Currency

A fixed-point number with four decimal places, from -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807.

Syntax:

  • Dim varname As Currency [ = expression ]
  • Dim varname@
  • DefCur letterrange

A Currency variable is declared As Currency, or by the type-declaration character @ after its name. DefCur makes Currency the default type of the variables, parameters and functions whose names start with the letters in letterrange. A Currency that is not given a value holds 0.

Currency suits money and other calculations in which the digits must come out exactly. It stores a decimal number with exactly four digits after the point, so it has none of the binary rounding errors of Double. The Variant subtype for a Currency is vbCurrency (6), and TypeName gives Currency.

Storage and range

A Currency is stored in 8 bytes as a 64-bit integer that is scaled by 10,000, so it has 15 digits before the decimal point and 4 after it. It has the same size in a 32-bit and a 64-bit build.

A value with more than four decimal places is rounded to four, and a value exactly halfway between two is rounded to the even digit: the string "0.12345" becomes 0.1234 and "0.12355" becomes 0.1236. A Double is first converted to the nearest value it can represent, which is not always exactly halfway, so rounding a Double can go either way.

Dim Price As Currency
Dim Tax@
Debug.Print Price                   ' 0
Debug.Print LenB(Price)             ' 8
Debug.Print TypeName(Tax)           ' Currency
Debug.Print VarType(Price) = vbCurrency ' True
Debug.Print CCur("0.12345")         ' 0.1234
Debug.Print CCur("0.12355")         ' 0.1236
Debug.Print 0.1@ * 3 = 0.3@         ' True
Debug.Print 0.1 * 3 = 0.3           ' False

Literals

The suffix @ makes a number a Currency: 5@ and 1.5@. Without it a number with a decimal point is a Double. A literal with more than four decimals is rounded: 0.12345@ is 0.1234. The largest literal is 922337203685477.5807@.

Conversions

CCur converts an expression to a Currency, and so does assigning one to a Currency variable. A string is read as a number, and True is -1. A value outside the range raises error 6, Overflow: CCur(1E+15) does. A string that is not a number raises error 13, Type mismatch.

A Currency converted to a whole number is rounded to the nearest, with halves going to the even number: CLng(2.5@) is 2 and CLng(3.5@) is 4.

Debug.Print CCur(" 12.5 ")          ' 12.5
Debug.Print CCur(True)              ' -1
Debug.Print CLng(2.5@)              ' 2
Debug.Print CLng(3.5@)              ' 4
On Error Resume Next
Debug.Print CCur(1E+15)
Debug.Print Err.Number              ' 6

Arithmetic and overflow

An operation on two Currency values gives a Currency, and so does a Currency combined with a Byte, Integer, Long, LongLong, Boolean or String under +, - and *, and with a Single or a Double under + and -. A Currency multiplied by a Single or a Double gives a Double, and so does any division with /: 10@ / 3@ is the Double 3.33333333333333. \ and Mod give a Long and ^ a Double. Combined with a Decimal it gives a Decimal. Result types and promotion has the full rules.

A product keeps four places and drops the rest: 0.0001@ * 0.0001@ is 0. A result outside the range raises error 6, Overflow, and a division by zero raises error 11. A Variant holding a Currency raises error 6 on overflow too, where a Variant holding a smaller type widens.

For money with more than four decimal places, or results of division that must stay exact, use Decimal; Decimal or Currency for money compares the two.

Dim Price As Currency = 19.99
Debug.Print TypeName(Price * 3)     ' Currency
Debug.Print TypeName(Price + 0.5)   ' Currency
Debug.Print TypeName(Price * 0.5)   ' Double
Debug.Print TypeName(Price / 3)     ' Double
Debug.Print Price * 3               ' 59.97
Debug.Print 0.0001@ * 0.0001@       ' 0

Example

This example adds a 7.25% tax to an order of three items. The tax is rounded to whole cents with Round before it is added, so the total never carries a fraction of a cent.

Dim Subtotal As Currency
Dim Tax As Currency
Subtotal = 19.99@ * 3
Tax = Round(Subtotal * 0.0725, 2)
Debug.Print Subtotal                ' 59.97
Debug.Print Tax                     ' 4.35
Debug.Print Subtotal + Tax          ' 64.32

See Also