The following table shows the return values for this method.

The GetClassIDmethod retrieves the class identifier (CLSID) for an object, used in later operations to load object-specific code into the caller's context.

To determine whether the platform supports this interface, see Determining Supported COM APIs.

Notes to Callers

A container application might call this method to retrieve the original CLSID of an object that it is treating as a different class. Such a call would be necessary if a user performed an editing operation that required the object to be saved.

If the container were to save it using the treat-as CLSID, the original application would no longer be able to edit the object.

Typically, in this case, the container calls the OleSavehelper function, which performs all the necessary steps. For this reason, most container applications have no need to call this method directly.

The exception would be a container that provides an object handler for certain objects. In particular, a container application should not get an object's CLSID and then use it to retrieve class specific information from the registry. Instead, the container should use IOleObjectand IDataObjectinterfaces to retrieve such class-specific information directly from the object.

Notes to Implementers

Typically, implementations of this method simply supply a constant CLSID for an object. If, however, the object's TreatAsregistry key has been set by an application that supports emulation (and so is treating the object as one of a different class), a call to IPersist::GetClassIDmust supply the CLSID specified in the TreatAskey. For more information on emulation, refer to CoTreatAsClass.

When an object is in the running state, the default handler calls an implementation of IPersist::GetClassIDthat delegates the call to the implementation in the object. When the object is not running, the default handler instead calls the ReadClassStgfunction to read the CLSID that is saved in the object's storage.