3.3 Methods

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In VB.NET, methods come in three varieties: functions, subroutines, and properties.

Functions allow you to return a value resulting from an operation. They are defined with the Function keyword and can contain any number of parameters. They can also return a result to the caller with the Return keyword:

 Public Class SpaceTime         'In meters per second     Private Const LightSpeed As Double = 299792458  Private Function Energy(mass As Double) As Double  'Same as LightSpeed * LightSpeed * mass  Return LightSpeed *= LightSpeed * mass   End Function  'Really technical stuff goes here End Class

Subroutines perform tasks that do not require a return value and are declared just like functions, except they are defined using the Sub keyword:

 Public Class SpaceTime         Public Sub FoldSpace( )         'Suprisingly simple     End Sub      End Class

A class should represent one and only one abstraction. The methods of a class should use most of the member data within the class most of the time. This means that if you find that half of the class methods operate on half of the data members , but the other methods use the remaining half, there is an implied division within the class. You probably have two classes instead of one.

To formulate this concept as a general principle, make sure there are no broken lines of communication within a class.

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