Addition in ASP

concatenating rather than adding

[shmekkyl]

I have a simple ASP script I am trying to run. Forgive me if this is a real newbie question but I did some searches first and checked an ASP reference and it seems like I am doing everything right - but apparently not.

Heres the scenario:

A = 1
B = 2

Total = A + B

When it outputs the total, it outputs 12 rather than 3.

Any ideas?

[txbakers]

In VBScript you will have to use the "cint" function to make numbers.

In Javascript use "Number(4) + Number(5)"

give those a try.

[RossWal]

Hmmmm. I add stuff together all the time in vb script without a cint(). I don't recall seeing the plus sign behave as a concatenation operator. Shmekkyl, are you using Jscript by chance?

[shmekkyl]

nope...asp

Here's my exact code:

<%
FrontColors = Request("FrontColors")
BackColors = Request("BackColors")
TotalColors = FrontColors + BackColors
%>
Total Colors = <%=TotalColors%>

[bcolflesh]

The ampersand (&) is the concatenation operator in ASP.

[Jack_Straw]

asp can use either jscript or vbscript. The ampersand is the concatenation operator for vbscript, the plus symbol is the concatenation operator for jscript. It sounds like you are inadvertently executing jscript with your asp rather than vbscript.

[garann]

shmekkyl, any time you set a variable equal to request("anything"), you're defining it as a string. The '+' operator adds two variables together and adding two strings together is concatenation. Did you try txbakers suggestion to use cInt()? That oughta do it..

[shmekkyl]

<%
FrontColors = Request("FrontColors")
BackColors = Request("BackColors")

FrontColors = cInt(FrontColors)
BackColors = cInt(BackColors)

TotalColors = FrontColors + BackColors
%>

Total Colors = <%=TotalColors%>

Still the same thing. Did i do it right?

[txbakers]

FrontColors = Request("FrontColors")
BackColors = Request("BackColors")

dim TotalColors
TotalColors = cint(FrontColors) + cint(BackColors)

might work for you. give that a try.

[shmekkyl]

That did it. I thought it uploaded but it didnt. Thanks for all your help.

[txbakers]

Yeah - that was one of the trickiest things to get used to - that ALL web form data are strings. Even the numbers and dates. Once they get put into the request object, you need to manipulate them to make them the type you need.

[shmekkyl]

its weird that it lets me multiply and divide without doing anything special.

[aspdaddy]

Thats because those operators cannot be overloaded for strings, so it casts. try multiplying text :)