This document explains how to assign an unsigned integer value to a signed integer variable in Visual Basic 6.0. There is no unsigned integer type in Visual Basic 6.0. You have a 4-byte signed Long type and a 4-byte Double type. This can cause a problem since BioStar SDK is originally written in C++, and in Visual Studio 6.0, you need to define matching Visual Basic data structures in order to use the data structures and functions defined in the BioStar SDK DLL. There is no automatic conversion.

You need to define them on your own. However, you might have a hard time when you declare a variable that is declared as an unsigned integer in C++ in Visual Basic 6.0. As already mentioned, there is no equivalent data type for the unsigned integer type.

Take the following data structure as an example:

typedef struct {
    int version;
    unsigned userID;
    time_t startTime;
    time_t expiryTime;
    unsigned cardID;
    unsigned char cardCustomID;
    unsigned char commandCardFlag;
    unsigned char cardFlag;
    unsigned char cardVersion;
    unsigned short adminLevel;
    unsigned short securityLevel;
    unsigned accessGroupMask;
    unsigned short numOfFinger; // 0, 1, 2
    unsigned short fingerChecksum[2];
    unsigned char isDuress[2];
    int disabled;
    int opMode;
    int dualMode;
    char password[16]; // for BioLite Net only
    unsigned fullCardCustomID;
    int reserved2[14];
} BEUserHdr;

The most difficult member to declare in Visual Basic 6.0 is cardID. If you declare it as a Long variable, the ID ranges that the two variables can cover are different. A Long type variable can contain values from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 while an Unsigned type variable can contain values from 0 to 4,294,967,295. Most smart cards have card numbers of 32 bits, so it's not uncommon to see card numbers greater than 2,147,483,647.

Then, how can we define cardID in Visual Basic 6.0? There are two possible solutions to this:
using a Double variable and four byte variables. You can choose either of them.

In order to use a Double variable for unsigned integer value, you need to include conversion functions as follows:

Private Const OFFSET_4 = 4294967296#
Private Const MAXINT_4 = 2147483647
Function LongToUnsigned(ByVal Value As Long) As Double
    If Value < 0 Then
        LongToUnsigned = Value + OFFSET_4
    Else
        LongToUnsigned = Value
    End If
End Function
 
Function UnsignedToLong(ByVal Value As Double) As Long
    If Value < 0 Or Value >= OFFSET_4 Then Error 6
    If Value <= MAXINT_4 Then
        UnsignedToLong = Value
    Else
        UnsignedToLong = Value - OFFSET_4
    End If
End Function

The following code shows how to use the conversion functions in order to use 3,760,382,976 as a card ID:

Private Sub CommandTest_Click()
    Dim cardID_of_UserHdr As Long
    Dim cardID_of_VB As Double
    'To transfer card ID to a device, convert 3760382976 to -534584320 using UnsignedToLong()
    cardID_of_UserHdr = UnsignedToLong(3760382976.0#)
    'To use card ID transferred from a device in VB, convert -534,584,320 to 3,760,382,976.
    cardID_of_VB = LongToUnsigned(cardID_of_UserHdr)
End Sub

You can use a card ID greater than 2,147,483,647 by declaring four Byte variables as follows:

Public Type BEUserHdr
    version As Long
    userID1 As Byte
    userID2 As Byte
    userID3 As Byte
    userID4 As Byte
    startTime As Long
    expiryTime As Long
    cardID As Long
    cardCustomID As Byte
    commandCardFlag As Byte
    cardFlag As Byte
    cardVersion As Byte
    adminLevel As Integer
    securityLevel As Integer
    accessGroupMask As Long
    numOfFinger As Integer ' 0, 1, 2
    fingerChecksum(1) As Integer
    isDuress(1) As Byte
    disabled As Long
    opMode As Long
    dualMode As Long
    password(15) As Byte
    reserved2(14) As Long
End Type

Let's say that we want to use 3,965,196,378 to a card ID. If we represent the value in a binary number, it will be 11101100 01011000 00011000 01011010. You can assign the values to the Byte variables as follows:

userHdr.userID1 = 90 // 01011010
userHdr.userID2 = 24 // 00011000
userHdr.userID3 = 88 // 01011000
userHdr.userID4 = 236 // 11101100