Conversions from COM to ABL data types

The following table lists the possible conversions from COM data types to ABL data types when accessing COM object properties, method return values, method output parameters, and event input parameters.

If the destination ABL data item has a different data type than the one listed in the following table, ABL tries to convert it.

Table 73. Default conversions from COM data types to ABL data types
COM data type	ABL data type
Boolean	LOGICAL
Signed Byte	INTEGER
Unsigned Byte	INTEGER
Signed Short (2-byte integer)	INTEGER
Unsigned Short (2-byte integer)	INTEGER
Signed Integer (4-byte integer)	INTEGER
Unsigned Integer (4-byte integer)	INT64
Signed 8-byte Integer	INT64
Unsigned 8-byte Integer	DECIMAL
Byte[] (Array)	RAW
Currency	DECIMAL
Date	DATETIME
Double	DECIMAL
Error	INTEGER
Float (Single)	DECIMAL
Object	COM-HANDLE
String	CHARACTER

The names for COM data types in the above table conform to a nomenclature used in the documentation for most COM objects. For matching alternatives to these names, seen in some documentation and COM object viewers, see Table 75.

ABL resolves any Pointer or Variant Pointer references to COM data types, then converts the value to the corresponding ABL data type.