Sub Referencing Itself

[Roger Garstang]

Other languages might call it something like Self or This...although rare in a BASIC language in the area I'm wondering since it is the Return value, but is something like this possible (Lame example, but gets the point across):

Sub CustomButton(btnText As String) As Button
   CustomButton.Initialize("btnClick")
   CustomButton.Text = btnText
   CustomButton.Typeface = Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD
   CustomButton.Gravity = Gravity.CENTER
End Sub

The sub returns a button, so I'm just curious if it is an object yet or is it always required to dim a button in the function and then return it. Typing the code above makes it look like it is possible since the list comes up when I type "CustomButton.", but on compile it reports missing () like it is only a sub.

 

[wl]

Guess this is impossible because you are using a sub as an object ... I think you need to dim a new button, sets its properties etc and return it.

 

[Roger Garstang]

Yeah that is what I figured. It would be cool and more object oriented if it worked. Main thing odd was that the IDE makes it appear to be valid.

 

[Jost aus Soest]

You must write it in this way:

Sub CustomButton(btnText As String, EventName As String) As Button
  Dim b As Button
  b.Initialize(EventName)
  b.Text = btnText
  b.CustomButton.Typeface = Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD
  b.CustomButton.Gravity = Gravity.CENTER
  Return b
End Sub

 

[Roger Garstang]

Yeah, I know how it normally is done. I was just curious if it could be done another way since the IDE was making it look like it could. The way I wrote it out is actually like how my other main language PowerBASIC allows.

 

[Erel]

What happens is that the code editor ignores the missing parenthesis and shows the list based on the return value.

This code for example is correct (outside the sub):

CustomButton("aaa", "bbb").Text = "ccc"