Returning an Anonymous type…

  In VB.NET it is actually possible to return an Anonymous type from a function and use it somewhere else. In VB.NET you need to use late binding so you can’t change the “Option strict” compiler option to true as I have always done in the past. This option, that defaults to “Off”, is the main reason that C# developers scoff at VB, but this feature is now available, controversially in C#.

In this example I created an anonymous type that has three properties.

 1    Public Function GetTwiterCredentials() As Object
 2        If Not My.Settings.TwitterEmail.Length > 3 Then
 3            GetSettings()
 4        End If
 5        If Not My.Settings.TwitterPassword.Length > 3 Then
 6            GetSettings()
 7        End If
 8        If Not My.Settings.TwitterUsername.Length > 3 Then
 9            GetSettings()
10        End If
11        Return New With { _
12                    .Email = My.Settings.TwitterEmail, _
13                    .Password = My.Settings.TwitterPassword, _
14                    .Username = My.Settings.TwitterUsername _
15                        }
16    End Function

The use of this is very simple, although I would like an option other than to return “Object” so Visual Studio knows that it is an anonymous type.

1            Dim TwiterCredentials = View.GetTwiterCredentials
2            Dim result As String = ""
3            result = Twitter.TwitterAPI.UpdateStatus( _
4                                    status, _
5                                    TwiterCredentials.Email, _
6                                    TwiterCredentials.Password _
7                                    )

There is no intellisense with this, so you have to know what the options are. Hopefully in future versions this will be rectified.

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