How To Use an Ampersand (&) to Suppress Sign Extension (138520)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation Edition for Windows 5.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows 5.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 5.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 5.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0

This article was previously published under Q138520

SUMMARY

Adding an ampersand (&) character to the end of a Hexadecimal number will ensure that it is not sign extended. This can be useful when an unsigned constant must be passed to a routine and the magnitude of the constant is greater than or equal to 32,768 (&H8000 in Hexadecimal). If the ampersand is not placed on the end of the constants, Visual Basic assumes that the numbers are sign extended.

MORE INFORMATION

The following example illustrates the effect of an ampersand on a Hexadecimal constant:

Start a new project in Visual Basic. In the default form (Form1), place the following code in the Click event for the form:

      Private Sub Form_Click()
         Dim j As Long
         j = &H8000
         Debug.Print j
         j = &H8000&
         Debug.Print j
      End Sub

Run the code by pressing the F5 key. The Debug window shows the output as -32,768 followed by 32,768 indicating that the ampersand does suppress the sign.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	7/13/2004
Keywords:	kbhowto kbprogramming KB138520