It’s often faster to perform string operations with byte arrays than with 32-bit VB’s native double-byte character strings. Even when using 16-bit VB4’s single-byte character strings, it’s still often faster to convert to byte arrays before intense processing. Compare the speed at which these two procedures execute and you’ll be amazed. Paste this code into the default form of a new project to see the difference:
Private Sub Form_Click() Dim s As String Dim i As Integer s = String$(50000, "1") Debug.Print Time For i = 1 To 100 Call countCharString(s, Asc("1")) Next Debug.Print Time For i = 1 To 100 Call countCharByte(s, Asc("1")) Next Debug.Print TimeEnd SubFunction countCharString(s As String, _ charASCIIValue As Integer) As Long Dim i As Long For i = 1 To Len(s) If Asc(Mid$(s, i, 1)) = charASCIIValue Then countCharString = countCharString + 1 End If NextEnd FunctionFunction countCharByte(s As String, _ charASCIIValue As Integer) As Long Dim b() As Byte Dim i As Long #If Win32 Then b = StrConv(s, vbFromUnicode) #Else b = s #End If For i = 0 To UBound(b) If b(i) = charASCIIValue Then countCharByte = countCharByte + 1 End If NextEnd FunctionThis optimization doesn’t apply to all string operations. Depending on the nature of your problem, you’ll see anything from fantastic improvement to slight degradation. Be sure to test both ways.
