VB'NET Tips and Tricks

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VB.NET Tips and Tricks
Chris Bennett
Crowe Horwath LLP
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• Topics
• Visual Basic.Net Tips Tricks
• Visual Studio Tips Tricks
• Tools

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VB.NET - Tips and Tricks
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• Using Statement

Dim dc As DB_LINQDataContext Try dc New
DB_LINQDataContext() ... Finally
dc.Dispose() End Try
Using dc As New DB_LINQDataContext
... End Using
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• Why Using Statements?
• Simplifies Code
• Automatic Disposing of Classes

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• LINQ

Using dc As New DB_LINQDataContext
Dim query From c In dc.Customers _
Select c End Using
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• Why LINQ
• Unified access to SQL Tables, Collections, JSON,
  etc
• Allows SQL -gt Collection Joins
• Extremely Flexible

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• LINQ breeds bad habits
• Essentially Inline SQL
• Build a DAL layer
• We forget performance since LINQ can just about
  do it all
• LINQ performs its own optimizations on queries
• Almost?

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• LINQ Short Cut Performance Issues
• Returns All Rows
• Searches for match (In Memory)
• Returns Matches

Using dc As New DB_LINQDataContext dc.Customers
.ToList().Find( ... ) End Using
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• LINQ Performance Short Cut
• Perform SQL Select using Where Clause
• Returns only those rows from the database

Using dc As New DB_LINQDataContext dc.Customers
.Where( ) End Using
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• Implicit Typing
• Dont use it !
• (Unavoidable using LINQ)

Dim a 5 Dim s This is a String
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• New Object Initializers

Dim myThread As New Thread(AddressOf
MyThreadMethod) With .Name "my thread",
.IsBackground True
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Visual Studio - Tips and Tricks
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• Ghost Doc
• Rules based engine for documenting function
• Rules are based upon the name of the function
• (VB.Net Support is Experimental)

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Ghost Doc Demo
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• Snippets
• Very handy way to add often used code
• Difficult to build, XML formatted file
• New Snippet Designer

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Snippet Designer Demo
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Web Tools
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• Source Code Converter
• http//www.developerfusion.com/tools/convert/vb-to
  -csharp/
• IE Developer Toolbar (Internet Explorer)
• Firebug (Firefox)
• YSlow

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Web Tool Demo
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• Additional Information
• Ghost Doc
• http//www.roland-weigelt.de/ghostdoc/
• Snippet Designer
• http//www.codeplex.com/SnippetDesigner
• Yslow (Firebug Add-on)
• https//addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/184
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• http//developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

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Questions

• Chris L Bennett
• chris.bennett_at_crowehorwath.com
• www.ChrisLBennett.com