VB/ASP.Net: Change static String to own class - how?

Question

I used to have a Public class with around 1800 Public Shared Strings in it - kinda like my constants library:

Public Shared ReadOnly NLS_ALREADY_IN_USE_QUERYNAME As String = "AlreadyInUseQueryName"

Now I want to store a little more info for each element and change them to "As MyClass" with an appropriate constructor that takes the String from my previously used definition:

Public Shared ReadOnly NLS_ALREADY_IN_USE_QUERYNAME As QNLSDefinition = New QNLSDefinition("AlreadyInUseQueryName", "Deutsch", "English")

The problem is that these "objects" are not instantiated automatically although they are Shared. String obviously is "immediately instantiated".

Any best practise around for this?

Answer 1

You can create a Constructor for that Class and you instantiate all Static variables there in your contructor just one time in your application:

Class Constants 

   Public Shared ReadOnly NLS_ALREADY_IN_USE_QUERYNAME As QNLSDefinition

   'Constructor
   Sub New()

      NLS_ALREADY_IN_USE_QUERYNAME = New QNLSDefinition("AlreadyInUseQueryName",  "Deutsch", "English")

   End Sub

End Class

And then you go to your application constructor

Sub New()
   InitializeComponent()
   'Instantiate shared variables
   Dim const as new Constants
 End Sub()