[VB6] Look up Enum value names

We see this question as well as very similar ones every so often:

"I want to be able to have users pick values by name from a list of Enum value names. Is there a way to do this without manually creating my own lists?"

I'm not sure we've seen many good responses to these, and I don't see one here so I thought I'd post one.

The only place your programs might look to find this information is inside type libraries. And we have a nice tool for doing this without a ton of effort.

The TLI

Quoting its help file:

Quote:

The TypeLib Information object library (TLI for short, implemented in TlbInf32.dll) is a set of COM objects designed to make type library browsing functionality easily accessible to both Visual Basic and C++ programmers.

Of course using it can take some study. But there is a wealth of functionality there, probably more than most programmers will ever need.

Requirements

You need the TLI, but since the VB6 IDE uses it you certainly have it. You may or may not have the help file for it, which was once distributed as TlbInf32.exe (a self-extractor). I don't have a current Microsoft link for that file though.

You also need type libraries for the Enums you want to do lookups on. These are often embedded within DLLs and OCXs, or may be in separate TLB files. In many cases it can be more conventient to access these by type library ID (GUID values), version, and locale (since there are such things as localized type libraries).

How To

So here is an example:

Code:

Option Explicit



Private Sub cboAdoTypes_Click()

    With cboAdoTypes

        lblDataType.Caption = CStr(.ItemData(.ListIndex))

        MsgBox .List(.ListIndex) & " = " & lblDataType.Caption

    End With

End Sub



Private Sub cboSysColors_Click()

    With cboSysColors

        BackColor = .ItemData(.ListIndex)

    End With

End Sub



Private Sub Form_Load()

    Const ADO_GUID As String = "{00000205-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}"

    Dim DataTypeEnums As TLI.Members

    Dim SystemColorConsts As TLI.Members

    Dim Item As TLI.MemberInfo



    With New TLI.TLIApplication

        With .TypeLibInfoFromRegistry(ADO_GUID, 2, 5, 0).Constants

            Set DataTypeEnums = .NamedItem("DataTypeEnum").Members

        End With

        With .TypeLibInfoFromFile("msvbvm60.dll\3").Constants

            Set SystemColorConsts = .NamedItem("SystemColorConstants").Members

        End With

    End With

    With cboAdoTypes

        For Each Item In DataTypeEnums

            .AddItem Item.Name

            .ItemData(.NewIndex) = Item.Value

        Next

    End With

    With cboSysColors

        For Each Item In SystemColorConsts

            .AddItem Item.Name

            .ItemData(.NewIndex) = Item.Value

        Next

    End With

End Sub