How to get equivalent of VB(.NET) Module? [RESOLVED]

[Crunch]

I can understand that you add a new Class to your project... declare methods and variables inside the new Class... but how do you refer to methods and variables in the helper class from a different one (say a form)? I have been having trouble figuring out exactly the syntaxes involved, normally I would look this up in the help but I can't figure out exactly how to phrase the search and I haven't had much luck. Been flipping through my various C# books too but haven't hit the answer yet. How do you do this?

[toto]

In vb.net you use a reference to the class to get the variable value.

I do c# so I'm not too familiar with the vb.net syntax or I'd show you...but it's something like this:

GlobalClass gc = new GlobalClass()
MessageBox.Show(gc.MyString)

[Crunch]

Oh I think I understand what was giving me problems. I was getting stuck on WHERE to put the instantion of the helper object - when I do it in the main form's constructor or in Form.Load, the object wasn't accessible, but I think I get it now: it goes in the declaration area just after

public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form

... doesn't it? That appears to work.

Thanks!

[Crunch]

Yeah that works for the first form - the trick now is to figure out how to get subsequent forms to be able to see the instance of the helper class. Do you pass each subsequent form a reference to the object gc (in your example)? How do you do this, have the constructor parameters for subsequent forms expect a reference to an object?

[Crunch]

Oh hey I think I got it. In the top of the class declaration for Form2, you put:

public GlobalClass gc;


And in the code to instantiate and show Form2, you put:

Form2.gc = this.gc;

This appears to work exactly the way I want it to. Thanks for getting me on the right track!

[Crunch]

Even better, declare the variables and methods in the helper class as static and the object does not have to be instantiated, but member variable state persists. THAT'S what I was trying to do! props to Edneeis for helping me get my head around this.

[Lethal]

In VB.NET, modules are nothing more than classes with a private constructor (disallowing object instantiation), exposing static members when you look under that hood at the IL.

[Crunch]

Yeah I think I get it now. I didn't realize what was going on even though I've been using a Module in my "big" app for app-wide stuff for well over a year