VB.NET Empty String Array

Question

How can I create an empty one-dimensional string array?

Answer 1

try this Dim Arraystr() as String ={}

Answer 2

Dim array As String() = Array.Empty(Of String)

Answer 3

VB is 0-indexed in array declarations, so seomthing like Dim myArray(10) as String gives you 11 elements. It's a common mistake when translating from C languages.

So, for an empty array, either of the following would work:

Dim str(-1) as String ' -1 + 1 = 0, so this has 0 elements
Dim str() as String = New String() { } ' implicit size, initialized to empty

Answer 4

Not sure why you'd want to, but the C# way would be

string[] newArray = new string[0];

I'm guessing that VB won't be too dissimilar to this.

If you're building an empty array so you can populate it with values later, you really should consider using

List<string>

and converting it to an array (if you really need it as an array) with

newListOfString.ToArray();

Answer 5

Dim strEmpty(-1) As String

Answer 6

Something like:

Dim myArray(9) as String

Would give you an array of 10 String references (each pointing to Nothing).

If you're not sure of the size at declaration time, you can declare a String array like this:

Dim myArray() as String

And then you can point it at a properly-sized array of Strings later:

ReDim myArray(9) as String

ZombieSheep is right about using a List if you don't know the total size and you need to dynamically populate it. In VB.NET that would be:

Dim myList as New List(Of String)
myList.Add("foo")
myList.Add("bar")

And then to get an array from that List:

myList.ToArray()

@Mark

Thanks for the correction.