How to pass more that 255 characters in parameter in vba? - vba

Question

I have a button and I pass String as parameter. If string parameter increase more that 255 characters, it doesn't get any value. If string parameter is less than 255 characters, it is working fine.
Here is my code:
Dim parameterText As String
parameterText = "First Parameter Value | Third Parameter Value | Third Parameter Value"
Dim AdviceItem As CommandBarButton
Set AdviceItem = CategoryItem.Controls.Add(msoControlButton, , , , True)
With AdviceItem
.Caption = adviceText
.Visible = True
.Parameter = strParameter
.OnAction = "myFunction"
End With
Sub myFunction()
Dim parameters() As String
ReDim parameters(3)
Dim parameterText As String
parameterText = Application.CommandBars.ActionControl.Parameter
'parameterText is blank if there are more than 255 characters passed from above function
MsgBox ("parameterText" & parameterText)
parameters() = Split(parameterText, "|")
End Sub
Can anybody suggest me how to achieve it?

Answer 1

Assuming that there is a limitation on the .parameter, you can bypass this by using an array to store the string you want to display.
Option Explicit
Public AllParameters(100) As String
Public AllAdviceTexts(100) as String
Sub defineParameters()
AllParameters(0) = "First Parameter Value"
AllParameters(1) = "Third Parameter Value "
AllParameters(2) = "Third Parameter Value "
'etc
'set advice texts here too
End Sub
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Dim AdviceItem As CommandBarButton
Dim i As Integer
Call defineParameters
For i = 0 To 100
Set AdviceItem = CategoryItem.Controls.Add(msoControlButton, , , , True)
With AdviceItem
.Caption = AllAdviceTexts(i)
.Visible = True
.Parameter = i
.OnAction = "myFunction"
End With
Next i
End Sub
Sub myFunction()
Dim parameterText As String
Dim index As Integer
index = Application.CommandBars.ActionControl.Parameter
parameterText = AllParameters(index)
MsgBox ("parameterText" & parameterText)
End Sub

Answer 2

No its not. VB string type can hold data more than 255 character.
A variable-length string can contain up to approximately 2 billion (2^31) characters
A fixed-length string can contain 1 to approximately 64K (2^16) characters.
and for SPLIT you can try like below
Dim LString As String
Dim LArray() As String
LString = "foobar.com"
LArray = Split(LString, ".")
MsgBox LArray(0)
MsgBox LArray(1)
Note: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6x627e5f(v=vs.90).aspx
Try to use below code if you get some idea.
Function Over255()
Dim myArray(3) As String '<<<<< not variant
myArray(0) = String(300, "a")
myArray(1) = String(300, "b")
myArray(2) = String(300, "c")
myArray(3) = String(300, "d")
'Over255 = Application.Transpose(myArray())
Over255 = TR(myArray)
End Function
'like Application.Transpose...
Function TR(arrIn) As String()
Dim arrOut() As String, r As Long, ln As Long, i As Long
ln = (UBound(arrIn) - LBound(arrIn)) + 1
ReDim arrOut(1 To ln, 1 To 1)
i = 1
For r = LBound(arrIn) To UBound(arrIn)
arrOut(i, 1) = arrIn(r)
i = i + 1
Next r
TR = arrOut
End Function