Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Programming Interfaces

RUN statement parameter data types

Note that while shared library parameter definitions use a special set of data types, the corresponding expressions, fields, and variables passed in the RUN statement have standard Progress data types. You must ensure that your RUN statement parameters have data types that are compatible with their corresponding shared library parameter definitions. Table 12–3 lists each shared library parameter data type and the Progress data type that is compatible with it in a RUN statement.

Table 12–3: Shared library and RUN statement parameter compatibilities  

Shared library parameter data types	RUN parameter data types
BYTE	INTEGER
SHORT	INTEGER
UNSIGNED-SHORT	INTEGER
LONG	INTEGER
FLOAT	DECIMAL
DOUBLE	DECIMAL
CHARACTER	CHARACTER LONGCHAR
MEMPTR	MEMPTR

Caution: For CHARACTER parameters, Progress always passes the routine a pointer to the character or character string value rather than the value itself. If the routine modifies the value, it can also modify Progress memory outside the bounds of the CHARACTER value with unpredictable results. For this reason, Progress does not allow you to use OUTPUT or RETURN for CHARACTER or LONGCHAR parameters, as well as CHARACTER or LONGCHAR array parameters, and does not recommend you use INPUT-OUTPUT for CHARACTER or LONGCHAR parameters. Rather, pass the character string as a MEMPTR parameter. For more information, see the "Passing CHARACTER values to shared library routines" section. For more information on passing a MEMPTR parameter, see the "Using MEMPTR variables as parameters" section. Note: You cannot use any type of array for a RETURN parameter.