Initializing an object ByRef

Question

I don't have much experience with VB.NET and although I've searched, I can't find an answer to the following:

Say I have a Dim myVar As MyClass, and then a function in which I intend to initialize it such as Public Sub MyInit(ByRef myVar As MyClass). Attempting to call this method is giving me a null reference error in the compiler, stating that I should initialize the variable first (but I intend to put that functionality in my method!).

Any thoughts in how I could achieve what I'm attempting here?

PS: I reckon it'd make more sense to create an Initialize() method in MyClass, or to make a Public Function MyClassInitialize() As MyClass, but in my particular scenario this is not possible.

Answer 1

If you're just worried about the Variable 'myVar' is passed by reference before it has been assigned a value warning, you can just change the declaration to Dim myVar as MyClass = Nothing.

If you're writing the MyInit sub, you could also turn it into a function that returns an instance of MyClass:

Public Function MyInit() As MyClass
    Dim myLocalVar As New MyClass()
    '... initialization here
    Return myLocalVar
End Function

...

Dim myVar As MyClass = MyInit()