How do you pass an array of multiple data types to a COM object declared as [in, out] SAFEARRAY(VARIANT) in C# 4.0?

Question

I'm looking for help passing an object with multiple datatypes to a COM object as defined below...

This is the COM object interface:

[id(0x00000004), helpstring("finds the next best item")]
unsigned long GetNextItem([in, out] SAFEARRAY(VARIANT) Content);

This is the array that needs to be passed to the COM object.

content[0][0] = 0.0 
content[0][1] = 1   
content[0][2] = 1   
content[0][3] = 1      
content[0][4] = -1  
content[0][5] = 0.0 
content[0][6] = 0.0

I have 2 issues:

Creating an object in C# 4.0 that can contain multiple data types.
Passing that object to the COM object through it's public interface.

This is the error I cannot get past:

SafeArrayTypeMismatchException{"Specified array was not of the expected type."}

Any help is appreciated!

Hans Passant · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-18 19:43:35Z

2

content[0][0] = 0.0

That's a jagged array, it cannot be converted to a SafeArray. You'll need to create a multi-dimensional array instead:

var content = new object[42, 666];
content[0, 0] = 0.0;

edited Jul 18, 2012 at 19:43

answered Jul 18, 2012 at 18:08

Hans Passant

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1 Comment

KenZ Over a year ago

That works for the first element, but the next 4 need to be of type integer and the last 2 of double. What object in C# supports multiple datatypes and can be converted/passed to a safearray?

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