String Data Type

String variables are stored as sequences of unsigned 16-bit (2-byte) numbers ranging in value from 0 through 65535. Each number represents a single Unicode character. A string can contain up to approximately 2 billion (2 ^ 31) Unicode characters.

The first 128 code points (0–127) of Unicode correspond to the letters and symbols on a standard U.S. keyboard. These first 128 code points are the same as those defined by the ASCII character set. The second 128 code points (128–255) represent special characters, such as Latin-based alphabet letters, accents, currency symbols, and fractions. The remaining code points are used for a wide variety of symbols, including worldwide textual characters, diacritics, and mathematical and technical symbols.

Appending the identifier type character $ to any identifier forces it to the String data type.

The equivalent .NET data type is System.String.

See Also

Data Type Summary | String Class | Type Conversion Functions | Conversion Summary