In this lesson, we will learn how to use some of the string manipulation function such as Len, Right, Left, Mid, Trim, Ltrim, Rtrim, Ucase, Lcase, Instr, Val, Str ,Chr and Asc.
(i)The Len Function
The length function returns an integer value which is the length of a phrase or a sentence, including the empty spaces. The format is
Len (“Phrase”)
For example,
Len (VisualBasic) = 11 and Len (welcome to VB tutorial) = 22
The Len function can also return the number of digits or memory locations of a number that is stored in the computer. For example,
Private sub Form_Activate ( )
X=sqr (16)
Y=1234
Z#=10#
Print Len(x), Len(y), and Len (z)
End Sub
The above example will produce the output 1, 4 , 8. The reason why the last value is 8 is because z# is a double precision number and so it is allocated more memory spaces.
(ii) The Right Function
The Right function extracts the right portion of a phrase. The format is
Right (“Phrase”, n)
Where n is the starting position from the right of the phrase where the portion of the phrase is going to be extracted. For example,
Right(“Visual Basic”, 4) = asic
(iii)The Left Function
The Left$ function extract the left portion of a phrase. The format is
Left(“Phrase”, n)
Where n is the starting position from the left of the phase where the portion of the phrase is going to be extracted. For example,
Left (“Visual Basic”, 4) = Visu
(iv) The Ltrim Function
The Ltrim function trims the empty spaces of the left portion of the phrase. The format is
Ltrim(“Phrase”)
.For example,
Ltrim (“ Visual Basic”, 4)= Visual basic
(v) The Rtrim Function
The Rtrim function trims the empty spaces of the right portion of the phrase. The format is
Rtrim(“Phrase”)
.For example,
Rtrim (“Visual Basic ”, 4) = Visual basic
(vi)The Trim function
The Trim function trims the empty spaces on both side of the phrase. The format is
Trim(“Phrase”)
.For example,
Trim (“ Visual Basic ”) = Visual basic
(vii) The Mid Function
The Mid function extracts a substring from the original phrase or string. It takes the following format:
Mid(phrase, position, n)
Where position is the starting position of the phrase from which the extraction process will start and n is the number of characters to be extracted. For example,
Mid(“Visual Basic”, 3, 6) = ual Bas
viii) The InStr function
The InStr function looks for a phrase that is embedded within the original phrase and returns the starting position of the embedded phrase. The format is
Instr (n, original phase, embedded phrase)
Where n is the position where the Instr function will begin to look for the embedded phrase. For example
Instr(1, “Visual Basic”,” Basic”)=8
(ix) The Ucase and the Lcase functions
The Ucase function converts all the characters of a string to capital letters. On the other hand, the Lcase function converts all the characters of a string to small letters. For example,
Ucase(“Visual Basic”) =VISUAL BASIC
Lcase(“Visual Basic”) =visual basic
(x) The Str and Val functions
The Str is the function that converts a number to a string while the Val function converts a string to a number. The two functions are important when we need to perform mathematical operations.
(xi) The Chr and the Asc functions
The Chr function returns the string that corresponds to an ASCII code while the Asc function converts an ASCII character or symbol to the corresponding ASCII code. ASCII stands for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”. Altogether there are 255 ASCII codes and as many ASCII characters. Some of the characters may not be displayed as they may represent some actions such as the pressing of a key or produce a beep sound. The format of the Chr function is
Chr(charcode)
and the format of the Asc function is
Asc(Character)
The following are some examples:
Chr(65)=A, Chr(122)=z, Chr(37)=% , Asc(“B”)=66, Asc(“&”)=38