COM data types

The table below shows the correspondence between COM data types and APL arrays.

OLE DataType APL array
VT_BOOL numeric scalar
VT_I1 numeric scalar
VT_I2 numeric scalar
VT_I4 numeric scalar
VT_R4 numeric scalar
VT_R8 numeric scalar
VT_BSTR character vector
VT_CY 2-element numeric vector
VT_DATE 6 element numeric vector
VT_VARIANT any array
VT_SAFEARRAY any array (VT_ARRAY OF VT_VARIANT)
VT_DISPATCH ⎕OR of a namespace
VT_COLOR 3-element RGB

APL vectors may be described by pre-fixing the data type string with 'VT_ARRAY OF '. For example 'VT_ARRAY OF BSTR' specifies a vector of character vectors.

If the APL array is the ⎕OR of a namespace, its data type should be specified as 'VT_DISPATCH'.