What does an ampersand mean in VBA?

[J S]

I know that an ampersand is generally used as the concatenation operator but
I seemed to have found another usage of it that I don't understand. Here is
a code snippet:

Set OraSession = CreateObject("OracleInProcServer.XOraSession")
Set OraDatabase = OraSession.OpenDatabase("2:", "scott/tiger", 0&)
Set EmpDynaset = OraDatabase.DbCreateDynaset("select * from emp", 0&)

Notice the parameters 0&, what does the & do? Based on the documentation I
would have just put a zero instead of a 0&.

-J

 

[Chip Pearson]

In this context, the & character makes the number a Long type value, rather
than an Integer.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

 

[Steve Garman]

I know that an ampersand is generally used as the concatenation operator but
I seemed to have found another usage of it that I don't understand. Here is
a code snippet:

Set OraSession = CreateObject("OracleInProcServer.XOraSession")
Set OraDatabase = OraSession.OpenDatabase("2:", "scott/tiger", 0&)
Set EmpDynaset = OraDatabase.DbCreateDynaset("select * from emp", 0&)

Notice the parameters 0&, what does the & do? Based on the documentation I
would have just put a zero instead of a 0&.

It forces the 0 to be a long instead of an integer.
This ensures that the correct type of variable is passed as the Oracle
procedure argument.