late binding?

[nemaroller]

I don't know of any particular difference. But what you are referring to is not late-binding as most people express it.

I think what you were concerned about is perhaps an unnecessary boxing operation, or maybe even an implicit conversion that Option Strict wouldn't allow.

However, Objects are just reference containers to other declared types, so you can do something as bizzare as this:

Dim x As New Object
        Dim y As Integer = 5
        x = y
        MessageBox.Show(x.ToString)
 
 
        Dim z As New ArrayList
        x = z
        MessageBox.Show(x.ToString)