A Useful Class View Utility

Team Fly

Page 20

Whoever wrote the Help entry for the Split method evidently was unaware of this approach. The code example employs the bizarre, cumbersome ToCharArray method instead.

Note that VB programmers are unfamiliar with using braces in their programming, but in VB.NET they can be used to fill an array with values, as this example illustrates. The rest of the code is straightforward:

 Dim delim As Char() = {'',"} Dim tt As String = "Barry Morgan, 12 Dalton Ln., Akron, OH, 22022" Dim split As String() 'create string array split = tt.Split(delim) For i As Integer = 0 To split.Length - 1     Console.WriteLine(split(i)) Next

Here's an even more exotic alternative syntax. It combines the declaration of the string array with the declaration of the character array:

 Dim split As String() = tt.Split(New [Char]() {","})

This is exotic to VB programmers partly because it uses brackets in addition to braces—neither punctuation is used in classic VB. It's also exotic in that a single logical line of code manages to declare two arrays, and to add a value to the second array.

Whatever. It's fine that there are several ways to create and fill a character array. Just fiddle around until you come upon a syntax that works.

WinCV (Windows Class Viewer) comes with .NET. It offers you yet another view of the details of every class.

TIP If you're not sure where to begin in WinCV or other Framework references, or if you want a useful descriptive overview of the available .NET classes, click on the Contents tab at the bottom of the VB.NET Help window, then follow this path in the tree in the left pane: Visual Studio .NET\.NET Framework\Reference\Class Library. You'll see all the namespaces there, and all the classes within them.

To add WinCV to the IDE, choose Tools External Tools and type WinCV into the Title field. Click the ellipsis ... button next to the Command field. Now find WinCV.exe in this path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Bin\WinCV.exe. (If you haven't upgraded to VS.NET 2003, the location may be .NET 2002 or simply .NET.)

Choose Project Directory in the Initial Directory field, and click OK to close the Open File dialog box. WinCV is now available from the VB.NET Tools menu.

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