Help.net

Ok, so here's the deal: you help me, i'll be in your debt for the next 30 years! or i can just say 'thanks'.

I have two structure: board (grid(5,5) as short) and shape(grid(5,5) as short; name as string; h,w as short)
I also have an array of shapes named Shapes(28) as shape.
i have a function that integrates the shape into the board, and i have a sub that loops through Shapes(i) and intgreates them into a certain user-determined board.
BUT, i keep getting the following message:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred in ShapeShifterSolution.exe

Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

SO... Can anyone tell me HOW to set the object refrence to an instance of an object? :)

Thank you for reading this.

That error means you created a reference for an object, but never told the compiler what object that reference points to.

If you did this:

VB Code:

Dim X As DataSet
Debug.WriteLine (x.Tables.Count)

You would get that error. You declared X as a reference to a dataset, but haven't either initialized one(using New), or set X to an existing dataset.

VB Code:

Dim X as [b] New [/b] DataSet
Debug.WriteLine (x.Tables.Count)

So, my guess: You are missing a New operator somewhere(perhaps Shapes?), or you are setting a reference to something that wasn't created (perhaps it had no data in it)

Wow. thanks. I went and replaced all the related variables with "new"... however... i currently use this definition of shapes:
Public Shapes() as shape

and later i ReDim it and initialize the shapes in it, problem is: "Can't use new on arrays"
and my question is: What can i do? Is by any chance your example of "datasets"(never heard of them) is the answer?

Thank you very very much!