VBScript in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

Join Function

Syntax

result = Join(sourcearray, [delimiter])

sourcearray

Use: Required

Data Type: Array

Array whose elements are to be concatenated.

delimiter

Use: Optional

Data Type: String

Character used to delimit the individual values in the string.

Return Value

A type String.

Description

Concatenates an array of values into a delimited string using a specified delimiter.

Rules at a Glance

• If no delimiter is specified, the space character is used as a delimiter.

• The members of sourcearray must be convertible to strings. The individual members of sourcearray can be any data type except Object. In fact, the individual members of sourcearray can be objects as long as the object’s default member is not another object. For example, the Join function in the code fragment:

  Set oFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FIleSystemObject")
  Set oDrive1 = oFS.Drives("C")
  Set oDrive2 = oFS.DRives("D")
  
  Set vArr(0) = oDrive1
  Set vArr(1) = oDrive2
  
  sJoin = Join(vArr, ",")
  returns the string "C:,D:".

• When a delimiter is specified, unused sourcearray elements are noted in the return string by the use of the delimiter. For example, if you specify a delimiter of "," and a source array with 11 elements, of which only the first two are used, Join returns a string similar to the following:

  "a,b,,,,,,,,,"

Programming Tips and Gotchas

The Join function is ideal for quickly and efficiently writing out a comma-delimited text file from an array of values.