Text Concatenation Causes Error in Visual Basic Module (106500)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel for Windows 95
  • Microsoft Excel for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh 5.0
This article was previously published under Q106500

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, if you attempt to concatenate a text variable and a string without inserting a space after the variable, you may receive the following error message:
Expected: To or list separator or )

MORE INFORMATION

In general, when you use spaces in Visual Basic code, these spaces do not affect the meaning of the code. However, if you enter the following code 
   Text="is a"
   MsgBox("This "&Text&" Test")
and you leave out a space between the variable name "Text" and the ampersand (&), you will receive the error message:
Expected: To or list separator or )
This error occurs because when an ampersand appears after a variable name, it is interpreted as a type-declaration character. In this example, the ampersand after the variable name "Text" indicates that Text is being declared as a Long data type. When the ampersand is interpreted this way, the rest of the line of code does not make sense. When you insert a space between the text variable and the ampersand, the ampersand character is recognized as the text concatenation operator and the error is eliminated.

You can also use the plus sign (+) for text concatenation as in the following example: 
   Text="is a"
   MsgBox("This " + Text + " Test")
In the above example, spaces are added automatically.

REFERENCES

For more information about type-declaration characters, in Visual Basic Help, choose the Search button and type:

type-declaration characters

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/11/2006
Keywords:kbProgramming KB106500
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