String Function

Applies To
Access for Microsoft 365 Access 2024 Access 2021 Access 2019 Access 2016

Returns a Variant (String) that contains a repeating character string of the specified length.

Syntax

String(number, character)

The String function syntax has these arguments:

Argument Description
number Required. Long. The length of the returned string. If number contains Null, Null is returned.
character Required. Variant. A character code that specifies the character, or a string expression whose first character is used to build the returned string. If character contains Null, Null is returned.

Remarks

If you specify a number greater than 255 for character, String converts the number to a valid character code by using this formula:

character Mod 256

Query example

Expression Results
SELECT ProductSales.ProductDesc, String(4, ProductDesc) AS testString FROM ProductSales; Returns the product description and repeats the first character of ProductDesc four times in the testString column.

VBA example

Note

Examples that follow demonstrate the use of this function in a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) module. For more information about working with VBA, select Developer Reference in the drop-down list next to Search and enter one or more terms in the search box.

This example uses the String function to return repeating character strings of the specified length.

Dim MyString
MyString = String(5, "*")    ' Returns "*****"
MyString = String(5, 42)    ' Returns "*****"
MyString = String(10, "ABC")    ' Returns "AAAAAAAAAA"

String functions and how to use them