PRB: Compile Out of Memory If too Many Public Members in Class

• Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

A project containing a class module with a large number (approximately 2000) of public class module variables will run successfully in the IDE but will cause an "Out of memory" error when you attempt to compile the project to make an executable file.

CAUSE

There is a limit to the number of public members you can put in a class module. The out of memory error is caused by exceeding the type library's (object library) capacity limit for definitions. When making an executable file, Visual Basic creates a type library and creates a typeinfo (an object description) for all the basic classes. The public members of the class are moved to the typeinfo in the type library. There is a limit (approximately 1100 members) to the number of definitions that you can have in a module.

RESOLUTION

Limit the number of public members in a class.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.