String or String * 1

Is there a performance benefit for defining a string as String * 1 if you know that you are only going to have 1 char in it?

I notice in this post http://www.vbforums.com/showpost.php...21&postcount=4 that Hack does

VB Code:

Dim EachCharacter As String * 1

rather than

VB Code:

Dim EachCharacter As String

Could you use
Dim EachCharacter As Char?

If you know you're only going to have one character in it I would declare it as a byte and store it's ASCII code in it.

As a rule, strings, in VB6, are evil(TM)

If you treat it is a number you'll get numerous speed benefits such as in the following code example:

VB Code:

Dim MyChar As Long
    
    Select Case MyChar
        Case 97 'a
        Case 98 'b
    End Select

If you 'Select Case' on a string, then VB will generate a rather large list of IF/ELSEIF statements doing string comparisons on each one. This is bad, because

(i) String comparisons are slow
(ii) It allocates a temporary string to pass through the generate If/elseif list

If you use numbers then VB's Select Case is potentially as fast as it's C equivalent 'switch' This is because VB can create an internal switch table - the same manner of which is done in the VC++ compiler.

As for the fixed or variable string bit it is better to use the BSTR because it is supported throughout COM+, of which VB is the ultimate consumer off, but as mentioned above it is faster (and more memory efficient) to use a fixed length string unless you want to pass it inside a UDT to an API call, when a variable BSTR (passed by StrPtr(Str)) is always recommended as this avoids unecessary and expensive ANSI/Unicode conversions.

As a general rule, treat your strings as arrays of numbers; VB doesn't make this easy, and some of it needs lateral thinking.