Can UDT's be used as method parameters in any way? - vba

Question

For years I've been avoiding the use of Public Type UDT's in VBA, because they're hard to pass around and I never really bothered trying to understand why.. until now - it was simply easier to just create a class module and work with actual objects instead.
But recently I gave it a shot, and once I figured they had to be passed ByRef (as an array would), things started to look like I could start using them.
So I defined a Public Type in a standard module, got this compile error:
So I moved the Public Type into a class module, made the class PublicNotCreatable, and then got this compile error:
Here's some code to reproduce the compile error.
Class module "Something":
Option Explicit
' cannot define a public user-defined type within an object module
Public Type TSomething
Foo As Integer
End Type
Public Function Create(ByRef info As TSomething) As Something
End Function
If you move the definition of TSomething to a standard module, you'll get the other compiler error, telling you that the public UDT must be defined in a public object module (i.e. a class module)... which takes you back to square one.
So if you cannot define a Public Type in a class module, why would the compiler throw a fit and even mention "public user defined types defined in public object modules" if such a thing can't legally exist?
Did it work in VB6 and the compiler message is a remnant of that version? Or is the reason somewhere in how COM works? Is it just me or the two error messages are contradicting each other? Or there's something I'm not understanding?
Obviously I'm misusing/abusing UDT's here. So what are they supposed to be used for, if not for passing a "record" to some method?

Answer 1

From standard module it works without any error. Following code threw no error.
Public Type TEST_TYPE
Prop1 As String
End Type
Public Function fTest(ByRef param1 As TEST_TYPE) As String
param1.Prop1 = "Hello from function"
End Function
Public Sub sTest(ByRef param1 As TEST_TYPE)
param1.Prop1 = "Hello from Sub"
End Sub
Public Sub caller()
Dim p As TEST_TYPE
'/Call Sub
Call sTest(p)
MsgBox p.Prop1
'/Call Function
Call fTest(p)
MsgBox p.Prop1
End Sub
One issue with UDT is about Forward referencing. So this will not compile, apart from that It works perfectly fine with standard modules.
Public Type TEST_TYPE
Prop1 As String
Prop2 As TEST_TYPE2 '/ Fails due to Forward referencing. TEST_TYPE2 should be declared before this UDT.
End Type
Public Type TEST_TYPE2
Prop3 As String
End Type
Edit:
However, the work around to use the UDT in class is Friend
VBA Code for Class
'/ Using UDT in VBA-Class
Private Type TEST_TYPE3
Prop3 As String
End Type
Public Sub caller()
Dim p As TEST_TYPE3
p.Prop3 = "Hello from Class"
Call testClassUDT(p)
End Sub
Friend Sub testClassUDT(p As TEST_TYPE3)
MsgBox p.Prop3
End Sub

Answer 2

Here's a Type being passed as a parameter to a class method, and being returned by a class method.
First the class SomeClass (doesn't need to be PublicNotCreatable)
Option Explicit
Sub test(foo As TFooBar)
Dim s As String
s = foo.foo
End Sub
Function ReturnTFoo() As TFooBar
ReturnTFoo.bar = "bar"
ReturnTFoo.foo = " bar"
End Function
And the Module:
Option Explicit
Public Type TFooBar
foo As String
bar As String
End Type
Sub test()
Dim c As SomeClass
Set c = New SomeClass
Dim t1 As TFooBar
Dim t2 As TFooBar
t1.bar = "bar"
t1.foo = "Foo"
c.test t1
t2 = c.ReturnTFoo
End Sub