Dim parameters As New SqlParameterCollection()

            parameters(0) = New SqlParameter("board_id", board_id)

Why isn't this working? Does anyone know an alternative? I'm looking to byref a collection of sqlparameters to my data provider, and then extract output parameters from the referenced collection

it can not be initialize with "New" keyword

 rather it is used with sqlCommand

   Dim myCommand As New SqlCommand
        myCommand.Parameters.Add("@board_id", Data.SqlDbType.Int).Value = board_id
    

Shared Function ExecuteStoredProcedureQuery(ByVal procedurename As String, Optional ByRef inputparamters As SqlParameterCollection = Nothing) As DataTable
'Code that declared sqlcommand, and performs the query...
End Function

 Would it be efficient to send in a SqlCommand with a collection of parameters? How about using the Collections class?

 How about passing in SqlParameter()?

as i said SqlParameterCollection is not ment to initialise. It is a helping Class for the Command and Parameters objects.

if you wan to create a collection then you can create an array Collection of the Parameters.

here is just a small example:

 Public Sub AddSqlParameter(ByVal cmd As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand, _
           ByVal params As System.Collections.ArrayList)

        Dim parser As System.Collections.IEnumerator
        parser = params.GetEnumerator()

        While parser.MoveNext()
            cmd.Parameters.Add(parser.Current)
        End While

    End Sub

  Now, we can pass the Parameters like this:

        Dim ar As New ArrayList
        Dim sqlprm1 As New SqlParameter
        Dim sqlprm2 As New SqlParameter
        Dim sqlprm2 As New SqlParameter

        sqlprm1.Value = field1
        sqlprm2.Value = field2
        sqlprm3.Value = field3

        ar.Add(sqlprm1)
        ar.Add(sqlprm2)
        ar.Add(sqlprm3)

        Dim myCommand As New SqlCommand
        AddSqlParameter(myCommand, ar)