Small VB.NET questions

[agibsonsw]

Hello.

Slightly puzzled by the following:

Dim strWot() As String
strWot = New String(10) {}

I thought that VB.Net doesn't allow/use fixed length strings? And I know curly brackets are used to initialize arrays {}, but why the empty brackets ?

And how do I indent or outdent code? In VBA I could just press Tab or Shift-Tab?

Thanks, Andy.

[HansV]

String(10) is not a string of length 10, it is an 11-element array of type String (index 0...10). The { } initializes it to an empty array. You could have used something like

strWot = New String(3) {"this", "that", "other", "what"}

[agibsonsw]

@Hans Thank you very much for coming back to me

I was leaning that way but the brackets occurring after 'String(10)' threw me.

I couldn't see the purpose of { } but I now realise that they are necessary. If I try:
strWot = New String(10) 'no curlies
I receive the error message:
Value of type 'Integer' cannot be converted to '1-dimensional array of Char'

So I believe that 'String(10)' is the older VBA syntax for a fixed-length string and, although VB.Net doesn't support it, it is stil there.

(I seem to have lost the ability to indent code in VB.Net?)

Regards, Andy.

[HansV]

Take a look at Tools > Options... > Text Editor > Basic > VB Specific.
Or at Tools > Options... > Text Editor > Basic > Tabs.

Experiment with the settings.

[agibsonsw]

@Hans Thanks, I'll play (might have to turn off smart indenting).