- Operator

Used to find the difference between two numbers or to indicate the negative value of a numeric expression.

Syntax 1

result = number1number2

Syntax 2

number

The - operator syntax has these parts:

Part Description
result

Required; any numeric variable.

number Required; any numeric expression.
number1 Required; any numeric expression.
number2 Required; any numeric expression.

Remarks

In Syntax 1, the – operator is the arithmetic subtraction operator used to find the difference between two numbers.
In Syntax 2, the – operator is used as the unary negation operator to indicate the negative value of an expression.

The data type of result is usually the same as that of the most precise expression. The order of precision, from least to most precise, is Byte, Integer, Long, Single, Double. The following are exceptions to this order:

If Then result is
The data type of result is a Long, Single, or Date variant that overflows its legal range,

converted to a Variant containing a Double.

The data type of result is a Byte variant that overflows its legal range, converted to an Integer variant.
The data type of result is an Integer variant that overflows its legal range, converted to a Long variant.
Subtraction involves a Date and any other data type, a Date.

One or both expressions are Null or Empty expressions, result is 0.

The order of precision used by addition and subtraction is not the same as the order of precision used by multiplication.

Example

This example uses the - operator to calculate the difference between two numbers.

Dim MyResult, Var1
MyResult = 4 - 2 ' Returns 2.
trace MyResult
MyResult = 459.35 - 334.90 ' Returns 124.45.
trace MyResult
Var1 = 5
MyResult = -Var1 ' Returns -5.
trace MyResult

 

See Also

Operators