Len, LenB
Returns a Long containing the number of characters in a string or the number of bytes required to store a variable.
Syntax:
- Len( string ), Len( varname )
- LenB( string ), LenB( varname )
- string
- Any valid string expression. If string contains Null, Null is returned.
- varname
- Any valid variable name. If varname contains Null, Null is returned. If varname is a Variant, Len treats it the same as a String and always returns the number of characters it contains.
One (and only one) of the two possible arguments must be specified. With user-defined types, Len returns the size as it will be written to the file.
Note
Use the LenB function with byte data contained in a string, as in double-byte character set (DBCS) languages. Instead of returning the number of characters in a string, LenB returns the number of bytes used to represent that string. With user-defined types, LenB returns the in-memory size, including any padding between elements.
Note
Len may not be able to determine the actual number of storage bytes required when used with variable-length strings in user-defined data types.
Example
This example uses Len to return the number of characters in a string or the number of bytes required to store a variable. The Type...End Type block defining CustomerRecord must be preceded by the keyword Private if it appears in a class module. In a standard module, a Type statement can be Public.
Type CustomerRecord ' Define user-defined type.
ID As Integer ' Place this definition in a
Name As String * 10 ' standard module.
Address As String * 30
End Type
Dim Customer As CustomerRecord ' Declare variables.
Dim MyInt As Integer, MyCur As Currency
Dim MyString, MyLen
MyString = "Hello World" ' Initialize variable.
MyLen = Len(MyInt) ' Returns 2.
MyLen = Len(Customer) ' Returns 42.
MyLen = Len(MyString) ' Returns 11.
MyLen = Len(MyCur) ' Returns 8.