- Operator

Microsoft Visual Basic Constants

- Operator

       

Used to find the difference between two numbers or to indicate the negative value of a numeric expression.

Syntax 1

result = number1–number2

Syntax 2

number

The operator syntax has these parts:

Part Description
result Required; any numeric variable.
number Required; any numeric expression.
number1 Required; any numeric expression.
number2 Required; any numeric expression.

Remarks

In Syntax 1, the operator is the arithmetic subtraction operator used to find the difference between two numbers. In Syntax 2, the operator is used as the unary negation operator to indicate the negative value of an expression.

The data type of result is usually the same as that of the most precise expression. The order of precision, from least to most precise, is Byte, Integer, Long, Single, Double, Currency, and Decimal. The following are exceptions to this order:

If Then result is
Subtraction involves a Single and a Long, converted to a Double.
The data type of result is a Long, Single, or Date variant that overflows its legal range, converted to a Variant containing a Double.
The data type of result is a Byte variant that overflows its legal range, converted to an Integer variant.
The data type of result is an Integer variant that overflows its legal range, converted to a Long variant.
Subtraction involves a Date and any other data type, a Date.
Subtraction involves two Date expressions, a Double.

One or both expressions are Null expressions, result is Null. If an expression is Empty, it is treated as 0.

Note   The order of precision used by addition and subtraction is not the same as the order of precision used by multiplication.