More fun with strings

[Sartanus]

okiee am using the following style code to take in some input from the standard serial control.

'temp would be a string
Temp = mscomm1.input

'Global String starts off 0ed out
GlobalString = GlobalString + Temp

Now for my question

I have my external hardware device sending in some input at an interval of .5 seconds, I then am building a 17 character string from it, and using that string.

My problem would be that the device is running 24/7 regardless if vb cares about it or not, and it picks up half way through the series of characters and ends up giving me a jumbled string. Optimally I want to get in
A12345678912345 <- GlobalString

however I usually end up with something like

2345A1234567891 <- Mucked up global

So what would be a method to cut out the string so I can get the "A" to get at the beginning once it is read in. And continue to read in the. The tricky bits The position of A is never in the same loctaion, so any quick n dirty solutions for me (well if its a bit sadistic I can handle that too )

thx in advance

[theman32x]

how about instead of:

GlobalString = GlobalString + Temp

you put:

GlobalString = GlobalString & Temp

or

making variables to hold each temp that you get and add it all together:

GlobalString = a & b & c ....