Question

I want to create a try catch so that if the feed does not exist or cannot be created for some reason, it will return false or null so that I can then test the variable and create a default item.

Function GetFeed(url As String) As SyndicationFeed

    Dim feed = New SyndicationFeed

    Try
        Dim reader = XmlReader.Create(url)
        feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader)
    Catch ex As Exception
        feed = Nothing
    End Try

    Return feed

End Function

It says I can’t set type “SyndicationFeed” to boolean.

The error is with this code:

    Dim feedUrl = "http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/entertainment"
    Dim feed As SyndicationFeed = GetFeed(feedUrl)

    If feed = Nothing Then

    End If

It says, “operator ‘=’ is not defined for type SyndicationFeed.”

Answer 1

In VB.Net you need to use the is operator to compare objects

So change your condition to:

If feed Is Nothing Then

End If