PA_GetBlobVariable

version 2003

PA_GetBlobVariable (aVariable; theBlob) long

Parameter	Type		Description
aVariable	PA_Variable		Variable to access
theBlob	void *		Content of the BLOB variable
Function result	long		theBlob size in bytes

The routine PA_GetBlobVariable puts the content of the variable aVariable in the data pointed to by theBlob and returns its size in bytes.

If aVariable does not have the kind eVK_Blob, the routine returns 0 and theBlob is returned unchanged.

If BLOB size is unknown, call the function a first time with theBlob equal to zero. The returned value will be the size of the needed buffer. Allocate the buffer and call the function again with the correct buffer.

theBlob is a copy of the original. Simply get a handle to the BLOB by calling PA_GetBlobHandleVariable.

Get a BLOB variable.

   char   *theBlob;
   long   blobSize;

   // First call the routine with a nil pointer to get the BLOB size
      blobSize = PA_GetBlobVariable(aVariable, 0L);
   // Then allocate the buffer
      theBlob = malloc(blobSize);
   // If it is ok, get the blob (duplicate it, in fact)
      blobSize = PA_GetBlobVariable(aVariable, theBlob);
   // Work with it
      /* . . . */
   // Cleanup
      free(theBlob);

PA_GetBlobHandleVariable.

PA_GetLastError keeps the last error that occurred before calling the routine.