Mapping of Sequence
Kinds of arrays
Arrays in Automation have a particular type. The SAFEARRAY. A SAFEARRAY array is used when a UNO function takes a sequence as an argument. To create a SAFEARRAY in C++, use Windows API functions. The C++ name is also SAFEARRAY, but in other languages it might be named differently. In VB for example, the type does not even exist, because it is mapped to an ordinary VB array:
Dim myarr(9) as String
JScript is different. It does not have a method to create a SAFEARRAY. Instead, JScript features an Array object that can be used as a common array in terms of indexing and accessing its values. It is represented by a dispatch object internally. JScript offers a VBArray object that converts a SAFEARRAY into an Array object, which can then be processed further.
The Automation bridge accepts both, SAFEARRAY and Array object, for arguments whose UNO type is a sequence.
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If a SAFEARRAY is obtained in JScript as a result of a call to an ActiveX component or a VB Script function (for example, the Internet Explorer allows JScript and VBS code on the same page), then it can also be used as an argument of a UNO function without converting it to an Array object. |
Multidimensional arrays
UNO does not recognize multi-dimensional sequences. Instead, a sequences can have elements that are also sequences. Those “inner” sequences can have different lengths, whereas the elements of a dimension of a multi-dimensional array are all the same length.
To provide an argument for a sequence of sequences, a SAFEARRAY containing VARIANTs of SAFEARRAYs has to be created. For example:
//UNO method
void foo([in] sequence< sequence< long > > value);
'VB
Dim seq(1) As Variant
Dim ar1(3) As Long
Dim ar2(4) As Long
'fill ar1, ar2
...
seq(0) = ar1
seq(1) = ar2
objUno.foo seq
The array seq corresponds to the “outer” sequence and contains two VARIANTs, which in turn contain SAFEARRAYs of different lengths.
It is also possible to use a multi-dimensional SAFEARRAY if the elements of the sequence are all the same length:
Dim seq(9, 1) As Long
'fill the sequence
...
objUno.foo seq
Be aware that Visual Basic uses a column-oriented ordering in contrast to C. That is, the C equivalent to the VB array is
long seq[2][10]
The highest dimension in VB is represented by the right-most number.
This language binding specifies that the “outer” sequence corresponds to the highest dimension. Therefore, the VB array seq(9,1) would map to a sequence of sequences where the outer sequence has two elements and the inner sequences each have ten elements.
Conversion of returned sequences
Sequences can be returned as return values of uno functions or properties and as in/out or out arguments of uno functions. They are converted into SAFEARRAYs containing VARIANTs. If a sequence of sequences is returned, then the VARIANTs contain again SAFEARRAYs. For example, if an uno function returns a sequence of strings then the bridge will convert the sequence into a SAFEARRAY containing VARIANTs of strings. This is necessary because some languages, for example VBScript can only access members of arrays if they are VARIANTs.
To process a returned SAFEARRAY in JScript, use the VBArray object to convert the SAFEARRAY into a JScript Array.
That a returned sequence maps to a SAFEARRAY of VARIANTs is not ideal because it is ambiguous when the array is passed back to UNO. However, the bridge solves this problem by using UNO type information. For example, a returned sequence of longs will result in a SAFEARRAY of VARIANTs containing long values. When the SAFEARRAY is passed in a method as an argument for a parameter of type sequence<long > then it is converted accordingly. However, if the parameter is an any, then the bridge does not have the necessary type information and converts the SAFEARRAY to sequence<any>. If the method now expects the any to contain a sequence<long> then it may fail. This is confusing if there are pairs of methods like getxxx and setxxx, which take any arguments. Then you may get a SAFEARRAY as a return value, which cannot be used in the respective setXXX call. For example:
//UNO IDL
any getByIndex();
void setByIndex([in] any value);
' VB
Dim arLong() As Variant
arLong = objUno.getByIndex() 'object returns sequence<long> in any
objUno.setByIndex arLong 'object receives sequence<any> in any and may cause an error.
To solve this problem, wrap the argument in a Value Object (Value Objects):
' VB
Dim arLong() As Variant
arLong = objUno.getByIndex() 'object returns sequence<long> in any
Dim objValueObject As Object
Set objValueObject = objServiceManager.Bridge_GetValueObject()
objValueObject.set “[]long”, arLong
objUno.setByIndex objValueObject 'object receives sequence<long>
A similar problem may occur when one calls functions of an automation object which takes VARIANTs as arguments and the function expects particular types within those VARIANTs. For example, an automation object expects a VARIANT containing a SAFEARRAY of strings. The bridge only knows from the object's type information that the function expects a VARIANT, but not the contained type. The bridge will therefore do a default conversion of the sequence, which produces a SAFEARRAY of VARIANTs. The function may not be able to understand this argument. Then one can use a value object in order to give the bridge a hint of the expected type.
If the parameter is a multi–dimensional SAFEARRAY, then a sequence containing sequences has to be provided. The number of nested sequences corresponds to the number of dimensions. Since the elements of a dimension have the same length, the sequences that represent that dimension should also have the same length. For example, assume the expected SAFEARRAY can be expressed in C as
long ar[2][10]
Then the outer sequence must have two elements and each of those sequences has 10 elements.
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