Variants make it possible to bypass and avoid type checking by the compiler. What this means is that by using a variant you are possibly only finding out about errors at runtime because the compiler cannot do its normal helpful type checking to make sure you catch errors early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in this particular thread on the forums the right question isn’t “how to force the array() function to always return a variant array” but “how to design this particular API so variants are not required”. And that is certainly possible since Xojo supports variable argument lists, optional parameters and other features that retain strong type checking at compile time AND still allow for a good degree of flexibility in designing an API.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Result = BuildMenu (base, BuildItem( “Run”, false), BuildItem(“edit”), BuildItem(“Rename”), BuildItem(“Delete”))
with buildmenu defined as<\/p>
Sub BuildMenu(base as menuitem, paramarray items as menuitem)
\/\/ just append the items passed to the base
for i as integer = 0 to items.ubound
base.append items(i)
next
end sub<\/p>
and BuildItem as<\/p>
Function BuildItem(name as string, enabled as boolean = false)
dim item as new menuitem(name)
item.enabled = enabled
return item
end function<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Avoid variants where you can and design an API that permits the compiler to help you out at compile time. The earlier you catch possible bugs the easier, and less costly, they are to fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The compiler can help you IF you let it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interesting question posed by a relatively new user came up on the forums. It had to do with how the Array() function worked and how he could force it to return an array of variants to call his method. His method was defined like BuildMenu( base as menuitem, params() as variant) And he would … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Let the compiler help you”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,17,6,3],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-best-practices","tag-compiler","tag-tips","tag-xojo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}