Hidden Features of VB.NET?

Question

The Exception When clause is largely unknown.

Consider this:

Public Sub Login(host as string, user as String, password as string, _
                            Optional bRetry as Boolean = False)
Try
   ssh.Connect(host, user, password)
Catch ex as TimeoutException When Not bRetry
   ''//Try again, but only once.
   Login(host, user, password, True)
Catch ex as TimeoutException
   ''//Log exception
End Try
End Sub

Custom Enums

One of the real hidden features of VB is the completionlist XML documentation tag that can be used to create own Enum-like types with extended functionality. This feature doesn't work in C#, though.

One example from a recent code of mine:

'
''' <completionlist cref="RuleTemplates"/>
Public Class Rule
    Private ReadOnly m_Expression As String
    Private ReadOnly m_Options As RegexOptions

    Public Sub New(ByVal expression As String)
        Me.New(expression, RegexOptions.None)
    End Sub

    Public Sub New(ByVal expression As String, ByVal options As RegexOptions)
        m_Expression = expression
        m_options = options
    End Sub

    Public ReadOnly Property Expression() As String
        Get
            Return m_Expression
        End Get
    End Property

    Public ReadOnly Property Options() As RegexOptions
        Get
            Return m_Options
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

Public NotInheritable Class RuleTemplates
    Public Shared ReadOnly Whitespace As New Rule("\s+")
    Public Shared ReadOnly Identifier As New Rule("\w+")
    Public Shared ReadOnly [String] As New Rule("""([^""]|"""")*""")
End Class

Now, when assigning a value to a variable declared as Rule, the IDE offers an IntelliSense list of possible values from RuleTemplates.

/EDIT:

Since this is a feature that relies on the IDE, it's hard to show how this looks when you use it but I'll just use a screenshot:

Completion list in action http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/krudolph/stuff/completionlist.png

In fact, the IntelliSense is 100% identical to what you get when using an Enum.

Have you noticed the Like comparison operator?

Dim b As Boolean = "file.txt" Like "*.txt"

More from MSDN

Dim testCheck As Boolean

' The following statement returns True (does "F" satisfy "F"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "F"

' The following statement returns False for Option Compare Binary'
'    and True for Option Compare Text (does "F" satisfy "f"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "f"

' The following statement returns False (does "F" satisfy "FFF"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "FFF"

' The following statement returns True (does "aBBBa" have an "a" at the'
'    beginning, an "a" at the end, and any number of characters in '
'    between?)'
testCheck = "aBBBa" Like "a*a"

' The following statement returns True (does "F" occur in the set of'
'    characters from "A" through "Z"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "[A-Z]"

' The following statement returns False (does "F" NOT occur in the '
'    set of characters from "A" through "Z"?)'
testCheck = "F" Like "[!A-Z]"

' The following statement returns True (does "a2a" begin and end with'
'    an "a" and have any single-digit number in between?)'
testCheck = "a2a" Like "a#a"

' The following statement returns True (does "aM5b" begin with an "a",'
'    followed by any character from the set "L" through "P", followed'
'    by any single-digit number, and end with any character NOT in'
'    the character set "c" through "e"?)'
testCheck = "aM5b" Like "a[L-P]#[!c-e]"

' The following statement returns True (does "BAT123khg" begin with a'
'    "B", followed by any single character, followed by a "T", and end'
'    with zero or more characters of any type?)'
testCheck = "BAT123khg" Like "B?T*"

' The following statement returns False (does "CAT123khg" begin with'
'    a "B", followed by any single character, followed by a "T", and'
'    end with zero or more characters of any type?)'
testCheck = "CAT123khg" Like "B?T*"

Typedefs

VB knows a primitive kind of typedef via Import aliases:

Imports S = System.String

Dim x As S = "Hello"

This is more useful when used in conjunction with generic types:

Imports StringPair = System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair(Of String, String)

Oh! and don't forget XML Literals.

Dim contact2 = _
        <contact>
          <name>Patrick Hines</name>
          <%= From p In phoneNumbers2 _
            Select <phone type=<%= p.Type %>><%= p.Number %></phone> _
          %>
        </contact>