I would like to see some code building a SAFEARRAY in C++ for
sending to Excel.

This is from MS, might be useful.

How to automate Excel from MFC and Visual C++ 2005 or Visual C++ .NET to fill or obtain data in a range using arrays
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308407

That MS KB uses the MFC automation library which I am not using
currently so I can not use it for additional code. The MS KB code
used the importing of the Excel object which is specific to the
version of Excel imported. My code is non-specific and can talk to
Excel 1997 to Excel 2010 (and future versions).

That said, I went back to the MS KB and stumbled across "How to
automate Excel from C++ without using MFC or #import"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216686
which talks about SAFEARRAYs and is exactly what I wanted !

Of course, this is the most obtuse interface and requires much
reading and rereading in order to begin to understand it.

Thanks,
Lynn