title: VBA power operator (^) not working as expected in 64-bit VBA
body: <p>I feel foolish for asking and I'm sure there's a simple answer. I'm trying to get a power for a number as follows:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Sub test()
  
  Dim number As Long
  
  number = 2^8 ' Expect to get 256 here
  
  End Sub
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This produces an error: 'Expected: list separator or )'. </p>
  
  <p>I'm surprised this doesn't work. I'm aware that there's an Excel defined power function. But is the ^ operator not supported in VBA - it is in VB6?</p>
  
  <p><strong>FURTHER INFO</strong></p>
  
  <p>If I do the same in the Immediate window, I get the following strangeness (no error):</p>
  
  <pre><code>?2^8
   2  8
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It looks like just spaces between the 2 and the 8.</p>
  
  <p><strong>IT WORKS?</strong></p>
  
  <p>So I was messing about with various combinations of symbols and found that in the Immediate window:</p>
  
  <pre><code>?2^^8
   256
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What the...? Anyone know why this might be?</p>
  
  <p><strong>MORE EXPERIMENTS</strong></p>
  
  <p>I'm guessing my installation of Excel must be broken (although absolutely everything else works fine). Some further things the Immediate window:</p>
  
  <p>If I insert a space before ^:</p>
  
  <pre><code>?2 ^3
   8
  
  ?2!^3
   8
  
  ?2"^3
   2 ^3
  
  ?2£^3
   2  0  3
  
  ?2%^3
   8
  
  ?2@^3
   8
  
  ?2#^3
   8
  </code></pre>