Circumventing the Late Binding prohibition with Option Strict On

[AhClem]

I'm trying to add support for Oracle ODP.Net Bulk Data Binding to an existing component that looks a lot like the Data Access Application Block in Patterns & Practices' Enterprise Library. My problem is that an unknown (at compile time) number of arrays of unknown types can be passed in based on the database columns that are to be populated. When I try to cast an array element to String: dbParam.ArrayBindSize(i) = Convert.ToString(dbParam.Value(i)).Length or dbParam.ArrayBindSize(i) = CType(dbParam.Value(i), String).Length or dbParam.ArrayBindSize(i) = dbParam.Value(i).ToString()).Length to get it's length, the compiler complains: Option Strict On Disallows Late Binding. I know I'll get a lot of resistance if I suggest turning Option Strict Off. Is ther any other way to circumvent the compiler? Thanks In Advance. Will