Coding Assistance in Visual Basic .NET

All ReSharper's coding assistance features available in C# are also supported in Visual Basic.NET. You can find the detailed information on these features in the corresponding topics of the Coding Assistance section.

In this topic, you can find some examples of using coding assistance features in Visual Basic.NET:

• Syntax highlighting
• Code completion
• Examples of Context Actions
• Rearrange code

Syntax highlighting

You can establish a custom font and color scheme, for more information, see Configuring Fonts and Colors.

Default syntax highlighting:

Code completion

Code Completion features help you write code faster by providing a set of items to complete based on surrounding context. For more information, see Code Completion (IntelliSense).

Three Code Completion features are available in Visual Basic:

• Basic Completion

  ReSharper suggests namespaces, types, methods, fields, properties, etc.

  

  Enum members are also included into basic completion list.

  

  If you use anonymous types, ReSharper takes their properties into account and displays them in completion list along with other available items.

  

• Smart Completion

  ReSharper filters items in code completion list according to the type expected in current context. Look at the example below, only those items that have string type are displayed in the drop-down list.

  

• Import Symbol Completion

  ReSharper provides completion items for types and extension methods that are not visible through import directives in current context.

  

Examples of Context Actions

ReSharper provides a set of context actions that target Visual Basic.NET code. You can find the full list of these actions in the Code Editing | Visual Basic.NET | Context actions page of ReSharper options. If necessary, you can also disable some of the actions using this page.

As soon as a context action becomes available for the current caret position, ReSharper displays the corresponding action indicator to the left of the caret. Sometimes, however, ReSharper provides several contextually available features for the current caret position. In this case, the action indicator corresponding to the action with the highest priority is shown, and all other actions only appear when you expand the action list by clicking on the action indicator or pressing Alt+Enter Context actions have the lowest priority, therefore, they often appear in the bottom of the action list:

Here are some examples of context actions for Visual Basic.NET:

Add new format item
If you need to add some dynamic data to a string literal, use this context action.

Change member visibility
If you need to adjust member visibility, ReSharper provides a context action that allows doing this quickly.

Convert Function to Sub
In case you want to convert a Visual Basic.NET Function to a Sub, there's the corresponding context action as well.

Convert to property with backing field
You can easily transform an automatic property to a property with backing field. Place the caret at the name of an automatic property and press Alt+Enter. ReSharper suggests you the appropriate context action.

Create overload without parameter
For each parameter of a function there's a context action that will create a function without that parameter which calls the original function.

Implement member
After you add a new member to a base class, the next logical step is to implement this member in all classes derived from the base class. You can write code manually, but a better decision is to apply the appropriate context action.

Rearrange code

Rearranging Code Elements is available in Visual Basic as well. For example, you can move a member declaration up or down within a type.