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An Improved User Tip

The User Tip submitted by Nick Bulka in the January 1996 issueof VBPJ was interesting, but, as with so much code, improvable:

 Sub TextHiLite( t as TextBox )                t.SelStart = 0                t.SelLength = len(t)End Sub

My improvement is to pass the TextBox control as a parameter.When VB passes a control as a parameter, it passes the Referenceto it, not a copy of it. With the Reference available, you canchange the properties and so forth without the time and resourceoverhead of declaring and instantiating a new object. Besides,it could be appropriate to change some characteristic for a controlthat does not have the focus. By passing it as a parameter, theprogrammer is not restricted to the active control.

VB3 can be lax about cleaning up after its objects. Several VBPJarticles suggest doing clean-up. This little routine I putin all my

_Unload events really helps keep the resourcesin check:

                 If  Is _                        Nothing then                Else                                Set  = _                                        Nothing                End If

This modification is for database result-set (tables, dynasets,and so forth) objects. The code is more straightforward to createand to read with an empty ‘Then’ section and going right to Else:

                 ' It's time to close the object:                If  Is Nothing _                        Then                Else                                ..Close                                Set  = _                                        Nothing                End If

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