Combining strings in VB.NET is a simple operation. You can
utilize the & operator to add a string to
the end of another string, or use the Insert method of a String object
to insert a string within another string. While both & and + operators
allow you to combine the strings, it’s usually a good idea to use the & operator because the + operator will
convert values into a Double if one of the values is a non-string
expression.
Using the & operator,
VB.NET attempts to convert any non-string values to a string and then
concatenate them. The & operator for adding strings is said to be
unambiguous since it’s limited to performing the string concatenation even when
the data types are not string. Here’s an example:
Private Function ConcatenateStrings() As Integer
Dim strNameFirst As String = "James"
Dim strNameLast As String = "Lipton"
Dim strNameFull As String
strNameFull = strNameFirst & strNameLast
strNameFull = strNameFull.Insert(Len(strNameFirst), " ")
MessageBox.Show(strNameFull)
End Function
Initially, two variables are defined to hold two strings
that are to be combined (strNameFirst and
strNameLast). We use the & operator to combine the values of these strings into a third string (strNameFull). At this point strNameFull equals “JamesLipton”. In order to add a
space between the first and the last names, we utilize the Insert method
of the String class that allows adding a character in the middle of the string.
We specify where the character should be added and what character to add. In
our example, we simply add a space between the first name and the last name.
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