign values to it, you will be unable to append more data at the end of your array without declaring a new array.

So, a method came up and it was the ReDim statement.
ReDim allows you to resize the array or newly declare an existing variable.

Sub Test3()
    Dim strData$()
    ReDim strData$(0 To 6)
    strData(6) = "Hi"
End Sub

Moreover, there is one more option about ReDim you will need to learn and that's Preserve.

Because ReDimming does not store previous values stored, you will need to use Preserve if you want the original values still stored in their own places.

ReDim Preserve strData$(0 To 6)

Hope it helps.

 

[pedie]

Thanks Ken, thanks kPark!....that really does help.... thanks alot!!!