Just got bitten by the following: Dim takeN As Integer = If(Integer.TryParse(EdTake.Text, takeN), takeN, itemsCount) I had used that instead of writing in 2 lines: Dim takeN As Integer If not Integer.TryParse(EdTake.Text, takeN) then takeN = itemsCount However, there’s an important difference: “If” is a function, so its arguments are evaluated at ...