Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition

Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition
MsgBox Function | Language Reference
| Home | Site Map |

See Also

Description

Displays a message in a dialog box, waits for the user to choose a button, and returns a value indicating which button the user has chosen.

Syntax

MsgBox(prompt[, buttons][, title][, helpfile, context])

The MsgBox function syntax has these arguments:

Part Description

prompt String expression displayed as the message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is approximately 1024 characters, depending on the width of the characters used. If prompt consists of more than one line, you can separate the lines using either a carriage return character (Chr(13)), a linefeed character (Chr(10)), or carriage return-linefeed character combination (Chr(13)& Chr(10)) between each line.

buttons Numeric expression that is the sum of values specifying the number and type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality of the message box. If omitted, the default value for buttons is 0.

title String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If you omit title, the application name is placed in the title bar.

helpfile String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive Help for the dialog box. If helpfile is provided, context must also be provided. Not available on 16-bit platforms.

context Numeric expression that is the Help context number the Help author assigned to the appropriate Help topic. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided. Not available on 16-bit platforms.

Settings

The buttons argument settings are:

Value Description

0 Display OK button only.

1 Display OK and Cancel buttons.

2 Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons.

3 Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons.

4 Display Yes and No buttons.

5 Display Retry and Cancel buttons.

16 Display Critical Message icon.

32 Display Warning Query icon.

48 Display Warning Message icon.

64 Display Information Message icon.

0 First button is default.

256 Second button is default.

512 Third button is default.

768 Fourth button is default.

0 Application modal; the user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application.

4096 System modal; all applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box.

The first group of values (0ס) describes the number and type of buttons displayed in the dialog box; the second group (16, 32, 48, 64) describes the icon style; the third group (0, 256, 512, 768) determines which button is the default; and the fourth group (0, 4096) determines the modality of the message box. When adding numbers to create a final value for the argument buttons, use only one number from each group.

Return Values

Value Button chosen

1 OK

2 Cancel

3 Abort

4 Retry

5 Ignore

6 Yes

7 No

Remarks

When both helpfile and context are provided, the user can press F1 to view the Help topic corresponding to the context.
If the dialog box displays a Cancel button, pressing the ESC key has the same effect as choosing Cancel. If the dialog box contains a Help button, context-sensitive Help is provided for the dialog box. However, no value is returned until one of the other buttons is chosen.

Part	Description
prompt	String expression displayed as the message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is approximately 1024 characters, depending on the width of the characters used. If prompt consists of more than one line, you can separate the lines using either a carriage return character (Chr(13)), a linefeed character (Chr(10)), or carriage return-linefeed character combination (Chr(13)& Chr(10)) between each line.
buttons	Numeric expression that is the sum of values specifying the number and type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality of the message box. If omitted, the default value for buttons is 0.
title	String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If you omit title, the application name is placed in the title bar.
helpfile	String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive Help for the dialog box. If helpfile is provided, context must also be provided. Not available on 16-bit platforms.
context	Numeric expression that is the Help context number the Help author assigned to the appropriate Help topic. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided. Not available on 16-bit platforms.

Value	Description
0	Display OK button only.
1	Display OK and Cancel buttons.
2	Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons.
3	Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons.
4	Display Yes and No buttons.
5	Display Retry and Cancel buttons.
16	Display Critical Message icon.
32	Display Warning Query icon.
48	Display Warning Message icon.
64	Display Information Message icon.
0	First button is default.
256	Second button is default.
512	Third button is default.
768	Fourth button is default.
0	Application modal; the user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application.
4096	System modal; all applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box.

Value	Button chosen
1	OK
2	Cancel
3	Abort
4	Retry
5	Ignore
6	Yes
7	No