Method group in VB.NET?

Question

James Michael Hare recently wrote a blog post about Char static methods. He talks about using a method group to write less-wordy LINQ:

if (myString.Any(c => char.IsLower(c))) { xyzzy(); }
if (myString.Any(char.IsLower)) { xyzzy(); } // Less wordy FTW!

The equivalent in VB.NET would be:

If myString.Any(Function(c) Char.IsLower(c)) Then xyzzy()
If myString.Any(Char.IsLower) Then xyzzy() 'Compiler error

Sadly, I can't do the equivalent of C# here... the compiler tells me that Overload resolution failed because no accessible 'IsLower' accepts this number of arguments... sadness. I thought it might be caused by me having Option Strict on, but alas, that didn't work either.

I'm assuming method groups aren't availablet in VB.NET... Is there a similar feature available in VB.NET? Or any particular reason why this can't (won't) be done in VB.NET?

Arboriculture

Answer 1

The equivalent VB code would be:

If myString.Any(AddressOf Char.IsLower) Then xyzzy()

Skerl

Darn, looks a bit less scary then the Function(c) DoSomethingWith(c) mess, but not much shorter. Any idea how AddressOf works with overloads? It seems like each of the overloads for Char.IsLower would be at different addresses, but the code says no... (I'll probably ask this as a separate question since I'm not having much luck finding an answer). – Arboriculture

@JeffBridgman Honestly, I'd suggest just learning the lambda syntax, it is very powerful. – Calycle

@JeffBridgman Only the IsLower(char c) fits the predicate delegate Func(Of TSource, Boolean)) of Any when TSource is Char – Skerl

@Skerl Good point, that makes it nice and static again... and of course you can never have overloads with identical parameters so it can always "know" ;) – Arboriculture