VBScript Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 5.20, by Dr. Herong Yang

Passing Arguments to Procedures

This section describes rules on how arguments can be passed from the calling code into the called procedure by reference (the default) or by value.

As shown in previous examples, passing arguments to procedures seems to be a simple job. But it may cause confusion if you don't following the rules. VBScript has the following rules on passing arguments to function and subroutine procedures:

1. By default, arguments are passed by reference. In this case, an argument name can be used as a variable that referring (sharing) the same data as the calling code.

2. But, arguments can be passed by value, if you put the key word "ByVal" before the argument name. In this case, an argument name can be used as a variable that contains a copy of the data provided by the calling code.

3. Of course, you put the word "ByRef" before an argument name to declare a pass-by-reference argument explicitly.

4. A pass-by-reference argument can be used to allow the procedure to alter data that is associated with a variable in the calling code. This allows the procedure to output data back to the calling code.

5. A pass-by-value argument is safer than a pass-by-reference argument, because the procedure only gets a copy of the data. Any changes to that data will not affect the original data in the calling code.

6. Arrays can be passed by reference.

7. Arrays can also be passed by value. In this case, the procedure will get a copy of the array.

8. I don't know how to specify an array as the return value of a function procedure.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of VBScript - Visual Basic Scripting Edition

 Variant Data Type, Subtypes, and Literals

 Arithmetic Operations

 Numeric Comparison Operations and Logical Operations

 String Operations - Concatenation and Comparison

 Variable Declaration and Assignment Statement

 Expression and Order of Operation Precedence

 Statement Syntax and Statement Types

 Array Data Type and Related Statements

 Array References and Array Assignment Statements

 Conditional Statements - "If ... Then" and "Select Case"

 Loop Statements - "For", "While", and "Do"

"Function" and "Sub" Procedures

 What Is a Procedure?

 "Function" Statement and Function Call

 Function Procedure Example

 "Sub" Statement and Subroutine Call

 Sub (Subroutine) Procedure Example

Passing Arguments to Procedures

 Example - Passing Arguments by Reference

 Example - Passing Arguments by Value

 Passing Arrays as Arguments

 Variable Scope in Procedures

 Example - Variable Scope in Procedures

 Built-in Functions

 Inspecting Variables Received in Procedures

 Error Handling Flag and the "Err" Object

 Regular Expression Pattern Match and Replacement

 scrrun.dll - Scripting Runtime DLL Library

 Creating Your Own Classes

 IE Web Browser Supporting VBScript

 IIS ASP Server Supporting VBScript

 WSH (Windows Script Host)

 References

 Printable Copy - PDF Version

Passing Arguments to Procedures - Updated in 2015, by Dr. Herong Yang