Visual Basic® .NET Unleashed

Chapter 11. Shared Members

In This Chapter

• Declaring Shared Fields

• Defining Shared Properties

• Using Shared Methods

• Defining Shared Constructors

• Implementing Factory Methods

• Overloading Shared Members

• Raising Shared Events

• Summary

Shared members in Visual Basic .NET are equivalent to Object Pascal class members and C++ and Java static members. The term member refers to anything that is part of a class or structure, which includes fields, properties, methods, and events. The designator Shared means that you can access the member without creating an instance—or declaring a variable—of the class or structure. Using the Shared designation means that the member is a metaclass member; that is, shared members are accessible from the class (and from objects). ...