-Operator

Description

Used to find the difference between two numbers or to indicate the negative value of a numeric expression.

Syntax 1

result = number1-number2

Syntax 2

-number

The - operator syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
result	Any numeric variable.
number	Any numeric expression.
number1	Any numeric expression.
number2	Any numeric expression.

Remarks

In Syntax 1, the - operator is the arithmetic subtraction operator used to find the difference between two numbers. In Syntax 2, the - operator is used as the unary negation operator to indicate the negative value of an expression.

The data type of result is usually the same as that of the most precise expression. The order of precision, from least to most precise, is Byte, Integer, Long, Single, Double, Currency. The following are exceptions to this order:

When subtraction involves a Single and a Long, the data type of result is converted to a Double.
When the data type of result is a Long, Single, or Date variant that overflows its legal range, result is converted to a Variant containing a Double.
When the data type of result is a Byte variant that overflows its legal range, result is converted to an Integer variant.
When the data type of result is an Integer variant that overflows its legal range, result is converted to a Long variant.
When subtraction involves a Date and any other data type, the data type of result is a Date.
When subtraction involves two Date expressions, the data type of result is Double.

Note The order of precision used by addition and subtraction is not the same as the order of precision used by multiplication.

If one or both expressions are Null expressions, result is Null. If an expression is Empty, it is treated as if it were 0.

Example

This example uses the - operator to calculate the difference between two numbers.