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Val function

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Returns the numbers contained in a string as a numeric value of appropriate type.

Syntax

Val(string)

The required string argument is any valid string expression.

Remarks

The Val function stops reading the string at the first character that it can't recognize as part of a number. Symbols and characters that are often considered parts of numeric values, such as dollar signs and commas, are not recognized.

However, the function recognizes the radix prefixes &O (for octal) and &H (for hexadecimal). Blanks, tabs, and linefeed characters are stripped from the argument.

The following returns the value 1615198:

Val("    1615 198th Street N.E.")

In the following code, Val returns the decimal value -1 for the hexadecimal value shown:

Val("&HFFFF")

Note

The Val function recognizes only the period ( . ) as a valid decimal separator. When different decimal separators are used, as in international applications, use CDbl instead to convert a string to a number.

Example

This example uses the Val function to return the numbers contained in a string.

Dim MyValue
MyValue = Val("2457")    ' Returns 2457.
MyValue = Val(" 2 45 7")    ' Returns 2457.
MyValue = Val("24 and 57")    ' Returns 24.

Note

The Val function recognizes deprecated data type suffixes prior to conversion and may result in a type mismatch error. For example, fifty percent represented as the string "50%" will convert as expected to 50 but Val("50.5%") will raise an error because the percentage symbol is seen as a suffix to declare the Data Type as an Integer, which it is not in this case. The full list of data type suffixes comprises Single ( ! ), Currency ( @ ), Double ( # ), String ( $ ), Integer ( % ), Long ( & ) and LongLong ( ^ ) for 64-bit hosts.

See also

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