OpenOffice.org Macros Explained - LibreOffice-NA.US

Here are some specific benefits of using constants:
• Constants improve the readability of a macro. The word Gravity is easier to recognize than the value
9.81.
• Constants are easy to manage. If I require greater precision or if the gravitational pull changes, I
have to change the value in only one location.
• Constants help prevent difficult-to-find errors by changing run-time errors into compile-time errors.
Typing “Grevity” rather than “Gravity” is a compile-time error, while mistyping “9.81” as “9.18” is
not.
• While a value like 9.81 may be obvious to you, it may not be as obvious to others reading your code
later. It becomes what programmers call a “magic number,” and experienced programmers try to
avoid magic numbers at all costs. Their unexplained meanings make for difficulties in maintaining
code later, when the original programmer is not available to explain — or has forgotten the details
entirely.
TIP
OpenOffice.org defines the constant Pi. This is a mathematical constant with a value of approximately
3.1415926535897932385.
3.3. The With statement
The With statement is used to simplify accessing complex data types. Listing 16 defines a data type that
contains two different variables: FirstName and LastName. You can access these variables by placing a
period between the variable name and the data item.
Sub ExampleCreateNewType
Dim Person As PersonType
Person.FirstName = "Andrew"
Person.LastName = "Pitonyak"
...
End Sub
Or... the With statement provides a shortcut for accessing multiple data elements from the same variable.
Sub ExampleCreateNewType
Dim Person As PersonType
With Person
.FirstName = "Andrew"
.LastName = "Pitonyak"
End With
...
End Sub
Similarly:
Dim oProp As New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
oProp.Name = "Person" 'Set Name Property
oProp.Value = "Boy Bill" 'Set Value Property
Using With:
Dim oProp As New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
With oProp
.Name = "Person" 'Set Name Property
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