Option Explicit

[Jonmo1]

This is just a general question about VBA practices, no immediate impact.

Is the only purpose for the line "Option Explicit" at the top of a module to require variables types to be declared within that module? Is there some other purpose for that line that I'm missing?

While I certainly understand that many times it is necessary to declare the variable type, you can certainly agree that it is not always necessary.

Like a simple loop
For i = 1 to 100

If you don't use option explicit and do not declare the type, VBA assumes you mean x is a number (int, long).

or if you say x = "dog" - VBA assumes the variable type is string


A silly comparison would be...

I almost always like ICE in my Glass of Water. But sometimes I don't need or want the Ice. So it would be pretty silly to program my refrigerator to refuse to put water in the glass if I had not put ICE in it first.


Thanks

edited -

And don't come back with "Get your water from the sink then". If that's your response, you missed my point altogether.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Following on from Denis, IMO an advantage of not using the Option Base is that you might use the array from position 1 to n but if position 0 is available then you can use it just like another variable - very handy for swapping values between positions within arrays.

Just my opinion...
Andrew

 

[JazzSP8]

Thanks for your thoughts on that chaps, appreciated

I took an introductory course in Visual Basic a couple of years ago but I couldn't progress at the time, so got a job which led me to another which led me to another sat in front of Excel for most of the day, once I started to learn formulas it led me to macros which got me to VBA...

The whole point being, I was always taught to start a new project with Option Explicit and Option Base 1 (the reasons for both was also drilled into us).

It's only recently that I've seen (or noticed) them used in VBA and it got me thinking... But, now I have answers and more to think about...