Array of 600+ Strings in excel VBA - arrays

Question

I am doing a loop for each string in an array such that
filename = Array(file1,file2.....file600)
However VBA gets a compile error that is due to the array taking up 8 lines. As far as I am aware it only allows 1 line
(error says expected list or separator)
I am new to VBA sorry

Answer 1

You can escape new lines in VBA with _.
so your solution might look like
filename = Array("file1", _
"file2", _
"file3")
See How to break long string to multiple lines and If Statement With Multiple Lines
If you have 100's of names, however, you might be better off storing them in a worksheet and reading them in, rather than hard-coding them.

Answer 2

Should you strings in the array be actually "buildable" following a pattern (like per your examples: "file1", "file2", ...,"file600") then you could have a Function define them for you, like follows:
Function GetFileNames(nFiles As Long) As String()
Dim iFile As Long
ReDim filenames(1 To nFiles) As String
For iFile = 1 To nFiles
filenames(iFile) = "file" & iFile
Next
GetFileNames = filenames
End Function
which you'd call in your "main" code as follows
Sub main()
Dim filenames() As String
filenames = GetFileNames(600) '<--| this way'filenames' array gets filled with 600 hundred values like "file1", "file2" and so on
End Sub

Answer 3

The amount of code that can be loaded into a form, class, or standard module is limited to 65,534 lines. A single line of code can consist of up to 1023 bytes. Up to 256 blank spaces can precede the actual text on a single line, and no more than twenty-four line-continuation characters ( _) can be included in a single logical line.
From VB6's Help.

Answer 4

when programming, you don't build an array this big mannually, never.
either you store each multiline-string inside a Cell, and at the end you buid the array like this :
option Explicit
Sub ArrayBuild ()
Dim Filenames() 'as variant , and yes i presume when using multi files, the variable name should have an "s"
With Thisworkbook.sheets("temp") 'or other name of sheet
Max = .cells(.rows.count,1).end(xlup).row '=max number of rows in column 1
Filenames = .range( .cells(1,1) , .cells(Max,1)).value2 ' this example uses a one column range from a1 to a[max] , but you could also use a multi column by changing the second .cells to `.cells(Max, ColMax)`
end with
'do stuff
erase Filenames 'free memory
End Sub
An other way is to build an array like you build a house by adding one brick at a time, like this :
Dim Filenames() as string 'this time you can declare as string, but not in the previous example
Dim i& 'counter
For i=1 to Max 'same max as in previous example, adapt code plz...
redim Preserve Filenames (1 to ubound(filenames)+1) 'this is an example for unknown size array wich grows, but in your case you know the size (here Max, so you could declare it `Dim Filenames (1 to Max)` from the start, just wanted to show every option here.
Filenames(i) = Cells (i,1).value2 'for example, but can be anything else. Also i'm beeing lazy and did not reference the cell to its sheet, wich i'd never do in actual coding...
next i
EDIT i did re-read your Question, and it is even easier (basically because you ommited the bracets in your post and corrected it as comment...), use
user3598756 's code plz. I thought File1 is a variable, when it should be written as "File1" .
EDIT 2 why bother build and array where Filename(x)="Filex" anyway? you know the result beforehand