VB.Net - Data Types

Data types refer to an extensive system used for declaring variables or functions of different types. The type of a variable determines how much space it occupies in storage and how the bit pattern stored is interpreted.

Data Types Available in VB.Net

VB.Net provides a wide range of data types. The following table shows all the data types available −

Example

The following example demonstrates use of some of the types −

Module DataTypes
   Sub Main()
      Dim b As Byte
      Dim n As Integer
      Dim si As Single
      Dim d As Double
      Dim da As Date
      Dim c As Char
      Dim s As String
      Dim bl As Boolean
      
      b = 1
      n = 1234567
      si = 0.12345678901234566
      d = 0.12345678901234566
      da = Today
      c = "U"c
      s = "Me"
      
      If ScriptEngine = "VB" Then
         bl = True
      Else
         bl = False
      End If
      
      If bl Then
         'the oath taking
         Console.Write(c & " and," & s & vbCrLf)
         Console.WriteLine("declaring on the day of: {0}", da)
         Console.WriteLine("We will learn VB.Net seriously")
         Console.WriteLine("Lets see what happens to the floating point variables:")
         Console.WriteLine("The Single: {0}, The Double: {1}", si, d)
      End If
      Console.ReadKey()
   End Sub
End Module

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

U and, Me
declaring on the day of: 12/4/2012 12:00:00 PM
We will learn VB.Net seriously
Lets see what happens to the floating point variables:
The Single:0.1234568, The Double: 0.123456789012346

The Type Conversion Functions in VB.Net

VB.Net provides the following in-line type conversion functions −

Example

The following example demonstrates some of these functions −

Module DataTypes
   Sub Main()
      Dim n As Integer
      Dim da As Date
      Dim bl As Boolean = True
      n = 1234567
      da = Today
      
      Console.WriteLine(bl)
      Console.WriteLine(CSByte(bl))
      Console.WriteLine(CStr(bl))
      Console.WriteLine(CStr(da))
      Console.WriteLine(CChar(CChar(CStr(n))))
      Console.WriteLine(CChar(CStr(da)))
      Console.ReadKey()
   End Sub
End Module

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

True
-1
True
12/4/2012
1
1