Code-Snippets in .Net
Last week I had to do a small project within Visual Basic. I wrote a database layer with 3 classes and used it from the Business-Logic – and the BL was called from the GUI (a typical 3-tier application J).
After programming for about ½ hour, I recognized that I have to do a lot of work in the declaration-writing of every function within the BL. I’ll give you an example:
Dim dbAccess as new BMODataBase.DBAccess()
dbAccess.LocalDB = MySettings.DataBaseConnection
dbAccess.SQLCommand = BMODataBase.SQLCommand.SelectStatement
…
…
…
After doing those more than 2 times, I did it with Cut&Paste J
Then I recognized, that I had many compile-errors. The cause was, that most of the code is identical – most, but not everything. So I asked myself: is there a possibility to minimize the compile-errors without writing code as much ?
YES – there is something: call Code-Snippets !
A very simple way to define your structured code what the IDE have to insert, with the possibility that the IDE asks you about the last 20 % of the code which might be different – and the best of this story: your Code-Snippet is fully IDE- intellisense !!
I don’t want to describe in detail how you write your own snippet and which tool you have to use, because there is already a VERY good and short article about that:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/06/04/AdvancedBasics/default.aspx
You will find the tool to write your code-snippet on: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/tools/snippeteditor/
Write your code more easily and with less compiling errors - without Cut&Paste – do it with Code-Snippet ! Have fun J
