VBScript Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 5.20, by Dr. Herong Yang

"Variant" - Data Type and Subtypes

This section provides a quick introduction of VBScript data type, Variant, a list of subtypes: byte, integer, long, single, double, currency, string, Boolean, date, object, error, empty, and null.

Interestingly, VBScript has only one data type called "Variant", which can be used store different kinds of data depending on how it is used. This tells us that VBScript is a loosely typed, or dynamically typed, language.

Even every piece of data in VBScript is considered as the same data type, "Variant", it can be grouped into a specific category of data based on its value. These categories of data are called subtypes.

VBScript supports the following 13 data subtypes:

  • Byte: Using 1 byte to express integers ranging from 0 to 255.
  • Integer: Using 2 bytes to express signed integers ranging from -32,768 to 32,767.
  • Long: Using 4 bytes to express signed integers ranging from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
  • Single: Using 4 bytes to express real numbers in floating-point format ranging from -3.402823e38 to -1.401298e-45 for negative values, and from 1.401298e-45 to 3.402823e38 for positive value.
  • Double: Using 8 bytes to express real numbers in floating-point format ranging from -1.79769313486232e308 to -4.94065645841247e-324 for negative values, and from 4.94065645841247e-324 to 1.79769313486232e308 for positive values.
  • Currency: Using 8 bytes to express real numbers in decimal format ranging from -922,337,293,685,477.5808 to 922,337,293,685,477.5807.
  • String: Using 1 byte per character to express a sequence of characters up to approximately 2 billion characters.
  • Boolean: Using 2 bytes to express two Boolean values: True and False.
  • Date: Using 8 bytes to express dates ranging from January 1, 100 to December 31, 9999.
  • Empty: A special subtype to represent a variable that has not been assigned with any value yet.
  • Null: A special subtype to represent a variable assigned with a null value.
  • Object: A special subtype to represent a reference to an object.
  • Error: A special subtype to represent an error number.

See next sections to learn how to use Variant and subtypes.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of VBScript - Visual Basic Scripting Edition

Variant Data Type, Subtypes, and Literals

"Variant" - Data Type and Subtypes

 Data Literals

 Data Literal Examples

 String Data Literals

 Date and Time Data Literals

 Arithmetic Operations

 Numeric Comparison Operations and Logical Operations

 String Operations - Concatenation and Comparison

 Variable Declaration and Assignment Statement

 Expression and Order of Operation Precedence

 Statement Syntax and Statement Types

 Array Data Type and Related Statements

 Array References and Array Assignment Statements

 Conditional Statements - "If ... Then" and "Select Case"

 Loop Statements - "For", "While", and "Do"

 "Function" and "Sub" Procedures

 Built-in Functions

 Inspecting Variables Received in Procedures

 Error Handling Flag and the "Err" Object

 Regular Expression Pattern Match and Replacement

 scrrun.dll - Scripting Runtime DLL Library

 Creating Your Own Classes

 IE Web Browser Supporting VBScript

 IIS ASP Server Supporting VBScript

 WSH (Windows Script Host)

 References

 Printable Copy - PDF Version

"Variant" - Data Type and Subtypes - Updated in 2015, by Dr. Herong Yang