It’s about the way you think about programming. This isn’t another debate on which language is better. Just noting the differences because of how I think. The first is…

Declaring variables

After I think through the logic I want, the first thing that comes to mind might be “I need an integer”. This works well:

int i;

This, not so much:

Dim i As Int32

In C#, the name of the variable is secondary, at least at the point when it’s created. I need an integer. I don’t really care what its name is (yet). Nor does the compiler.

In VB.NET, I have to come up with a name. And if my RPG days are any indication, I take a long time coming up with names. By the time I think up an appropriate name, I forgot what type it’s supposed to be.

It’s like the active-passive voice in English. “He ate the apple.” and “The apple was eaten.” Which do you want to focus on?

I might be wrong. VB views variables as containers for values, hence there’s no point in fixing the type at declaration (like Javascript)? And VB.NET inherits the language structure.

Arrays

In C#, arrays are declared like so:

int[] ia = new int[5];

In VB.NET, they are declared like so:

Dim ia(5) As Int32

There’s a catch though. The array in C# has 5 elements. The one in VB.NET has 6.

Both languages treat arrays with zero-based indices. In VB.NET, the number used in declaring the size of the array means the last index of the array.

So if I wanted 5 elements, I should declare it as:

Dim ia(4) As Int32

Ok, I guess my frustration has run its course…