Migrating to Harbour

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Rick,

it would require too much work, sorry.

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Enrico,

You could use a function that does the job automatically:

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = MyCheckDate( ... )

function MyCheckDate( u )

return If( Empty( u ), nil, CToD( u ) )

You can modify it based on your needs.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Antonio,

ok, but I would have to check tons of lines of code to look for the places where to put that function.

As I already said: impractical...

This is clearly an Harbour bug. We can assign any empty types except date. Illogical.

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Enrico,

Do you get an error with Harbour on this code ?

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = CToD( "" )

Which error ?

What about using TRY ... CATCH ... END ?

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Antonio,

Do you get an error with Harbour on this code ?

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = CToD( "" )

Which error ?

Code: Select all

Error WINOLE/1006   (0x800A03EC): _VALUE (DOS Error -2147352567)
Called from TOLEAUTO:_VALUE(0)
Called from MAIN(11)

What about using TRY ... CATCH ... END ?

Too much work.

EMG

[James Bott]

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = CToD( "" )

Isn't that a direct call to the Excel API? If so, it would seem that it is an Excel issue not a Harbour issue. But then, I don't understand why it would work with xHarbour unless the pre-processor is changing the code.

Any chance that you are comparing two different versions of Excel--one using Harbour and another with xHarbour?

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

James,

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = CToD( "" )

Isn't that a direct call to the Excel API? If so, it would seem that it is an Excel issue not a Harbour issue.

It makes no sense that we can assign all empty types except date, isn't it?

But then, I don't understand why it would work with xHarbour unless the pre-processor is changing the code.

No, it's not the preprocessor, it's internal xHarbour OLE management that fixes the problem. Harbour should do the same, in my opinion.

Any chance that you are comparing two different versions of Excel--one using Harbour and another with xHarbour?

No, sorry. But you can use my sample as it is. It's a complete sample.

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Enrico,

Its just a workaround, but what do you think if you use a modified function CToD() ?

If you agree on that, then I will help you to build it

[James Bott]

Enrico,

Anyway, does it make sense that we can assign all empty types except date? These all work:

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = ""
oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = 0
oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = .F.

Actually 0 and .f. are valid data, are they not? Are you saying they are converted to nil before putting the data into Excel?

No, it's not the preprocessor, it's internal xHarbour OLE management that fixes the problem. Harbour should do the same, in my opinion.

What are you basing this on? I know that I have used third-party libraries (that Harbour does not have any knowledge of) to pass data in a similar manner. So, at least in this case, there is no processing by Harbour, unless maybe it is generic. Do you know for a fact that this is happening or are you making an assumption?

[James Bott]

Antonio,

Its just a workaround, but what do you think if you use a modified function CToD() ?

I thought of this too, but then it would be returning nil to the entire program and there are probably other places where this would crash, like in saving to a DBF.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Antonio,

Its just a workaround, but what do you think if you use a modified function CToD() ?

If you agree on that, then I will help you to build it

And what about

Code: Select all

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = FIELD -> birthdate

when birthdate field is empty? There's no way out other than fix Harbour...

EMG

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Antonio,

Anyway, does it make sense that we can assign all empty types except date? These all work:

oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = ""
oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = 0
oSheet:Cells( 1, 1 ):Value = .F.

Actually 0 and .f. are valid data, are they not?

Yes, just like CTOD( "" ).

Are you saying they are converted to nil before putting the data into Excel?

No, it's not the preprocessor, it's internal xHarbour OLE management that fixes the problem. Harbour should do the same, in my opinion.

What are you basing this on? I know that I have used third-party libraries (that Harbour does not have any knowledge of) to pass data in a similar manner. So, at least in this case, there is no processing by Harbour, unless maybe it is generic. Do you know for a fact that this is happening or are you making an assumption?

This is from xHarbour hbwinole.c:

Code: Select all

      case HB_IT_DATE:
         if( pItem->item.asDate.value == 0 )
         {
            PHB_V_VT( pVariant ) = VT_NULL;
         }

EMG

[nageswaragunupudi]

Friends

We are all beating around the bush.

Let us not think that EMG does not know workarounds or that he is not capable of finding on his own. No point in keep advising him to implement work arounds.

The fact is that this is bug in Harbour well known for a long time. This is a problem not only for excel but also for ADO.

His point is that he has large existing code and it is extremely difficult to implement work arounds everywhere. It is true. Imagine that any work around is to be implemented for every assignment.

He is speaking not only on his own behalf. Rather on behalf of many programmers who want to migrate.

[elvira]

Hello,

So I beleive that the better solution will be to post those comments in the Harbour Developer forum.

Thanks.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Rao,

Friends

We are all beating around the bush.

Let us not think that EMG does not know workarounds or that he is not capable of finding on his own. No point in keep advising him to implement work arounds.

The fact is that this is bug in Harbour well known for a long time. This is a problem not only for excel but also for ADO.

His point is that he has large existing code and it is extremely difficult to implement work arounds everywhere. It is true. Imagine that any work around is to be implemented for every assignment.

He is speaking not only on his own behalf. Rather on behalf of many programmers who want to migrate.

Thank you! Perfect!

EMG