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GetType Operator (Visual Basic)

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Returns a Type object for the specified type. The Type object provides information about the type such as its properties, methods, and events.

Syntax

GetType(typename)

Parameters

Parameter Description
typename The name of the type for which you desire information.

Remarks

The GetType operator returns the Type object for the specified typename. You can pass the name of any defined type in typename. This includes the following:

  • Any Visual Basic data type, such as Boolean or Date.

  • Any .NET Framework class, structure, module, or interface, such as System.ArgumentException or System.Double.

  • Any class, structure, module, or interface defined by your application.

  • Any array defined by your application.

  • Any delegate defined by your application.

  • Any enumeration defined by Visual Basic, the .NET Framework, or your application.

If you want to get the type object of an object variable, use the Object.GetType method.

The GetType operator can be useful in the following circumstance:

  • You must access the metadata for a type at run time. The Type object supplies metadata such as type members and deployment information. You need this, for example, to reflect over an assembly. For more information, see also System.Reflection.

Example

The following examples show the GetType operator in use.

' The following statement returns the Type object for Integer.
MsgBox(GetType(Integer).ToString())
' The following statement returns the Type object for one-dimensional string arrays.
MsgBox(GetType(String()).ToString())

See also