Question

I’m converting an application from VB6 to VB.NET, and am required to declare and initialise some controls in code (control arrays). I have it declared globally, so other forms can access the data stored within them, and then I try to manipulate them inside the Form_Load() sub:

Public lblDataZone() As Label

Private Sub Form_Load() Handles Me.Load

    lblDataZone(0) = New Label

    With lblDataZone(0)
            .Height = 13
            .Text = "Zone (l/min)"
            .Left = 6
            .Top = 42
    End With

The error I get says “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”. I feel like I’m missing something huge here, but what’s wrong with it?

Thanks

Answer 1

First of all you have to instantiate the array of Label. You can use ReDim() or New keyword:

 Private Sub Form_Load() Handles Me.Load
    ReDim lblDataZone(0)   'Or lblDataZone = New Label(0) {}
    lblDataZone(0) = New Label
    With lblDataZone(0)
            .Height = 13
            .Text = "Zone (l/min)"
            .Left = 6
            .Top = 42
    End With
    ....