From: nospam@nospam.org   
      
   trenchmouth wrote:   
   > Does anybody know how I can loop through all the properties in a class I   
   > have created? Can I use Me to refer to the properties? I'm using VB6.   
   >   
   > Many thanks.   
   That is a simple question with a long answer. First, why would you even   
   want that?   
      
   If you just want access to a property, call it by its name (better said,   
   the name of its accessor (=function or property get)).   
      
   If you really want to loop through them in your code, consider the   
   following lines of thought.   
      
   If your object has looping in its nature (like a collection class, for   
   example), treat it like a collection and provide some "Item" accessor   
   that takes both names and numbers. If you make it the default method,   
   you can use the bang operator instead of the quoted notation   
   (Forms.Controls!cmdButton instead of Forms.Controls("cmdButton") ).   
      
   If your object has looping in its nature, why not ask the object ITSELF   
   do do the looping? You then create some sort of equivalent to a control   
   array, where events just pass the number of the specific control that   
   really generated the event. So, suppose your collection needs to save   
   all its members to a file, you just can can create a SaveAllMembersTo   
   method that takes a file or a stream object as a parameter.   
      
   Now if you are trying to do something like XML serialization in .NET,   
   where code is generated for each public (!) variable in a class for   
   webclasses, you will need reflection.   
   Reflection is a set of methods to query the interface of an object. So   
   you can ask questions like "does this object also implements this   
   interface?" or "Does this object have this method?" or "What is the base   
   class name of this object?"   
   If you want my advice: DON'T! All these questions arise from   
   object-oriented design errors and can be better (clearer and better to   
   maintain) solved by applying the right design. If you really want to use   
   reflection, beware that your classes might not be called directly   
   anymore and will therefore be optimised out of your compiled   
   application. You will have to change your project settings to avoid   
   this. There is a reflection package for Visual Basic, if you want. Just   
   google for it.   
      
   Better desing options are:   
   "does this object also implements this interface?"   
      Know what objects you have. If they come out of a collection class,   
   make sure the collection only accepts objects of a certain type. If some   
   subtypes must do things and others don't, an empty implementation of an   
   interface method is still better than using reflection.   
      
   "Does this object have this method?"   
      Make the object implement an interface and solve the class-specific   
   actions in its implementation.   
      
   "What is the base class name of this object?"   
      Strange question. Subclasses should always be able to be substituted   
   for their superclasses. If not, it is not really a subclass.   
      
   I hope I did not drown you in information.   
   Best regards.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)