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Property Get statement

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Declares the name, arguments, and code that form the body of a Property procedure, which gets the value of a property.

Syntax

[ Public | Private | Friend ] [ Static ] Property Get name [ (arglist) ] [ As type ]
[ statements ]
[ name = expression ]
[ Exit Property ]
[ statements ]
[ name = expression ]
End Property

The Property Get statement syntax has these parts:

Part Description
Public Optional. Indicates that the Property Get procedure is accessible to all other procedures in all modules. If used in a module that contains an Option Private statement, the procedure is not available outside the project.
Private Optional. Indicates that the Property Get procedure is accessible only to other procedures in the module where it is declared.
Friend Optional. Used only in a class module. Indicates that the Property Get procedure is visible throughout the project, but not visible to a controller of an instance of an object.
Static Optional. Indicates that the Property Get procedure's local variables are preserved between calls. The Static attribute doesn't affect variables that are declared outside the Property Get procedure, even if they are used in the procedure.
name Required. Name of the Property Get procedure; follows standard variable naming conventions, except that the name can be the same as a Property Let or Property Set procedure in the same module.
arglist Optional. List of variables representing arguments that are passed to the Property Get procedure when it is called. Multiple arguments are separated by commas. The name and data type of each argument in a Property Get procedure must be the same as the corresponding argument in a Property Let procedure (if one exists).
type Optional. Data type of the value returned by the Property Get procedure; may be Byte, Boolean, Integer, Long, Currency, Single, Double, Decimal (not currently supported), Date, String (except fixed length), Object, Variant, user-defined type, and Arrays.

The return type of a Property Get procedure must be the same data type as the last (or sometimes the only) argument in a corresponding Property Let procedure (if one exists) that defines the value assigned to the property on the right side of an expression.
statements Optional. Any group of statements to be executed within the body of the Property Get procedure.
expression Optional. Value of the property returned by the procedure defined by the Property Get statement.

The arglist argument has the following syntax and parts:

[ Optional ] [ ByVal | ByRef ] [ ParamArray ] varname [ ( ) ] [ As type ] [ = defaultvalue ]

Part Description
Optional Optional. Indicates that an argument is not required. If used, all subsequent arguments in arglist must also be optional and declared by using the Optional keyword.
ByVal Optional. Indicates that the argument is passed by value.
ByRef Optional. Indicates that the argument is passed by reference. ByRef is the default in Visual Basic.
ParamArray Optional. Used only as the last argument in arglist to indicate that the final argument is an Optional array of Variant elements. The ParamArray keyword allows you to provide an arbitrary number of arguments. It may not be used with ByVal, ByRef, or Optional.
varname Required. Name of the variable representing the argument; follows standard variable naming conventions.
type Optional. Data type of the argument passed to the procedure; may be Byte, Boolean, Integer, Long, Currency, Single, Double, Decimal (not currently supported), Date, String (variable length only), Object, Variant, or a specific object type. If the parameter is not Optional, a user-defined type may also be specified.
defaultvalue Optional. Any constant or constant expression. Valid for Optional parameters only. If the type is an Object, an explicit default value can only be Nothing.

Remarks

If not explicitly specified by using Public, Private, or Friend, Property procedures are public by default. If Static is not used, the value of local variables is not preserved between calls.

The Friend keyword can only be used in class modules. However, Friend procedures can be accessed by procedures in any module of a project. A Friend procedure doesn't appear in the type library of its parent class, nor can a Friend procedure be late bound.

All executable code must be in procedures. You can't define a Property Get procedure inside another Property, Sub, or Function procedure.

The Exit Property statement causes an immediate exit from a Property Get procedure. Program execution continues with the statement following the statement that called the Property Get procedure. Any number of Exit Property statements can appear anywhere in a Property Get procedure.

Like a Sub and Property Let procedure, a Property Get procedure is a separate procedure that can take arguments, perform a series of statements, and change the values of its arguments. However, unlike a Sub or Property Let procedure, you can use a Property Get procedure on the right side of an expression in the same way that you use a Function or a property name when you want to return the value of a property.

Example

This example uses the Property Get statement to define a property procedure that gets the value of a property. The property identifies the current color of a pen as a string.

Dim CurrentColor As Integer 
Const BLACK = 0, RED = 1, GREEN = 2, BLUE = 3 
 
' Returns the current color of the pen as a string. 
Property Get PenColor() As String 
 Select Case CurrentColor 
 Case RED 
 PenColor = "Red" 
 Case GREEN 
 PenColor = "Green" 
 Case BLUE 
 PenColor = "Blue" 
 End Select 
End Property 
 
' The following code gets the color of the pen 
' calling the Property Get procedure. 
ColorName = PenColor

See also

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