Variables

Before you use a variable in VBScript you should declare its name . To do this in VBScript you use the dim keyword like the following examples.

You should follow a few rules when you declare variable names and these are

1. must begin with a letter
2. cannot contain a period (.)
3. cannot have more than 255 characters

dim x
dim y
dim myAge
dim myWage

You could have put these all on the same line like this

dim x , y , myAge , myWage

The initial value of the variable is empty in VBScript

To prevent mistakes when declaring variables you can use Option Explicit before declaring them and this means you must declare all your variables with dim , public or private , if you dont you will get an error . Anyone who has created scripts in JavaScript will see the advantage here where you can declare a variable like this

myvar

but if you make a spelling mistake like myyar later on this will not be flagged and can lead to some strange and hard to find errors.

Types of Variables

In VBScript a variable can hold any a value of any data type and this data type does not have to be set when the variable is declared . This means you can change the data type of your variable in your program .