VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

GetObject Function

Class

Microsoft. VisualBasic.Interaction

Syntax

GetObject([pathname] [, class])

pathname (optional; String)

The full path and name of the file containing the COM (or ActiveX) object.

class (optional; String)

The class of the object. The class argument has these parts:

Appname (required; String)

The name of the application.

Objecttype (required; String)

The class of object to create, delimited from Appname by using a point ( . ). For example, Appname.Objecttype.

Return Value

Returns a reference to an ActiveX object

Description

Accesses an ActiveX server held within a specified file

Rules at a Glance

• Although both pathname and class are optional, at least one parameter must be supplied.

• In situations where you cannot create a project-level reference to an ActiveX object, you can use the GetObject function to assign an object reference from an external ActiveX object to an object variable.

• GetObject is used when there is a current instance of the ActiveX object; to create the instance, use the CreateObject function.

• If you specify pathname as a zero-length string, GetObject will return a new instance of the object — unless the object is registered as single instance, in which case the current instance will be returned.

• If you omit the pathname, the current instance of the object will be returned.

• An error is generated if pathname is not specified and no current instance of the object can be found.

• The object variable you will use within your program to hold a reference ...