maximum length for string in VB6

Hi

If I declare a string in vb6, and don't specify a maximum value, like this:

VB Code:

Dim strAString as string

1. What is the maximum amount of characters which can be held in this string?
2. If I do not specify a maximum - then does this waste memory?

many thanks

langals

1) approx 2 billion characters
2) No.

(1) I read somewhere, it is 2GB
(2) I think it will waste space only if you specify the maximum limit, otherwise not.

Pradeep :)

Hi guys

thanks for the replies. It must be something else in my code with is causing problems then.

langals

langals:

Greeting to you there in South Africa.

It might be easier for someone to help you if you posted some or all of your code.

Then we could see just what is happening or not happening and probably find a solution for you.

Good Luck

A VB variable-length string can only in theory be 2GB in size, it's actual maximum size is depending on available virtual memory which is also limited to 2GB for the entire application. But since VB stores the string in unicode format it means that it can only contain 1GB of text.

Also the string takes up 12 bytes apart from the actual text, so even an empty string takes up 12 bytes of memory.

A fixed length string is limited to 64KB in length.

I thought virtual memory was maxed at 4095 kbs?

4095 kbs? That's a transfer speed... :). But you are correct Rob. All 32-bit applications runs in a separate virtual machine and each of those are assigned 4GB of virtual memory. However 2 of those 4GB are used by the OS itself and the other 2 can be freely used by the application.

Thanks for the confirmation JA. Windows wont let you enter in anything larger then 4095 so its 1 byte short of 4 GBs. ;) :D

I'll remember that 1/2 is used by Windows. :thumb:

Actually it's not 1 byte less it's just that the memory area is zero based.

Misleading but ok. :)

Misleading? How?

"Total paging size for all drives: 4095 MBs"

If its zero based then you could display "0 MBs" but still actually have 1 MB. Although, I do know the minimum is 8 MBs.

Oh, you're talking about the size of the paging file... Well, the paging on the drive is used for swapping of memory but it's not actually the same as the virtual memory. 4GB is given to every process you are running and if the physical memory is not enough then paging will occur (well, you know all of that).

Maybe this thread can help..i had the same problem/doubt
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=372024
With special attention to what Joacim Andersson wrote..

In my opinion you can easily test it:

Code:

---

    Dim T As Long
    Dim BB As String
   
    For T = 1 To 2000000
        BB = BB + "x"
    Next T
   
    Debug.Print Len(BB)
    Stop

---

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