Var vs Dim

[Steve_Wilson]

@Rick_Araujo

Not a fan, but it exists and is used.

A prime example being VS Code

[Wes_Westhaver]

I have been using Dim for Arrays and Var for variables too! It just makes sense to me. Not that it makes any real difference functionally. But I just don’t think of allocating an integer, long etc. as “Dimensioning” whereas I think it fits very well when allocating space for an array.

@Wayne_Golding

I use both. Dim for dimensioning arrays & Var to declare variables. Makes the code a little more readable.

[Rick_Araujo]

@Wayne_Golding

Dim for dimensioning arrays & Var to declare variables

@Wes_Westhaver

I have been using Dim for Arrays and Var for variables too!

I find such thing just a kind of bureaucracy, to my eyes it will look like as if someone started a code update and did not finish it.

DIM really looks like 80’s content to me, from a ZX81 or TRS-80.

[Didier_Barbas]

I’ve been using our favorite language since it was called CrossBasic. I see no point using Var when good old Dim works fine… Doesn’t mean I don’t use API2. Just that muscle memory takes over when declaring variables…

[Robert_Livingston]

I was just trying to make the point that using Var instead of Dim would be an easy way for humans and AI’s to understand that the code was API 2.

[Sascha_S]

…and Slack, Discord, Spotify and many more using Chromium’s V8 JIT compiler

[Thom_McGrath]

For me, for reasons I can’t explain, my brain made the switch to var effectively instantly. I never write dim anymore. It feels kind of like I’m writing deprecated code. Logically, I know it makes no difference, but in the moment, using dim feels like I’m doing a bad thing.

What’s also interesting is the only other language I (often) use that uses declaration keywords is JavaScript. But in JavaScript, var is the “bad” one. Only in very rare circumstances do I want to declare a global variable. It’s usually const, sometimes let.