XML Literals Tips/Tricks
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