Calling functions – PB Docs 2022

You can call server functions for an OLE control through its
Object property using the following syntax:

If the OLE object is complex, there could be nested properties
or objects within the object that serve as qualifiers for the function
name.

Arguments and return values and their
datatypes

PowerBuilder converts OLE data to and from compatible
PowerBuilder datatypes. The datatypes of values you specify for
arguments must be compatible with the datatypes expected by the
server, but they do not need to be an exact match.

When the function returns a value, you can assign the value to a
PowerBuilder variable of a compatible datatype.

Passing arguments by
reference

If an OLE server expects an argument to be passed by reference
so that it can pass a value back to your script, include the keyword
REF just before the argument. This is similar to the use of REF in an
external function declaration:

In these generic examples, the server can change the values of
ls_string and li_return because they are passed by reference:

This example illustrates the same function call using an
OLEObject variable.

Word and automation

Microsoft Word 6.0 and 7.0 support automation with a command set
similar to the WordBasic macro language. The command set includes both
statements and functions and uses named parameters. Later versions of
Microsoft Word use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which consists
of a hierarchy of objects that expose a specific set of methods and
properties.

WordBasic statements

WordBasic has both statements and functions. Some of them have
the same name. WordBasic syntax differentiates between statements and
functions calls, but PowerBuilder does not.

To specify that you want to call a statement, you can include
AsStatement! (a value of the OLEFunctionCallType enumerated datatype)
as an argument. Using AsStatement! is the only way to call WordBasic
statements that have the same name as a function. Even when the
statement name does not conflict with a function name, specifying
AsStatement! is more efficient:

For example, the following code calls the AppMinimize
statement:

Named parameters

PowerBuilder does not support named parameters that both
WordBasic and Visual Basic use. In the parentheses, specify the
parameter values without the parameter names.

For example, the following statements insert text at a bookmark
in a Word 6.0 or 7.0 document:

The last two commands in a WordBasic macro would look like this,
where Destination is the named parameter:

In a PowerBuilder script, you would use this syntax to insert
text in a Word 97 or later document:

In the corresponding Visual Basic statement, the named parameter
Text contains the string to be inserted:

Example of Word automation

To illustrate how to combine PowerScript with server commands,
the following script counts the number of bookmarks in a Microsoft
Word OLE object and displays their names:

Example of Word 6.0 and 7.0
automation

The following script counts the number of bookmarks in a
Microsoft Word 6.0 or 7.0 OLE object and displays their names: