Variable variables? - vb.net

Question

I was just wondering if it was possible in Visual Basic 2010 Express to cycle through, say, a series of RectangleShapes, but use a For...Next loop and check for a specific property of each name of the rectangles. For example:
Private Sub RectangleIntersect(ByVal rect As Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.RectangleShape)
For c = 1 To 31
RectangleShape('and then add the c value to the name).Location
Next
End Sub
Help is much appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Answer 1

Assuming you are using the same ShapeContainer (ShapeContainer1 by default) for all of your RectangleShapes:
Private Sub RectangleIntersect(ByVal rect As Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.RectangleShape)
For Each otherRect As PowerPacks.RectangleShape In ShapeContainer1.Shapes.OfType(Of PowerPacks.RectangleShape)()
If Not (otherRect Is rect) Then
If otherRect.Bounds.IntersectsWith(rect.Bounds) Then
Debug.Print(otherRect.Name & " intersects with " & rect.Name)
End If
End If
Next
End Sub
To get them "in order" as you requested, you could do:
Private Sub RectangleIntersect(ByVal rect As Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.RectangleShape)
For c As Integer = 1 To 31
Dim c2 As Integer = c
Dim R As RectangleShape = ShapeContainer1.Shapes.OfType(Of PowerPacks.RectangleShape).FirstOrDefault(Function(x)
Return x.Name = "RectangleShape" & c2
End Function)
If Not IsNothing(R) AndAlso Not (R Is rect) Then
If R.Bounds.IntersectsWith(rect.Bounds) Then
Debug.Print(R.Name & " intersects with " & rect.Name)
End If
End If
Next
End Sub

Answer 2

By the code block you've provided, I assume you have a bunch of RectangleShape objects somewhere in the parent class that are named RectangleClassN, where is N is 1 to 31 for example.
What you need as the parameter to your method is some kind of collection of RectangleShapes, rather than what you have defined as a single RectangleShape. Then you will be able to iterate over them.
Private Sub RectangleIntersect(ByVal rectangles As IEnumerable(Of RectangleShape))
For Each rs As RectangleShape in rectangles
If rs.Location = "" Then
'something
End If
Next
End Sub
When you call the method, you'll need to pass in some kind of collection containing multiple objects. See the contrived example below.
Dim myRectangles As New List(Of RectangleShape)()
myRectangles.Add(RectangleShape1)
myRectangles.Add(RectangleShape2)
RectangleIntersect(myRectangles)
Since gathering each individual object would be agonizing, you could do something like loop through all the controls or objects that belong to some container and check their type. If their type is RectangleObject, add them to the collection. Or you could even perform this code inside your RectangleIntersect method.
For Each rs As RectangleShape In parentContainer.Controls ' or whatever this would be. Children? it depends on what the container is
...
Next