What is the proper way to return an object

[Thomas Tierney]

I have a property, currently the property returns nothing.


Property Get MyProp alias "MyProp"() as IDISPATCH

Property = NOTHING

End property


My VBSCRIPT - Reminder - This is called from VBSCRIPT

Set Foo = this.MyProp

if Foo = nothing then
Msgbox "NOTHING"
else
Msgbox "SOMETHING"
end if

This keeps crashing.. anyone got any ideas?

[Paul Squires]

Try the IsObject or IsNothing functions.

If IsObject(Foo) Then .....

If IsNothing(Foo) Then ......

[Thomas Tierney]

I am so sorry but I dont see how that will stop vbscript from crashing. As far as I know vbscript doesnt even offer the isobject is isnothing.

FYI: this doesnt crash when using it in vb..

[Paul Squires]

Sorry Thomas, I thought you were testing code in a PB program or DLL because you said "called from VBSCRIPT". I didn't realize that your code was actually in vbscript. I am not a vbscript dude so I can't offer assistance. Good luck!

[Stanley Durham]

I'm not up on COM, but the way I've been returning an object to another object is with its interface name.
PB object to PB object

        Property Get FileMemoryManager() As FMemMangI
            'internal use
            Property = mMem 'FMemMangI object
        End Property

passed to another class, which uses it to to set an object in another class

    Class Method Create()
        mLStack = Class "FLStackC"
        mStr = Class "FStr16C"
        If IsObject(mLStack) And IsObject(mStr) Then
            Local temp As FMemMangI
            temp = mLStack.FileMemoryManager
            mStr.Initiate(temp)
        End If
    End Method

[Thomas Tierney]

Stanley,

have you tried calling this via VBScript?

[Stanley Durham]

no

[Knuth Konrad]

As far as I know vbscript doesnt even offer the isobject is isnothing.

VBScript offers a IsObject function:

IsObject Function
Returns a Boolean value indicating whether an expression references a valid Automation object.

IsObject(expression)

The expression argument can be any expression.

Remarks
IsObject returns True if expression is a variable of Object subtype or a user-defined object; otherwise, it returns False.

The following example uses the IsObject function to determine if an identifier represents an object variable:

Dim MyInt, MyCheck, MyObject
Set MyObject = Me
MyCheck = IsObject(MyObject)   ' Returns True.
MyCheck = IsObject(MyInt)   ' Returns False.

Im not sure though if this works in your situation, as you want to test the state/value of an object's property. It might always return True as long as "this" from your example is a valid object, regardless of the value of MyProp.

You might try ...

If this.MyProp Is Nothing Then
   Msgbox "- Nothing"
Else
   Msgbox "+ Something"
End If

... instead.

[Thomas Tierney]

Why should I change acceptable programming practice?

the problem isnt VBScript checking for nothing (IE if x is nothing then)

The problem is returning the object from a PB COM component.. very curious

[Michael Mattias]

>The problem is returning the object from a PB COM component.. very curious

Granted I am new at this COM stuff, but that is not terribly clear from your post. From Racine Wisconsin it looks like this an an 'All VB-Script' thing!

Code shown incomplete and devoid of identification.

First thing I think you should do is write yourself a little PB test program to verify the object is being created correctly. Then if you can't get at it from your VB Script, you'll know the problem is NOT with your COM component and you can devote your time and energy to a tree which could actually bear fruit.

[Thomas Tierney]

Michael,

I wasn't asking for directions on how to do it. I was wondering what the proper way to do it in PB was. Do I need to return an IUnknown or IDispatch etc.
From the posts I dont see that working with vbscript is being done by alot of people so they probably dont have the issues I am seeing. Granted you do not know alot about COM but it should work the same in PB/VB/VBScript/C++ and any number of languages that can use COM. Its a standard really and should be abstracted out from its implentation.
The code in my original post should be enough to determine whether or not I am passing the object back to the caller properly, whether the object is null or not is really irrelevant. I should be able to do the check from VBScript. If I am then I will bundle up my code and send it to PB Support where they do, from what I understand, have "COM People".
I already know, since it works in VB, that this is a PB issue with VBScript, not a VBScript issue with PB.