Program structure, modules and the Main method — VB.NET — Visual Basic .NET from Basics to Advanced (with C# Comparison)

1. Program structure, modules and the Main method

Basic★ Must knowLesson 1 of 12

Option Strict On          ' no implicit narrowing conversions or late binding — always turn on
Option Explicit On        ' every variable must be declared
Option Infer On           ' allow Dim x = 5 (type inferred)

Imports System.Text       ' = C# using

Namespace Divakar.Shop
    Module Program                       ' a Module = C# static class; members are Shared automatically
        Sub Main(args As String())
            Console.WriteLine("Hello, Divakar!")
            Dim name As String = If(args.Length > 0, args(0), "world")
            Console.WriteLine($"Welcome {name}")       ' string interpolation (VB 14)
        End Sub
    End Module
End Namespace

Statements end at the line break (no semicolons); use _ for explicit line continuation, though VB 10+ allows implicit continuation after operators, commas and opening brackets.
Comments start with ' (or REM).
Blocks end with End X (End If, End Sub, End Class).
Keywords and identifiers are case-insensitive (dim = Dim; the IDE fixes casing).

C#	VB.NET
`using System;`	`Imports System`
`static class Helpers`	`Module Helpers`
`static void Main(string[] args)`	`Sub Main(args As String())`
`// comment`	`' comment`
`Console.WriteLine("x");`	`Console.WriteLine("x")`