What does mean VarType(aVariant) = 273 (or $111)?

delphi, delphi-xe5, variants

Solution

From the source code of the system unit:

const
{ Variant type codes (wtypes.h) }

  varEmpty    = $0000; { vt_empty        0 }
  varNull     = $0001; { vt_null         1 }
  varSmallint = $0002; { vt_i2           2 }
  varInteger  = $0003; { vt_i4           3 }
  varSingle   = $0004; { vt_r4           4 }
  varDouble   = $0005; { vt_r8           5 }
  varCurrency = $0006; { vt_cy           6 }
  varDate     = $0007; { vt_date         7 }
  varOleStr   = $0008; { vt_bstr         8 }
  varDispatch = $0009; { vt_dispatch     9 }
  varError    = $000A; { vt_error       10 }
  varBoolean  = $000B; { vt_bool        11 }
  varVariant  = $000C; { vt_variant     12 }
  varUnknown  = $000D; { vt_unknown     13 }
//varDecimal  = $000E; { vt_decimal     14 } {UNSUPPORTED as of v6.x code base}
//varUndef0F  = $000F; { undefined      15 } {UNSUPPORTED per Microsoft}
  varShortInt = $0010; { vt_i1          16 }
  varByte     = $0011; { vt_ui1         17 }
  varWord     = $0012; { vt_ui2         18 }
  varLongWord = $0013; { vt_ui4         19 }
  varInt64    = $0014; { vt_i8          20 }
  varUInt64   = $0015; { vt_ui8         21 }
  varRecord   = $0024; { VT_RECORD      36 }
{  if adding new items, update Variants' varLast, BaseTypeMap and OpTypeMap }

  varStrArg   = $0048; { vt_clsid        72 }
  varObject   = $0049; {                 73 }
  varUStrArg  = $004A; {                 74 }
  varString   = $0100; { Pascal string  256 } {not OLE compatible }
  varAny      = $0101; { Corba any      257 } {not OLE compatible }
  varUString  = $0102; { Unicode string 258 } {not OLE compatible }
  // custom types range from $110 (272) to $7FF (2047)

See the comment at the very bottom of the list. In other words, `$111` is a custom variant type. Exactly what it is depends on the code that defined that type. Code that is not in the RTL and is presumably in your program.

Problem

Original source