Summary
Convert a variable that can have many formats, into one format.
Situation
You have a variable that can have many formats, maybe leading and trailing spaces, and upper- and lowercase. You want to test the variable with an If.
Needs
A variable that can have many formats.
Provides
A variable in a single format.
Action
Say you have a variable tPet, that can have extra spaces, and uncertain casing. You want to test tPet for a few different values. You could do this:
- ' Is it a common pet?
- If Trim(LCase(tPet)) = "cat" Or Trim(LCase(tPet)) = "dog" Or Trim(LCase(tPet)) = "bird" Then
- MsgBox "A common pet."
- EndIf
Works, but messy. A better way is to create a new variable, and covert the many formats into one. Then it's easy to test the new variable. For example:
- ' Convert tPet into one format: lowercase, no leading or trailing whitespace.
- tNormalizedPet = Trim(LCase(tPet))
- ' Is it a common pet?
- If tNormalizedPet = "cat" Or tNormalizedPet = "dog" Or tNormalizedPet = "bird" Then
- MsgBox "A common pet."
- EndIf
Where referenced