User FAQs

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1) Should I use Integer or Long ?
There is no performance advantage to using Integer variables.
VBA converts all Integer values to Long values, even if they are declared with the data type Integer.
Using the Long data type might actually be slightly faster because there is no automatic conversion.

Dim iCounter As Integer 
Dim lCounter As Long 

2) Can you describe the Byte data type ?
The Byte data type is used to store positive integer numbers.
The range is 0 to 255.
The size of this data type is 1 byte (8 bits).

Dim myByte As Byte 
myByte = 0 
myByte = 255 

3) Can you describe the Integer data type ?
The Integer data type is used to store integer numbers.
The range is -32,768 to 32,767.
The maximum value is (2^15) - 1 = 32767.
The size of this data type is 2 bytes (16 bits).

Dim myInteger As Integer 
myInteger = -32768 
myInteger = 32767 

4) Can you describe the Long data type ?
The Long data type is used to store integer numbers.
The range is -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
The maximum value is (2^31) - 1 = 2147483647.
The size of this data type is 4 bytes (32 bits).

Dim myLong As Long 
myLong = -2147483648 
myLong = 2147483647 

5) Can you describe the Single data type ?
The Single data type is used to store single precision floating point real numbers.
This can hold large numbers but with very little precision up to 7 significant figures.
The smallest value is -3.402823 E+38.
The largest value is 3.402823 E+38.
The size of this data type is 4 bytes (32 bits).

Dim mySingle As Single 
mySingle = -3.402823E+38 
mySingle = 3.402823E+38 

6) Can you describe the Double data type ?
The Double data type is used to store double precision floating point real numbers.
This can hold very large numbers with good precision up to 15 significant figures.
The smallest value is -1.79769313486231 E+308.
The largest value is 1.79769313486231 E+308.
The size of this data type is 8 bytes (64 bits).

Dim myDouble As Double 
myDouble = -1.79769313486231E+308 
myDouble = 1.79769313486231E+308 

7) Can you describe how to create a Variant/Decimal data type ?
The Variant data type has a special sub type called Variant/Decimal that can hold very large numbers.

Dim myDecimal As Variant 
myDecimal = CDec("36.78") 

8) Can you describe the Currency data type ?
The Currency is used to store fixed point real numbers (and is faster than Single because it does not use the floating point processor). Avoid using floating-point data types.
This has 15 digits to the left of the decimal point and 4 digits to the right.
The smallest value is -922,337,203,685,477.
The largest value is 922,337,203,685,477.
The size of this data type is 8 bytes (64 bits).

Dim myCurrency As Currency 
myCurrency = -922337203685447 
myCurrency = 922337203685447 

9) What is the difference between Fixed Point and Single/Double Floating Point ?
Both are represented in binary (base 2).
Floating point data types support fewer significant digits than fixed point data types (decimal) but can represent larger or smaller numbers.