XML Literals Tips/Tricks

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A couple quick tips here when using XML literals in your Visual Basic programs.

#1: I've started using XML literals everywhere I had been using multiline strings and text merging (as I explained in this post). For instance, I started using them in my ToString methods of my classes:

Public Overrides Function ToString() As String

    Return <string>

ID : <%= Me.ID %>

Name : <%= Me.LastName %>, <%= Me.FirstName %>

Address : <%= Me.Address %>

         : <%= Me.City %>, <%= Me.State %> - <%= Me.Zip %>

    </string>.Value

End Function

#2: It's also sometimes handy to pass an XElement as a parameter if you need dynamic parameters, or were using your own custom parameter objects previously:

Dim id = 1

Dim name = "Beth"

DoIt(<param>

         <customer>

             <id><%= id %></id>

             <name><%= name %></name>

  </customer>

     </param>)

Private Sub DoIt(ByVal param As XElement)

    Dim customers = From customer In param...<customer> _

            Select New Customer With _

            {.ID = customer.<id>.Value, _

             .FirstName = customer.<name>.Value}

    For Each c In customers

        Console.WriteLine(c.ToString())

    Next

End Sub

Enjoy,
-B