Coding Standards:

Coding Standards are a set of guidelines for a specific programming language that recommend programming style, practices and methods for each aspect of a piece program written in this language.

* Your code will have a consistent look, so that readers can better focus on content, not layout. * Readers understand your code more quickly because they can make assumptions based on previous experience. * You can copy, change, and maintain the code more easily. * You help ensure that your code demonstrates "best practices" for Visual Basic.

VB.NET CODING STANSARDS

1. Naming Conventions * Do not use "My" or "my" as part of a variable name. This practice creates confusion with the My objects. * You do not have to change the names of objects in auto-generated code to make them fit the guidelines.

2. Layout Conventions * Insert tabs as spaces, and use smart indenting with four-space indents. * Use Pretty listing (reformatting) of code to reformat your code in the code editor. * Use only one statement per line. Don't use the Visual Basic line separator character (:). * Avoid using the explicit line continuation character "_" in favor of implicit line continuation wherever the language allows it. * Use only one declaration per line. * Add at least one blank line between method and property definitions.

3. Commenting Conventions * Put comments on a separate line instead of at the end of a line of code. * Start comment text with an uppercase letter, and end comment text with a period. * Insert one space between the comment delimiter (') and the comment text.
VB
' Here is a comment. * Do not surround comments with formatted blocks of asterisks.

4. Program Structure * When you use the Main method, use the default construct for new console applications, and use My for command-line arguments.

* Your code will have a consistent look, so that readers can better focus on content, not layout. * Readers understand your code more quickly because they can make assumptions based on previous experience. * You can copy, change, and maintain the code more easily. * You help ensure that your code demonstrates "best practices" for Visual Basic.

5. Language Guidelines

a) String Data Type * To concatenate strings, use an ampersand (&). * To append strings in loops, use the StringBuilder object.

b) Relaxed Delegates in Event Handlers Do not explicitly qualify the arguments (Object and EventArgs) to event handlers. If you are not using the event arguments that are passed to an event (for example, sender as Object, e as EventArgs), use relaxed delegates, and leave out the event arguments in your code:

c) Unsigned Data Type * Use Integer rather than unsigned types, except where they are necessary.

d) Arrays * Use the short syntax when you initialize arrays on the declaration line.

e) Use the With Keyword
When you make a series of calls to one object, consider using the With keyword:

f) Use the Try...Catch and Using Statements when you use Exception Handling
Do not use On Error Goto.

g) Use the IsNot Keyword
Use the IsNot keyword instead of Not...Is Nothing.

h) Using Shared Members
Call Shared members by using the class name, not from an instance variable

i) Use XML Literals

* Use XML literals to create XML documents and fragments instead of calling XML APIs directly. * Import XML namespaces at the file or project level to take advantage of the performance optimizations for XML literals. * Use the XML axis properties to access elements and attributes in an XML document.