What does “$” mean before a number in Delphi?

Question

I\'m trying to convert Delphi code to vb.net and I\'m not sure about this line:

stream.Seek($42, soFromBeginning);

I\'m familiar with using

Answer 1

The code required for VB.net is almost identical:

stream.Seek(&H42, SeekOrigin.Begin)

The points of note here are:

• $ in Delphi is the prefix for hexadecimal.
• The soFromBeginning corresponds to SeekOrigin.Begin.

Answer 2

$ is the prefix for a hexadecimal constant. In VB.NET, that's &H, so you would write &H42.

Answer 3

The $42 value is the offset from the beginning of the stream.

In VB.NET that would be :

reader.BaseStream.Seek(66, IO.SeekOrigin.Begin)