var = Request.QueryString(item) - why doesn't this work?!

[Donny Bahama]

for the URL http://localserver/testmatrix.asp?project=AV9.12

This line:
strProject = Request.QueryString(Project)

yields this error:
Request object, ASP 0102 (0x80004005)
The function expects a string as input.
/testmatrix.asp, line 9

This works, though:
For Each item In Request.QueryString
Response.Write(item & " = " & Request.QueryString(item) & VbCrLf)
Next

Can anyone tell me why I can't assign a QueryString parameter to a string var? More importantly, what's the workaround?

[lesleindotcom]

Post your code

[LearningToProgram]

I may not be of much help here, but I thought it was supposed to be == not just = when setting a variable up to another one in ASP. I might be wrong though. (Sorry, C++ Programmer trying to learn ASP too).

[spinal007]

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

strProject = Request.QueryString(Project)

yields this error:
Request object, ASP 0102 (0x80004005)
The function expects a string as input.
/testmatrix.asp, line 9

"The function expects a string input" means you've passed an object for a string parameter

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

This works, though:
For Each item In Request.QueryString
Response.Write(item & " = " & Request.QueryString(item) & VbCrLf)
Next

That's because "For Each item In Request.QueryString" returns a collection of strings (keys) for the Request.QueryString collection.



How to solve this problem:
1. Check where the value of Project is assigned. Make sure it isn't Null and you have not used the Set statement. If the value is assigned by a function, make sure that doesn't return an object.

2. It's best pratice.... Always do this:

Code: Select all

strProject = Request.QueryString("" & Project)

"" & Project will implicitly convert the contents of the variable into a string before passing the parameter to the method you're calling.



*************

Originally Posted by LearningToProgram

I may not be of much help here, but I thought it was supposed to be == not just = when setting a variable up to another one in ASP. I might be wrong though. (Sorry, C++ Programmer trying to learn ASP too).

You're right, most programming languages have a different operator for assigning and comparing variables.
The Melonheads at Microsoft decided to only use "=", which depending on the statment can be a comparisson operator OR an assignment operator.

I thought I'd mention it just to make sure there's no confusion.

[Donny Bahama]

Thanks for the response, everyone! After I posted the initial question, I tried (just for the heck of it) this:

Code: Select all

strProject = Request.QueryString("project")

instead of this:

Code: Select all

strProject = Request.QueryString(project)

It worked.

Originally Posted by spinal007

It's best pratice.... Always do this:

Code: Select all

strProject = Request.QueryString("" & Project)

"" & Project will implicitly convert the contents of the variable into a string before passing the parameter to the method you're calling.

That did not work.

Originally Posted by spinal007

1. Check where the value of Project is assigned. Make sure it isn't Null and you have not used the Set statement. If the value is assigned by a function, make sure that doesn't return an object.

I'm not clear on what you mean, here. The value of Project is assigned in the URL/querystring. Neither it nor the strProject variable are mentioned prior to this point in my code.

As I said, it's working now, so that's good, but it seems there's a learning opportunity here.

[Donny Bahama]

Originally Posted by LearningToProgram

(Sorry, C++ Programmer trying to learn ASP too).

Learning ASP is largely a matter of learning VBscript. To that end, I find DevGuru's VBscript QuickRef extremely useful. As a C++ programmer, you might want to explore ASP.NET - I believe you can actually choose to use C++ as the core language in that environment.

[LearningToProgram]

Well I have saved this to my learning folder. I'm sure this will help me in the future. Thanks for having this issue as it has helped me out too .

[spinal007]

RMAOFL

It seemed from your first post that Project was a variable.
ie:

Code: Select all

Dim Project
Project = "SomeStringValue"

I suppose that's my fault. I should have guessed since you appropriatelly named the variable strProject.

I didn't know the parameter in the querystring you actually wanted was "project". Or I'd have simply said...
Strings must be enclosed with "