Book Image

Visual Basic Quickstart Guide

By : Aspen Olmsted
Book Image

Visual Basic Quickstart Guide

By: Aspen Olmsted

Overview of this book

Whether you’re an absolute beginner or an experienced developer looking to learn the Visual Basic language, this book takes a hands-on approach to guide you through the process. From the very first chapters, you'll delve into writing programs, exploring core concepts such as data types, decision branching, and iteration. Additionally, you’ll get to grips with working with data structures, file I/O, and essential object-oriented principles like inheritance and polymorphism. This book goes beyond the basics to equip you with the skills to read and write code across the entire VB family, spanning VB Script, VBA, VB Classic, and VB.NET, enabling you to handle legacy code maintenance with ease. With clear explanations, practical examples, and hands-on exercises, this book empowers you to tackle real-world software development tasks, whether you're enhancing existing projects or embarking on new ones. It addresses common challenges like distinguishing between the variations of the VB programming language to help you choose the right one for your projects. Don't let VB's extensive legacy daunt you; embrace it with this comprehensive guide that equips you with practical, up-to-date coding skills to overcome the challenges presented by Visual Basic's rich history of over two decades.

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Table of Contents (27 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share your thoughts
Download a free PDF copy of this book
Free Chapter
1
Part 1:Visual Basic Programming and Scripting
Part 1:Visual Basic Programming and Scripting
2
Chapter 1: The Visual Basic Family of Programming Languages
Chapter 1: The Visual Basic Family of Programming Languages
Technical requirements
Programming with Visual Basic.NET Windows Forms
Programming with Visual Basic Classic
Programming with VBA
Programming with VBScript
Programming with Classic ASP
Programming in ASP.NET
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Console Input and Output
Chapter 2: Console Input and Output
Technical requirements
Programming input and output with Visual Basic.NET
Programming input and output with Visual Basic Classic
Programming input and output with VBA
Programming input and output with Visual Basic Script
Programming input and output with Classic ASP
Programming input and output with ASP.NET
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Data Types and Variables
Chapter 3: Data Types and Variables
Choosing data types
Understanding variable scope
Best practices – naming variables
Storing more than one value
Differences in data types between family members
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Decision Branching
Chapter 4: Decision Branching
If statements
Case statements
Ternary operators
The VB.NET OrElse operator
The VB.NET AndAlso operator
The GoTo statement
Summary
6
Chapter 5: Iteration
Chapter 5: Iteration
For loops
While loops
Do loops
Exit and Continue statements
Infinite loops
Summary
7
Chapter 6: Functions and Procedures
Chapter 6: Functions and Procedures
Modularizing code in functions
Modularizing code in procedures
Understanding parameters in functions and procedures
Return statement
Summary
8
Chapter 7: Project Part I
Chapter 7: Project Part I
Technical requirements
Building the project in the VB.NET console
Building the project in VB6
Building the project in VBA
Building the project in VBScript
Building the project in Classic ASP
Building the project in ASP.NET
Summary
9
Part 2:Visual Basic Files and Data Structures
Part 2:Visual Basic Files and Data Structures
10
Chapter 8: Formatting and Modifying Data
Chapter 8: Formatting and Modifying Data
Modifying string data
Modifying numerical data
Modifying date and time data
Summary
11
Chapter 9: File Input and Output
Chapter 9: File Input and Output
Working with directories and files
Writing test into files
Reading text from files
Writing binary data to files
Reading binary data from files
Summary
12
Chapter 10: Collections
Chapter 10: Collections
Working with one-dimensional arrays
Utilizing multidimensional arrays
When and how to use lists
Storing data in a dictionary
Summary
13
Chapter 11: Project Part II
Chapter 11: Project Part II
Technical requirements
Building the project in the VB.NET console
Building the project in VB6
Building the project in VBA
Building the project in VBScript
Building the project in Classic ASP
Building the project in ASP.NET
Summary
14
Part 3:Object-Oriented Visual Basic
Part 3:Object-Oriented Visual Basic
15
Chapter 12: Object-Oriented Programming
Chapter 12: Object-Oriented Programming
Classes and fields
Methods
Instantiating a class
One-to-one has-a relationships
Summary
16
Chapter 13: Inheritance
Chapter 13: Inheritance
Inheritance in VB.NET
Inheritance differences in family members
Exception handling
Is-a relationships
Summary
17
Chapter 14: Polymorphism
Chapter 14: Polymorphism
Polymorphism
Abstract classes
Sealed classes
Summary
18
Chapter 15: Interfaces
Chapter 15: Interfaces
Interfaces
Developing interfaces
Standard interfaces
Summary
19
Chapter 16: Project Part III
Chapter 16: Project Part III
Technical requirements
Building the project in the VB.NET console
Coding the Visual Basic.NET console grading tool
Building the project in ASP.NET
Coding an ASP.NET calculator with Visual Studio
Summary
20
Part 4:Server-Side Development
Part 4:Server-Side Development
21
Chapter 17: The Request and Response Model
Chapter 17: The Request and Response Model
Classic ASP Request object
ASP.NET Request object
Classic ASP Response object
ASP.NET Response object
Summary
22
Chapter 18: Variable Scope and Concurrency
Chapter 18: Variable Scope and Concurrency
Session scope
Application scope
Request scope and cookies
Summary
23
Chapter 19: Project Part IV
Chapter 19: Project Part IV
Technical requirements
Building the project in Classic ASP
Building the project in ASP.NET
Summary
24
Chapter 20: Conclusions
Chapter 20: Conclusions
Summing it all up
Further reading topics
Suggested projects
Summary
25
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
26
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Other Books You May Enjoy
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Differences in data types between family members

When it comes to data types, the different VB family members are mostly the same. There are some small differences that I will break down into comparisons in this section.

Differences in data types between VBScript and VB6

Some of the differences in data types between VBScript and VB6 include the following:

  • VBScript has a more limited set of data types compared to VB6. For example, VBScript does not have separate data types for Integer and long integer values and instead uses a single data type called Integer to represent both types of values.
  • VBScript does not have a separate data type for decimal values. Instead, decimal values are stored as floating-point numbers with limited precision.
  • VBScript does not have a Variant data type like VB6. Instead, VBScript uses the Empty keyword to represent a variable with an undefined value.
  • VBScript does not support user-defined data types like VB6. This means you cannot...
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