On Feb 22, 2005, at 5:51 PM, Eirik Karlsen wrote:
Did a quick websearch for 'constructor', found little useful info.
So what kinda animal is a "constructor" and what does it do?
A "constructor" is a method (subroutine) that runs for an object when
it is being created, without any of your code having to call it.
If you create a new Class, you can create a subroutine named
Constructor for it.
This subroutine will be invoked when a new object of that class is
created.
For instance, if you have a class named Class1 with a Constructor
method, then when this code is executed:
dim obj as new Class1
The Constructor for that class will run. If Class1 has properties that
need to be initialized for each new object, then the code to do such
initialization is best put in the Constructor. That way, the
initialization happens automatically, and you don't have to remember to
do something like the following everywhere that you instantiate a new
object of Class1.
dim obj as new Class1
obj.initialize
You can define a Constructor for controls in windows (if you sub class
the control class). But I'd stay away from this, as the timing of the
various code points is subtle. For controls, I recommend that you
stick to the Open event handler.
On the other hand, a Constructor can be quite useful in many other
classes. Say, for instance, you've got a linked list. When you create
an object that belongs linked to the list, the object can be hooked in
by the Constructor method.
HTH,
Stuart
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