VB.NET Constructors

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In object-oriented programming, when creating an object from a given class, it is necessary to call a special class method known as a constructor.

What Is a Constructor?

The constructor is a special method of a class created with a New keyword and does not have a return type. The main purpose of the constructor is to initialize the memory, allocated for the object, where its fields will be stored.

There are various types of constructors.

Default Constructor

If you don't provide a constructor for your class, VB.NET creates one by default that instantiates the object and sets member variables to the default values.

Here is an example of the most simplified parameterless constructor in the CustomerInfo class.

Public Sub New()
    Console.WriteLine("Default Constructor Called")
End Sub

The following code shows how to call a default parameterless constructor.

Dim customer As CustomerInfo = New CustomerInfo()

In the above example, using the New keyword, we call the constructor of the class CustomerInfo. The memory is allocated for the newly created object of the CustomerInfo type.

Parameterized Constructor

Similar to the methods, if we need extra data to create an object, the constructor gets it through a parameter list. The following example passes two strings variables name and address, as a parameter to the constructor.

Public Sub New(ByVal name As String, ByVal address As String)
    Me.Name = name
    Me.Address = address
End Sub

Similarly, the call of a constructor with parameters is done in the same way as the call of a method with parameters. The required values are supplied as a list separated with commas.

Dim customer1 As CustomerInfo = New CustomerInfo("John", "11 wall street")

There is no limit to parameters. You can have as many parameters as you want.

Copy Constructor

The constructor which creates an object by copying variables from another object is called a copy constructor. The purpose of a copy constructor is to initialize a new instance to the values of an existing instance.

Public Sub New(ByVal customer As CustomerInfo)
    Me.Name = customer.Name
    Me.Address = customer.Address
End Sub

The copy constructor is called by passing the object as a parameter of the same class.

Dim customer1 As CustomerInfo = New CustomerInfo("John", "11 wall street")
Dim customer2 As CustomerInfo = New CustomerInfo(customer1)

customer1.Print()
customer2.Print()

Let's execute the above code, and you will see the same values for both objects.

Name: John, Address: 11 wall street
Name: John, Address: 11 wall street

Private Constructor

A private constructor is declared by specifying the Private access modifier. It is used to prevent creating instances of a class when we have only Shared members.

Public Class Counter
    Private Sub New()
    End Sub

    Public Shared currentCount As Integer

    Public Shared Function IncrementCount() As Integer
        currentCount += 1
        Return currentCount
    End Function
End Class

You can call the members using the class name instead of creating its object.

Counter.currentCount = 9
Counter.IncrementCount()
Console.WriteLine("New count: {0}", Counter.currentCount)

Let's execute the above code and you will see the following output.

New count: 10


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