Embed Directive in Visual Basic .NET

Here’s the translation of the Go code to Visual Basic .NET, along with explanations in Markdown format suitable for Hugo:

Visual Basic .NET doesn’t have a direct equivalent to the embed directive, but we can simulate similar functionality using resources. Here’s how we can approach this:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Reflection

Module EmbedExample
    ' We use My.Resources to access embedded resources
    ' This is similar to the //go:embed directive
    Private ReadOnly fileString As String = My.Resources.single_file
    Private ReadOnly fileByte As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(My.Resources.single_file)

    ' For folder embedding, we'll use a custom function to simulate embed.FS
    Private ReadOnly folder As New EmbeddedFolder()

    Sub Main()
        ' Print out the contents of 'single_file.txt'
        Console.Write(fileString)
        Console.Write(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(fileByte))

        ' Retrieve some files from the embedded folder
        Dim content1 As String = folder.ReadFile("folder/file1.hash")
        Console.Write(content1)

        Dim content2 As String = folder.ReadFile("folder/file2.hash")
        Console.Write(content2)
    End Sub
End Module

' This class simulates the embed.FS type
Public Class EmbeddedFolder
    Public Function ReadFile(path As String) As String
        Dim resourceName As String = path.Replace("/", ".")
        Using stream As Stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName)
            Using reader As New StreamReader(stream)
                Return reader.ReadToEnd()
            End Using
        End Using
    End Function
End Class

To use this code:

Create a new Visual Basic .NET project.
In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and select “Properties”.
Go to the “Resources” tab.
Add your text files (single_file.txt, file1.hash, file2.hash) as resources.

This approach uses the built-in resource system in .NET to embed files into the compiled assembly. The My.Resources object provides access to these embedded resources.

For folder-like functionality, we create a custom EmbeddedFolder class that can read embedded resources by their names. This simulates the behavior of embed.FS in Go.

To run the example:

Ensure your resource files are added to the project as described above.
Build and run the project.

The output should be similar to:

hello vb.net
hello vb.net
123
456

This example demonstrates how to embed file contents directly into your Visual Basic .NET application and access them at runtime. While it’s not as straightforward as Go’s embed directive, it provides similar functionality using .NET’s resource system.

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Embed Directive in Visual Basic .NET