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# "Can't Assign Array..." Passing Argument to Subroutine

PSS ID Number: 112512

Article Last Modified on 2/28/2002

The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications 1.0

This article was previously published under Q112512

## SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Visual Basic Programming System, Applications Edition, if you pass an argument to a subroutine and the argument data type does not match the parameter data type defined in the subroutine, you receive the following error message:
Can't assign array of fixed-length string or user-defined type to Variant

## MORE INFORMATION

Variant is a special data type that can contain any kind of data. You can determine how the data in a Variant is treated using the VarType or TypeName function. When you declare a variable as Variant data type, you can change the data type of the variable within a procedure. If the contents of a Variant variable are digits, they may be either the string representation of the digits or their actual value, depending on the context.
However, when you are passing a variable to a subroutine, the data type must match the data type of the subroutine parameter, even when the variable you are passing or the parameter declared in the subroutine is declared as Variant data type.

### Visual Basic Example

When you run the procedure Run_Test below in a Visual Basic module in Microsoft Excel version 5.0, you receive the error message described above:

    Dim x() As Label

    Sub Run_Test()
       ' Pass variable x to Test subroutine
       Test x
    End Sub

    Sub Test(A As Variant)
         ' Resize array to one element
       ReDim A(0)
       ' Assign array value to label object on worksheet
       Set A(0)=ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Labels.Add(10,10,75,16)
       ' Set name of label
       A(0).Name = "Label1"
       MsgBox TypeName(A(0))
    End Sub

## WORKAROUND

To avoid receiving this error message when you pass a variable to a subroutine, you must define the variable you are passing to the subroutine to be the same data type as the subroutine parameter.
To run the procedure in the above example without receiving the error message, modify the procedure as in the following examples:

### Example 1

    Dim x() As Label

    Sub Run_Test()
       ' Pass variable x to Test subroutine
       Test x()
    End Sub

    Sub Test(A() As Label)
         ' Resize array to one element
       ReDim A(0)
       ' Assign array value to label object on worksheet
       Set A(0)=ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Labels.Add(10,10,75,16)
       ' Set name of label
       A(0).Name = "Label1"
       MsgBox TypeName(A(0))
    End Sub

### Example 2

    Dim x() As Variant

    Sub Run_Test()
       ' Resize array to two elements
       Redim x(1)
       ' Assign first element in array to label object on worksheet
       Set x(0)=ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Labels.Add(10,10,75,16)
       ' Pass variable x to Test subroutine
       Test x
    End Sub

    Sub Test(A As Variant)
       ' Assign second element in array to label object on worksheet
       Set A(1)=ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Labels.Add(10,10,75,16)
       ' Set name of label
       A(1).Name = "Label1"
       MsgBox TypeName(A(1))
    End Sub

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This Visual Basic procedure is provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that it can be used in all situations. Microsoft does not support modifications of this procedure to suit customer requirements for a particular purpose. Note that a line that is preceded by an apostrophe introduces a comment in the code--comments are provided to explain what the code is doing at a particular point in the procedure. Note also that an underscore character (_) indicates that code continues from one line to the next. You can type lines that contain this character as one logical line or you can divide the lines of code and include the line continuation character. For more information about Visual Basic for Applications programming style, see the "Programming Style in This Manual" section in the "Document Conventions" section of the "Visual Basic User's Guide."

## REFERENCES

For more information about the Dim statement, choose the Search button in the Visual Basic Reference and type:

`Dim`

Additional query words: err msg

Keywords: KB112512
Technology: kbVBA100 kbVBASearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbZNotKeyword6