Err Object

Err Object

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Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.ErrObject

Createable

No

Description

The Err object contains properties and methods that allow you to obtain information about a single runtime error in a Visual Basic program. The Err object also lets you generate errors and reset the error object. Because the Err object is an intrinsic object with global scope (which means that it is part of every VB project you create), you do not need to create an instance of it within your code.

When an error is generated in your application whether it is handled or not the properties of the Err object are assigned values that you can then access to gain information about the error that occurred. You can even generate your own errors explicitly using the Err.Raise method. You can also define your own errors to unify the error-handling process.

When your program reaches an Exit Function , Exit Sub , Exit Property , Resume , or On Error statement, the Err object is cleared and its properties reinitialized. This can also be done explicitly using the Err.Clear method.

Public Instance Properties

Property name	Description
Description	The string associated with the given error number
HelpContext	A context ID within a Visual Basic Help file
HelpFile	The path to a Visual Basic Help file
LastDLLError	The last error code generated by a DLL; available only on 32-bit Windows systems
Number	A long integer used to describe an error (i.e., an error code)
Source	Either the name of the current project or the class name of the application that generated the error

Public Instance Methods

Method name	Description
Clear	Resets all the properties of the Err object
Raise	Forces an error of a given number to be generated

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• The Visual Basic Err object is not a collection; it contains information about the last error only, if one occurred. You could, however, implement your own error collection class to store a number of errors by copying error information from the Err object into an application-defined error collection object.

• An Err object cannot be passed back from a class module to a standard code module.

• VB also supports structured error-handling through the Try...Catch... Finally statement.

• For a full description of error handling, see Chapter 9.

See Also

Err.Description Property, Err.HelpContext Property, Err.HelpFile Property, Err.Number Property, Err.Source Property