Full List

The following table lists all the functions that return a string data type.

Function	Description
CHR$	Returns the character with the corresponding ANSI number (String).
CHRB$	Returns the character with the corresponding ANSI number (String).
CHRW$	Returns the character with the corresponding ANSI number (String).
COMMAND$	Returns the argument portion of the command line used to launch the application (String).
CURDIR$	Returns the current path of a given drive (String).
DATE$	Returns the current system date (String).
DIR$	Returns the name of a file or directory matching a pattern or attribute (String).
ENVIRON$	Returns information about the current operating system environment (String).
ERROR$	Returns the error message corresponding to a given error number (String).
FORMAT$	Returns the text string of a number or date in a particular format (String).
HEX$	Returns the number converted to hexadecimal (String).
INPUT$	Reads a number of characters from a file (String).
INSTR$	Returns the position of a substring within a larger string (Long).
LCASE$	Returns the text string with all characters converted to lowercase (String).
LEFT$	Returns a number of characters from the left of a string (String).
LEFTB$	Returns a number of characters from the left of a string (String).
LTRIM$	Returns the text string without leading spaces (String).
MID$	Returns the text string which is a substring of a larger string (String).
MIDB$	Returns the text string which is a substring of a larger string (String).
OCT$	Returns the number converted to octal (Variant).
REPLACE$	Returns the text string with a number of characters replaced (String).
RIGHT$	Returns the number of characters from the right of a text string (String).
RIGHTB$	Returns the number of characters from the right of a text string (String).
RTRIM$	Returns the text string without trailing spaces (String).
SPACE$	Returns the specified number of spaces (String).
STR$	Returns the text string of a number (String).
STRCOMP$	Returns the result of a string comparison (Integer).
STRING$	Returns a repeating character of a given length (String).
TRIM$	Returns the text string removing leading and trailing spaces (String).
UCASE$	Returns the text string with all the characters converted to uppercase (String).

Exceptions - DATE$

The Date function should always be used because the Date$ function doesn't behave correctly.
The Date$ always returns information in mm-dd-yyyy format regardless of the Windows localization settings, whereas the Date function uses the localization settings.

Exceptions - REPLACE$

The Replace function always creates a copy of the input string, even if no replacement occurs.
Making a copy of the input string is a slow operation and should be avoided if possible.
If a replacement is unlikely, check first (with InStr or InStrB) and only use the Replace function when absolutely necessary.
If a replacement is likely or certain to occur then just use the Replace function (no need to check first).

Dim sText As String 
Dim sToBeReplaced As String 
If InStr(sText, sToBeReplaced) <> 0 Then 
  sText = Replace(sText, sToBeReplaced, "abc") 
End If

Because this function always makes a copy of the input string there is no difference between Replace and Replace$.

FORMAT

Because you will always want to use the FORMAT function to create a string containing a date, you should never use the DATE$ function.
Do not allow a variable of type Date to be implicitly converted into a string. In both cases use the FORMAT$ function to explicitly convert the date into a string