Fixed-Length Strings

Fixed length strings are automatically filled with spaces to pad them to their fixed-length. When working with fixed-length strings, you can use RTrim$ to trim the extra spaces. (See example below.)

If a fixed-length string is declared, it will be filled with Null characters until it is used. The Visual Basic trim functions (RTrim$, LTrim$, and Mid$) will not trim Null characters, so be sure to assign a fixed-length string to an empty string "" immediately.

Dim MyString As String * 10

MyString = "Chilkat"    ' MyString contains "Chilkat   "

Print RTrim$(MyString)   ' prints "Chilkat"

Dim AnotherString As String  * 10

Print Len(RTrim$(AnotherString))    ' Prints 10, because the string contains Null characters.