Question

Currently, if I have different classes containing functions etc, I would structure them all in the 1 VB file titled whatever the main Class is. For example:

MainClass.vb:

Class MainClass

     Function FunctionA() as String
        ...
     End Function

     Class SubClass

          Function SubFunction() as String
              ....
          End Function

          Class SubSubClass

               ......

          End Class

      End Class

End Class

However, the problem with this is the file can become 1000s of lines long making hard to find portions of code.

Is there a way I can store SubClass in a file such as MainClass.SubClass.vb so that its easier to locate classes? Or is there a better, more standard, way of doing this?

Answer 1

At least C# understands “partial classes” where you can spread the code over multiple files (within the same assembly)

EDIT
I expected VB to have partial classes also (I only work in C# myself), but as noted in the comments, it does have them.

In C# I could code something like this:

File MainClass.cs:

public partial class MainClass  // note the "partial" keyword
{
   // some method declarations etc.
}

File MainClass.SubClass.cs:

public partial class MainClass // have to repeat this to hook up correctly
 // but an "Implements" or "Extends" could be different
{
   // maybe some other methods

   private class SubClass
   {
      // etc.
   }
}

But the real question is: do those subclasses really need to be inner classes of that “MainClass”, or could they be top-level classes themselves?