Converting Numbers to Strings

Summary: VBA is great at working with both strings and numbers. At some point you may have a number you need to convert to a string. This is easy enough to do using the Str function, described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

You already know that you can use variables in your macros and that there are two very basic types of variables: string variables (containing characters) and numeric variables (containing numeric values). You can quickly and easily convert a number into a string. This is done with the Str() function. The syntax for using this function is:

A = Str(B)

In this syntax, if B is a numeric value equal to 5, then when completed, the string in A will be " 5"; if B is -4, then A would be "-4". Notice the leading space when converting positive numbers. This may not provide satisfactory results for some subroutines. Instead, you should create a function that returns a stripped-down version of the string. The following function does just that:

Function ToNum(X as Variant) as String
    Dim A as String

    A = Ltrim(Str(X))
    ToNum = A
End Function

The reason that the value passed to the function (X) is defined as a Variant is that you can then pass any type of numeric value.

Tip #1093 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Converting Numbers to Strings