Form question (Re-usuable code)

[Paul]

Is there any way of making the following code into a function so that I
don't have to re-use the same code for all my buttons? I've tried to do this
with the code at the bottom of my post but I get a build error saying 'Type
FormToShow is not defined'.

Cheers,
Paul
Private WithEvents Example1Form As frmDragDropFromExplorer
Private WithEvents Example2Form As frmDragDrop

Public Shared Sub Main()
Application.EnableVisualStyles()
Application.DoEvents()
Application.Run(New frmMain)
End Sub

Private Sub btnExample1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles btnExample1.Click
Try
Example1Form.Show()
Catch
Example1Form = New frmDragDropFromExplorer
Example1Form.Show()
Finally
Example1Form.Focus()
End Try
End Sub

---- Tried this but got the error 'FormToShow is not defined' ---
Private Sub btnExample1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles btnExample1.Click
ShowForm(Example1Form)
End Sub

Private Function ShowForm(ByVal FormToShow As Form)
Try
FormToShow.Show()
Catch
FormToShow = New FormToShow
FormToShow.Show()
Finally
FormToShow.Focus()
End Try
End Function

[Linda]

Paul,

Try chainging this line:

Private Function ShowForm(ByVal FormToShow As Form)

To this:

Private Function ShowForm(ByRef FormToShow As Form)

Passing FormToShow "ByRef" -- by reference instead of by value.

[Linda]

Oh, I should have explained this more: even if you know why this would
work better, somone googling for the answer later may not.

When you pass your form "ByVal", you are not actually passing your
form-- you are making a *copy* of the form, and passing that. The
system doesn't recognize the copy, hence you get the error message that
you reported.

Using "ByRef" passes the *address* of your form to the subroutine,
rather than a copy. So the action is preformed on the origional form,
as you wish, rather than on a "copy" that's just haning around
disconnected from anything.

Hope this helps!

[AdamRobinson]

Linda wrote:

Oh, I should have explained this more: even if you know why this would work better, somone googling for the answer later may not.

When you pass your form "ByVal", you are not actually passing your
form-- you are making a *copy* of the form, and passing that. The
system doesn't recognize the copy, hence you get the error message that you reported.

Using "ByRef" passes the *address* of your form to the subroutine,
rather than a copy. So the action is preformed on the origional form,
as you wish, rather than on a "copy" that's just haning around
disconnected from anything.

Hope this helps!

That is actually incorrect. The discrepancy comes in how you think you
are referencing your form.

Object references (which is basically everything except numeric types
and other certain intrinsic types, NOT including strings) are variables
that represent pointers to locations in memory. When you have a
variable defined as, say, a form (or any other object type), that
variable doesn't represent the object itself, but rather that pointer
that points to the location in memory of the object. That is what your
variable is.

Now what does this mean? When you pass an object reference to a
function ByVal, then EVERYTHING PERFORMED on that object reference
EXCEPT FOR ASSIGNMENTS is performed on the actual object. The only
difference between ByVal and ByRef is the behavior of assignments.
ByVal parameters do not affect the variable in the calling method,
ByRef parameters do.

That clear as mud?

[AdamRobinson]

As for the original question, this isn't really possible without diving
into reflection (you'd have to pass the type in using the GetType()
keyword, then find the declaring assembly and instantiate it, which is
a costly operation), and IMHO this is a bit of a violation of good
programming practices.

Now, that said, this sort of thing will be a little easier and less
costly in VS2005 using generics. However, you are writing this function
simply because you do not want to instantiate a form?

Also, you are simply catching EVERY exception, then reattempting the
same operation, which is bad. You do not know that the exception you
caught was a NullReferenceException, it could be something else that
got thrown upon creating the control's handle (ie in the Load event of
that form).

If you wish to refer to your forms in VB6 style (ie FormTypeName.show),
then I would recommend creating them as singletons. To do that, just go
into the form's Windows Designer Generated Code and change the
constructor (the New() method) to be private, then up at the top of the
class declaration, just after the Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
(well, this can actually go anywhere except inside a method, but this
is where I usually put it for clarity's sake) and type the following:

Public ReadOnly Instance as YourFormTypeNameHere = New
YourFormTypeNameHere

Now, when you want to refer to this single instance of your form, you
do YourFormTypeNameHere.Instance... and do whatever you wish, ie

YourFormTypeNameHere.Instance.Show()