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I have recently come across numeric literals such as 10! and 50# in Visual Basic programs. Could anyone tell me what these punctuation marks mean?

Brian Hooper
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3 Answers3

36

They are called type declaration characters. This article has more information.

  % Integer
  & Long
  ! Single
  # Double
  $ String
  @ Currency
onedaywhen
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Michael Baker
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  • Really? 123$ is the same as "123"? Wow - I never knew that! – teedyay Oct 08 '10 at 08:45
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    This is true only for variable names, not for constant literals! – nothrow Oct 08 '10 at 08:54
  • Yeah, I'd seen them in that context, but that didn't seem to be what the question was about... – teedyay Oct 08 '10 at 09:02
  • @Michael Baker> you misunderstood the article. They AREN'T attached to literal, but to the variable name, and is used like `Dim x as String` => `Dim x$` – nothrow Oct 08 '10 at 09:42
  • According the article: "Literals can also use the identifier type characters as can variables, constants, and expressions." Can you elaborate? – Michael Baker Oct 08 '10 at 09:54
  • Has the hyperlink been edited? Within seconds I opened the same link twice and end up at two different articles! This one (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/191713) relates to VB6 and doesn't mention literals. This one (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s9cz43ek(v=VS.71).aspx) talks about literals but relates to VB.NET. – onedaywhen Oct 08 '10 at 10:01
  • @Michael Baker: I rolled back. The article about literals only applies to VB.NET and the question has only ever had the VB6 tag. – onedaywhen Oct 08 '10 at 10:26
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    In VB6 you can use some of these characters - %&!#@ - with numeric literals to define the type. It's similar to the use in VB.Net although only the symbols are available, not the letters, and also a VB6 `Integer` is not the same as a VB.Net `Integer`. I'm just looking for a VB6 web link for you... – MarkJ Oct 08 '10 at 11:32
  • Normally, you'd see these attached to (numeric) literals in one of two places: is Const statements (since compiler constants are just replacement text, they can't have a "real" type); or when coercing a literal to Long, Double or Currency to avoid overflow (although I always preferred an explicit Ctype for maintainability). – Stan Rogers Oct 08 '10 at 17:33
16

Using these characters specifies the data type of a numeric literal.

I thought this would be covered in the VB6 manual online but I can't find it.

However I just proved it with the TypeName function in the VB6 IDE Immediate Window: 

? typename(10!)
Single
?typename(10#)
Double
?typename(10%)
Integer
?typename(10&)
Long
?typename(10@)
Currency

PS Be aware that a VB6 Integer is 2 bytes, -32,768 to 32,767.

MarkJ
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4

****Here is a Cheat Sheet for DataTypes ****

Variable End with:

$ : String
% : Integer (Int16)
& : Long (Int32)
! : Single
# : Double
@ : Decimal

Start with:

&H : Hex
&O : Octal

Comparison between VB and VB.Net (reference)

Visual Studio .Net added Literal Types (reference)

Value End with: (For more complete list, refer the the reference)

S : Short (Int16)
I : Integer (Int32)
L : Long (Int64)
F : Single
R : Double
D : Decimal
Gerhard Powell
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