String

DIM Var AS String

This datatype represents a variable-length string of characters.

An ASCII string can be easily accessed as an array of characters (strings with a length of one). Array indexes start at zero, so the first character in a string would be at index zero. This is not the case when strings are used in functions. Also, be sure to use the UTF-8 String Functions when working with UTF-8 strings.

When used in String Functions, the first character of a string is numbered one, not zero.

Theoretically, the string can contain null characters (i.e. character whose ASCII code is zero). But as some Gambas functions internally rely on zero-terminated strings, especially the methods of native class having string arguments, you should avoid them as much as possible!

String escape characters

A string constant can contain the following escape characters:

Escape character ASCII equivalent
\n Chr$(13)
\r Chr$(10)
\t Chr$(9)
\b Chr$(8)
\v Chr$(11)
\f Chr$(12)
\e Chr$(27)
\0 Chr$(0)
\" Double quote
\\ Backslash
\xNN Chr$(&HNN)

Examples

PUBLIC sPub AS String ' This string can be used by all subroutines in the same module

PUBLIC SUB Button1_Click()

  DIM sLoc AS String ' This string is local in this subroutine

  sPub = "74zu88"
  sLoc = Mid$(sPub, 3, 2)
  IF sLoc = "zu" THEN PRINT "Expected"

END

' For convenience and readability, exceptionally long strings can be defined on multiple lines.
Dim MyString As String = ""
"Pretend "
"this "
"is "
"a "
"really "
"long "
"string."

Print MyString ' Prints: Pretend this is a really long string.
Pretend this is a really long string.

See also