Val Function

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This page is specific to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Language Reference for Office 2010.

Returns the numbers contained in a string as a numeric value of appropriate type.

Syntax

Val(string)

The required string argument is any valid string expression.

Remarks

The Val function stops reading the string at the first character it can't recognize as part of a number. Symbols and characters that are often considered parts of numeric values, such as dollar signs and commas, are not recognized. However, the function recognizes the radix prefixes &O (for octal) and (for octal) and &H (for hexadecimal). Blanks, tabs, and linefeed characters are stripped from the argument.

The following returns the value 1615198:

Val("    1615 198th Street N.E.")

In the code below, Val returns the decimal value -1 for the hexadecimal value shown:

Val("&HFFFF")

Note

The Val function recognizes only the period (.) as a valid decimal separator. When different decimal separators are used, as in international applications, use CDbl instead to convert a string to a number.

Example

This example uses the Val function to return the numbers contained in a string.

Dim MyValue
MyValue = Val("2457")    ' Returns 2457.
MyValue = Val(" 2 45 7")    ' Returns 2457.
MyValue = Val("24 and 57")    ' Returns 24.