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**Michael Mattias** · 1 Sep 2009, 08:34 AM

>Dim tRange as udtTextRange
>OBJECT GET myDocument.TextSelection TO tRange

If I've been reading carefully, when you use the dispatch interface via the "OBJECT GET" statement, that always returns a VARIANT, and it's only the "direct" interface which can return a UDT from a property call.

**Robert Wallace** · 1 Sep 2009, 08:56 AM

MCM - Many thanks for the hint (if I remember the time zones you must be working all night!!)

This leaves me between the devil and the deep blue sea - from my previous posts you will see that the first half of my program didn't work if I used a "Direct" interface

**Michael Mattias** · 1 Sep 2009, 09:10 AM

So get the variant... then move the variant to a UDT.

If you can't simply....

Code:

  OBJECT GET   .... to vVar
  UdtVar         = vVar

.. then you can

Code:

  LOCAL pVar AS VARIANTAPI  PTR 
  OBJECT GET ... to vVar 
  pVar = VARPTR (vVar)

.. and move the data to UDTVar from the detail provided in the VARIANTAPI structure.

**Robert Wallace** · 1 Sep 2009, 11:40 AM

Code:

  OBJECT GET   .... to vVar
  UdtVar         = vVar

This produces a "Data Type Mismatch"

Code:

  LOCAL pVar AS VARIANTAPI  PTR 
  OBJECT GET ... to vVar 
  pVar = VARPTR (vVar)

.. and move the data to UDTVar from the detail provided in the VARIANTAPI structure.

Haven't a clue how to do the above

(However as vVar isn't returning a UDT as it should then how would I know how to interpret any data even if I knew how to program it.

).

Back to VB6 again (inspite of criticisms - for an old program it handles very complex COM beautifully and, infact, with little or no speed difference - only the program size is different)

-----------------------------------------------
Added Later.

Finally understood what MCM was getting at but I still get a VARIANT Type of 36 which seems to be illegal

Bob

**Michael Mattias** · 1 Sep 2009, 02:18 PM

TYPE "36?" That' s not what I get.... I get BSTR ...

Code:

TYPE FOO
     X AS LONG
     Y AS LONG
END TYPE


FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG
     
  LOCAL v AS VARIANT, F AS FOO, S AS STRING
  
     F.X =  1234
     F.Y =  5678
      
     LET v  =F
     STDOUT "Variant type =" &  FORMAT$(VARIANTVT(v))  ' returns 8 (bSTR)
     S = VARIANT$(v)
     
     TYPE SET F= S
     STDOUT USING$("X #  Y #", f.x, f.y)
     WAITKEY$

END FUNCTION

==> 

Variant type =8
X 1234  Y 5678

MCM

**Robert Wallace** · 2 Sep 2009, 04:39 AM

' returns 8 (bSTR)

The last thing I would expect it to return - according to the documentation:

8 %VT_BSTR Dynamic String

I would have expected:

29 %VT_USERDEFINED User Defined Type

Bob

**Michael Mattias** · 2 Sep 2009, 09:19 AM

I'm still trying to figure out which types can be combined to make a '36'

Maybe 36 (decimal) is something new.

That, or the whole idea of using the Component Object Model is to get away from returning records as UDTs... i.e., each member of a UDT is supposed to be a property.

MCM

**Robert Wallace** · 2 Sep 2009, 12:10 PM

Maybe 36 (decimal) is something new.

No the tlb dates back to at least 2006.

I am beginning to suspect that it may be a VB6 special and that I will never be able to rewrite in PBWin.

The VB6 code is deceptively simple:

Code:

tRange = oDoc.TextSelection

but "TextSelection" returns a Variant and tRange is two UDT's within a UDT - I can't image how VB6 extracts the data from the Variant and puts it into a UDT

Unfortunately that single statement is the heart of the program (it defines the beginning and end of a selected text and the current position within a line of text) which enables all the other text handling procedures.

Bob

P.S. I have just read that VB6 will work within Windows 7 for the lifetime of that operating system (I suspect for ever!!)

**Tom Hanlin** · 2 Sep 2009, 01:39 PM

I'm guessing that VT_VOID just specifies that the data is a blob-- some miscellaneous collection of data. VB is probably just stuffing the UDT with the contents of the variant, up to the size of the UDT. You can readily duplicate that approach by something along the lines of:

sInfo$ = PEEK$(VARPTR(vTemp), SIZEOF(vTemp))
sInfo$ = MID$(sInfo$, 9) ' skip to variant data
sInfo$ = LEFT$(sInfo$, SIZEOF(tRange)) ' make sure it's not too long
POKE$ VARPTR(tRange), sInfo$

**Michael Mattias** · 2 Sep 2009, 04:12 PM

> that VT_VOID

But VT_VOID is not 36 decimal.

What the heck is VT_TYPE 36 decimal?

**José Roca** · 2 Sep 2009, 04:45 PM

What the heck is VT_TYPE 36 decimal?

It is %VT_RECORD, an UDT in C++ lingo.

Please, see my post and Dominic Mitchell's post in this thread:

%VT_RECORD example - PowerBASIC Peer Support Community

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?t=22112&highlight=brecord

User to user discussions about Component Object Model (COM) programming.

**José Roca** · 2 Sep 2009, 04:50 PM

You can find information about the IRecordInfo interface here:

IRecordInfo (oaidl.h) - Win32 apps

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms221039.aspx

Describes the structure of a particular UDT.

**Michael Mattias** · 2 Sep 2009, 04:59 PM

Excellent description and support code for '36' in linked post!!!

Found this in SDK..

IRecordInfo Interface
IRecordInfo describes the structure of a particular UDT. You can use IRecordInfo any time you need to access the description of UDTs contained in type libraries. IRecordInfo can be reused as needed; there can be many instances of the UDT for a single IRecordInfo pointer.

There's a whole lot more in the SDK article.

That's from my on-disk SDK... while this big test run is executing, let me see if I can find a link to the on-line version at MSDN....yup, here 'tis...

IRecordInfo (oaidl.h) - Win32 apps

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms221039.aspx

Describes the structure of a particular UDT.

MCM

**Robert Wallace** · 3 Sep 2009, 05:17 AM

A big Thank You

Many thanks for all your help

Just for the record the following is the final working code

Code:

FUNCTION GetPosn (StartPosn AS LONG, EndPosn AS LONG, read_write AS LONG) AS LONG
  LOCAL tRange AS udtTextRange PTR
  LOCAL pv AS VARIANT_STRUCT PTR

  OBJECT GET myDocument.TextSelection TO vtemp
  pv = VARPTR(vtemp)
  tRange = @pv.br.pvRecord
  IF read_write = 0 THEN                       'Read
    startposn = @tRange.beginrange.offset
    endposn = @tRange.endrange.offset
  ELSE                                         'Write
    @tRange.beginrange.offset = startposn
    @tRange.endrange.offset = endposn
  END IF
END FUNCTION

**Robert Wallace** · 3 Sep 2009, 06:30 AM

Next Problem !

The original VB6 code creates tRange which is used for all other text handling:

Code:

Dim tRange as udtTextRange
...
...
Set oDoc = mySession.ActiveDoc
tRange = oDoc.TextSelection

I now have to delete the marked text(VB6):

Code:

oDoc.TextSelection trange

The Method is:

Code:

Method DeleteText <349> (Byval textRange As Variant) As Long

How do I convert the PTR from the previous post:

Code:

LOCAL tRange AS udtTextRange PTR

into the form required by the Method?

**José Roca** · 3 Sep 2009, 10:50 AM

You already have it. Pass vTemp.

**Robert Wallace** · 4 Sep 2009, 03:38 AM

You already have it. Pass vTemp

That is what I thought too but the Compiler won't have it:

Code:

OBJECT GET myDocument.TextSelection TO vtemp
myDocument.DeleteText vtemp

The cursor is placed in front of vtemp and I get the message:

Code:

METHOD or PROPERTY name expected

**Dominic Mitchell** · 4 Sep 2009, 07:40 AM

You are using the Object Call|Get|Set syntax, therefore, change

Code:

myDocument.DeleteText vtemp

to

Code:

Object Call myDocument.DeleteText(vtemp)

**Robert Wallace** · 4 Sep 2009, 09:17 AM

I am a complete idiot - it works of course

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Variant as UDT Problem

Variant as UDT Problem

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