CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vb.netsyntax
Tim B James
Tim B James

Reputation: 20364

vb.net Object Initialiser List(Of T)

I have been looking at some C# code:

List<Employee> Employees = new List<Employee>{
    new Employee{firstname="Aamir",lastname="Hasan",age=20},
    new Employee{firstname="awais",lastname="Hasan",age=50},
    new Employee{firstname="Bill",lastname="Hasan",age=70},
    new Employee{firstname="sobia",lastname="khan",age=80},  
    };

Now when I convert this to vb.net

Dim Employees as List(Of Employee) = New List(Of Employee)() With { New Employee() With { _  
.firstname = "Aamir", _  
.lastname = "Hasan", _   
.age = 20 _  
}, _  
New Employee() With { _  
.firstname = "awais", _  
.lastname = "Hasan", _  
.age = 50 _  
}, _  
New Employee() With { _  
.firstname = "Bill", _  
.lastname = "Hasan", _  
.age = 70 _  
}, _  
New Employee() With { _  
.firstname = "sobia", _  
.lastname = "khan", _  
.age = 80 _  
} _  
}

I get the error "Name of field or property being initialized in an object initializer must start with'.'."

Now I can get an array of employee using the code: 

Dim Employees = { New Employee() With { _  
.FirstName = "Aamir", _  
.LastName = "Hasan", _   
.Age = 20}, _  
New Employee() With { _    
.FirstName = "Awais", _   
.LastName = "Hasan", _  
.Age = 50}, _
New Employee() With { _
.FirstName = "Bill", _ 
.LastName = "Hasan", _  
.Age = 70 _
} _  
}

But I would like a List(Of Employee) as it is bugging me as to why this doesnt work in vb.net?

Upvotes: 17

Views: 23281

Answers (3)

Eric
Eric

Reputation: 2275

How about this?

Dim Employees As List(Of Employee) = { _
  New Employee() With { .firstname = "Aamir", .lastname = "Hasan", .age = 20 }, _
  New Employee() With { .firstname = "awais", .lastname = "Hasan", .age = 50 }, _
  New Employee() With { .firstname = "Bill",  .lastname = "Hasan", .age = 70 }, _
  New Employee() With { .firstname = "sobia", .lastname = "khan",  .age = 80 } _
}.ToList()

Upvotes: 1

MarkJ
MarkJ

Reputation: 30408

Collection initialisers were added in VB.NET 2010. This is air code, but here goes:

Dim Employees as List(Of Employee) = New List(Of Employee)() From
{ 
    New Employee() With { _   
       .firstname = "Aamir", _
       .lastname = "Hasan", _ 
       .age = 20 _   
    }, _
   New Employee() With { _  
       .firstname = "awais", _  
       .lastname = "Hasan", _ 
       .age = 50 _ 
    }, _ 
   New Employee() With { _ 
       .firstname = "Bill", _ 
       .lastname = "Hasan", _ 
       .age = 70 _ 
    }, _  
   New Employee() With { _ 
       .firstname = "sobia", _ 
       .lastname = "khan", _ 
       .age = 80 _ 
    } _ 
}

Upvotes: 22

David Hedlund
David Hedlund

Reputation: 129802

EDIT (2)
As pointed out in comments, VB.NET collection initializers have now been introduced, and a lot of the following post should be considered obsolete.

EDIT
Don't always blindly trust the C# to VB.NET converter
Here's a handy tool for online conversion

Turns out VB.NET doesn't have collection initializers. Which means there is no equivalence of 

var myList = new List<string>()
{
   "abc",
   "def"
};

... but it does have object initializers. So you can create an instance of a class and assign values to its properties all in one go, but you cannot create an instance of a list and add items to it all in one go.

There closest you can get is in the link above. You can create an Array and add items to it in a single operation, and then you have to ToList that array.

So this time I've actually compiled the code myself, and it works. Sorry for the hassle

    Dim EmployeesTemp As Employee() = { _
        New Employee() With { _
            .firstname = "Aamir", _
            .lastname = "Hasan", _
            .age = 20 _
        }, _
        New Employee() With { _
            .firstname = "awais", _
            .lastname = "Hasan", _
            .age = 50 _
        }, _
        New Employee() With { _
            .firstname = "Bill", _
            .lastname = "Hasan", _
            .age = 70 _
        }, _
        New Employee() With { _
            .firstname = "sobia", _
            .lastname = "khan", _
            .age = 80 _
        } _
    }

    Dim Employees as List(Of Employee) = EmployeesTemp.ToList()

Upvotes: 18

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