Declared Element Characteristics (Visual Basic)

A characteristic of a declared element is an aspect of that element that affects how code can interact with it. Every declared element has one or more of the following characteristics associated with it:

• Data type — the values the element can hold, and how it stores those values. For more information, see Data Types.

• Lifetime — the period of execution time during which the element is available for use. For more information, see Lifetime in Visual Basic.

• Scope — the set of all code that can refer to the element without qualifying its name. For more information, see How to: Control the Scope of a Variable.

• Access level — the permission for code to make use of the element. For more information, see How to: Control the Availability of a Variable.

Characteristics of the Elements

The following table shows the declared elements and the characteristics that apply to each one.

Element	Data Type	Lifetime	Scope 1	Access Level
Variable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Enumeration	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Structure	No	No	Yes	Yes
Property	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Method	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Procedure (Sub or Function)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Procedure parameter	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Function return	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Operator	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Interface	No	No	Yes	Yes
Class	No	No	Yes	Yes
Event	No	No	Yes	Yes
Delegate	No	No	Yes	Yes

¹ Scope is sometimes referred to as visibility.

See also

• Declared Elements
• Declared Element Names
• References to Declared Elements
• Lifetime in Visual Basic
• Scope in Visual Basic
• Access levels in Visual Basic
• Data Types
• Variable Declaration