Confused about property

ESTAN

Hi, I don't know if it is a good practice what I am doing here. I have a class that is making the connections to the database. The connection string I save in the web.config. And this is the property that I used inside that class to get the connectionstring. Does it make sense?

''' ''' This variable holds the db connection string.
''' The value of the db connection string is saved in the web.config.
''' 
Private Shared sConString As String = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString

Private Shared ReadOnly Property ConString() As String
	Get
		Return sConString
	End Get
End Property

Colin Angus Mackay

Making the property private is pointless as the only thing that access to the property also has access to the original string. Other than that, looks okay.

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ESTAN

So, it is better that I use only Private Shared sConString As String = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString Isn't that so that every time I ask for sConString, he will lookup the connection string in the web.config? Or I can do the following ? Private Shared sConString As String = "" Public Sub New() sConString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString End Sub

Colin Angus Mackay

ESTAN wrote:

Isn't that so that every time I ask for sConString, he will lookup the connection string in the web.config?

No. It won't. Think about what you are actually doing. You have a shared field on the class. It has no functionality, it is just a reference to an area of memory that stored the connection string.

ESTAN wrote:

Or I can do the following ? Private Shared sConString As String = "" Public Sub New() sConString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString End Sub

You can, but I don't see the point.

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Jon_Boy

They both accomplish the same thing. If you have multiple constructors, then you have to reduplicate the "sConString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString" line for each constructor. I prefer 'Private Shared sConString As String = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString' because I am lazy. Cheers!

Any suggestions, ideas, or 'constructive criticism' are always welcome. "There's no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people." - Mr. Garrison

ESTAN

Thanks, than I will keep only the 'reference' to this object. Private Shared sConString As String = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings.Item("ConnectionString").ConnectionString