Using Assignment Expressions

An assignment expression is a VBA instruction that evaluates an expression and assigns the result to a variable or an object. An expression is a combination of keywords, operators, variables, and constants that yields a string, number, or object. An expression can perform a calculation, manipulate characters, or test data.

If you know how to create formulas in Excel, you'll have no trouble creating expressions in VBA. With a worksheet formula, Excel displays the result in a cell. Similarly, you can assign a VBA expression to a variable or use it as a property value.

VBA uses the equal sign (=) as its assignment operator. Note the following examples of assignment statements. (The expressions are to the right of the equal sign.)

 x = 1 x = x + 1 x = (y * 2) / (z * 2) MultiSheets = True 

Expressions often use functions. These can be VBA's built-in functions, Excel's worksheet functions, or custom functions that you develop in VBA. I discuss VBA's built-in functions later in this chapter.

Operators play a major role in VBA. Familiar operators describe mathematical operations, including addition (+), multiplication (*), division (/), subtraction (–), exponentiation (∘), and string concatenation (&). Less familiar operators are the backslash (\) that's used in integer division and also the Mod operator that's used in modulo arithmetic. The Mod operator returns the remainder of one integer divided by another. For example, the following expression returns 2:

 17 Mod 3 

You may be familiar with the Excel MOD function. Note that in VBA, Mod is an operator, not a function.

VBA also supports the same comparative operators used in Excel formulas: Equal to (=), greater than (>), less than (<), greater than or equal to (>=), less than or equal to (<=), and not equal to (<>). Additionally, VBA provides a full set of logical operators, as shown in Table 24-2. Refer to the online help for additional information and examples of these operators.

Table 24-2: VBA LOGICAL OPERATORS
Open table as spreadsheet

Operator	What It Does
Not	Performs a logical negation on an expression
And	Performs a logical conjunction on two expressions
Or	Performs a logical disjunction on two expressions
Xor	Performs a logical exclusion on two expressions
Eqv	Performs a logical equivalence on two expressions
Imp	Performs a logical implication on two expressions

The order of precedence for operators in VBA exactly matches that in Excel. Of course, you can add parentheses to change the natural order of precedence.