! operator instead of . (why?)

[crispin]

consider the following:

frmDrawDlg!txtAspectheight.Visible = false

now consider:

frmDrawDlg.txtAspectheight.Visible = False

Both of the above statements work, but...

Q. Why use an exclamation mark instead of a dot?



Answers on a postcard please to:

24 Crispin hasn't woken up yet Street
Springfield
90243

Thanks in advance guys.

[Gaffer]

Recordsets.

If a field name contains a space (or similar - not that u you would ever do this, right? ), it needs to be protected from big bad world by square brackets or quotes. You can't use a dot woth these

eg

rs![A Test] works

rs.[A test] doesn't.

The it seems you can use exclamations to point to objects, and dots to reference methods and some objects
(that last bit may be a bit spurious!)

[AngelinaM]

What is the difference between:

rs("A Test") and rs![A Test]

[crispin]

Gaffer,

Thanks!, i've used the recordset stuff before, I had never seen objects or methods referenced by an exclamation, always a dot (wierd)

[Shrog]

Early binding and late binding. Using the fullstop is late bound and therefor slower. That is as far as Recordsets are concerned.

I'm not sure about forms, although I do know that some other objects are slower if you use "." instead of "!"

Shrog

[HeSaidJoe]

data1.recordset.myField = text1
or
data1!myfield = text1

the ! in this instance is a shortcut
you can omit the reference to the recordset
as the ! implies a recordset follows the control

[crispin]

I have no problem with the recordset syntax (I don't have a problem with any of it for that matter) I am interested as to why it is used (and for what specific reason (if any)) for referencing objects in forms, like textboxes e.t.c If it's early binding vs late binding then I can appreciate that, but is anybody really sure about this one:

Form.textbox.caption = "I am sure"

Vs

Form!textbox.caption = "Or am I?"


I don't know of anything in the IDispatch interface that qualifies dispID's in different ways, I reckon i might be barking up the wrong tree......