PROPVARIANT Helpers #5 - PropVariantChangeType

PropVariantChangeType, aka Mr. Coercion, is the function responsible for all the coercion that goes on in the property system. It takes a value and attempts to output the same value, but as a different type. Thus it will convert L"10" to the number 10 and back.

In general, PropVariantChangeType will perform a locale-INsensitive conversion. This function was intended to operate as part of data layers. If you need a string you can show the user, use PSFormatForDisplay instead.

PSSTDAPI PropVariantChangeType(__out PROPVARIANT *ppropvarDest, REFPROPVARIANT propvarSrc, PROPVAR_CHANGE_FLAGS flags, VARTYPE vt);

One big difference between PropVariantChangeType and its cousin VariantChangeType is that the PROPVARIANT version will reject many sloppy conversions that VariantChangeType allowed. For instance, L"xyz" cannot be converted to a number. Also, an integer cannot be converted to a date.

Another big different is that PropVariantChangeType avoids locale and attempts to use canonical formats. For instance, it converts filetimes to L"2006/09/16:20:13:15.001" (the last 001 is the milliseconds). This makes PropVariantChangeType useful for data layers.

An apology:
We did not invest enough time in this function. There are holes in the API. [Converting a double to a string produces a locale-sensitive format (think L"5,105" in German versus L"5.105" in English]. There is missing functionality. [Converting ANSI strings to CLSIDs is not supported]. I highly recommend that you test out the scenarios you require of this function.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2006
  Just found your blog, great stuff! I love reading about the property system.
• Anonymous
  September 26, 2006
  As I went through the property helper posts, I kept using those dense word combinations "locale sensitive"...