Word Document Properties

Listing 9-1
Creating and Using an Array for String Data
‘ Tell VBA to start all arrays at 0.
Option Base 0
Public Sub SingleDimension()
‘ Define an output string.
Dim Output As String
‘ Define a variant to hold individual strings.
Dim IndividualString As Variant
‘ Define the array of strings.
Dim StringArray(5) As String
‘ Fill each array element with information.
StringArray(0) = “This”
StringArray(1) = “Is”
StringArray(2) = “An”
StringArray(3) = “Array”
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Part III: Expanding Your VBA Horizons 
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StringArray(4) = “Of”
StringArray(5) = “Strings”
‘ Use the For Each...Next statement to get each array
‘ element and place it in a string.
For Each IndividualString In StringArray
‘ Create a single output string with the array
‘ array elements.
Output = Output + IndividualString + “ “
Next
‘ Display the result.
MsgBox Trim(Output), _
vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, _
“Array Content”
End Sub
Notice that the code begins with an 
Option Base 0
statement. This state-
ment tells VBA whether you want to start counting array elements at 0 or 1.
The default setting is 0. Most programming languages use 0 as the starting
point, which is why Microsoft made 0 the default for VBA. However, older ver-
sions of Visual Basic (including VBA) use 1 as the starting point. When you
want to ensure that your program works in every environment, include the
Option Base
statement.
The code for 
SingleDimension
begins with some variable declarations.
Notice the 
StringArray
declaration. When you want to create an array, you
follow the variable name with a pair of parentheses that contains the number
of elements. You can also create an empty array by leaving out the number,
but then you need to use the 
ReDim
statement to set the number of elements
later. See the upcoming “Understanding the array types” section for details.
Because the array begins at 0 and not at 1, you can actually store six items in
an array that is defined as having five elements. The number that you include
in the declaration is always the top element number of the array and not the
actual number of elements.
The code that follows the array declaration fills each of these elements with a
string. Notice the use of numbers in the statement. This number is an 
index
.
You use the index to access individual members of the array, just as you use
letters or numbers to access individual apartments in an apartment complex.
The statement 
StringArray(1) = “Is”
places the word 
Is
in the second
array element by using an index of 1. You can always access an individual ele-
ment by using its index.
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