Binaryworld - Using static variables instead of the Application object ... [ ASP.net -> General ]

If you want to share a value or an object instance between all the pages of any session, you typically use the Application object. However, a good alternative is to use a public variable defined in a module (VB.NET only), or a static field/property defined in a class. Static properties maintain their values between clients request, and so work like Application variables. They are often a better choice because of their better performace (storing and reading a value can be up to 500 times faster with static variables), since they don't require a lookup in a collection when you refer to them - as it happens for the Application object - and you don't need to cast from Object to a specific type, as you must do with the Application variables (either implicitly or exclicitly, depending on your Option Stric settings), but you store and read a value in a variable or the right type, so no casting and boxing is ever required.