VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language

StrComp Function

Named Arguments

Yes

Syntax

StrComp(string1, string2[, compare])

string1

Use: Required

Data Type: String

Any string expression

string2

Use: Required

Data Type: String

Any string expression

compare

Use: Optional

Data Type: Integer constant

The type of string comparison to perform.

Return Value

A Variant of subtype Integer.

Description

Determines whether two strings are equal and, if not, which of two strings has the greater value.

Rules at a Glance

• The following intrinsic constants are available to use as the settings for the compare argument:

  Constant	Value	Comparison to perform
  vbBinaryCompare	0	Binary (default)
  vbTextCompare	1	Textual
  vbDatabase	2	Database (Microsoft Access only)

• If compare isn't specified, the setting of Option Compare (if present) determines the type of comparison performed.

• This table describes the possible return values from the StrComp function:

  Scenario	Return Value
  string1 < string2	–1
  string1 = string2	0
  string1 > string2	1
  string1 or string2 is Null	Null

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• If you just need to know if string1 is greater than string2 (or vice versa), couldn't you simply use the < or > comparison operators? When you're dealing with strings of characters, Visual Basic sees each character as a number. Simply using the comparison operators therefore compares the numerical value of one string with the other. Take this scenario:

  Dim sString1 As String
  Dim sString2 As String
  
  sString1 = "hello world"
  sString2 = "HELLO WORLD"

  Subjectively, ...