Safest & simplest is to just loop;
Dim buff() As String
ReDim buff(Len(my_string) - 1)
For i = 1 To Len(my_string)
buff(i - 1) = Mid$(my_string, i, 1)
Next
If your guaranteed to use ansi characters only you can;
Dim buff() As String
buff = Split(StrConv(my_string, vbUnicode), Chr$(0))
ReDim Preserve buff(UBound(buff) - 1)
You can just assign the string to a byte array (the reverse is also possible). The result is 2 numbers for each character, so Xmas converts to a byte array containing {88,0,109,0,97,0,115,0}
or you can use StrConv
Dim bytes() as Byte
bytes = StrConv("Xmas", vbFromUnicode)
which will give you {88,109,97,115} but in that case you cannot assign the byte array back to a string.
You can convert the numbers in the byte array back to characters using the Chr() function
the problem is that there is no built in method (or at least none of us could find one) to do this in vb. However, there is one to split a string on the spaces, so I just rebuild the string and added in spaces....
Private Function characterArray(ByVal my_string As String) As String()
'create a temporary string to store a new string of the same characters with spaces
Dim tempString As String = ""
'cycle through the characters and rebuild my_string as a string with spaces
'and assign the result to tempString.
For Each c In my_string
tempString &= c & " "
Next
'return return tempString as a character array.
Return tempString.Split()
End Function
According to this code golfing solution by Gaffi, the following works:
a = Split(StrConv(s, 64), Chr(0))
Here's another way to do it in VBA.
Function ConvertToArray(ByVal value As String)
value = StrConv(value, vbUnicode)
ConvertToArray = Split(Left(value, Len(value) - 1), vbNullChar)
End Function
Sub example()
Dim originalString As String
originalString = "hi there"
Dim myArray() As String
myArray = ConvertToArray(originalString)
End Sub
Source: Stackoverflow.com