>What's the difference? I had read that the $ returns as a string instead of a variant, but MSDN shows the exact same description for all the functions with a $.

You have multiple function that have a $ version (mid$, right$, left$, chr$, format, ucase, ...).

For all these functions, VB implements 2 versions: a variant version and a string version.

Since a string is processed faster than a variant, you should use the $ version when manipulating character-based parameter.