Object Hierarchy Syntax

The propertyname parameter of sp_OAGetProperty and sp_OASetProperty and the methodname of sp_OAMethod support object hierarchy syntax similar to Visual Basic. When this special syntax is used, these parameters have the general form:

Syntax

'TraversedObject.PropertyOrMethod'

where

TraversedObject

Is an OLE object in the hierarchy under the objecttoken specified in the stored procedure. Use Visual Basic syntax to specify a series of collections, object properties, and methods that return objects. Each object specifier in the series must be separated by a period (.).

An item in the series can be the name of a collection. Use this syntax to specify a collection:

Collection("item")

The double-quotes (") around item are required. The Visual Basic exclamation point (!) syntax for collections is not supported.

PropertyOrMethod

Is the name of a property or method of the TraversedObject.

To specify all index or method parameters by using sp_OAGetProperty, sp_OASetProperty, or sp_OAMethod parameters (including support for sp_OAMethod output parameters), use this syntax:

PropertyOrMethod

To specify all index or method parameters inside the parenthesis (causing all index or method parameters of sp_OAGetProperty, sp_OASetProperty, or sp_OAMethod to be ignored) use this syntax:

PropertyOrMethod( [ParameterName :=] "parameter" [, ...] )

The double-quotes (") around each parameter are required. All named parameters must be specified after all positional parameters are specified.

Remarks

If TraversedObject is not specified, PropertyOrMethod is required.

If PropertyOrMethod is not specified, the TraversedObject is returned as an object token output parameter from the OLE Automation stored procedure. If PropertyOrMethod is specified, the property or method of the TraversedObject is called, and the property value or method return value is returned as an output parameter from the OLE Automation stored procedure.

If any item in the TraversedObject list does not return an OLE object, an error occurs.

For more information about Visual Basic OLE object syntax, see your Visual Basic documentation.

Example

These are examples of object hierarchy syntax using a SQL-DMO SQLServer object.

-- Call the Connect method of the SQLServer object
EXEC @hr = sp_OAMethod @object,
    'Connect("my_server", "my_login", "my_password")'
  
-- Get the pubs..authors Table object
EXEC @hr = sp_OAGetProperty @object,
    'Databases("pubs").Tables("authors")',
    @table OUT
  
-- Get the Rows property of the pubs..authors table
EXEC @hr = sp_OAGetProperty @object,
    'Databases("pubs").Tables("authors").Rows',
    @rows OUT
  
-- Call the CheckTable method of the pubs..authors table
EXEC @hr = sp_OAMethod @object,
    'Databases("pubs").Tables("authors").CheckTable',
    @checkoutput OUT