Len Function Example

The first example uses Len to return the number of characters in a string or the number of bytes required to store a variable. The Type...End Type block defining CustomerRecord must be preceded by the keyword Private if it appears in a class module. In a standard module, a Type statement can be Public.

Type CustomerRecord    ' Define user-defined type.
    ID As Integer    ' Place this definition in a 
    Name As String * 10    ' standard module.
    Address As String * 30
End Type

Dim Customer As CustomerRecord    ' Declare variables.
Dim MyInt As Integer, MyCur As Currency
Dim MyString, MyLen
MyString = "Hello World"    ' Initialize variable.
MyLen = Len(MyInt)    ' Returns 2.
MyLen = Len(Customer)    ' Returns 42.
MyLen = Len(MyString)    ' Returns 11.
MyLen = Len(MyCur)    ' Returns 8.

The second example uses LenB and a user-defined function (LenMbcs) to return the number of byte characters in a string if ANSI is used to represent the string.

Function LenMbcs (ByVal str as String)
    LenMbcs = LenB(StrConv(str, vbFromUnicode))
End Function

Dim MyString, MyLen
MyString = "ABc"
' Where "A" and "B" are DBCS and "c" is SBCS.
MyLen = Len(MyString)
' Returns 3 - 3 characters in the string.
MyLen = LenB(MyString)
' Returns 6 - 6 bytes used for Unicode.
MyLen = LenMbcs(MyString)
' Returns 5 - 5 bytes used for ANSI.