VBA Variables
VBA’s
main purpose is to manipulate data. VBA
stores the data in your computer’s memory; it may or may not end up on disk.
Some data, such as sketch, resides in objects
.
Other data is stored in variables
that you create.
A variable
is simply a named storage location in your computer’s memory.
You have lots of flexibility in naming your variables
, so make the variable
names as descriptive as possible.
You assign a value to a variable
by using the equal sign operator.
The variable
names in these examples appear on both the left and right sides of the equal signs.
Note that the last example uses two variables
.
x = 1
InterestRate = 0.075
LoanPayoffAmount = 243089
DataEntered = False
x = x + 1
UserName = "Bill Gates"
DateStarted = #3/14/2010#
MyNum = YourNum * 1.25
VBA
enforces a few rules regarding variable
names:
- You can use letters, numbers, and some punctuation characters, but the first character must be a letter.
- You cannot use any spaces or periods in a
variable
name. VBA
does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.- You cannot use the following characters in a variable name: #, $, %, &, or !.
Variable
names can be no longer than 255 characters. Of course, you’re only asking for trouble if you use variable names 255 characters long.
To make variable
names more readable, programmers often use mixed case (for example, PartDimension) or the underscore character (part_dimension).
VBA
has many reserved words that you can’t use for variable
names or procedure
names.
These include words such as Sub, Dim, With, End, Next, and For
.
If you attempt to use one of these words as a variable
, you may get a compile error (which means your code won’t run.
So, if an assignment statement produces an error message, double-check and make sure that the variable
name isn’t a reserved word.
VBA
does allow you to create variables
with names that match names in your CAD's object model
, such as sketch and part.
But, obviously, using names
like that just increases the possibility of getting confused.
So resist the urge to use a variable named sketch, and use something like swSketch, mySketch or any meaning full name instead.