Sorry if this is a newbie question.

I have an existing COBOL application that has a well defined interface.  I can create standard Windows DLLs with no problem. I can even create ActiveX or OCX controls with it. I am trying to find a solution to a problem dealing with returning a COBOL Structure (which will only use VB data types such as longs, strings, etc).  The problem is that the structure contains (as part of it anyway) arrays of fixed length strings separated by other data types such as long.  

For example

Visual Basic Definition

dim myArray as String * 10
Type myBuffer
        myArray1[16] as myArray
        myArray2[16] as myArray
        myVar1 as Long
        myArray3[16] as myArray
        myVar2 as long  
End Type

NOTE: The syntax of this may not be exactly right, but, what I want is a string with a fixed width of 10 characters that occurs 16 times for the myArrayx.

COBOL Definition

01 myBuffer.
   05 myArray1  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myArray2  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myVar1    pic s9(9) comp-5.
   05 myArray3  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myVar2    pic s9(9) comp-5.

Because of the way VB handles strings I lose everything after the first array myArray2.  I am thinking  of try to just return a string buffer that is the length of all of the data in myBuffer.  The question is how do I separate out the long data and keep it in that format.  That is take four bytes out of a string and say this is really a long.

I hope this is clear enough.  Let us say we had a buffer 10 bytes long.  The first 4 bytes were a string.  The next 4 bytes were actually a long in native format and the last 2 bytes were a string.  How would you part the long out of the middle of that string and treat it as a long. The hex value of that four bytes would look something like X'00000001' for the number 1.  

Any thought would be welcome.

There is a difference in the definition of Strings and Fixed lenght strings
Strings are stored as pointer to null terminated strings
Fixed lenght strings are stored in place.
So:
01 myBuffer.
   05 myArray1  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myArray2  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myVar1    pic s9(9) comp-5.
   05 myArray3  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
   05 myVar2    pic s9(9) comp-5.

TYPE MyBuffer
    myArray1 as string * 160
    myArray2 as string * 160
    myVar1 as long
    myArray3 as string*160
    myVar2 as long
END TYPE

or

TYPE MyBuffer
    myArray1(0 to 159) as byte
...

    Sorry if this is a newbie question.

    I have an existing COBOL application that has a well defined interface.  I can create standard Windows DLLs with no problem. I can even create ActiveX or OCX controls with it. I am trying to find a solution to a problem dealing with returning a COBOL Structure (which will only use VB data types such as longs, strings, etc).  The problem is that the structure contains (as part of it anyway) arrays of fixed length strings separated by other data types such as long.  

    For example

    Visual Basic Definition

    dim myArray as String * 10
    Type myBuffer
            myArray1[16] as myArray
            myArray2[16] as myArray
            myVar1 as Long
            myArray3[16] as myArray
            myVar2 as long  
    End Type

    NOTE: The syntax of this may not be exactly right, but, what I want is a string with a fixed width of 10 characters that occurs 16 times for the myArrayx.

    COBOL Definition

    01 myBuffer.
       05 myArray1  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
       05 myArray2  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
       05 myVar1    pic s9(9) comp-5.
       05 myArray3  pic x(10) occurs 16 times.
       05 myVar2    pic s9(9) comp-5.

    Because of the way VB handles strings I lose everything after the first array myArray2.  I am thinking  of try to just return a string buffer that is the length of all of the data in myBuffer.  The question is how do I separate out the long data and keep it in that format.  That is take four bytes out of a string and say this is really a long.

    I hope this is clear enough.  Let us say we had a buffer 10 bytes long.  The first 4 bytes were a string.  The next 4 bytes were actually a long in native format and the last 2 bytes were a string.  How would you part the long out of the middle of that string and treat it as a long. The hex value of that four bytes would look something like X'00000001' for the number 1.  

    Any thought would be welcome.