CASTVARIANTARRAY

Purpose:

Explicitly converts a series to an array of variants for Automation.

Syntax:

CASTVARIANTARRAY(series, type)

series	-	A series or table.
type	-	Optional. An integer specifying the Variant array type. Defaults to 5 (double). Valid conversions are as follows:

Type	Description	VARTYPE
1	nothing	VT_EMPTY
2	2 byte integer	VT_I2
3	4 byte integer	VT_I4
4	4 byte float	VT_R4
5	8 byte double	VT_R8
6	currency	VT_CY
7	date	VT_DATE
8	binary string	VT_BSTR
10	error	VT_ERROR
11	boolean	VT_BOOL
12	variant	VT_VARIANT
13	unknown	VT_UNKNOWN
16	char	VT_I1
17	unsigned char	VT_UI1
18	unsigned short	VT_UI2
19	unsigned int	VT_UI4
20	8 byte integer	VT_I8
21	8 byte unsigned	VT_UI8
22	machine int	VT_INT
23	unsigned machine int	VT_UINT
24	void	VT_VOID
28	C-style array	VT_CARRAY
30	null-terminated string	VT_LPSTR
31	wide null-terminated string	VT_LPWSTR

Returns:

The series. The series is marked so that it is converted to an array of variants when used with ActiveX Automation.

Example:

a = 1..5;

xl = createobject("Excel.Application");

xl.workbooks.add();

xl.range("A1:A5").value = a;

xl.range("B1:B5").value = castvariantarray(a);

xl.range("C1:C5").value = castvariantarray(a, 2);

xl.visible = 1;

Starts Excel and creates a new workbook. The series in variable a is transferred to cells A1 through A5 as a normal array of doubles. The same series is converted to an array of variants where each variant contains a double. This converted series is placed in cells B1 through B5. The series is also converted to an array of variants where each variant contains a 2 byte integer. This converted series is placed in cells C1 through C5. Because Excel internally converts all these arrays in the same manner, the results are identical.

Remarks:

CASTVARIANTARRAY is helpful with ActiveX Automation when a series must be transferred as an array of variants instead of the normal array of doubles.

Not all variant types can be converted successfully for the array.