Question

Hey all I’ve been trying to find some resources on how to go about doing this but am unable to find anything since, really, i do not know really what it would be called in the first place.

The code in question is this:

Dim updateCmd As New SqlCommand(sql, myCONN)

There are a few places that i need to use that over that’s inside an IF THEN structure.

However, when i dim it outside the IF THEN structure then it tells me (inside the IF THEN) that its not declared.

So the full example is this:

If alreadyCreatedSettingsTable = False Then
   Dim updateCmd As New SqlCommand(sql, myCONN)

   updateCmd.Parameters.Add("@urlLink", SqlDbType.VarChar)
End If

rssItems = rssDoc.SelectNodes("rss/channel/item")

For i = 0 To rssItems.Count - 1
   rssDetail = rssItems.Item(i).SelectSingleNode("link")

   If rssDetail.Equals(Nothing) = False Then
      rssLink = rssDetail.InnerText.Trim
      updateCmd.Parameters("@urlLink").Value = rssLink
   End If
etc....

The If alreadyCreatedSettingsTable = False Then dim works just fine for the updateCmd.Parameters.Add but when its inside the For i = 0 To rssItems.Count – 1 that is where it tells me its not decalired.

How can i use that anywhere no matter what and reDim it?

I’ve tried

Dim updateCmd

But i then do not know how to set As New SqlCommand(sql, myCONN) since its already been Dim’ed already?

Answer 1

Dim declares a variable. As New is just syntactic sugar; the scope of the variable is inside that If block. Declare it outside and initialize it inside:

Dim updateCmd As SqlCommand

If alreadyCreatedSettingsTable = False Then
   sql = "UPDATE jotSettings " & _
                        "etc etc...."

   updateCmd = New SqlCommand(sql, myCONN)

   updateCmd.Parameters.Add("@urlLink", SqlDbType.VarChar)
End If

rssItems = rssDoc.SelectNodes("rss/channel/item")

For i = 0 To rssItems.Count - 1
   rssDetail = rssItems.Item(i).SelectSingleNode("link")

   If rssDetail.Equals(Nothing) = False Then
      rssLink = rssDetail.InnerText.Trim
      updateCmd.Parameters("@urlLink").Value = rssLink
   End If

Also, please never write = False; use Not instead. Or, in the case of rssDetail.Equals(Nothing) = False, you almost certainly want rssDetail IsNot Nothing instead.

Finally, as written, this is pointless. If alreadyCreatedSettingsTable is True, you’ll get a NullReferenceException when you use updateCmd.Parameters("@urlLink"). It seems to me that it’s something that should be declared outside of a loop, or at class level – though that’s just a guess.

P.S. Why are you overwriting updateCmd.Parameters("@urlLink") every time? That’s wasteful.