& or +? *RESOLVED*

[agmorgan]

Which is the standard/better way to add strings together?

MsgBox "DataSave.Param" + Format(n + 1) + "=s"

or

MsgBox "DataSave.Param" & Format(n + 1) & "=s"

Is there any difference between using '&' or '+'?
Is either considered bad practice?

[Memnoch1207]

It depends on what programming language your using.

VB and ASP use & for string concatenation.

But the C based languages use the + for string concatenation.

[agmorgan]

Im using VB6 and I always used & for string concatenation
I just inherited a project and it is full of +'s.
It still works though.
I guess the previous programmer had a C background then...

[phinds]

depends on what it is you want to do. "+" means addition, so if you do

1 + "2", then answer is 3

but "&" is concatendation, so if you do

1 & "2", then the answer is "12"

See, they are not even remotely the same thing.

[agmorgan]

This gives the same result though

Private Sub Form_Load()
MsgBox "hi" & " phinds"
MsgBox "hi" + " phinds"
Unload Me
End Sub

So they can be similar in some situations...

[RudyL]

Originally posted by agmorgan
This gives the same result though

Private Sub Form_Load()
MsgBox "hi" & " phinds"
MsgBox "hi" + " phinds"
Unload Me
End Sub

So they can be similar in some situations...

I believe that is called getting lucky!

That only worked because the compliere was unable to perform the math and add the 2 strings together.. The compiler has a bug in it.. Becarefull and don't put a complementing bug in your code..

Rudy

[joe_h_31028]

My VB book "Sam's teach yourself VB in 24 hours" shows that either will work, but recommends to use & when putting strings together and reserve + for math, since it looks cleaner,

[Eras3r]

always use '&' when concatenating 2 strings and '+' when adding a value to a number......

its just bad programming practice to use '+' when dealing with strings.