Variables and Data Types in Excel VBA

Variables can store the information required to use in our programming. When we are working with data we deal with different type of data,so we need required different types of variables to store the data. In this session will discuss how to declare a variable and different types of variables available in VBA.

How to Declare a Variable

We need to use Dim or Dimension statement to declare a variable in VBA as shown below:

Dim <Variable Name> as  <Data Type>

Variable Name: Name of the variable which we want to declare, follow the following rules while choosing a variable name:

1. 1. It must be less than 255 characters
2. 2. Blank Spaces and special characters are not allowed
3. 3. It must not begin with a number (it should begin with a character or an underscore)
4. 4. You can not use reserved keywords:

Some Valid Example of Variable Names:

intSal
Company_Salary
int_Salary
Sal_Dept_88

Some Invalid Example of Variable Names:

int Sal
Company&Salary
int.Salary
88Sal_Dept

Tip! Variable name should convince the data and data type, so that user can quickly understand the variable

Data Type: We can devide the data types in to 2 parts for our understanding purpose.

1. Numeric Type:

The following are the data types to deal with numeric data (byte type data,integer data,double data ,etc…)

2. Non-Numeric Type

The following are the data types to deal with non-numeric data (string type data,date type data,time type data ,etc…)

And the variant data type will accept any type of data:

Variables and Data Types in Excel VBA – Example Programs

• » Example to add two integers
• » Accepts the user name and show it in the message box

The following example adds two integers:

Sub sbAddTwoValues()

'Variable Declaration
    Dim intValuA As Integer
    Dim intValuB As Integer
    Dim intValuSum As Integer

'Initiating the Values
    intValuA = 5000
    intValuB = 10000

'Calculating the Total
    intValuSum = intValuA + intValuB

'Showing the result in the message box
    MsgBox intValuSum

End Sub

The following example accepts the user name (string) and show it in the message box

Sub sbStringExample()

'Variable Declaration
    Dim strUserName As String
    
 'Accepting the data from the user
 strUserName = InputBox("Enter Your Name")

'Showing it again in the message box
    MsgBox "Hello!" & strUserName

End Sub