"Type" Equivalent in VB.net 3

[RoguePoet01]

Hi all,

In VB6 I found the "type" variable very useful. It was essentially a class, as far as I could tell.

Is there an equivalent in VB.net?

Would I just declare a class instead of a type?

It used to be:

Type CarType
Year as Integer
Color as String
Doors as Integer
Miles as Long
End Type
Dim Car as CarType

What's the equivalent now?

Thanks.

 

[RiverGuy]

Use the keyword "structure"

 

[stnkyminky]

Public Structure CarStruct
Public Year As Integer
Public Color As String
Public Doors As Integer
Public Miles As Long
End Structure
Dim Car As CarStruct

Scott
Programmer Analyst
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[RoguePoet01]

Huge help. Thanks!

 

[chiph]

You should be aware that structures are value types (lower-case &quot;t&quot in .NET, and not reference types (think object variables). The difference is: If you want to add a bunch of structure instances to a collection, the .NET framework has to do what is called &quot;boxing&quot;, which is a small object which encapsulates your non-object structures. It can add quite a bit of memory overhead, as well as time-consuming boxing and un-boxing operations when .NET needs to access elements in the collection (very slow!)

If you think you'll need to store it in a collection, it's best to start with a class, and not a structure.

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[RoguePoet01]

I'm still getting the hang of this &quot;class&quot; business. Lot's to learn.

I liked &quot;types&quot; in VB6; it was a real neat little way to store stuff.

As it happens, usually when I ask a quesion here, I'll go on to find the answer myself - but I can never seem to find the answer unless I ask the question.

Tek-Tips Zen, I guess.

 

[chiph]

A class is a structure, but with it's own private code added.

Ideally, your class should contain data that is related to the purpose of the class (and no other un-related data), plus the operations that can be performed on that data (and no unrelated operations). So if you have a class named &quot;Dog&quot;, it would have data for name, breed, furcolor, collarcolor, etc. It would also have methods that only dogs do -- bark(), catchflyingdisc(), chasecat(), etc.

If you have data that is unrelated to the class in there, it's called being &quot;unfocused&quot; -- there's no sense having a Dog that has a BankBalance property. If there are methods that are unrelated to the class, it turns the class into what is called a &quot;kitchen sink&quot; class. There's no reason to have a method in a Dog class named JumpOverMoon() (cows have that method, not dogs).

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first