String Concatenation

The string operator & performs a string concatenation.

Print "Hello " & "World!" ' prints "Hello World!"

Extract Substring from the Beginning of a

String
Use the Left$ to extract a substring from the beginning of a string.

MyString = "1234567890"

Print Left$(MyString,4) ' Prints "1234"

Extract Substring from the End of a String

Use the Right$ to extract a substring from the end of a string.

MyString = "1234567890"

Print Right$(MyString,4) ' Prints "7890"

Extract Substring from the Middle of a

String
Use the Mid$ to extract a substring from the middle of a string. Note: Be sure to use Left$,
Right$ and Mid$ instead of "Left", "Right", and "Mid" because if you omit the "$", Visual
Basic returns a Variant that must be re-converted back to a string when the result is used in
another string expression.

MyString = "1234567890"

startPos = 3
charCount = 4

Print Mid$(MyString,startPos,charCount) ' Prints "3456"

 
Modify Characters Within a String
You can use Mid$ to modify a substring within a string.

MyString = "1234567890"

startPos = 3
charCount = 4

Mid$(MyString,startPos,charCount) = "XXXX"

Print MyString ' Prints "12XXXX7890"

Get Length of String

Use the Visual Basic "Len" function to return the length of a string.

MyString = "1234567890"

Print Len(MyString) ' Prints 10

Trim Trailing or Leading Blanks /

Whitespace from a String
Use the Visual Basic functions LTrim$, RTrim$, and Trim$ to trim whitespace from a string.

MyString = " Chilkat Software "

Print LTrim$(MyString) ' prints "Chilkat Software "

Print RTrim$(MyString) ' prints " Chilkat Software"
Print Trim$(MyString) ' prints "Chilkat Software"

Fixed-Length Strings
Fixed length strings are automatically filled with spaces to pad them to their fixed-length.
When working with fixed-length strings, you can use RTrim$ to trim the extra spaces. (See
example below.)

If a fixed-length string is declared, it will be filled with Null characters until it is used. The
Visual Basic trim functions (RTrim$, LTrim$, and Mid$) will not trim Null characters, so be
sure to assign a fixed-length string to an empty string "" immediately.
Dim MyString As String * 10

MyString = "Chilkat" ' MyString contains "Chilkat "

Print RTrim$(MyString) ' prints "Chilkat"

Dim AnotherString As String * 10

Print Len(RTrim$(AnotherString)) ' Prints 10, because the string contains

Null characters.

Return ASCII Character Code of First Letter

in String
The Visual Basic Asc function returns the ASCII code of the first character in the string.

Print Asc("ABCD") ' prints 65

Convert ASCII Value to Character

The Visual Basic Chr function takes an ASCII character code and returns the character.

Print Chr(65) ' prints "A"

Create String with Repeating Characters

Use the Space$ and String$ to create a string having a single character repeated N times.

Dim fiveSpaces as String

fiveSpaces = Space$(5)

Dim tenDots as String

tenDots = String$(10,".")

Case-Insensitive String Compare

Use the StrComp function to compare strings without case sensitivity.

string1 = "Alaska"
string2 = "California"

result = StrComp(string1,string2,vbTextCompare)

' result = 0 if the strings are identical (case-insensitive)

' result = -1 if string1 is lexicographically less than string2
' result = 1 if string1 is lexicographically greater than string2

Convert String to Lowercase

Use the LCase$ function to convert a string to lowercase.

company = "Chilkat Software"

Print LCase$(company) ' prints "chilkat software"

 Convert String to Uppercase

Use the UCase$ function to convert a string to uppercase.

company = "Chilkat Software"

Print UCase$(company) ' prints "CHILKAT SOFTWARE"

Convert String to Proper Case

Use the StrConv function to convert a string to proper case.

company = "CHILKAT SOFTWARE"

Print StrConv(company,vbProperCase) ' prints "Chilkat Software"

Convert String to ANSI Byte Array

Use the StrConv function with "vbFromUnicode" to convert a Visual Basic string to a byte
array of ANSI characters.

Dim company As String

Dim b() As Byte

company = "CHILKAT SOFTWARE"

b = StrConv(company,vbFromUnicode)

' We now have a byte array containing 'C', 'H', 'I', 'L', ...

Convert Byte Array to String

Use the StrConv function with "vbUnicode" to convert a byte array of ANSI characters to a
string.

Dim s As String
Dim b(1 To 3) As Byte

b(1) = Asc("A")
b(2) = Asc("B")
b(3) = Asc("C")

s = StrConv(b, vbUnicode)

' We now have a string containing "ABC"

Copy Unicode String to Byte Array

This example copies a Unicode string to a byte array, with no conversion.

Dim s As String
s = "ABC"

Dim b(1 To 6) As Byte

For i = 1 To 6
b(i) = AscB(MidB(s, i))
Next

' We now have a byte array containing 65, 0, 66, 0, 67, 0

Convert a String to a Number (Integer)

Use the Val function to convert a string to a decimal number. The Val function is not locale
aware, so it will not recognize comma decimal separators in countries where this is used,
such as "1,000,000".

Dim v As Integer

v = Val("100 Blah Blah")

Print v ' prints 100

v = Val("Nothing")

Print v ' Could not convert, prints 0

Convert a String to Currency

Use CCur to convert a string to the Currency type. CCur is locale aware.
Dim s As String

s = "$120.15"

Dim cc As Currency

cc = CCur(s)

Print cc ' prints "120.15"

Determine if a String Contains a Valid Date

Use IsDate to determine if a string contains a valid date.

Dim d1, d2, d3

d1 = "August 12, 2004"

d2 = "12/25/2000"
d3 = "Chilkat Software"

result = IsDate(d1) ' Returns True.

result = IsDate(d2) ' Returns True.
result = IsDate(d3) ' Returns False.

Convert a String to a Date / Time

Use CDate to convert a string to a date/time.

Dim d1 As Date
Dim d2 As Date
Dim d3 As Date

d1 = CDate("August 12, 2004")

d2 = CDate("2:07:30 PM")
d3 = CDate("August 12, 2004 2:07:30 PM")

Print d1 ' prints 8/12/2004

Print d2 ' prints 2:07:30 PM
Print d3 ' prints 8/12/2004 2:07:30 PM

Convert a String to a Double

Converting a string to a double is simple:

Dim d1 As Double
Dim d2 As Double
' You can be explicit
d1 = CDbl("12.2")

' Or you can just do this...

d2 = "12.2"

Print d1 ' prints 12.2

Print d2 ' prints 12.2

String Contains Substring?

Determine if a string contains a substring.

Dim s As String

s = "Chilkat Software"

' The following 4 lines are case-sensitive

Print InStr(s, "Software") ' Prints 9
Print InStr(s, "Chilkat") ' Prints 1
Print InStr(s, "xyz") ' Prints 0
Print InStr(s, "software") ' Prints 0

' The following 3 lines are case-insensitive

Print InStr(1, s, "software", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 9
Print InStr(1, s, "chilkat", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 1
Print InStr(1, s, "xyz", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 0

' To determine if a string contains a substring,

' check for the return value of 0.
searchStr = "abc"
If InStr(s, searchStr) = 0 Then
Print "substring not found within s"
End If

Find Substring within a String

Find the starting position of a substring within a string. (With strings, the first character is
at position 1)

Dim s As String

s = "Chilkat Software"

' The following 4 lines are case-sensitive

Print InStr(s, "Software") ' Prints 9
Print InStr(s, "Chilkat") ' Prints 1
Print InStr(s, "xyz") ' Prints 0
Print InStr(s, "software") ' Prints 0
' The following 3 lines are case-insensitive
Print InStr(1, s, "software", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 9
Print InStr(1, s, "chilkat", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 1
Print InStr(1, s, "xyz", vbTextCompare) ' Prints 0

Find Last Occurance of Substring within a

String
Find the starting position of the last occurance of a substring within a string. (With strings,
the first character is at position 1)

Dim s As String

s = "Chilkat Software chilkat software"

' The following 4 lines are case-sensitive

Print InStrRev(s, "Software") ' Prints 9
Print InStrRev(s, "Chilkat") ' Prints 1
Print InStrRev(s, "xyz") ' Not found, Prints 0
Print InStrRev(s, "software") ' Prints 26

' The following 3 lines are case-insensitive

' The 3rd argument is the starting position from the end of the string.
' This should be set to -1 to search the entire string from the end to
beginning.
Print InStrRev(s, "software", -1, vbTextCompare) ' Prints 26
Print InStrRev(s, "chilkat", -1, vbTextCompare) ' Prints 18
Print InStrRev(s, "xyz", -1, vbTextCompare) ' Not found, Prints 0

String Pattern Matching

This example explains how to do string pattern matching in Visual Basic.

' The Like operator pays attention to the current Option Compare setting.
' Setting it to text makes the pattern matching case-insensitive.
Option Compare Text
' Use Option Compare Binary for case-sensitive string pattern matching.
' Option Compare Binary

' The Like string operator provides string pattern matching in Visual Basic.
' * matches zero or more of any character.
' ? matches any single character.
' # matches any single digit.
' Match ranges of characters by enclosing the range in brackets:
' [A-C] Matches any of A, B, or C
' [ABC] Same as [A-C]
' Match characters not in a range by using !
' [!A-Z] Any character not including A-Z

Dim s As String
s = "Chilkat Software 1234 ABCD"

If s Like "*Software*" Then

Print "Contains Software"
End If

If s Like "[!0-9]??*" Then

' Match any three characters such that the first cannot be a digit.
Print "Matches!"
End If

String Replacement
This example shows how to do string replacement in Visual Basic.

Dim s As String
s = "Chilkat Software, Inc. : A software components company"

' Relace all occurances of a substring, case sensitive

s = Replace(s, "software", "hardware")

' prints "Chilkat Software, Inc. : A Hardware Components Company"

Print StrConv(s, vbProperCase)

' Replace all occurances, case-insensitive

s = "Chilkat Software, Inc. : A software components company"
s = Replace(s, "software", "hardware", 1, -1, vbTextCompare)

' prints "Chilkat Hardware, Inc. : A Hardware Components Company"

Print StrConv(s, vbProperCase)

' Replace only the 1st occurance, case-insensitive

startPos = 1
maxToReplace = 1
s = "Chilkat Software, Inc. : A software components company"
s = Replace(s, "software", "hardware", startPos, maxToReplace, vbTextCompare)

' prints "Chilkat Hardware, Inc. : A Software Components Company"

Print StrConv(s, vbProperCase)

Split String into Array of Words

This example shows how to do split a string into an array of words.

Dim s As String
s = "Chilkat Software, Inc. : A Software Components Company."
Dim words() As String

' Split the string at the space characters.

words() = Split(s)

Dim tempStr As String

For i = 0 To UBound(words)
' Eliminate punctuation
tempStr = Replace(words(i), ".", "")
tempStr = Replace(tempStr, ",", "")
tempStr = Replace(tempStr, ":", "")
If Len(tempStr) > 0 Then
List1.AddItem tempStr
End If
Next

Split Comma-Separated String into Fields

This example shows how to do split a comma-separated string into fields.

Dim s As String
s = "Chilkat Mail, ActiveX Component, $99, free upgrades, 1-Year Support"

Dim fields() As String

' Split the string at the comma characters and add each field to a ListBox
fields() = Split(s, ",")

For i = 0 To UBound(fields)
List1.AddItem Trim$(fields(i))
Next

  Determine if a String has been Initialized

This example shows how to do split a comma-separated string into fields.

Dim s As String
If StrPtr(s) = 0 Then
Print "Not initialized!"
Else
Print "String is initialized."
End If

s = "123"
If StrPtr(s) = 0 Then
Print "Not initialized!"
Else
Print "String is initialized."
End If