The difference between creating an instance of an object

Could someone tell me in plain english was is the difference between

Dim MyObject As SomeType

and

Dim MyObject As New SomeType

and

Dim MyObject = New SomeType

Dim MyObject as SomeType = Creating a variable that holds an object of SomeType.

Dim MyObject as New SomeType = Creating and instantiating an object of SomeType.

Dim MyObject = New SomeType = Invalid syntax in vb.net. You need to specify the default type as variant is no longer supported in ASP.NET.
Ok, now I understand.

So if I have something like Fruit.Apple and Value is part of this as in Fruit.Apple.Value, I can do this...

Dim Food As Fruit.Apple
Food.Value

It looks like a way of shortening the name of an object.

Now, I have another question. How do you know when is the appropriate time to create and instantiate a new object rather than just use the above method?

Sorry if my question seems too easy, but I didn't do much of this stuff in regular ASP.
Well yes and no.

Lets think of this another way. Lets take your Fruit object. Your fruit has properties - color, weight, type, etc. You would create a class that describes this like so:

Public Class Fruit
 Private _type As String
 Private _color As String
 Private _weight As Decimal
 Public Property Type() As String
 Get
 Return _type
 End Get
 Set(ByVal Value As String)
 _type = Value
 End Set
 End Property
 ' Add other properties for color and weight also
End Class

Then in your code you would instantiate a new Fruit object like:

Dim objFruit as New Fruit
'Then set properties of the fruit
With objFruit
 .Type = "Apple"
 .Color = "Red"
 .Weight = 2.2
End With

It is appropriate to create a class whenever you are going to possibly reference the object from multiple places in your code.

Greg