VB.Net Introduction

Visual Studio .NET 2005 It supports VB.Net, J#, C#, and C++. Demo: Start page: Recent projects Starting project: File/New Project/Project types: Windows Application View: Solution Explorer/Data Sources Server Explorer Property Window ToolBox Form design view/Form code view Tools/Option Environment Projects and Solutions VB defaults Project/Add New Item Project properties: Right-click project name and choose Properties Start Up form Property window example

Introduction to Visual Basic .Net Event-driven programming The interface for a VB program consists of one or more forms, containing one or more controls (screen objects). Form and controls have events that can respond to. Typical events include clicking a mouse button, type a character on the keyboard, changing a value, etc. Event procedure

Form Properties: Events: Name, FormBorderStyle, Text, BackColor, BackImage, Opacity Events: Load, FormClosing, FormClosed GotFocus, LostFocus MouseHover, Click, DoubleCLick

Typical VB.Net Controls TextBox Label Button CheckBox RadioButton ListBox ComboBox PictureBox

Text Box Properties: AutoSize, BorderStyle, CauseValidation, Enabled, Locked, Multiline, PasswordChar, ReadOnly, ScrollBar, TabIndex, Text, Visible, WordWrap, etc. Properties can be set at the design time or at the run time using code. To refer to a property: ControlName.PropertyName Ex. TextBox1.Text Note: The Text property is a string data type and automatically inherits the properties and methods of the string data type.

Typical VB.Net Programming Tasks Creating the GUI elements that make up the application’s user interface. Visualize the application. Make a list of the controls needed. Setting the properties of the GUI elements Writing procedures that respond to events and perform other operations.

Demo Num1 Num2 Sum = .Control properties .Event: Click, MouseMove, Form Load, etc. .Event procedures Sum: textBox3.text=CStr(CDbl(textBox1.text)+CDbl(textBox2.text)) Or (CDbl(textBox1.text)+CDbl(textBox2.text)).toString .Demo: Text alignment (TextAlign property)

Using VB Functions or .Net Methods? VB functions: Cstr, Cdbl, … .Net framework: System.Convert

VB Projects A VB project consists of several files. Visual Studio .Net automatically creates a project folder to keep all project files in the folder. Project file Form file Modules Class file Etc.

Configure VB Project Project property page Tools/Options Application Compile References Tools/Options Environment Projects and Solutions VB defaults

VB Defaults Option Explicit: Option Strict: Option Compare: On --- must declare variables before use Option Strict: Off --- VB will convert the data Option Compare: Binary --- case sensitive Text --- case insensitive

Variable Declarations Option Explicit Dim variableName as DataType Variable naming rules: The first character must be a letter or an underscore character. Use only letters, digits, and underscore. Cannot contain spaces or periods. No VB keywords Naming conventions: Descriptive Consistent lower and upper case characters. Ex. Camel casing: lowerUpper, employeeName

Control Naming Conventions The first three letters should be a lowercase prefix that indicates the control’s type. frm, txt, lbl, btn. The first letter after the prefix should be uppercase. txtSalary, lblMessage The part of the control name after the prefix should describe the control’s purpose in the application.

VB Data Types Boolean (True/False): 2 bytes Byte: Holds a whole number from 0 to 255. Char: single character Date: date and time, 8 bytes. Decimal: Real number up to 29 significant digits, 16 bytes Double: real, 8 bytes Single: real, 4 bytes Integer: 4 bytes (int32, uint32) Long: 8 bytes integer Short: 2 bytes integer String Object: Holds a reference of an object

Variable Declaration Examples Dim empName as String Declare multiple variables with one Dim: Dim empName, dependentName, empSSN as String Dim X As Integer, Y As Single Initiatialization Dim interestRate as Double = 0.0715

Variable Default Value Variables with a numeric data type: 0 Boolean variables: False Date variables: 12:00:00 AM, January 1 of the year 1. String variables: Nothing

Variable Scope Block-level scope: declared within a block of code terminated by an end, loop or next statement. If city = “Rome” then Dim message as string = “the city is in Italy” MessageBox.Show(message) End if Procedural-level scope: declared in a procedure Class-level, module-level scope: declared in a class or module but outside any procedure with either Dim or Private keyword. Project-level scope: a module variable declared with the Public keyword.

Data Conversion Implicit conversion: When you assign a value of one data type to a variable of another data type, VB attempts to convert the value being assigned to the data type of the variable if the OptionStrict is set to Off. Explicit conversion: VB.Net Functions: CStr, Ccur, CDbl, Cint, CLng, CSng, Cdate,Val, etc. .Net System.Convert Type class’s methods: toString

Date Data Type Variables of the Date data type can hold both a date and a time. The smallest value is midnight (00:00:00) of Jan 1 of the year 1. The largest value is 11:59:59 PM of Dec. 31 of the year 9999. Date literals: A date literal may contain the date, the time, or both, and must be enclosed in # symbols: #1/30/2003#, #1/31/2003 2:10:00 PM# #6:30 PM#, #18:30:00# Note: ControlPanel/RegionalOptions/Date

Date Literal Example: Dim startDate as dateTime startDate = #1/30/2003# Use the System.Convert.ToDateTime function to convert a string to a date value: startDate = System.Convert.ToDateTime(“1/30/2003”) If date string is entered in a text box: startDate = System.Convert.ToDateTime(txtDate.text) Or startDate=Cdate(txtDate.text) Date data type format methods

Some Date Functions Now: Current date and time Today: Current date TimeOfDay DateDiff: Demo Days between two dates Days to Christmas DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Today(), #12/25/2007#) Date data type properties and methods

Using Online Help Example:Search Help for DateDiff MSDN Visual Basic Reference  Language reference Functions: DateDiff Function

Arithmetic and String Operators +, -, *, /. \, ^ String Concatenation: &, + Compound operator: : X= X+1 or X +=1

IF Statement IF condition THEN statements [ELSEIF condition-n THEN [elseifstatements] [ELSE [elsestatements]]] End If

Select Case Structure SELECT CASE testexpression [CASE expressionlist-n [Statements] [CASE ELSE [elsestatements] END SELECT

Select Case Example SELECT CASE temperature CASE <40 Text1.text=“cold” CASE < 60 Text1.text=“cool” CASE 60 to 80 Text1.text=“warm” CASE ELSE Text1.text=“Hot” End Select

Loop FOR index – start TO end [STEP step] [statements] [EXIT FOR] NEXT index DO [{WHILE| UNTIL} condition] [EXIT DO] LOOP

Do While/Do Until Private Sub Command1_Click() Dim counter As Integer Do While counter <= 5 Debug.write(counter) counter = counter + 1 Loop Text1.Text = counter End Sub Private Sub Command2_Click() Do Until counter > 5

With … End With Convenient shorthand to execute a series of statements on a single object. Within the block, the reference to the object is implicit and need not be written. With TextBox1 .Height = 250 .Width = 600 .Text = “Hello” End With

. Sub procedure: Procedures Sub SubName(Arguments) … End Sub To call a sub procedure SUB1 CALL SUB1(Argument1, Argument2, …)

Function Or Private Function tax(salary) As Double tax = salary * 0.1 End Function Or Private Function tax(salary) Return salary * 0.1

Call by Reference Call by Value The address of the item is passed. Any changes made to the passing variable are made to the variable itself. ByVal Default Only the variable’s value is passed.

ByRef, ByVal example Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim myStr As String myStr = TextBox1.Text Call ChangeTextRef (myStr) TextBox1.Text = myStr End Sub Private Sub ChangeTextRef(ByRef strInput As String) strInput = "New Text"