I find myself calling functions from lambdas frequently as the provided delegate does not match or does not have sufficient parameters. It is irritating that I cannot do lambda on subroutines. Each time I want to do this I have to wrap my subroutine in a function which returns nothing. Not pretty, but it works.
Is there another way of doing this that makes this smoother/prettier?
I have read that this whole lambda inadequacy will probably be fixed in VS2010/VB10 so my question is more out of curiosity.
A simple Example:
Public Class ProcessingClass
Public Delegate Sub ProcessData(ByVal index As Integer)
Public Function ProcessList(ByVal processData As ProcessData)
' for each in some list processData(index) or whatever'
End Function
End Class
Public Class Main
Private Sub ProcessingSub(ByVal index As Integer, _
ByRef result As Integer)
' (...) My custom processing '
End Sub
Private Function ProcessingFunction(ByVal index As Integer, _
ByRef result As Integer) As Object
ProcessingSub(index, result)
Return Nothing
End Function
Public Sub Main()
Dim processingClass As New ProcessingClass
Dim result As Integer
' The following throws a compiler error as '
' ProcessingSub does not produce a value'
processingClass.ProcessList( _
Function(index As Integer) ProcessingSub(index, result))
' The following is the workaround that'
' I find myself using too frequently.'
processingClass.ProcessList( _
Function(index As Integer) ProcessingFunction(index, result))
End Sub
End Class
If you find that you are doing it too often and generally with the same type of data, you can wrap the delegate in a class.
Create a base class that converts to the delegate:
Public MustInherit Class ProcessDataBase
Public Shared Widening Operator CType(operand As ProcessDataBase) as ProcessingClass.ProcessData
Return AddressOf operand.Process
End Sub
Protected MustOverride Sub Process(index As Integer)
End Class
Inherit from the class:
Public Class ProcessResult
Inherits ProcessDataBase
Public Result As Integer
Protected Overrides Sub Process(index as Integer)
' Your processing, result is modified.
End SUb
End Class
Use it:
Public Class Main()
Public Sub Main()
Dim processingClass As New ProcessingClass
Dim processor As New ProcessResult
processingClass.ProcessList(processor)
Dim result as integer=processor.Result
End Sub
End Class
It IS fixed in VB10, the VS10 Beta is available, if it's an option for you to use it. In VB10 you have lambdas without a return value, and inline subs/functions.
For now, maybe you could just forget lambdas and work with delegates instead? Something like:
processingClass.ProcessList(AddressOf ProcessingSub)
Related
In VB, I have a class that does some standard validations. What I'd LIKE to do is to declare some variables, then create instances of a validator class that include pointers to the variables, and then at some later time execute the validators to test the values in the fields that are pointed to.
Something like this:
public class MyData
public property foo as string
public property bar as string
dim vfoo as validator
dim vbar as validator
public sub new()
vfoo=new validator(&foo) ' i.e. & operator like in C
vbar=new validator(&bar)
end sub
public sub validate()
vfoo.validate
vbar.validate
end sub
end class
public class validator
dim _field as string* ' i.e. * like in C
public sub new(field as string*)
_field=field
end sub
public sub validate
if string.isnullorempty(_field) then
throw SomeException
else if not SomeOtherTest(_field) then
throw SomeOtherException
end sub
The catch is that, to the best of my knowledge, there is nothing like C pointers in VB. Is there any reasonably easy way to do this?
At present I am passing in the field values at the time I call the validate() function, but this is not ideal because I would like to be able to create a List of validators specific to a given caller, and then loop through the List. But at the time I loop, how would I know which value from MyClass to pass in, unless I had a giant select statement keying off some "field code"? (And of course in real life, there are not just two fields like in this example, there are quite a few.)
Am I just having a brain freeze and there's an easy way to do this? Or can this not be done in VB because there are no such thing as pointers?
Like Java, VB doesn't make direct use of pointers (it compensates where it can with library/framework calls). In the context of a garbage-collected language, I can't imagine that this style of validation would work out well.
But for fun, maybe a lambda-based solution could suit?:
Public Class MyData
Public Property foo As String
Public Property bar As String
Dim vfoo As validator
Dim vbar As validator
Public Sub New()
vfoo = New validator(Function() foo)
vbar = New validator(Function() bar)
End Sub
Public Sub validate()
vfoo.validate()
vbar.validate()
End Sub
End Class
Public Class validator
ReadOnly _fieldFunc As Func(Of String)
Public Sub New(fieldFunc As Func(Of String))
_fieldFunc = fieldFunc
End Sub
Public Sub validate()
Dim _field = _fieldFunc()
If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_field) Then
Throw New Exception("NullOrEmpty")
ElseIf Not SomeOtherTest(_field) Then
Throw New Exception("SomeOtherTest")
End If
End Sub
Public Function SomeOtherTest(f As String) As Boolean
Return True
End Function
End Class
I'm trying to make a application, in this application I have a List(of T) collection that holds an object.
When processing the object I need to know it's Index from the list.
Example:
Public Class
Public oList as New List(of TestObject)
Private Sub Test()
Dim NewObject As New TestObject
oList.add(NewObject)
Index(NewObject)
End Sub
Private Sub Index(Byval TestObject As TestObject)
debug.print(Testobject.index)
End Sub
End Class
Is something like this possible? Ive seen it available in a reference file I used some time ago, but now I would like to make this available within my own class.
Can someone provide a sample?
PS: I know I can get the index using the List(Of T).IndexOf Method (T) but for future possibilities I would like to make the call from the object itself.
What usually happen is that they have a custom list, they don't directly used List(Of T) and store the list inside the object when they add that item to the list.
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim someList As New CustomList
someList.Add(New CustomItem())
someList.Add(New CustomItem())
someList.Add(New CustomItem())
Console.WriteLine(someList(1).Index)
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Module
Class CustomItem
' Friend since we don't want anyone else to see/change it.
Friend IncludedInList As CustomList
Public ReadOnly Property Index
Get
If IncludedInList Is Nothing Then
Return -1
End If
Return IncludedInList.IndexOf(Me)
End Get
End Property
End Class
Class CustomList
Inherits System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection(Of CustomItem)
Protected Overrides Sub InsertItem(index As Integer, item As CustomItem)
If item.IncludedInList IsNot Nothing Then
Throw New ArgumentException("Item already in a list")
End If
item.IncludedInList = Me
MyBase.InsertItem(index, item)
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub RemoveItem(index As Integer)
Me(index).IncludedInList = Nothing
MyBase.RemoveItem(index)
End Sub
End Class
It looks like this
Public oList As New List(Of TestObject)
Private Sub Test()
Dim NewObject As New TestObject(oList.Count)
oList.add(NewObject)
End Sub
Public Class TestObject
Public index As Integer
Public Sub New(IndxOfObj As Integer)
Me.index = IndxOfObj
End Sub
End Class
If you necessarily need to have it as a property on the object I would suggest the following:
Public Class Main
Public oList As New List(Of TestObject)
Public Sub New()
' This call is required by the designer.
InitializeComponent()
' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call.
Dim NewObject As New TestObject(Me)
oList.Add(NewObject)
Dim NewObject2 As New TestObject(Me)
oList.Add(NewObject2)
MsgBox(NewObject2.Index)
End Sub
Public Function Index(ByVal TestObject As TestObject) As Integer
Return oList.IndexOf(TestObject)
End Function
End Class
Public Class TestObject
Private _main As Main
Public ReadOnly Property Index() As Integer
Get
Return _main.Index(Me)
End Get
End Property
Public Sub New(RootClass As Main)
_main = RootClass
End Sub
End Class
If you happen to have the Main class as a Singleton you can skip the whole sending 'Me' into the constructor business. Then you can just call Main.Index without storing it as a property on all TestObjects.
Public Class UniqueList(Of T As BaseClass)
Inherits List(Of T)
Public Overridable Overloads Sub Add(value As T)
If Not Me.Contains(value) Then MyBase.Add(value)
End Sub
Public Function [Get](val As integer) As T
Return Me.Where(Function(cb) cb.Id = val)(0)
End Function
End Class
I get en error if I try to use it without casting it first, so I I cast it before trying to get my object :
dim mylist as new UniqueList(of Baseclass)
mylist.add(new ChildClass(1))
dim x as ChildClass= (mylist.get(1))
x.RandomMethod() ...
so I tried to create a new function in my UniqueList class that would cast it for me :
Public Function [GetChildClass](val As integer) As ChildClass
Return DirectCast(Me.Where(Function(cb) cb.Id = val)(0), ChildClass)
End Function
but I always get errors saying value T cannot be converted to ChildClass... is there any way to have this function returns me the correct object ?
edit: I cant change it to a list of ChildClass
...
edit : declare them however you want ...
Class BaseClass
public id as integer
public sub new(id as integer)
me.id = id
end sub
end class
Class ChildClass
inherits BaseClass
Public sub New(id as integer)
mybase.new(id)
end sub
public sub randomMethod()
'do nothing
end sub
end class
You may be looking for something like this:
Public Function [GetParent](val As integer) As ChildClass
Return DirectCast(Me.OfType(Of ChildClass).
Where(Function(cb) cb.id = val)(0), ChildClass)
End Function
Note - this will fail if no elements of type ChildClass are found, you can prevent it from failing by using .FirstOrDefault instead of manually indexing (0) into the first element. FirstOrDefault will return Nothing if no elements were found.
I'm completely stuck in a situation and I have no idea on where to go from here. I'm creating a very large project, so my goal is to keep the code itself as clean as possible and keeping as many hacks as possible out of the mix.
Here is the situation.
I have a class called Woo_Type, it is the parent of my many derived classes.
Public MustInherit Class Woo_Type
Private Shared TypeList As New Dictionary(Of String, Woo_Type)
Public MustOverride Sub SetValue(ByVal val As Object)
Public MustOverride Function GetValue() As Object
Public Shared Function GetTypeFromName(ByVal name As String) As Woo_Type
Return TypeList(name)
End Function
Public Shared Sub AddType(ByVal name As String, ByVal def As Woo_Type)
TypeList.Add(name, def)
End Sub
End Class
I have many classes that Inherit from Woo_Type that have similar structures to this:
Public Class Woo_tpInt
Inherits Woo_Type
Private value As Integer = 0
Public Overrides Function GetValue() As Object
Return value
End Function
Public Overrides Sub SetValue(val As Object)
value = val
End Sub
End Class
I want to be able to do things like:
Woo_Type.GetTypeFromName("int")
And have it return something like the class or something...
At this point I'm really confused as to what I want and I didn't know if anybody had any suggestions. To make sure that GetTypeFromName worked correctly, I had in an Initializer sub the following:
Public Sub InitializeTypes()
Woo_Type.AddType("int", Woo_tpInt)
Woo_Type.AddType("String", Woo_tpInt)
End Sub
But I quickly realized that-that obviously doesn't work either.
So this may seem confusing but I'm basically wondering how to better structure this so that everything works...
What do you want to do with the result? Are you sure you don't simply need generics?
Public Class WooType(Of T)
Public Property Value As T
End Class
Public Class Test
Public Sub Foo()
Dim int As New WooType(Of Integer)
int.Value = 42
Dim str As New WooType(Of String)
str.Value = "Forty-Two"
End Sub
End Class
If what you want to do is get the type itself (as opposed to an object), I would recommend using reflection rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. For instance, to get the Woo_tpInt type, you could do this:
Dim a As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
Dim t As Type = a.GetType("WindowsApplication1.Woo_tpInt") ' Change WindowsApplication1 to whatever your namespace is
If you want to use a shorter name like "int" to mean "WindowsApplication1.Woo_tpInt", you could create a dictionary to store the translation table, for instance:
Dim typeNames As New Dictionary(Of String, String)
typeNames.Add("int", GetType(Woo_tpInt).FullName)
Dim a As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
Dim t As Type = a.GetType(typeNames("int"))
The code below works for the class that I hard coded "XCCustomers" in my RetrieveIDandName method where I use CType. However, I would like to be able to pass in various classes and property names to get the integer and string LIST returned. For example, in my code below, I would like to also pass in "XCEmployees" to my RetrieveIDandName method. I feel so close... I was hoping someone knew how to use CType where I can pass in the class name as a string variable.
Note, all the other examples I have seen and tried fail because we are using Option Strict On which disallows late binding. That is why I need to use CType.
I also studied the "Activator.CreateInstance" code examples to try to get the class reference instance by string name but I was unable to get CType to work with that.
When I use obj.GetType.Name or obj.GetType.FullName in place of the "XCCustomers" in CType(obj, XCCustomers)(i)
I get the error "Type 'obj.GetType.Name' is not defined" or "Type 'obj.GetType.FullName' is not defined"
Thanks for your help.
Rick
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Imports DataLaasXC.Business
Imports DataLaasXC.Utilities
Public Class ucCustomerList
'Here is the calling method:
Public Sub CallingSub()
Dim customerList As New XCCustomers()
Dim customerIdAndName As New List(Of XCCustomer) = RetrieveIDandName(customerList, "CustomerId", " CustomerName")
'This code below fails because I had to hard code “XCCustomer” in the “Dim item...” section of my RetrieveEmployeesIDandName method.
Dim employeeList As New XCEmployees()
Dim employeeIdAndName As New List(Of XCEmployee) = RetrieveIDandName(employeeList, "EmployeeId", " EmployeeName")
'doing stuff here...
End Sub
'Here is the method where I would like to use the class name string when I use CType:
Private Function RetrieveIDandName(ByVal obj As Object, ByVal idPropName As String, ByVal namePropName As String) As List(Of IntStringPair)
Dim selectedItems As List(Of IntStringPair) = New List(Of IntStringPair)
Dim fullyQualifiedClassName As String = obj.GetType.FullName
Dim count As Integer = CInt(obj.GetType().GetProperty("Count").GetValue(obj, Nothing))
If (count > 0) Then
For i As Integer = 0 To count - 1
'Rather than hard coding “XCCustomer” below, I want to use something like “obj.GetType.Name”???
Dim Item As IntStringPair = New IntStringPair(CInt(CType(obj, XCCustomers)(i).GetType().GetProperty("CustomerId").GetValue(CType(obj, XCCustomers)(i), Nothing)), _
CStr(CType(obj, XCCustomers)(i).GetType().GetProperty("CustomerName").GetValue(CType(obj, XCCustomers)(i), Nothing)))
selectedItems.Add(Item)
Next
End If
Return selectedItems
End Function
End Class
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
' Below are the supporting classes if you need to see what else is happening:
Namespace DataLaasXC.Utilities
Public Class IntStringPair
Public Sub New(ByVal _Key As Integer, ByVal _Value As String)
Value = _Value
Key = _Key
End Sub
Public Property Value As String
Public Property Key As Integer
End Class
End Namespace
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Namespace DataLaasXC.Business
Public Class XCCustomer
Public Property CustomerId As Integer
Public Property CustomerName As String
End Class
End Namespace
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Namespace DataLaasXC.Business
Public Class XCCustomers
Inherits List(Of XCCustomer)
Public Sub New()
PopulateCustomersFromDatabase()
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal GetEmpty As Boolean)
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Namespace DataLaasXC.Business
Public Class XCEmployee
Public Property EmployeeId As Integer
Public Property EmployeeName As String
End Class
End Namespace
'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Namespace DataLaasXC.Business
Public Class XCEmployees
Inherits List(Of XCEmployee)
Public Sub New()
PopulateEmployeesFromDatabase()
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal GetEmpty As Boolean)
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace
From MSDN
CType(expression, typename)
. . .
typename : Any expression that is legal
within an As clause in a Dim
statement, that is, the name of any
data type, object, structure, class,
or interface.
This is basically saying you can't use CType dynamically, just statically. i.e. At the point where the code is compiled the compiler needs to know what typename is going to be.
You can't change this at runtime.
Hope this helps.
Since List(Of T) implements the non-generic IList interface, you could change your function declaration to:
Private Function RetrieveIDandName(ByVal obj As System.Collections.IList, ByVal idPropName As String, ByVal namePropName As String) As List(Of IntStringPair)
And then your troublesome line would become (with also using the property name parameters):
Dim Item As IntStringPair = New IntStringPair(CInt(obj(i).GetType().GetProperty(idPropName).GetValue(obj(i), Nothing)), _
CStr(obj(i).GetType().GetProperty(namePropName).GetValue(obj(i), Nothing)))
Of course, you could still have the first parameter by Object, and then attempt to cast to IList, but that's up to you.
ctype is used to convert in object type.