Shared Keyword

Shared Keyword

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Description

The Shared keyword indicates that a type member is a shared member instead of an instance member. Shared members are available without creating an instance of the type; instance members can only be used through an instance. Consider the following simple class:

     Friend Class ClassForSharing        Public Shared sharedValue As Integer        Public unsharedValue As Integer     End Class 

The following code block shows how to access each member.

     Dim realInstance As New ClassForSharing     ClassForSharing.sharedValue = 5     realInstance.unsharedValue = 10 

Shared members are indirectly shared among all instances of the class, even though they exist apart from all instances.

The Shared keyword can be used with the following statements:

Dim Statement

Event Statement

Function Statement

Operator Statement

Property Statement

Sub Statement

By default, all of these members are instance members unless qualified with the Shared keyword.

See Also

For the statements listed above, see the related entries elsewhere in this chapter for usage information.