I don't understand where to put this sample code

Question

The following is sample code from MSDN, located here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.enum.aspx#

I don't understand how I'm supposed to run this code.  I'm continuously finding this to be the case, so I must be overlooking some instructions or some common knowledge somewhere.

If I create a VB console application and paste it in the default module I get an error about not having a Sub Main in the module.  I can add a Sub Main but then I don't know what to put in it.  I created a sub main and instantiated the class then ran it like <instance>.main, and in this case that seemed to work (although it immediately closed the window because I don't know how to pause a VB Console application), but still it seems that there must be some straightforward way of knowing where to paste sample code and how to run it.

Can someone give me some guidance?



Public Class EnumTest
    Enum Days
        Saturday
        Sunday
        Monday
        Tuesday
        Wednesday
        Thursday
        Friday
    End Enum

    Enum BoilingPoints
        Celsius = 100
        Fahrenheit = 212
    End Enum

    <FlagsAttribute()> _
    Enum Colors
        Red = 1
        Green = 2
        Blue = 4
        Yellow = 8
    End Enum

    Public Shared Sub Main()
        Dim weekdays As Type = GetType(Days)
        Dim boiling As Type = GetType(BoilingPoints)

        Console.WriteLine("The days of the week, and their corresponding values in the Days Enum are:")

        Dim s As String
        For Each s In  [Enum].GetNames(weekdays)
            Console.WriteLine("{0,-11} = {1}", s, [Enum].Format(weekdays, [Enum].Parse(weekdays, s), "d"))

        Next s
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Enums can also be created which have values that represent some meaningful amount.")
        Console.WriteLine("The BoilingPoints Enum defines the following items, and corresponding values:")

        For Each s In  [Enum].GetNames(boiling)
            Console.WriteLine("{0,-11} = {1}", s, [Enum].Format(boiling, [Enum].Parse(boiling, s), "d"))
        Next s

        Dim myColors As Colors = Colors.Red Or Colors.Blue Or Colors.Yellow
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("myColors holds a combination of colors. Namely: {0}", myColors)
    End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

Basically, when you create a console application from the Console Application template, the Visual Basic compiler looks for a module named Module1 that is supposed to contain Main, the application entry point. In this example, the class that contains Main is named EnumTest. So if you copy the example and paste it to replace all of the original boilerplate code in the code module, you can get the code to compile by doing the following:

1. Right-click on the project in the Solution Explorer window and select Properties.
2. In the project Properties dialog, make sure that the Application tab is selected.
3. In the Startup object drop-down list, change the selected value from Module1 to Sub Main.

The example should now compile.

I hope that this helps.

--Ron Petrusha
  Developer Division User Education
  Microsoft Corporation