[JulieLerman]

There has been very little demand for VB samples, but one unhappy VB developer is enough to justify doing it - it was just a matter of creating the time. I've converted a chunk of the samples that are now available from the download page at learnentityframework.com/downloads.

[kstevens715]

Julie,

I develop in Visual Basic and I'm pretty use to seeing code samples in C# so I don't typically have problems understanding them. However, there is one code snippet in chapter 26th of the 2nd edition that I cannot for the life of me figure out. It's the GetStoredList method on page 765. I can't figure how how to cast a list as a List(Of T). No matter what I try the VB compiler doesn't like it. I'd love to see chapter 26 in VB.

[Bill9717]

Hi -- Like kstevens715 I also prefer VB.NET and can get by with C# but the issue in Chapter 26 that kstevens715 mentions has also tripped me up. Any idea on how to solve it? FYI, the code I'm using is here:

Private Function GetStoredList(Of T As Class)() As List(Of T)
         Dim typeName As String = GetType(T).Name
         Dim _list As List(Of T) = Nothing

         Select Case typeName
             Case "Activity" : _list = TryCast(_activities, List(Of Activity))
             Case "Destination" : _list = TryCast(_destinations, List(Of Destination))
             Case "Lodging" : _list = TryCast(_lodgings, List(Of Lodging))
             Case Else
                 Throw New NotSupportedException("You cannot make an UntrackedList from this type.")
         End Select

         Return _list
End Function

And the compiler errors are as follows:

• Value of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of BAGA.Activity)' cannot be converted to 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of T)'.
  
• Value of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of BAGA.Destination)' cannot be converted to 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of T)'.
  
• Value of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of BAGA.Lodging)' cannot be converted to 'System.Collections.Generic.List(Of T)'.

Help is greatly appreciated!

[JulieLerman]

Bill,
I just spent some time converting and then fixing up the VB soluiton until it finally worked. The method you pointed out (well both GetSortedList and SetSortedList) were the biggest problem. The converter couldn't figure it out nor could I. But someone actually asked about converting this same code from my book on Stackoverflow and someone else provided the solution! There was one other tough spot which was the expression passed in to the SortedList method. I finally figured out to change "object" to string and it worked!
I ran through the app, retrieving, editing and inserting records so I think it's really all working now.

Oh, I just added the solution to the downloads page on the website: http://learnentityfr.../downloads/#2ed

Thanks for the inspiration. Sorry for the trouble. I get about one "help with the VB' a year.

Julie

[Bill9717]

Thanks, Julie! Never would have thought of the CObj() solution.