>That's the type of comparison I'm imagining anyway:
>
>FoxPro Visual Basic
>
>IIF(,,) IIF(,,)
>+ (string op) & (string op)
>
>
>BTW, I was very surprised to see that VB would let me write:
>
>"Summary report at the " & CONTROL.nLevel & " level"
>
>(where CONTROL.nLevel is a numeric field)
>
>Are there some consistent syntax rules in VB that allows this kind of type mixing or is it more hodge-podge?


You can use above syntax in VB without any doubt. As the first operand is string.

If you use,

ab = 'Hi Friends'
cd = 12


if you use
ab + cd ----> No problem .
ab & cd ----> No problem, Preferable for string concatenation.

If by chance AB gets a numeric value (say 23) , then

ab + cd ----> 25, not '1223'

ab & cd ----> '1223' as you want.

Very simple, if you think.