FIX: VBS 2.0 String Formatting Functions Leak Memory

• Microsoft Visual Basic, Scripting Edition, version 2.0
• Active Server Pages

SYMPTOMS

Applications that use the Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) version 2.0 string formatting functions, such as FormatNumber and FormatCurrency, may experience memory leaks. The increased resource usage caused by these memory leaks is particularly important when VBS is used in the Active Server Pages (ASP) environment due to the high volume nature of Web servers.

CAUSE

There are known code defects in the following VBS 2.0 functions, which promote resource leaks:

• Filter



• FormatCurrency



• FormatDateTime



• FormatNumber



• FormatPercent



• Replace

RESOLUTION

In VBS version 2.0, there are two workarounds for this problem:

• Avoid using these functions, especially in high-volume environments such as ASP.
• Create your own string formatting functions to replace those provided by VBS. In the case of ASP, this would best be done by creating a server-side component (COM object) that exposes the appropriate formatting methods.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbnokeyword kbASP kbVBScript200 kbIE500fix 
Version           : 
Platform          : 
Issue type        : kbbug 

Last Reviewed: April 8, 1999