Using the flags Parameter

The flags parameter of the msgBox method is a numeric expression that is the sum of values specifying the number and type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality.

The flags parameter values and the associated global constants provided by the MessageBox category are listed in the following table.

Global Constant Integer Value Description
MsgBox_OK_Only 0 Display OK button only
MsgBox_OK_Cancel 1 Display OK and Cancel buttons
MsgBox_Abort_Retry_Ignore 2 Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons
MsgBox_Yes_No_Cancel 3 Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons
MsgBox_Yes_No 4 Display Yes and No buttons
MsgBox_Retry_Cancel 5 Display Retry and Cancel buttons
MsgBox_Stop_Icon 16 Display Stop icon
MsgBox_Question_Mark_Icon 32 Display Question Mark icon
MsgBox_Exclamation_Mark_Icon 48 Display Exclamation Mark icon
MsgBox_Information_Icon 64 Display Information icon
MsgBox_Default_First 0 First button is the default
MsgBox_Default_Second 256 Second button is the default
MsgBox_Default_Third 512 Third button is the default
MsgBox_App_Modal 0 Application modal (the user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application)
MsgBox_System_Modal 4096 System modal (all applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box)

In this table, the first group of values (0 through 5) describes the number and type of buttons displayed in the dialog. The second group of values (16, 32, 48, and 64) describes the icon style. The third group of values (0, 256, and 512) determines the button that is the default. The fourth group of values (0 and 4096) determines the modality of the message box. The default message box title is the application name.

When adding numbers to create a final value for the flags parameter, use only one number from each group.

For application modal message boxes, the msgBox method displays a maximum of 1024 characters (longer messages are truncated after 1024 characters). Message strings longer than 255 characters with no intervening spaces are truncated after 255 characters. For system modal message boxes, the number of characters that you can display depends on screen resolution and if the string to be displayed is on one or more lines.

The msgBox method breaks lines automatically at the right edge of the dialog. If you want to set line breaks, place a linefeed (ANSI character 10) or CrLf before the first character of the text that is to begin each new line.

The message box button and the icon specified in the flags parameter of the Application class msgBox method call are validated. Calling the standard Microsoft message box API will silently fail if those flags were invalid. If not valid, an invalid parameter exception is generated.