Dim

Dim exists for Visual Basic compatibility only. Use Var instead.

Language Keyword

Creates a local variable or array with the name and size (in the case of an array) and data type specified.

Usage

The Dim statement has two forms:

Dim variableName [,variableNameN] As [ New ] dataType [= InitialValue]

Part	Type	Description
variableName	Variable name	The name of the new variable.
variableNameN	Variable name	Optional. The names of other variables you wish to create with the same data type. Each name should be separated with a comma. If you use the optional New operator, then you cannot declare more than one variable in a single Dim statement. Declare the variables in one statement and instantiate them in separate statements or declare and instantiate the variables in separate Dim statements.
dataType	Data type or class	The data type or class of the variable being declared.
InitialValue	Same type as dataType	Initial value for variableName. InitialValue can be a literal, a constant, or an Enumeration. If you declare more than one variable in the Dim statement and pass an initial value, then all of the variables being declared get that value.

Dim arrayName(size [,size2,...sizeN]) As dataType

Part	Type	Description
arrayName	Variable name	The name of the new array.
size	Integer	The upper bound of the array. Size must be a number or a constant.
sizeN	Integer	Optional. The upper bound of the next dimension of the array if you are creating a multi-dimensional array. You pass as many size parameters as dimensions in the array. The size parameters must be numbers or constants.
dataType	Data type or class	The data type or class of the array.

Notes

In the first syntax, the Dim statement is used to create new variables. Variable names can be any length but must begin with a letter and can contain only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) or an underscore. A user-defined variable cannot begin with an underscore. You can, however, use Unicode characters in variable names. Variable names are case-insensitive so x and X are considered the same variable.

A variable is an object stored in RAM that can hold a value. In the second syntax, the Dim statement is used to create a new array of the size specified. An array is simply a variable that can contain multiple values that are all the same data type. Passing more than one size parameter creates a multi-dimensional array, with the number of dimensions equal to the number of size parameters passed.

You can optionally provide an initial value to a variable declared with a Dim statement. Here are some examples:

Dim a As Integer = 5
Dim b As Double = 87.87
Dim s As String = "Howdy"
Dim c As Color = &cFF4B51
Dim myAttributes() As Introspection.AttributeInfo = Introspection.GetType(Window1).GetAttributes

The following statement initializes three variables to an initial value:

Dim x, y, z As Integer = 10

After the statement, all three variables have the same initial value.

If the data type is an object, you can optionally instantiate the object with the New keyword in the Dim statement.This code declares and instantiates a Date object.

Dim d As New Date
MsgBox(d.ShortDate)

Otherwise, you need a second line of code to instantiate the variable, d, as in the following:

Dim d As Date
d = New Date
MsgBox(d.ShortDate)

If you use the New keyword, then you cannot declare more than one variable in a single Dim statement.

If the call to the object's constructor takes parameters, you can pass the parameters as well. Here is an example:

Dim mb As New FolderItem("file.txt")

You can use a constant or an enum as an initial value. Suppose you add a global constant, InitialValue=-1, in a module. You than can dimension a variable with the statement:

Dim testConstant As Integer = InitialValue

Suppose you add a global enum named "SecurityLevel" in a module with values None, Minimum, Maximum, and Forced. You can then use any of the enums in a declaration statement such as:

Dim testEnum As Integer = SecurityLevel.Maximum

The Dim statement can be placed anywhere in a method or function, including inside a conditional structure (an If or Case statement).

Variables created with the Dim statement are local in scope. This means that they are created each time the method is called and are destroyed when the method is finished. The value of a local variable can be accessed only from within the method.

Arrays

Arrays are created by specifying the size. All arrays are indexed starting at position 0. Arrays can have a maximum index value of 2,147,483,646.

This creates an array with 5 elements:

Dim aNames(4) As String

Array indices start at 0, so the above array can contain values in index 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4:

aNames(0) = "Bob"
aNames(2) = "Tom"

If you don't know the size of the array you need at the time you declare it, you can declare it as a null array, i.e., an array with no elements, and use the Redim command to resize it later. You do this by giving it an index of -1 or by leaving the parentheses empty. This means "an array of no elements." For example, the statement:

Dim aNames (-1) As String

creates the array aNames with no elements. If your program needs to load a list of names that the user enters, you can wait to size the array until you know how many names the user has entered. You can also accomplish this by leaving out the -1. The following statement is equivalent:

Dim aNames() As String

You can also use a constant to specify the array size:

Const size = 3
Dim aNames(size)

When you assign values to an array variable, such as with the Split function, you don't need to know the number of elements ahead of time.

You can also assign an array to another array. For example, the following is valid:

Dim myArray(3) As String
Dim newArray() As String
myArray(0) = "Anthony"
myArray(1) = "Aardvark"
myArray(2) = "Accountant"
newArray() = myArray //newArray set equal to myArray

Multi-dimensional Arrays

Multi-dimensional arrays require some special treatment, and most of the usual array functions are not supported.

To create a 2D array:

Dim my2Darray( -1,-1 ) As String

You cannot Dim a multidimensional array with a variable, but you can do the following:

Dim numberOfRows As Integer = someOtherArray.Ubound
Dim my2Darray( -1,-1 ) As String
Redim my2Darray(NumberOfRows, 9)

To pass a multi-dimensional array to a method you use the following in the method declaration:

Sub MyMethod(param(,) As String)

Dim vs. Static

The Static statement provides an alternative to Dim. Static creates a local variable or local array with the name and size (in the case of an array) and data type specified. A variable declared with the Static statement and assigned a value retains its value from one invocation of the method to the next. In contrast, variables declared with the Dim statement are completely local to the method and are destroyed when each invocation of the method goes out of scope.

Sample Code

This example uses the Dim statement to create an integer variable called "age" and assigns it the value 33.

Dim age As Integer
age = 33

This example uses the Dim statement to create two String variables.

Dim FirstName, LastName As String

This example uses the Dim statement to create an array called aNames with 11 elements (remember, arrays have a zero element).

Dim aNames(10) As String

This example uses the Dim statement to create an array called aNames with one element.

Dim aNames(0) As String

This example uses the Dim statement to create a two-dimensional array called aNames with 11 rows and 4 columns.

Dim aNames(10, 3) As String

Dim

From Xojo Documentation