My new favorite macro in Visual Studio 2008 is control-D then control-K. Hit that key sequence and voila: all code on the page has been formatted. It’s especially helpful when copy-pasting. Just a tip from Tim to make your life easier!
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The IsNullOrEmpty method was added to the String class in the 2.0 Framework, and it makes testing for an empty or null string as easy as a single function call. Instead of having to test the String object if it’s null then checking if it’s empty, this can now be done in one easy method [...]
I recently completed a project at work that included the requirement to monitor data files on 30 or more different Windows NT4 machines for changes. Naturally I thought of using the FileSystemWatcher class in the System.IO namespace. As anyone who has used the FileSystemWatcher has come to realize, it can be unreliable. Specifically, if one [...]
In the first part of my series on Generics in VB.NET I discussed the advantages of generic collections. In this installment I’ll cover the Nullable Generic Structure. First, let’s cover some background. A type is nullable if it can be assigned a value or Nothing (null in C#). For example a String object is nullable [...]
Continue reading about A Case for Generics in VB.NET – Part 2
Dim, ReDim, ReDim Preseve, Repeat. Sound familiar? If so, maybe you want to look into generic collections. In the System.Collections namespace the ArrayList class will give you a dynamically allocated list of objects that’s easy to use. You won’t need to worry about ReDim’ing the array if you need to add items, and you won’t have [...]
Continue reading about A Case For Generics In VB.NET – Part 1