Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition Dim Statement |
Language Reference Version 1 |
Declares variables and allocates storage space.
Dim varname[([subscripts])][, varname[([subscripts])]] . . .The Dim statement syntax has these parts:
Part Description varname Name of the variable; follows standard variable naming conventions. subscripts Dimensions of an array variable; up to 60 multiple dimensions may be declared. The subscripts argument uses the following syntax: upperbound [,upperbound] . . .
The lower bound of an array is always zero.
Variables declared with Dim at the script level are available to all procedures within the script. At the procedure level, variables are available only within the procedure.You can also use the Dim statement with empty parentheses to declare a dynamic array. After declaring a dynamic array, use the ReDim statement within a procedure to define the number of dimensions and elements in the array. If you try to redeclare a dimension for an array variable whose size was explicitly specified in a Dim statement, an error occurs.
When variables are initialized, a numeric variable is initialized to 0 and a string is initialized to a zero-length string ("").
Tip When you use the Dim statement in a procedure, you generally put the Dim statement at the beginning of the procedure. The following examples illustrate the use of the Dim statement:
Dim Names(9) ' Declare an array with 10 elements. Dim Names() ' Declare a dynamic array Dim MyVar, MyNum ' Declare two variables