Sends a new value to a dynamic data exchange (DDE) server data item associated with the specified DDE conversation.
This statement is supported only for backward compatibility. Use the Component Object Model (COM) instead.
Note: Does not apply to SpeedScript programming.
Syntax
DDE SEND ddeid SOURCE data ITEM name [ TIME seconds] [ NO-ERROR ]
ddeid
An integer expression that equals the channel number of the conversation opened for the specified data item. It is the value returned by the DDE INITIATE statement that opened the conversation.
SOURCE data
Specifies the new value for the server data item, where data is a character expression that renders the new value in a format acceptable to the data item.
ITEM name
Specifies the name of the server data item to receive the new value. The data item name is a character expression that identifies the data item according to the conventions of the server application (for example, the row and column coordinates of a worksheet cell, such as R2C1 in Microsoft Excel).
TIME seconds
Specifies the maximum number of seconds that the ABL client waits for the DDE SEND statement to complete, where seconds is an integer expression. If you do not specify the TIME option or specify a value of 0, the AVM waits indefinitely for the statement to complete.
NO-ERROR
By default, if the statement fails to send the value to the data item, the AVM raises the ERROR condition and posts the error to the DDE frame DDE-ERROR attribute. If you specify NO-ERROR, the AVM does not raise the ERROR condition, but does post the error to the DDE frame.
Example
The following fragment shows a typical use of the DDE SEND statement. It assumes that the Microsoft Excel application is running, and has created the default Excel worksheet, Sheet1. It then uses the DDE INITIATE statement to open a conversation with Sheet1 as the topic. This allows the AVM to exchange data with the cells of the worksheet. In this example, the fragment assigns column headings to the top row of the first three columns in the worksheet using the DDE SEND statement.
DEFINE VARIABLE Sheet1 AS INTEGER NO-UNDO. /* DDE-ID to worksheet topic */
DEFINE VARIABLE DDEframe AS HANDLE NO-UNDO. /* DDE frame handle */
