VBA Strings in Excel

In the realm of Excel’s Visual Basic for Applications(VBA), strings play a pivotal role in handling and manipulating text-based data. Strings serve as a fundamental data type used to store a sequence of characters, enabling the representation of textual information, numbers, symbols, and more. Understanding how VBA handles strings is essential for crafting powerful macros and automating tasks within Excel.

What is a VBA String

The string is a data type that holds a sequence of characters like the alphabet, special characters, and numbers or all of these. In VBA we can manipulate strings in such a way, that we can do concatenation, we can also reverse a string, and also add or remove any string within a string.

How to Declare a String

Strings are a combination of characters. Strings can be declared in the same way as integers or characters are declared in VBA.

For example, Dim str As String, here str is a variable with the string data type. 

Declaration of String

Assigning String value

String value should be surrounded with double quotes whenever it will be assigned to a string variable then only it is considered as string value.

For example, str = “I am Ayush”, here “I am Ayush”, is assigned in the double quotes. 

Assigning String Value

What is Concatenation

Concatenation means the joining of two strings, into one string, using the “&” operator. The & operator is responsible for joining the strings.

For example, str = “Ayu”, str1 = “sh”, can be concatenated/joined into one string, str2 by str & str1. The final output of str2 is “Ayush”. 

Concatenation

String Manipulation

String manipulation is a concept that provides us with different in-built functions which help to manipulate the string. There are fifteen-plus functions in string manipulation, but here we will discuss some of the most commonly used string manipulation functions.

For example, like LCase, UCase, Replace, and StrReverse. 

LCase()

The LCase() function, returns the string after converting it into lowercase. The function takes one mandatory argument i.e. input_string. 

Syntax of the function: LCase(input_string)

For example, “AYUSH” string has to be converted, into a lowercase string. Use LCase(“AYUSH”), and update the returned value of the function, with the original string i.e. str. The final output will be “ayush”. 

LCase()

UCase()

The UCase() function, returns the string after converting it into uppercase. The function takes one mandatory argument i.e. input_string.

Syntax of the function: UCase(input_string)

For example, “ayush” string has to be converted, into an uppercase string. Use UCase(“ayush”), and update the returned value of the function, with the original string i.e. str. The final output will be “ayush”. 

UCase()

Replace()

The Replace() function, replaces a part of the string with another string. The function takes three mandatory arguments i.e. input_string, string2, string3.

Syntax of the function: Replace(input_string, string2, string3)

input_string: It is the first argument of the replace() function. It takes the required string on which you want to apply the replacement. 

string2: It is the second argument of the replace() function. It is the string, which will be replaced in input_string. This string should be a sub-string of input_string. 

string3: It is the third argument of the replace() function. It is the new string, which will be replacing the string2. 

For example, consider a string “Codimh”, the “mh” substring can be replaced with “ng”, in the given input string. Use, Replace(“Codimh”, “mh”, “ng”), function, to replace old string with the new string. The final output of str is Coding.  

Replace()

StrReverse()

The StrReverse() function, returns the reverse of a string. The function takes one mandatory argument i.e. input_string.

Syntax of the function: StrReverse(input_string)

For example, consider a string “Coding”, the given string can be reversed using StrReverse(“Coding”). The returned value of the given function is updated to the string str. The final output of the str is “gnidoC”. 

StrReverse()

Substring Functions

String Functions are the text functions which are predefined to make developer job easy. There are different types of substring functions, these functions return a substring in a string. Some of them are discussed below:

Left()

The Left() function, returns the substring from the left side of the string. The function takes two mandatory arguments i.e. input_string and number. 

Syntax of the function: Left(input_string, number)

input_string: It is the first argument of the Left() function. It is the input string, for which the left substring has to be returned. 

number: It is the second argument of the Left() function. It tells the number of characters to be returned from the left start of the string. 

For example, consider a string “Coding”, a left substring of length two can be returned using Left(“Coding”, 2). The final output of the str is “Co”.

Left()

Right()

The Right() function, returns the substring from the right side of the string. The function takes two mandatory arguments i.e. input_string and number.

Syntax of the function: Right(input_string, number)

input_string: It is the first argument of the Right() function. It is the input string, for which the right substring has to be returned. 

number: It is the second argument of the Right() function. It tells the number of characters to be returned from the right start of the string. 

For example, consider a string “Coding”, a right substring of length two can be returned using Right(“Coding”, 2). The final output of the str is “ng”.

Right()

Mid()

The Mid() function, returns a substring of any size a user wants. The function takes three mandatory arguments i.e. input_string, number1, and number2.

Syntax of the function: Mid(input_string, number1, number2)

input_string: It is the first argument of the Mid() function. It is the input string, for which the substring has to be returned. 

number1: It is the second argument of the Mid() function. It tells the starting index of the substring. 

number2: It is the third argument of the Mid() function. It tells the number of characters of the substring. 

For example, consider a string “Coding”, and we need to return a substring “odi”. This can be achieved using the Mid(“Coding”, 2, 3) function. 

Note: 1-based indexing of string has been considered in the Mid() function. 

Mid()

Length and Position

Len() 

The Len() function, returns the length of the string. The function takes one mandatory argument i.e. input_string. 

Syntax of the function: Len(input_string)

input_string: It is the first argument of the Len() function. It is the input string, for which the length has to be returned.

For example, consider a string “Coding”, the length of the string can be achieved by using Len(“Coding”). The final output of the program is 6. 

Len()

InStr()

The InStr() function, returns the first position of a substring in the string. The function takes three mandatory arguments i.e. number1, input_string, and string. 

Syntax of the function: InStr(number1, input_string, string)

number1: It is the first argument of the InStr() function. This number tells the position of the start of the search in the input_string. 

input_string: It is the second argument of the InStr() function. It is the input string, in which the search has to be made. 

string: It is the third argument of the InStr() function. It is the string that has to be searched in the input_string. 

For example, consider a string “Coding”, the start of the search is from index 1 i.e. character ‘C’, and the substring to be searched is “o”. This could be achieved using InStr(1, “Coding”, “o”). The final output of the program is 2. 

InStr()

Conclusion

The article discussed about VBA strings in Excel covering about strings declaration to string manipulation and how to use functions in VBA. Other than above discussed there are other functions also. VBA strings in excel are useful in efficient data handling, manipulation and also inhances spreadsheet functionality. These help in performing various jobs easily without doing everything manually especially if the sheet contains large amount of data. These also helps in error handling by reducing the chances of errors to occur.

FAQs on VBA Strings in Excel

What is VBA String in Excel?

A VBA string in Excel refers to a sequence of characters, such as letters, numbers, symbols, or a combination thereof. It’s a data type used to store and manipulate textual information within VBA macros.

How are Strings declared in VBA?

Strings are declared in VBA using the “Dim” keyword followed by the variable name and the data type “String”. For example:

Dim text As String

Can a VBA string hold numbers or symbols?

Yes, a VBA string can hold not only letters but also numbers, symbols, and any other characters. It’s a versatile data type for storing various forms of text-based information.

What is the Maximum length of a VBA string?

In VBA, the maximum length of a string is approximately 2 billion characters. However, it’s important to not that extremely long strings may impact performance and memory usage.

What’s the difference between a VBA string and a VBA variable of other types?

While strings hold-based data, other VBA variable types like integers or doubles store numeric values. Strings are versatile for handling textual information, making them ideal for tasks involving text manipulation, data processing, and more.