Author  

Language  

Operating Systems  

'I have read many accounts in various books and articles about how it would
'be nice to be able to return an error code with every function return...
'it's fairly easy to achieve this

'Simply create a User-Defined-Type (or class) called tReturn (or whatever) in
'a global module (assuming the use of a UDT).

'---------------------------------------------
Type tReturn
     Value as Variant
     Error as Integer
End Type
'---------------------------------------------

'Then make each function of type tReturn.

'---------------------------------------------
Public Function MyFunc(arg1, arg2) as tReturn
'---------------------------------------------

'When coding the function body, if an error occurs simply assign a non-zero
'value to the ".Error" item in the return value

'---------------------------------------------
Public Function MyFunc(arg1, arg2) as tReturn
   ...
   MyFunc.Error = 5 'Some Error
          (or)
   MyFunc.Error = Err
   ...
End Function
'---------------------------------------------

'This way, you can always tell if an error has occured by checking the
'existence of an error in the return value

'---------------------------------------------
   Dim MyReturn as tReturn
   ...
   MyReturn = MyFunc(3,8)
   If Not MyReturn.Error Then
      nSomeVariable = MyReturn.Value
   End If
   ...
'---------------------------------------------

'If you create tRetrun as a class (cReturn or whatever), you can make .Value
'as the default property and code it this way:

'---------------------------------------------
   Dim MyReturn as New cReturn
   ...
   MyReturn = MyFunc(3,8)
   If Not MyReturn.Error Then
      nSomeVariable = MyReturn
   End If
   ...
'---------------------------------------------

'Creating a class (which I personally prefer utilizing in my own code) allows
'for fairly sophisticated error handling by embedding functions within the
'class to resolve the errors without needing to stick alot of error-handling
'code all over the place.