Passing an array argument from Excel VBA to a WCF service

Question

I'm trying to pass an array as an argument to my WCF service. To test this using Damian's sample code, I modified GetData it to try to pass an array of ints instead of a single int as an argument:

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace WcfService1
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IService1
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string GetData(int[] value);
    }
}

using System;
namespace WcfService1
{
    public class Service1 : IService1
    {
        public string GetData(int[] value)
        {
            return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value[0]);
        }
    }
}

Excel VBA code:

Dim addr As String
addr = "service:mexAddress=""net.tcp://localhost:7891/Test/WcfService1/Service1/Mex"","
addr = addr + "address=""net.tcp://localhost:7891/Test/WcfService1/Service1/"","
addr = addr + "contract=""IService1"", contractNamespace=""http://tempuri.org/"","
addr = addr + "binding=""NetTcpBinding_IService1"", bindingNamespace=""http://tempuri.org/"""

Dim service1 As Object
Set service1 = GetObject(addr)

Dim Sectors( 0 to 2 ) as Integer
Sectors(0) = 10
Sectors(1) = 20

MsgBox service1.GetData(Sectors)

This code works fine with the WCF Test Client, but when I try to use it from Excel, I have this problem. When Excel gets to the service1.GetData call, it reports the following error:

>Run-time error '-2147467261 (80004003)'
>
>Automation error
>Invalid Pointer

It looks like there is some incompatibility between the interface specification and the VBA call.

Have you ever tried to pass an array from VBA into WCF? Am I doing something wrong or is this not supported using the Service moniker?

its interesting to note you can't have the service produce an array in another operationcontract and feed it back as an input from excel directly... gives a type mismatch error — tbischel
– tbischel, Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 1:09
Check the blog article again and try to follow the steps he describes at the When it doesn’t work section. He tells how you can attach the Visual Studio debugger to Excel to get more information on the .NET Exception that is being thrown. Maybe if you update your question with this extra information it will be easier to help! — Sitnik
– Sitnik, Commented Jun 8, 2011 at 14:56

Shiraz Bhaiji · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-28 20:22:24Z

0

There are a couple of things that you could try / check:

From your code, it looks like only the first element in your array is set to a value, try setting them all.
Instead of passing an array of int, try passing an object that contains a single property which is an array of int.

answered Apr 28, 2010 at 20:22

Shiraz Bhaiji

65.7k37 gold badges149 silver badges260 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

tbischel · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 22:39:53Z

0

a hack solution could be to join your array as a single string using some kind of delimiter, and pass that instead of the array. Then in the service, split the string back to an array. It seems to work, but I really want the correct solution. If anyone can figure this out, please post!

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 22:39

tbischel

6,50712 gold badges54 silver badges76 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Passing an array argument from Excel VBA to a WCF service

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related