By convention, the file that contains interface and type library definitions is called an IDL file, and has an .idl file name extension. In reality, the MIDL compiler will parse an interface definition file regardless of its extension. An interface is identified by the keyword interface.

Each interface consists of a header and a body. The interface header contains attributes that apply to the entire interface. The body of the interface contains the remaining interface definitions. For an overview of interfaces and IDL files, see The Interface Definition Language (IDL) File. For a summary of attributes that can be used in an interface header, see IDL Attributes.

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Build date: 4/9/2009