title: Ampersand vs plus for concatenating strings in VB.NET
body: <p>In VB.NET, is there any advantage to using <code>&amp;</code> to concatenate strings instead of <code>+</code>?</p>
  
  <p>For example</p>
  
  <pre><code>Dim x as String = "hello" + " there"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>vs.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Dim x as String = "hello" &amp; " there"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Yes, I know for a lot of string concatenations I'd want to use <code>StringBuilder</code>, but this is more of a general question.</p>