Assign direct value to object - vb.net

Question

I have several properties, for example
Public Property FIRSTNAME As New SQLString("FirstName", 50)
Public Property FULLNAME As New SQLString("Name", 50)
The SQLString object is defined as:
Public Class SQLString
Property SQL_Column As String
Property Limit As Integer
Property Value As String
Public Sub New(SQLcolumn As String, limit_ As Integer)
SQL_Column = SQLcolumn
Limit = limit_
End Sub
Public ReadOnly Property SQL_value() As String
Get
Return "'" & clean(Value, Limit) & "'"
End Get
End Property
End Class
Notice that through this method, each of my properties (e.g. FIRSTNAME) is able to have several sub properties, which is necessary.
To access them, it's simply for example FIRSTNAME.SQL_Column.
This works, however what I would like is to also be able to store a value (e.g. string data type) on the FIRSTNAME property itself, which would make accessing it like:
Dim MyFirstName As String = FIRSTNAME
Rather than:
Dim MyFirstName As String = FIRSTNAME.Value
Which is what I currently have to do.
The only way I can see to do this is to have the SQLString object be set to string (or another data type) by default, like:
Public Class SQLString As String
Obviously the above code does not work, but I'm wondering if there is an equivalent that does?

Answer 1

The default access modifier to a property (ie: Public, Private, etc) is the most restrictive when no access modifier is provided. In SQLString class, since there is not a Public access modifier in front of the properties in the class, they are essentially Private and not accessible from outside of the class.
Adding the access modifier to the properties should fix the issue you see:
Public Property SQL_Column As String
Public Property Limit As Integer
Public Property Value As String
Please tell me the problem for the vote downs - here is a working .NET fiddle of the proposed code changes above (https://dotnetfiddle.net/96o8qm).
Imports System
Dim p as Person = new Person()
p.FIRSTNAME = new SQLString("Test", 1)
p.FIRSTNAME.Value = "Test Value"
Console.WriteLine("Person Value: {0}", p.FIRSTNAME.Value)
Public Class Person
Public Property FIRSTNAME AS SQLString
End Class
Public Class SQLString
Public Property SQL_Column As String
Public Property Limit As Integer
Public Property Value As String
Public Sub New(SQLcolumn As String, limit_ As Integer)
SQL_Column = SQLcolumn
Limit = limit_
End Sub
Public ReadOnly Property SQL_value() As String
Get
Return ""
End Get
End Property
End Class
This yields the output:
Person Value: Test Value

Answer 2

The answer to your question is quite simple; add a CType widening operator.
Example:
Public Class SQLString
Public Shared Widening Operator CType(ByVal s As SQLString) As String
Return If((s Is Nothing), Nothing, s.Value)
End Operator
Public Property Value As String
End Class
Test:
Dim firstName As New SQLString() With {.Value = "Bjørn"}
Dim myName As String = firstName
Debug.WriteLine(myName)
Output (immediate window):
Bjørn