Things We Love About Visual Basic Dot Net

Things we love about VisualBasicDotNet:

(...sometimes related to ThingsWeLoveAboutVbClassic.)

Not to be confused with ThingsWeHateAboutVisualBasicDotNet.

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List:

• XML Literals, right in the source code.
• SQL-like DLinq (LinqToSql?) syntax.
• The Overrides keyword.
• The Shared keyword, for "static" Fields and Methods.
• Has optional NamedParameters that are designed fairly well. I loooove named parameters.

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Discussion:

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• XML Literals, right in the source code.

You can embed XML literals right into your source code:

    Dim xmlVar As XElement = _
        <rootElement>
            <innerElement1/>
            <innerElement2>Constant text here.</innerElement2>
        </rootElement>

and you can embed expressions to dynamically change element and attribute names and values

    Dim xmlVar As XElement = _
        <rootElement>
            <nameElement type=<%= greetingType %>><%= "Hello " + nameVar + "." %></nameElement>
            <<%= dynamicElementName %> <%= dynamicAttributeName %>="static attribute value"/>
        </rootElement>

and VisualBasic automatically does all the appropriate quoting, giving one a high level of protection against SqlInjection attacks.

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• SQL-like DLinq (LinqToSql?) syntax.

Query syntax in DLinq (LinqToSql?) is much more like the StructuredQueryLanguage (SQL) syntax we're accustomed to, rather than the "collections library" style syntax in C#.

In VisualBasicDotNet, one might do a DLinq query like this:

    SELECT p2.ProductName?, p1.UnitPrice?
    FROM dbo.ProductsCostingMoreThan?(80.50)
    AS p1 INNER JOIN Products AS p2 ON p1.ProductID = p2.ProductID

Where in the CsharpLanguage (C#), it would look more like this:

   var q =
      from p in db.ProductsCostingMoreThan?(80.50m)
      join s in db.Products on p.ProductID equals s.ProductID
      select new {p.ProductID, s.UnitPrice?};

The VB.NET syntax is much more like the RelationalDatabase's SQL syntax than the C# version. The C# version has all the same clauses, but they're in some other order that's "more natural" for a collections library.

Related: LanguageIntegratedQueryProject

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• The Overrides keyword.

For a VisualBasic subclass to override a superclass method, you must use the Overrides keyword: If the method signatures match and you don't have the Overrides keyword, it's a compile error. The Java 5 @Override annotation is nice, but when it's missing, the program might or might not still be overriding a superclass method, and the original programmer might or might not have been intending to override a superclass method; it can be hard to be sure. But with VisualBasic the intention and implementation are always clear: You see the Overrides keyword IfAndOnlyIf this method overrides a superclass method.

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• The Shared keyword, for "static" Fields and Methods.

The Shared keyword more clearly expresses that fields and methods are Shared across all instances of a class -- making its usage much less error-prone than the C/C++/C#/Java overloading of the static keyword for this purpose, particularly for relatively less experienced developers.

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CategoryVisualBasic CategoryDotNet