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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T11:59:48+00:00

has anyone experience with passing a parameter to a function called with getref ?

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has anyone experience with passing a parameter to a function called with getref ?
Following code is just an example, doens’t work, how to pass the parameter to the mySub sub?

<button id="myBtn">Click me</button>

<script type="text/vbscript">
  document.getElementById("myBtn").onclick=GetRef("mySub") 

  Sub mySub(parameter)
   alert(parameter)
  End Sub
</script>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    First look at this article about event handling (anybody knows a better reference?) to get the context for:

    The code provided in the onclick attribute will be called when the
    user clicks on the text enclosed in the span. This mechanism is great
    for small snippets of code, but it becomes cumbersome when you have a
    lot of script. This event mechanism works with both VBScript and
    JScript.

    What happens behind the scenes is that Internet Explorer calls into
    the script engine with the script code and tells the engine to create
    an anonymous function (a function with no name). Those of you who know
    VBScript are probably wondering how it does this, since VBScript
    doesn’t support anonymous functions. VBScript actually creates a
    subroutine called “anonymous” containing the script and returns a
    pointer to the function that is then hooked up to the event.

    Then experiment with this .hta:

    <html>
 <!-- !! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10741292/vbscript-getref-with-parameter
 -->
 <head>
  <title>GetRef HTA</title>
  <HTA:APPLICATION
    APPLICATIONNAME="GetRef HTA"
  >
  <SCRIPT Language="VBScript">
   Sub SetClickHandlers()
     Set bttB.onClick = GetRef("NoParmsBttB")
     Set bttE.onClick = GetRef("Magic")
     Set bttF.onClick = GetRef("Magic")
   End Sub
   ' trivial handler, literally set
   Sub NoParmsBttA()
     Log "NoParmsBttA() called."
   End Sub
   ' trivial handler, set via GetRef
   Sub NoParmsBttB()
     Log "NoParmsBttB() called."
   End Sub
   ' one handler for many buttons, literally set
   Sub handleClickCD(oBtt)
     Log "handleClickCD() called; you clicked " & oBtt.id
   End Sub
   ' one handler for many buttons, set via Magic() & GetRef
   Sub handleClickEF(oBtt, dtWhen)
     Log "handleClickEF() called; you clicked " & oBtt.id & " at " & CStr(dtWhen)
   End Sub
   ' stuffed via GetRef into onClick
   Sub Magic()
     handleClickEF Me, Now
   End Sub
   Sub Log(s)
     MsgBox s, 0, Now
   End Sub
  </SCRIPT>
 </head>
  <body onLoad="SetClickHandlers">
   <!-- literal onClick handler in html code -->
   <button id="bttA" onClick="NoParmsBttA">A</button>
   <!-- no literal onClick handler, will be set by SetClickHandlers via GetRef() -->
   <button id="bttB">B</button>
   <!-- literal onClick handlers with parameter (Me, i.e. the Button) -->
   <button id="bttC" onClick="handleClickCD Me">C</button>
   <button id="bttD" onClick="handleClickCD Me">D</button>
   <!-- Two params handler via SetClickHandlers & Magic -->
   <button id="bttE">E</button>
   <button id="bttF">F</button>
 </body>
</html>

    to see

    1. that/how you can specify a Sub with no params to handle clicks literally or via GetRef (A resp. B)
    2. that you can use one parameterized Sub to handle clicks on many buttons, because the engine puts the literal code into an anonymous Sub (with no params) (C/D)
    3. that you can’t use GetRef(“SubWithLotsOfParms”) to set the onClick attribute – it needs s Sub with no params
    4. that you can let a named Sub with no params (e.g. Magic) do the work of the engine’s anonymous one; this Sub then can be used with GetRef

    WRT Salman A’s answer:

    If you really need an error message like:

    ---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
A Runtime Error has occurred.
Do you wish to Debug?

Line: 54
Error: Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment: 'mySub'
---------------------------
Yes   No   
---------------------------

    then you just have to add:

       Sub mySub(parameter)
     alert(parameter.toString())
   End Sub

    and

       <!-- literal onClick handler in html code -->
   <button id="bttG" onClick="mySub">G</button>

    to the test .hta.

    WRT Peter’s proposal – it pays to keep it simple:

    Option Explicit
Sub WithLotsOfParms(a, b, c, d)
  WScript.Echo Join(Array(a, b, c, d))
End Sub
Dim f : Set f = GetRef("WithLotsOfParms")
WithLotsOfParms 1, 2, 3, 4
f               1, 2, 3, 4

    output:

    cscript 01.vbs
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4

    That you use the name of the variable set with GetRef() exactly as you use the literal Sub/Function name could have been established yesterday.

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