Answer 1

DotNetFramework already have String.Length to get the characters count of a string. In my opinion, you don't need to think about that low level stuff while using VB.Net! If that was me, I would do the following:

Console.WriteLine("Type the string to calculate the lengh") 'get user input
Dim stringLength = Console.ReadLine().Length 'get the length of input
Console.WriteLine("The length of the typed string is: " & stringLength.ToString()) 'return the length to the user