COnvert 32 bit API to 64 bit - Pointers and Handles

[tiredofit]

I am trying to convert my 32 bit APIs to 64 bit.

https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/1014816-convert-32-bit-api-64-bit.html

Can someone please explain what is meant by:

"But bear in mind that any variables in your code that hold Pointers or Handles will also have to change from Long to LongPtr"

What are Pointers or Handles?

Thanks

 

[tiredofit]

Furthermore, according to this article:

ms office - What are the differences between VBA 6.0 and VBA 7.0? - Stack Overflow

it states if the O/S is 64 bit but Office is 32 bit, use this:

#If  Win64 Then
    Declare PtrSafe Function GetTickCount64 Lib "kernel32"() As LongLong
#Else 
    Declare PtrSafe Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32" () As Long
#End  If

but if both the O/S and Office are 64 bit, use this:

#If  VBA7 Then
   Declare PtrSafe Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" ( _
       ByVal lpClassName As String, _
       ByVal lpWindowName As String) As LongPtr
 #Else 
   Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal _
       lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
#End  If

Is there some code that'll work for both because I don't know if my users are on 32 bit or 64 bit (O/S and Office)?

 

[Jaafar Tribak]

A Handle is a reference to a Windows object and a Pointer is a memory address of an object.

Examples of Handles and Pointers :

Hwnd: a handle of a UI Window returned by the FindWindow API function or hDC: a handle of a Device Context returned by the GetDc API ..

Pointers are also returned by functions such as ObjPtr,StrPtr,VarPtr or by the AddressOf operator and are often returned by OUT API arguments.

Handles and Pointers are 32bit (long) in 32bit systems and 64bit long (LongLong/LongPtr) in 64Bit systems.

Is there some code that'll work for both because I don't know if my users are on 32 bit or 64 bit (O/S and Office)?

Yes that is why you see the #If #Else #End If conditional compilation clause.

Check out this page for Declare statements for many functions in the Microsoft Windows API for use with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
and Microsoft Office 2010-2016 on 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) platforms http://www.cadsharp.com/docs/Win32API_PtrSafe.txt