Declaring and naming a variable

[ExcelAteMyHomework]

I read that you can declare and name your variable in the same line. However I keep getting a "Compile Error: Expected: End of Statement" error when I hit enter.

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The Compile error highlights the "=" sign.

Why is that?

[MarvinP]

Perhaps your book is saying this?

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[protonLeah]

If you know that anInteger will never change then:
Const AnInteger=42
However if AnInteger is a variable which may assume different values during the program then:
Dim AnInteger as Integer


then load it with a starting value:
AnInteger=42

[tigeravatar]

ExcelAteMyHomework,

In Visual Basic.NET you can declare a variable and assign it a value on a single line as you've shown. In Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that is not the case (unless it is a constant declared with Const as portonLeah pointed out). There is a workaround that MarvinP has shown though. The colon ( : ) symbol is being used to tell the compiler that the Dim line is complete, and that any remaining text should be treated as a new line.

[Richard Buttrey]

Hi,

True to a point.

Dim anInteger As Integer : anInteger = 42

Although I personally don't consider that as 'the same line'

[ExcelAteMyHomework]

ExcelAteMyHomework,

In Visual Basic.NET you can declare a variable and assign it a value on a single line as you've shown. In Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that is not the case (unless it is a constast declared with Const as portonLeah pointed out). There is a workaround that MarvinP has shown though. The colon ( symbol is being used to tell the compiler that the Dim line is complete, and that any remaining text should be treated as a new line.

Thank you so much. I'm really trying to learn this thing and I wont give up! I guess it would help if I learned what I was working in first!

Thanks to MarvinP and Proton for responding as well.

[MarvinP]

I agree with Richard and prefer not to use the colon separate. BUT it did get it onto the same line as suggested.

Read a little of http://www.cpearson.com/excel/declaringvariables.aspx to see how using commas in a DIM line is confusing.