Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Programming Interfaces

Progress to COM data type features and limitations

When performing Progress to COM data type conversions, Progress does do array and automatic pointer conversions, but does not do conversions for certain data Progress types.

Array conversions

Progress supports conversions between COM Array data types and Progress arrays (data types with extents like AS INTEGER EXTENT 5.) The conversion for arrays follows the conversions listed in Table A–1.

Pointer conversions

When indicated, Progress converts the specified Progress data type to a Pointer or Variant Pointer COM data type. This has no effect on the value of the parameter or property, only on the way the value is packaged. Progress determines the conversion in the following ways:

Converts to a Pointer when the method parameter or property reference includes the BY-POINTER type option, or the Type Library specifies a Pointer to the corresponding COM data type.
Converts to a Variant Pointer when the method parameter or property reference includes the BY-VARIANT-POINTER type option, or the Type Library specifies a Variant Pointer to the corresponding COM data type.

Progress data types not converted

Progress does not convert the BLOB, CLOB, MEMPTR, ROWID, or WIDGET-HANDLE data types to COM data types.