BinData ActiveX Reference Documentation

BinData

Current Version: 11.0.0

Container for binary data. Provides methods for getting, setting, appending, etc. in binary and string encoded formats.

Object Creation

Note:
For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use "Chilkat_9_5_0.BinData" instead of "Chilkat.BinData"
For a specific major version, use "Chilkat.BinData.<major_version>", such as "Chilkat.BinData.10" for Chilkat v10.*.*
See Chilkat ActiveX Object Creation

(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat.BinData")

(AutoIt)
$obj = ObjCreate("Chilkat.BinData")

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New ChilkatBinData

(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat.BinData")

(VBA, such as Excel)
Dim obj As New ChilkatBinData
See How to Use ActiveX in Excel

(Delphi)
obj := TChilkatBinData.Create(Self);

(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat.BinData')

(PowerBuilder)
lole_object = create oleobject
li_rc = lole_object.ConnectToNewObject("Chilkat.BinData")

(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.BinData', @obj OUT

(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat.BinData");

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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LastBinaryResult
LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (read-only)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Long

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

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LastStringResult
LastStringResult As String (read-only)

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

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LastStringResultLen
LastStringResultLen As Long (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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NumBytes
NumBytes As Long (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

The number of bytes contained within the object.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Long

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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Methods

AppendBd
AppendBd(binData As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of another BinData to this object.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendBinary
AppendBinary(data As Variant) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Appends binary data to the current contents, if any.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendBom
AppendBom(charset As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the appropriate BOM (byte order mark), also known as a "preamble", for the given charset. If the charset has no defined BOM, then nothing is appended. An application would typically call this to append the utf-8, utf-16, or utf-32 BOM.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendByte
AppendByte(ByVal byteValue As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a single byte. The byteValue should be a value from 0 to 255.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendCountedString
AppendCountedString(ByVal numCountBytes As Long, ByVal bigEndian As Long, str As String, charset As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Appends a byte count followed by the string in the desired character encoding, such as "utf-8". The numCountBytes is the size in bytes of the integer to represent the byte count. If 0, then a minimal number of bytes is used. If bigEndian is 1, the byte count is appended in big endian byte ordering, otherwise little-ending byte ordering. The str is the string to be appended. The charset is the character encoding, such as "utf-8", "utf-16", "windows-1252", etc.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendData
AppendData(data As Variant, ByVal numBytes As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Appends binary data to the current contents.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendEncoded
AppendEncoded(encData As String, encoding As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Appends encoded binary data to the current data. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendEncodedSb
AppendEncodedSb(sb As ChilkatStringBuilder, encoding As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes the contents of sb and appends the decoded bytes to this object. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendInt2
AppendInt2(ByVal value As Long, ByVal littleEndian As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a 16-bit integer (2 bytes). If littleEndian is 1, then the integer bytes are appended in little-endian byte order, otherwise big-endian byte order is used.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendInt4
AppendInt4(ByVal value As Long, ByVal littleEndian As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a 32-bit integer (4 bytes). If littleEndian is 1, then the integer bytes are appended in little-endian byte order, otherwise big-endian byte order is used.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendPadded
AppendPadded(str As String, charset As String, ByVal padWithSpace As Long, ByVal fieldLen As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Appends a string to this object, padded to the fieldLen with NULL or SPACE chars. If padWithSpace is 1, then SPACE chars are used and the string is not null-terminated. If fieldLen is 0, then null bytes are used. The charset controls the byte representation to use, such as "utf-8".

Note: This call will always append a total number of bytes equal to fieldLen. If the str is longer than fieldLen, the method returns 0 to indicate failure and nothing is appended.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendSb
AppendSb(sb As ChilkatStringBuilder, charset As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of a StringBuilder to this object.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendString
AppendString(str As String, charset As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends a string to this object. (This does not append the BOM. If a BOM is required, the AppendBom method can be called to append the appropriate BOM.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ByteSwap
ByteSwap(ByVal size As Long)
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Does either 16-bit or 32-bit byte swapping of the entire contents. If size equals 16, then swaps in 2 bytes (e.g., 0x1234 → 0x3412). If size equals 32, then swaps 4 bytes (e.g., 0x12345678 → 0x78563412)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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CharsetConvert
CharsetConvert(fromCharset As String, toCharset As String, ByVal allOrNone As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 11.0.0

This method converts the character encoding of an object's contents from one format to another, such as from Windows-1252 to UTF-8. The allOrNone parameter determines error handling for unrepresentable bytes. If allOrNone is 1, the object's contents remain unchanged when errors occur. If 0, error bytes are discarded. The method returns 1 if successful and 0 if errors occur.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Clear
Clear() As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Clears the contents.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ContentsEqual
ContentsEqual(binData As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Return 1 if the contents of this object equals the contents of binData.

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FindString
FindString(str As String, ByVal startIdx As Long, charset As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Return the index where the first occurrence of str is found. Return -1 if not found. The startIdx indicates the byte index where the search begins. The charset specifies the byte representation of str that is to be searched. For example, it can be "utf-8", "windows-1252", "ansi", "utf-16", etc.

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GetBinary
GetBinary() As Variant
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves the binary data contained within the object.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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GetBinaryChunk
GetBinaryChunk(ByVal offset As Long, ByVal numBytes As Long) As Variant
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data contained within the object.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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GetByte
GetByte(ByVal index As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.92

Returns the value of the byte at the given index. The returned value is an integer from 0 to 255.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetData
GetData() As Variant
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Retrieves the binary data contained within the object.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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GetDataChunk
GetDataChunk(ByVal offset As Long, ByVal numBytes As Long) As Variant
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data contained within the object.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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GetEncoded
GetEncoded(encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves the binary data as an encoded string. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetEncodedChunk
GetEncodedChunk(ByVal offset As Long, ByVal numBytes As Long, encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data and returns it in encoded form. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetEncodedSb
GetEncodedSb(encoding As String, sb As ChilkatStringBuilder) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Writes the encoded data to a StringBuilder. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetHash
GetHash(algorithm As String, encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Returns the hash of the contents of this object. The algorithm is the hash algorithm, and can be "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha3-224", "sha3-256", "sha3-384", "sha3-512", "md2", "md5", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The encoding can be "base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "base32", "base58", "qp" (for quoted-printable), "url" (for url-encoding), "hex", "hexLower", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetInt2
GetInt2(ByVal index As Long, ByVal littleEndian As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 16-bit signed integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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GetInt4
GetInt4(ByVal index As Long, ByVal littleEndian As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 32-bit signed integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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GetString
GetString(charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Interprets the bytes according to charset and returns the string. The charset can be "utf-8", "utf-16", "ansi", "iso-8859-*", "windows-125*", or any of the supported character encodings listed in the link below.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetTextChunk
GetTextChunk(ByVal startIdx As Long, ByVal numBytes As Long, charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Returns numBytes bytes starting at startIdx. The bytes are interpreted according to charset (for example, "utf-8", "ansi", "utf-16", "windows-1252", etc.)

Returns Nothing on failure

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IsValidUtf8
IsValidUtf8() As Long
Introduced in version 10.1.0

Returns 1 if this object contains valid utf-8 byte sequences. Any invalid byte sequence that is not valid utf-8 will cause this function to return 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadBinary
LoadBinary(data As Variant) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads binary data and replaces the current contents, if any.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadEncoded
LoadEncoded(encData As String, encoding As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads binary data from an encoded string, replacing the current contents, if any. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFile
LoadFile(path As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads data from a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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RemoveByteVal
RemoveByteVal(ByVal value As Long)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.90

Removes bytes having a specified value (0-255). For example, to remove all null bytes, pass 0 in value.

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RemoveChunk
RemoveChunk(ByVal offset As Long, ByVal numBytes As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Removes a chunk of bytes from the binary data.

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SecureClear
SecureClear() As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Securely clears the contents by writing 0 bytes to the memory prior to deallocating the internal memory.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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WriteAppendFile
WriteAppendFile(path As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Appends the contents of this object to a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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WriteFile
WriteFile(path As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Writes the contents to a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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