Microsoft KB Archive/171652

= How To Retrieve Individual Bytes from a Multi-Byte Type in VB =

Article ID: 171652

Article Last Modified on 2/12/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition, when used with:
 * the hardware: Intel x86
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition, when used with:
 * the hardware: Intel x86
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition, when used with:
 * the hardware: Intel x86
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 32-Bit Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Access 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q171652



SUMMARY
This article demonstrates how to copy the individual bytes of data in a multi-byte data type, such as a long integer or a single-precision floating- point number, into a byte array. It also illustrates how to take an array of bytes and turn it into a specific data type that Visual Basic (and VBA) will recognize.



MORE INFORMATION
This code shows how to move the separate bytes of a long integer into a four-element byte array and also how to turn the byte array back into a long integer. In a Visual Basic project, place the following code in the declarations section: Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "Kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" ( _          ByRef Destination As Any, _           ByRef Source As Any, _           ByVal numbytes As Long) A long integer consists of four bytes. These four bytes are recognized by Visual Basic to be one number. Use the following subroutine to move the individual bytes into a byte array: Public Sub LongToBytes(ByRef TheArray As Byte, ByRef TheLong As Long)

Call CopyMemory(TheArray(LBound(TheArray)), TheLong, 4)

End Sub The first parameter passed to CopyMemory is the first element of the array into which the bytes will be stored. (NOTE: The entire array is passed to longToBytes.) The second parameter is the source variable. The third parameter is how many bytes will be moved. Because a long integer consists of four bytes, this parameter has been set to 4.

To go the other way, turning a byte array back into a long integer variable, use the following code: Public Function BytesToLong(TheArray As Byte) As Long Dim TempLong As Long

Call CopyMemory(TempLong, TheArray(LBound(TheArray)), 4) BytesToLong = TempLong

End Function NOTE: As with any API call, passing improper memory addresses can cause data corruption or could cause your program to terminate abnormally.

