Getting around the Max String size in a vba function?

Question

The max number of characters you can use in string in a vba function is 255. I am trying to run this function

Var1= 1
Var2= 2
.
.
.
Var256 =256

RunMacros= "'Tims_pet_Robot """ & Var1 & """ , """ & Var2 & """ , """   ... """ & Var256 """ '"
Runat=TimeValue("15:00:00")
Application.OnTime EarliestTime:=Runat, Procedure:=RunMacros & RunMacros2 ', schedule:=True

It runs a procedure at a certain time and passes a bunch of variables to it. but the string is too long.

Update: Regrettably I am sure it is not the watch window. Also, it isn't really the max size of a string that I'm dealing with. It's the max size of a string in a vba function.

For example this function works.

Sub test()
Dim RunAt As Date
Dim RunWhat As String

RunAt = Now + 0.00001
RunWhat = "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" & _
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" & _
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" 'that makes 254 'a''s
Application.OnTime EarliestTime:=RunAt, Procedure:="'" & RunWhat & " 12'"

End Sub


Sub aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa(m As Integer)
MsgBox ("it works!" & m)
End Sub

But if you change the 12 to 123 it breaks Example

Sub test2()
Dim RunAt As Date
Dim RunWhat As String

RunAt = Now + 0.00001
RunWhat = "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" & _
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" & _
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" 'that makes 254 'a''s
Application.OnTime EarliestTime:=RunAt, Procedure:="'" & RunWhat & " 123'"

End Sub


Sub aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa(m As Integer)
MsgBox ("it works!" & m)
End Sub

This code does not work, I'm pretty sure it's because a vba function cannot handle a string with more than 255 chars. Even if you're in Excel and call a function and give it a string longer that 255 chars it doesn't work.

Try in cell A1 =vlookup("really long string", A1:Z10, 1) and then put the really long string somewhere in that range. The vlookup will fail (not fail to find it, but you won't actually be able to do it)

Also I am aware that there is a max length to a sub name, I'm just under it. Sorry that it look so ugly.

Update 2: so I just ended up printing the variable to a sheet and getting the function called by ontime to read them off the sheet. :(

Answer 1

I may have missed something here, but why can't you just declare your string with the desired size? For example, in my VBA code I often use something like:

Dim AString As String * 1024

which provides for a 1k string. Obviously, you can use whatever declaration you like within the larger limits of Excel and available memory etc.

This may be a little inefficient in some cases, and you will probably wish to use Trim(AString) like constructs to obviate any superfluous trailing blanks. Still, it easily exceeds 256 chars.