Can I simultaneously declare and assign a variable in VBA?

Question

There is no shorthand in VBA unfortunately, The closest you will get is a purely visual thing using the : continuation character if you want it on one line for readability;

Dim clientToTest As String:  clientToTest = clientsToTest(i)
Dim clientString As Variant: clientString = Split(clientToTest)

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Hint (summary of other answers/comments): Works with objects too (Excel 2010):

Dim ws  As Worksheet: Set ws = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
Dim ws2 As New Worksheet: ws2.Name = "test"

You can sort-of do that with objects, as in the following.

Dim w As New Widget

But not with strings or variants.

You can define and assign a value in one line, as shown below. I have given an example of two variables declared and assigned in a single line. If the data type of multiple variables are the same:

Dim recordStart, recordEnd As Integer: recordStart = 935: recordEnd = 946

in fact, you can, but not that way.

Sub MySub( Optional Byval Counter as Long=1 , Optional Byval Events as Boolean= True)

'code...

End Sub

And you can set the variables differently when calling the sub, or let them at their default values.

In some cases the whole need for declaring a variable can be avoided by using With statement.

For example,

    Dim fd As Office.FileDialog
    Set fd = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogSaveAs)
    If fd.Show Then
        'use fd.SelectedItems(1)
    End If

this can be rewritten as

    With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogSaveAs)
      If .Show Then
        'use .SelectedItems(1)
      End If
    End With