Vbscript data type

VbScript is loosely typed language.

You can use a variant with out define like this:

MyVar = 50 or MyVar = "UserName"

The only one data type in vbscript is Variant.

There are subtypes such as Integer, Long, Single, Double, Currency, Date, String, Boolean, Decimal, Byte, and so on.

You can use VarType() and TypeName() to get data type.

Dim MyVar
MyVar = #04/06/2013 09:45 PM#
MsgBox TypeName(MyVar)

 

The following 3 block will get same result:

Dim MyVar
MyVar = 10
MsgBox TypeName(MyVar)

Dim MyVar
MyVar = CInt("10")
MsgBox TypeName(MyVar)

Dim MyVar
MyVar = "10"
MyVar = CInt(MyVar)
MsgBox TypeName(MyVar)

Theoretically, the first block is faster.

Two implicit type coercion:

Dim myInt
myInt = 100
MsgBox TypeName(myInt)

myInt = myInt + 1000000
msgBox TypeName(myInt)

myInt = myInt + 10000000000
msgBox TypeName(myInt)

 

Dim myInt
myInt = InputBox("Please input your age:")
MsgBox TypeName(myInt)
If IsNumeric(myInt) Then
 myInt = myInt + 20
 MsgBox TypeName(myInt)
 MsgBox "In 20 years, you will be " & myInt & "years old. " & TypeName(myInt)
Else
 MsgBox "Please input a valid number."
End If

 

In order to make our code more clear, we should try to avoid implicit type coercion.
We can add prefix for our variant such as:
var     Variant
str      String
int      Integer
lng     Long
byt      Byte
sng    Single
dbl     Double
cur     Currency
obj     Object
bool   Boolean

We offten can't ascertain the data type of a variant, so we need to know the exact data type before our convert,

because the unsuitable data type convert will result in runtime error.

We can use "Is" function to avoid type mismatch, such as:

IsNumeric()
IsDate()
IsArray()
IsObject()
IsEmpty()
IsNull()

If IsNumeric(20) Then
	MsgBox "pass"
End If

If Not IsNumeric("abc") Then
	MsgBox "not a data"
Else 
	MsgBox "a data"
End If

Only use "&" to connect strings. Only use "+" to add numbers. Don't use "+" to connect strings.

This is a bad demo:

Dim strFirst
Dim intSecond

strFirst = CStr(50)
intSecond = CInt(100)
MsgBox strFirst + intSecond

"Empty" means havn't done initialization

Dim MyVar
MsgBox MyVar
MsgBox CInt(MyVar)
MsgBox CStr(MyVar)

Dim MyVar
MyVar = 20
MyVar = Empty

"Null" means this is not an exact value.
The following demo tell us we get a not exact value from an exact value add with a not exact value.

Dim VarTest
Dim lngTest
VarTest = Null
lngTest = 2+VarTest
MsgBox TypeName(lngTest)

When we get data from data base, if we can't make sure the data is null or not, we can use following code to avoid error cause by null.

strUserName = "" & rsUser.Fields("Name").Value
strNmae = Trim("" & rsUser.Fields("Name").Value)
strNmae = UCase("" & rsUser.Fields("Name").Value)
strNmae = Left("" & rsUser.Fields("Name").Value, 5)