Chapter 9. Manipulating Other Types of Data

IN THIS CHAPTER

Dates and times, arrays, bytes, and more-all data types you may run across from time to time, especially when you're writing more complex scripts that involve Windows Management Instrumentation. I'll explain how each of these data types works, and how you can work with them in VBScript.

In the prior two chapters, you learned a lot of about string and numeric data. In this chapter, I'll cover everything else-the lesser-used data types that are nonetheless so important to VBScript. You'll find yourself using these data types most frequently in complex scripts. For example, I'll begin with date and time data, which you'll use frequently in many Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) scripts. I'll also cover byte data, which is a lot less common in administrative scripts, but worth knowing about in case you need it. Finally, I'll cover arrays, which aren't really a data type at all. They're a special type of variable capable of holding multiple values, and you'll use them in many of the scripts you write.