Using colons to put two statements on the same line in Visual Basic [closed]

Answer 1

I've never seen this mentioned in an official capacity at any of the companies which I've worked. But I do think that using colons excessively can start to make your code less readable and more of a pain to maintain.

I do tend to use these myself at times, for example when checking for cancel in one of my recent projects:

If _bCancel Then Status = CancelProcess() : Return Status

Putting this in kept my code readable than the alternative IF block.

But it can be taken too far, I've recently inherited a project which is replete with examples of taking colon usage too far :

    Select Case GetStringValue(Index).Trim.ToLower
        Case "yes", "y" : GetBooleanValue = True
        Case "no", "n" : GetBooleanValue = False
        Case Else : GetBooleanValue = Nothing
    End Select

Personally I find the above to be a bit much.

Answer 2

I like this one

Using pro As New Process() : With pro

        ...

    End With
End Using

Answer 3

I've only ever used it when I'm clsoing a recordset and setting the variable to nothing. I figure one line instead of two gives me more lines of code on the screen and doesn't detract from readability.

I've seen it used in simple select cases such as the following but that would be as far as I would go.

 Select Case success
      Case ERROR_FILE_NO_ASSOCIATION: msg = "no association"
      Case ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND: msg = "file not found"
      Case ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND: msg = "path not found"
      Case ERROR_BAD_FORMAT:     msg = "bad format"

from http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?code/system/findexecutable.htm

And even then I would've lined up the "msg =" portion.

Answer 4

It's a good practice in moderation, because sometimes readability is enhanced by concatenating two lines:

• when the lines are short and intimately related

• when the lines are short and trivial

  Option Compare Database:  Option Explicit   ''My favorite!
  rsDataSet.Close:          Set rsDataSet= Nothing
  

Don't do it if:

• it hurts readability.
• it complicates debugging. Control structures such as If...Then need to stay clean. You'll be glad you kept it simple when it's time to set a break point.
• it compromises future editing. Often you want to keep sections portable. Moving or re-structuring a block of code is easily hindered by attempts to minimize your code.

Answer 5

It is considered bad practice in most of the sites at which I have worked. And by most of the VB developers with whom I have worked. And in my head. If I see it, I will admit that I would almost certainly change it. I say "almost" because I admit there's a possibility that I could find a piece of code that looked better that way. I don't expect to see it in my lifetime, though.

I also really don't like one-line **If**s either.

Both are most likely hangovers from the days of VGA (640x480) monitors; that's no excuse these days.

Answer 6

I realize this is a very old question, but it was the first result on my Google search, so I hope I can be forgiven for chiming in here.

There is one situation (exactly what led me here in fact) in which this approach is not only useful, it's the only way to accomplish the desired result: the Immediate window. Any code you want to execute in the Immediate window must all be on one line. So in order to use any form of Do, Case, For, While, or With in the Immediate window, you will need to use colons.