This is probably some extremely silly error on my part, as they usually are. Also this problem it probably way below the knowledge level of you guys but I need to get this done. It's a simple app that's supposed to find how many vowels there are in words from a text file. I get the topic error at the line
letter = word.Substring(x, 1)
When I comment out stars = "", stars has a value of quite a few *'s which makes me think this error happens rather late in the process. Can you guys help me out?

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub thelastbutton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles thelastbutton.Click
        Dim file As IO.StreamReader = IO.File.OpenText("c:\words2.txt")
        Dim word As String
        Dim letter As String = ""
        Dim x As Integer
        Dim stars As String = ""
        Do
            x = 1
            stars = ""
            word = file.ReadLine
            Do
                letter = word.Substring(x, 1)
                If letter.ToLower = "a" Or letter.ToLower = "e" Or letter.ToLower = "i" Or letter.ToLower = "o" Or letter.ToLower = "u" Then
                    stars = stars + "*"
                End If
                x = x + 1
            Loop Until x = word.Length
            lastlist.Items.Add(stars)
        Loop Until word = ""
        file.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

You're not checking for end of file.
Word may be null, and you are attempting to use it.
Check for null before you attempt to check the letters.
Kieron


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