# The com class

(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

## Introduction

The com class allows you to instantiate an OLE compatible COM object and call its methods and access its properties.

## Class synopsis

class com extends variant {
/* Methods */
public __construct(
string `$module_name`,
array|string|null `$server_name` = `null`,
int `$codepage` = `CP_ACP`,
string `$typelib` = ""
)
}

## Overloaded Methods

The returned object is an overloaded object, which means that PHP does not see any fixed methods as it does with regular classes; instead, any property or method accesses are passed through to COM.

PHP will automatically detect methods that accept parameters by reference, and will automatically convert regular PHP variables to a form that can be passed by reference. This means that you can call the method very naturally; you needn't go to any extra effort in your code.

## com examples

Example #1 com example (1)

`<?php
// starting word
$word = new com("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
echo "Loaded Word, version {$word->Version}\n";
//bring it to front
$word->Visible = 1;
//open an empty document
$word->Documents->Add();
//do some weird stuff
$word->Selection->TypeText("This is a test...");
$word->Documents[1]->SaveAs("Useless test.doc");
//closing word
$word->Quit();
//free the object
$word = null;
?>`

Example #2 com example (2)

`<?php
$conn = new com("ADODB.Connection") or die("Cannot start ADO");
$conn->Open("Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data Source=localhost;
Initial Catalog=database; User ID=user; Password=password");
$rs = $conn->Execute("SELECT * FROM sometable"); // Recordset
$num_columns = $rs->Fields->Count();
echo $num_columns . "\n";
for ($i=0; $i < $num_columns; $i++) {
$fld[$i] = $rs->Fields($i);
}
$rowcount = 0;
while (!$rs->EOF) {
for ($i=0; $i < $num_columns; $i++) {
echo $fld[$i]->value . "\t";
}
echo "\n";
$rowcount++; // increments rowcount
$rs->MoveNext();
}
$rs->Close();
$conn->Close();
$rs = null;
$conn = null;
?>`

## Table of Contents

- com::__construct — com class constructor

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