/* ___ Déclarations _____________________________________________________________________
date        myDate
num_e(4,0)  myYear
num_e(2,0)  myMonth
num_e(2,0)  myDay

/* ___ Code _____________________________________________________________________________
myYear      = &date_to_year(myDate)                            /* extract the year from the date myDate (year will be in format CCYY (century + year)  
myMonth     = &date_to_month(myDate)                           /* extract the month from the date myDate
myDay       = &date_to_day(myDate)                             /*  extract the day from the date myDate
myDateNum   = &date_to_num(myDate)                             /* convert the date myDate to a numerical date (YYYYMMDD format)

/* ___ Declarations _____________________________________________________________________
alpha( 100) fileAlias
alpha(  10) fileMode
num_bin_4   fileSize
alpha(5000) myAlpha
image       myImage

num_bin_4   nb4ReturnCode

/* ___ Code _____________________________________________________________________________
fileAlias = 'myTransformation'
fileMode  = 't'
fileSize  = 5000

load_dll   'VATOOLBX.DLL'
call_dll   'VATOOLBX.DLL' 'VaToolBxOpenFile' fileAlias myImage fileMode nb4ReturnCode
call_dll   'VATOOLBX.DLL' 'VaToolBxWriteString' fileAlias myAlpha nb4ReturnCode
call_dll   'VATOOLBX.DLL' 'VaToolBxReadFile' fileAlias myAlpha fileSize nb4ReturnCode
call_dll   'VATOOLBX.DLL' 'VaToolBxCloseFile' fileAlias nb4ReturnCode
unload_dll 'VATOOLBX.DLL'

/* the myAlpha variable now contains the alpha text from the myImage variable.
/* the fileSize contains the real number of characters from the image variable.