Introduction
I have seen many implementations of the Singleton pattern. This one seems to be the most elegant for VB.NET and is as safe as simple.
Theory
Static Local Variables in VB.NET
In VB, a local variable marked as static, apart from usual local variable, continues to exist and retains its most recent value. Moreover, it is initialized only once and this operation is thread safe.
What it simply means is that while the first time property is accessed, the variable is defined and initialized with a value given. Every next call initialization and declaration is ignored and the variable is used as shared/static for this class and continues to exist for a lifetime of the class.
Singleton Pattern Implementation
Public Class Singleton
Private Sub New()
End Sub
Public Shared ReadOnly Property GetInstance As Singleton
Get
Static Instance As Singleton = New Singleton
Return Instance
End Get
End Property
End Class
Please do let me know if there are any pitfalls or if you have other ideas.
