Hidden Features of VB.NET?

Question

I have learned quite a bit browsing through Hidden Features of C# and was surprised when I couldn't find something similar for VB.NET.

So what are some of its hidden or lesser known features?

Answer 1

I really like the "My" Namespace which was introduced in Visual Basic 2005. My is a shortcut to several groups of information and functionality. It provides quick and intuitive access to the following types of information:

• My.Computer: Access to information related to the computer such as file system, network, devices, system information, etc. It provides access to a number of very important resources including My.Computer.Network, My.Computer.FileSystem, and My.Computer.Printers.
• My.Application: Access to information related to the particular application such as name, version, current directory, etc.
• My.User: Access to information related to the current authenticated user.
• My.Resources: Access to resources used by the application residing in resource files in a strongly typed manner.
• My.Settings: Access to configuration settings of the application in a strongly typed manner.

Answer 2

Have you noticed the Like comparison operator?

Dim b As Boolean = "file.txt" Like "*.txt"

More from MSDN

Dim testCheck As Boolean

' The following statement returns True (does "F" satisfy "F"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "F"

' The following statement returns False for Option Compare Binary'
'    and True for Option Compare Text (does "F" satisfy "f"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "f"

' The following statement returns False (does "F" satisfy "FFF"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "FFF"

' The following statement returns True (does "aBBBa" have an "a" at the'
'    beginning, an "a" at the end, and any number of characters in '
'    between?)'
testCheck = "aBBBa" Like "a*a"

' The following statement returns True (does "F" occur in the set of'
'    characters from "A" through "Z"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "[A-Z]"

' The following statement returns False (does "F" NOT occur in the '
'    set of characters from "A" through "Z"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "[!A-Z]"

' The following statement returns True (does "a2a" begin and end with'
'    an "a" and have any single-digit number in between?)'
testCheck = "a2a" Like "a#a"

' The following statement returns True (does "aM5b" begin with an "a",'
'    followed by any character from the set "L" through "P", followed'
'    by any single-digit number, and end with any character NOT in'
'    the character set "c" through "e"?)'
testCheck = "aM5b" Like "a[L-P]#[!c-e]"

' The following statement returns True (does "BAT123khg" begin with a'
'    "B", followed by any single character, followed by a "T", and end'
'    with zero or more characters of any type?)'
testCheck = "BAT123khg" Like "B?T*"

' The following statement returns False (does "CAT123khg" begin with'
'    a "B", followed by any single character, followed by a "T", and'
'    end with zero or more characters of any type?)'
testCheck = "CAT123khg" Like "B?T*"

Answer 3

The best and easy CSV parser:

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.TextFieldParser

By adding a reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic, this can be used in any other .Net language, e.g. C#

Answer 4

Forcing ByVal

In VB, if you wrap your arguments in an extra set of parentheses you can override the ByRef declaration of the method and turn it into a ByVal. For instance, the following code produces 4, 5, 5 instead of 4,5,6

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim R = 4
    Trace.WriteLine(R)
    Test(R)
    Trace.WriteLine(R)
    Test((R))
    Trace.WriteLine(R)
End Sub
Private Sub Test(ByRef i As Integer)
    i += 1
End Sub

See Argument Not Being Modified by Procedure Call - Underlying Variable

Answer 5

You can have 2 lines of code in just one line. hence:

Dim x As New Something : x.CallAMethod

Answer 6

The Exception When clause is largely unknown.

Consider this:

Public Sub Login(host as string, user as String, password as string, _
                            Optional bRetry as Boolean = False)
Try
   ssh.Connect(host, user, password)
Catch ex as TimeoutException When Not bRetry
   ''//Try again, but only once.
   Login(host, user, password, True)
Catch ex as TimeoutException
   ''//Log exception
End Try
End Sub