Strings and + and &

[Thomas Halsvik]

What is commonly used when working with strings?
Do one use + or & to put two string together?
& can be annoying when you type fast and get
string1& string2 ---> error (string1& is not a Long parameter.)

[Stevie]

I always use &.

I'm not sure of this but I think if you use the + and both strings contain numbers then you will get the result of them being added.

Nope just checked that and that doesn't happen.

[Edited by Stevie on 07-14-2000 at 05:56 AM]

[Nina]

Hi

+ is only used with strings, while & can be used to add an Integer/Long/... variable to a string

a = "string1"
b = "string 2"

c = a + " " + b   'returns "string1 string2"

d = 123.456

e = a & " = " & d  'returns "string1 = 123.456"

hope this helps

[Stevie]

Dim strValue As String

  strValue = "1"
  
  MsgBox strValue & 2
  MsgBox strValue + 2

The first msgbox will display 12.
The second msgbox will display 3.

[Fox]

You should always use the & coz if you add a number to a string VB tries to convert the first strig to a number and add the second instead of just putting them together. That only happens if you do something like this:
(Where the values can also be variables of course)

    MsgBox "5" & 3   'Returns 53
    MsgBox "5" + 3   'Returns 8
    MsgBox "5" + "3"   'Returns 53

Oh and type a bit slower

[gfk]

Originally posted by Nina
Hi

+ is only used with strings, while & can be used to add an Integer/Long/... variable to a string

That's a bit confusing. It sound like you're saying the code below wouldn't work.

Dim A As Long
Dim B As Long
Dim C As Long

A = 500
B = 1000

C = A + B

Just thought I'd clear that up.

To answer the original question, I always use '&' for adding two strings together. Someone once said that using '+' to add strings together is not very reliable for some reason... I forget now.