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Tuples (Visual Basic)

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Starting with Visual Basic 2017, the Visual Basic language offers built-in support for tuples that makes creating tuples and accessing the elements of tuples easier. A tuple is a lightweight data structure that has a specific number and sequence of values. When you instantiate the tuple, you define the number and the data type of each value (or element). For example, a 2-tuple (or pair) has two elements. The first might be a Boolean value, while the second is a String. Because tuples make it easy to store multiple values in a single object, they are often used as a lightweight way to return multiple values from a method.

Important

Tuple support requires the ValueTuple type. If the .NET Framework 4.7 is not installed, you must add the NuGet package System.ValueTuple, which is available on the NuGet Gallery. Without this package, you may get a compilation error similar to, "Predefined type 'ValueTuple(Of,,,)' is not defined or imported."

Instantiating and using a tuple

You instantiate a tuple by enclosing its comma-delimited values in parentheses. Each of those values then becomes a field of the tuple. For example, the following code defines a triple (or 3-tuple) with a Date as its first value, a String as its second, and a Boolean as its third.

Dim holiday = (#07/04/2017#, "Independence Day", True)

By default, the name of each field in a tuple consists of the string Item along with the field's one-based position in the tuple. For this 3-tuple, the Date field is Item1, the String field is Item2, and the Boolean field is Item3. The following example displays the values of fields of the tuple instantiated in the previous line of code

Console.WriteLine($"{holiday.Item1} is {holiday.Item2}" +
                  $"{If(holiday.Item3, ", a national holiday", String.Empty)}")
' Output: 7/4/2017 12:00:00 AM Is Independence Day, a national holiday

The fields of a Visual Basic tuple are read-write; after you've instantiated a tuple, you can modify its values. The following example modifies two of the three fields of the tuple created in the previous example and displays the result.

holiday.Item1 = #01/01/2018#
holiday.Item2 = "New Year's Day"
Console.WriteLine($"{holiday.Item1} is {holiday.Item2}" +
                  $"{If(holiday.Item3, ", a national holiday", String.Empty)}")
' Output: 1/1/2018 12:00:00 AM Is New Year's Day, a national holiday

Instantiating and using a named tuple

Rather than using default names for a tuple's fields, you can instantiate a named tuple by assigning your own names to the tuple's elements. The tuple's fields can then be accessed by their assigned names or by their default names. The following example instantiates the same 3-tuple as previously, except that it explicitly names the first field EventDate, the second Name, and the third IsHoliday. It then displays the field values, modifies them, and displays the field values again.

Dim holiday = (EventDate:=#07/04/2017#, Name:="Independence Day", IsHoliday:=True)
Console.WriteLine($"{holiday.EventDate} Is {holiday.Name}" +
                  $"{If(holiday.IsHoliday, ", a national holiday", String.Empty)}")
holiday.Item1 = #01/01/2018#
holiday.Item2 = "New Year's Day"
Console.WriteLine($"{holiday.Item1} is {holiday.Item2}" +
                  $"{If(holiday.Item3, ", a national holiday", String.Empty)}")
' The example displays the following output:
'   7/4/2017 12:00:00 AM Is Independence Day, a national holiday
'   1/1/2018 12:00:00 AM Is New Year's Day, a national holiday

You can also specify the tuple names as part of the type declaration of a variable, field, or parameter:

Dim holiday As (EventDate As Date, Name As String, IsHoliday As Boolean) =
    (#07/04/2017#, "Independence Day", True)
Console.WriteLine(holiday.Name)
' Output: Independence Day

or in the return type of a method.

This is particularly useful when providing tuples to a collection initializer; the tuple names can be provided as part of the collection's type declaration:

Dim events As New List(Of (EventDate As Date, Name As String, IsHoliday As Boolean)) From {
    (#07/04/2017#, "Independence Day", True),
    (#04/22/2017#, "Earth Day", False)
}
Console.WriteLine(events(1).IsHoliday)
' Output: False

Inferred tuple element names

Starting with Visual Basic 15.3, Visual Basic can infer the names of tuple elements; you do not have to assign them explicitly. Inferred tuple names are useful when you initialize a tuple from a set of variables, and you want the tuple element name to be the same as the variable name.

The following example creates a stateInfo tuple that contains three explicitly named elements, state, stateName, and capital. Note that, in naming the elements, the tuple initialization statement simply assigns the named elements the values of the identically named variables.

Const state As String = "MI"
Const stateName As String = "Michigan"
Const capital As String = "Lansing"
Dim stateInfo = (state:=state, stateName:=stateName, capital:=capital)
Console.WriteLine($"{stateInfo.stateName}: 2-letter code: {stateInfo.state}, Capital {stateInfo.capital}")
' The example displays the following output:
'      Michigan: 2-letter code: MI, Capital Lansing

Because elements and variables have the same name, the Visual Basic compiler can infer the names of the fields, as the following example shows.

Const state As String = "MI"
Const stateName As String = "Michigan"
Const capital As String = "Lansing"
Dim stateInfo = (state, stateName, capital)
Console.WriteLine($"{stateInfo.stateName}: 2-letter code: {stateInfo.State}, Capital {stateInfo.capital}")
' The example displays the following output:
'      Michigan: 2-letter code: MI, Capital Lansing

To enable inferred tuple element names, you must define the version of the Visual Basic compiler to use in your Visual Basic project (*.vbproj) file:

<PropertyGroup>
  <LangVersion>15.3</LangVersion>
</PropertyGroup>

The version number can be any version of the Visual Basic compiler starting with 15.3. Rather than hard-coding a specific compiler version, you can also specify "Latest" as the value of LangVersion to compile with the most recent version of the Visual Basic compiler installed on your system.

For more information, see setting the Visual Basic language version.

In some cases, the Visual Basic compiler cannot infer the tuple element name from the candidate name, and the tuple field can only be referenced using its default name, such as Item1, Item2, etc. These include:

  • The candidate name is the same as the name of a tuple member, such as Item3, Rest, or ToString.

  • The candidate name is duplicated in the tuple.

When field name inference fails, Visual Basic does not generate a compiler error, nor is an exception thrown at run time. Instead, tuple fields must be referenced by their predefined names, such as Item1 and Item2.

Tuples versus structures

A Visual Basic tuple is a value type that is an instance of one of the System.ValueTuple generic types. For example, the holiday tuple defined in the previous example is an instance of the ValueTuple<T1,T2,T3> structure. It is designed to be a lightweight container for data. Since the tuple aims to make it easy to create an object with multiple data items, it lacks some of the features that a custom structure might have. These include:

  • Custom members. You cannot define your own properties, methods, or events for a tuple.

  • Validation. You cannot validate the data assigned to fields.

  • Immutability. Visual Basic tuples are mutable. In contrast, a custom structure allows you to control whether an instance is mutable or immutable.

If custom members, property and field validation, or immutability are important, you should use the Visual Basic Structure statement to define a custom value type.

A Visual Basic tuple does inherit the members of its ValueTuple type. In addition to its fields, these include the following methods:

Method Description
CompareTo Compares the current tuple to another tuple with the same number of elements.
Equals Determines whether the current tuple is equal to another tuple or object.
GetHashCode Calculates the hash code for the current instance.
ToString Returns the string representation of this tuple, which takes the form (Item1, Item2...), where Item1 and Item2 represent the values of the tuple's fields.

In addition, the ValueTuple types implement IStructuralComparable and IStructuralEquatable interfaces, which allow you to define custom comparers.

Assignment and tuples

Visual Basic supports assignment between tuple types that have the same number of fields. The field types can be converted if one of the following is true:

  • The source and target field are of the same type.

  • A widening (or implicit) conversion of the source type to the target type is defined.

  • Option Strict is On, and a narrowing (or explicit) conversion of the source type to the target type is defined. This conversion can throw an exception if the source value is outside the range of the target type.

Other conversions are not considered for assignments. Let's look at the kinds of assignments that are allowed between tuple types.

Consider these variables used in the following examples:

' The number and field types of all these tuples are compatible. 
' The only difference Is the field names being used.
Dim unnamed = (42, "The meaning of life")
Dim anonymous = (16, "a perfect square")
Dim named = (Answer:=42, Message:="The meaning of life")
Dim differentNamed = (SecretConstant:=42, Label:="The meaning of life")

The first two variables, unnamed and anonymous, do not have semantic names provided for the fields. Their field names are the default Item1 and Item2. The last two variables, named and differentName have semantic field names. Note that these two tuples have different names for the fields.

All four of these tuples have the same number of fields (referred to as 'arity'), and the types of those fields are identical. Therefore, all of these assignments work:

' Assign named to unnamed.
named = unnamed

' Despite the assignment, named still has fields that can be referred to as 'answer' and 'message'.
Console.WriteLine($"{named.Answer}, {named.Message}")
' Output:  42, The meaning of life

' Assign unnamed to anonymous.
anonymous = unnamed
' Because of the assignment, the value of the elements of anonymous changed.
Console.WriteLine($"{anonymous.Item1}, {anonymous.Item2}")
' Output:   42, The meaning of life

' Assign one named tuple to the other.
named = differentNamed
' The field names are Not assigned. 'named' still has 'answer' and 'message' fields.
Console.WriteLine($"{named.Answer}, {named.Message}")
' Output:   42, The meaning of life

Notice that the names of the tuples are not assigned. The values of the fields are assigned following the order of the fields in the tuple.

Finally, notice that we can assign the named tuple to the conversion tuple, even though the first field of named is an Integer, and the first field of conversion is a Long. This assignment succeeds because converting an Integer to a Long is a widening conversion.

' Assign an (Integer, String) tuple to a (Long, String) tuple (using implicit conversion).
Dim conversion As (Long, String) = named
Console.WriteLine($"{conversion.Item1} ({conversion.Item1.GetType().Name}), " +
                  $"{conversion.Item2} ({conversion.Item2.GetType().Name})")
' Output:      42 (Int64), The meaning of life (String)

Tuples with different numbers of fields are not assignable:

' Does not compile.
' VB30311: Value of type '(Integer, Integer, Integer)' cannot be converted
'          to '(Answer As Integer, Message As String)'
var differentShape = (1, 2, 3)
named = differentShape

Tuples as method return values

A method can return only a single value. Frequently, though, you'd like a method call to return multiple values. There are several ways to work around this limitation:

  • You can create a custom class or structure whose properties or fields represent values returned by the method. This is a heavyweight solution; it requires that you define a custom type whose only purpose is to retrieve values from a method call.

  • You can return a single value from the method, and return the remaining values by passing them by reference to the method. This involves the overhead of instantiating a variable and risks inadvertently overwriting the value of the variable that you pass by reference.

  • You can use a tuple, which provides a lightweight solution to retrieving multiple return values.

For example, the TryParse methods in .NET return a Boolean value that indicates whether the parsing operation succeeded. The result of the parsing operation is returned in a variable passed by reference to the method. Normally, a call to a parsing method such as Integer.TryParse looks like the following:

Dim numericString As String = "123456"
Dim number As Integer
Dim result = Integer.TryParse(numericString, number)
Console.WriteLine($"{If(result, $"Success: {number:N0}", "Failure")}")
'      Output: Success: 123,456

We can return a tuple from the parsing operation if we wrap the call to the Integer.TryParse method in our own method. In the following example, NumericLibrary.ParseInteger calls the Integer.TryParse method and returns a named tuple with two elements.

Imports System.Globalization

Public Module NumericLibrary
    Public Function ParseInteger(value As String) As (Success As Boolean, Number As Integer)
        Dim number As Integer
        Return (Integer.TryParse(value, NumberStyles.Any, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, number), number)
    End Function
End Module

You can then call the method with code like the following:

Dim numericString As String = "123,456"
Dim result = ParseInteger(numericString)
Console.WriteLine($"{If(result.Success, $"Success: {result.Number:N0}", "Failure")}")
Console.ReadLine()
'      Output: Success: 123,456

Visual Basic tuples and tuples in the .NET Framework

A Visual Basic tuple is an instance of one of the System.ValueTuple generic types, which were introduced in .NET Framework 4.7. The .NET Framework also includes a set of generic System.Tuple classes. These classes, however, differ from Visual Basic tuples and the System.ValueTuple generic types in a number of ways:

  • The elements of the Tuple classes are properties named Item1, Item2, and so on. In Visual Basic tuples and the ValueTuple types, tuple elements are fields.

  • You cannot assign meaningful names to the elements of a Tuple instance or of a ValueTuple instance. Visual Basic allows you to assign names that communicate the meaning of the fields.

  • The properties of a Tuple instance are read-only; the tuples are immutable. In Visual Basic tuples and the ValueTuple types, tuple fields are read-write; the tuples are mutable.

  • The generic Tuple types are reference types. Using these Tuple types means allocating objects. On hot paths, this can have a measurable impact on your application's performance. Visual Basic tuples and the ValueTuple types are value types.

Extension methods in the TupleExtensions class make it easy to convert between Visual Basic tuples and .NET Tuple objects. The ToTuple method converts a Visual Basic tuple to a .NET Tuple object, and the ToValueTuple method converts a .NET Tuple object to a Visual Basic tuple.

The following example creates a tuple, converts it to a .NET Tuple object, and converts it back to a Visual Basic tuple. The example then compares this tuple with the original one to ensure that they are equal.

Dim cityInfo = (name:="New York", area:=468.5, population:=8_550_405)
Console.WriteLine($"{cityInfo}, type {cityInfo.GetType().Name}")

' Convert the Visual Basic tuple to a .NET tuple.
Dim cityInfoT = TupleExtensions.ToTuple(cityInfo)
Console.WriteLine($"{cityInfoT}, type {cityInfoT.GetType().Name}")

' Convert the .NET tuple back to a Visual Basic tuple and ensure they are the same.
Dim cityInfo2 = TupleExtensions.ToValueTuple(cityInfoT)
Console.WriteLine($"{cityInfo2}, type {cityInfo2.GetType().Name}")
Console.WriteLine($"{NameOf(cityInfo)} = {NameOf(cityInfo2)}: {cityInfo.Equals(cityInfo2)}")

' The example displays the following output:
'       (New York, 468.5, 8550405), type ValueTuple`3
'       (New York, 468.5, 8550405), type Tuple`3
'       (New York, 468.5, 8550405), type ValueTuple`3
'       cityInfo = cityInfo2 :  True

See also