Question

I have this code :

' Option Explicit
Public Function Clean(Text)
    On Error Resume Next
    ' Dim Chars As ?????????
    Chars = Array("\", "/", ":", "*", "?", """", "<", ">", "|")
    For Each Replaced In Chars
        Text = Replace(Text, Replaced, "")
    Next
    Clean = CStr(Text)
End Function

But i got an error when use Option Explicit because the Chars is not declared, but what type must i use to dim an array (Dim Chars As ???????)?

Answer 1

Corrected version:

Option Explicit

Public Function Clean(ByVal Text As String)
    Dim Chars As Variant
    Dim Replaced As Variant

    Chars = Array("\", "/", ":", "*", "?", """", "<", ">", "|")
    For Each Replaced In Chars
        Text = Replace(Text, Replaced, "")
    Next
    Clean = Text
End Function

Generally better performing version:

Option Explicit

Public Function Clean(ByVal Text As String)
    Dim Chars As Variant
    Dim RepIndex As Long

    Chars = Array("\", "/", ":", "*", "?", """", "<", ">", "|")
    For RepIndex = 0 To UBound(Chars)
        Text = Replace$(Text, Chars(RepIndex), "")
    Next
    Clean = Text
End Function

Understanding Variants is important, and one should be especially conscious of using the Variant version of string functions instead of the String-typed versions suffixed with the “$” type decoration.

Most of the time you’ll want to avoid Variants when you can because of performance costs.

This version probably performs even better:

Option Explicit

Public Function Clean(ByVal Text As String)
    Const Chars As String = "\/:*?""<>|"
    Dim RepIndex As Long

    For RepIndex = 1 To Len(Chars)
        Text = Replace$(Text, Mid$(Chars, RepIndex, 1), "")
    Next
    Clean = Text
End Function

There is no “Char” type in VB6, nor is there any initialization syntax on variable declaration.