Visual Basic 2008 For Dummies

Bill Sempf

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470182383
• eBook ISBN: 9781118052013
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming Languages
• Index: Computer Science

Visual Basic is a favorite programming language, so if you're new to programming, it's a great place to start. Visual Basic 2008 For Dummies is the fun and easy way to begin creating applications right away while you get the hang of using the Visual Studio environment. Soon you'll be building all sorts of useful stuff with VB 2008!

This step-by-step guide walks you through a logical series of tasks that build your skills as you get comfortable with.Net terminology, theory, tools, and design principles. You'll learn how to build an application in four different architectural styles, and you'll find out how to make your programs validate input and output, make decisions, and protect themselves from security threats. Discover how to:

• Install the Visual Studio environment
• Write a VB program
• Use Web forms, Windows forms, and Web services
• Establish good programming practices
• Create class libraries
• Write secure applications
• Debug your applications
• Work with strings and "if-then" statements
• Iterate with counted and nested loops
• Pass arguments and get return values
• Access data with VB.NET
• Work with the file system using VB

You'll also find great tips for working with the VB user interface, using VB.NET in C# programming, troubleshooting your VB programs, taking your programming to the next level, and more! Once you get your hands on Visual Basic 2008 For Dummies, you'll be programming like a genius in no time!

Part I

Getting to Know .NET Using Visual Basic

In this part . . .

Everyone must start somewhere, and I start at the beginning in this part. You write your first Visual Basic program, and, in doing so, you discover some of the ideas behind the .NET Framework (the backbone of this version of the language). You then get to do the only required reading in this entire book. First, you go over the use of the tool, Visual Studio. Second, you design the example application that you write in the next part.

Chapter 1

Wading into Visual Basic

In This Chapter

Seeing where Visual Basic fits in with .NET

Writing your first Visual Basic 2008 program

Exploiting the newfound power of Visual Basic

To get started with Visual Basic 2008, I recommend that you jump right in and write software! And to help you with such an assertive approach, this chapter gives you just what you need to test the waters of the Visual Basic pool and get comfortable with its place in the larger Visual Studio environment.

Then you can really get your feet wet as you build Hello World — your first VB 2008 Windows Forms application — right here in the first few pages! You find out how to launch Visual Studio 2008 (the development tool for your VB applications), how to start a new project, and how to build a form visually and make it work with code.

Also in this chapter, I give you a glimpse into the deeper power of Visual Basic. Specifically, I introduce how VB 2008 integrates with the Microsoft .NET Framework and offer insight into what that means to you as a programmer.

Visual Basic’s Role in the Framework

Microsoft created the .NET Framework to make development for the various Windows operating systems easier. But because of the differences between Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic 7.0 (the first .NET version), most VB developers found development much harder. For example, VB 7.0 made all variables into objects, which removed the programmer’s ability to define a variable type on the fly.

But developing applications in .NET doesn’t have to be harder than it was in VB 6.0. The .NET Framework and Visual Basic 2008 can be powerful tools, and the trick is discovering how they work together through the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Part of the difficulty that many programmers face when moving to the .NET Framework is the terminology, which can get confusing. I’d like to put the problem with terminology to bed right now, so check out this list of the potentially confusing terms used in .NET development:

Visual Basic 2008: The programming language described throughout this whole book. No longer can you run or load Visual Basic as a separate entity. It is simply one programming language that speaks to the Microsoft .NET Framework, which is the next term in the list.

.NET Framework: The layer that sits between the language (in this case, Visual Basic) and the operating system, which can be Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or any of the subversions of those (such as the Tablet PC edition). The .NET Framework layer serves to provide functionality based on the operation of the Windows system on which it resides, as well as to provide libraries for other functionality (such as math computations and database access). Figure 1-1 is a visual representation of the relationship of all the layers in the framework.

Visual Studio 2008: The tool that you use to create any kind of application using any compatible programming language. Visual Studio replaces the Visual Basic 6.0 program that was formerly part of the Visual Studio suite (all individual suite components were labeled Version 6.0). When you go to write a new program in the .NET environment, you run Visual Studio 2008 and select the kind of program you want to write in the programming language you want to use. For example, you may choose to create a Windows Forms program using the Visual Basic language, just like the old days. Or you might want to write an application for a smart device using C#. You can also mix languages, for example, writing the forms in VB and the classes in C#. In this book, I will be using VB for everything — because it is a book about VB!

Figure 1-1: The .NET Framework hierarchy.

Windows Forms: The new term for an old-fashioned Visual Basic application. This term refers to an application that is written using the .NET Framework and has a Windows user interface.

Web Forms: The term for an application with a Web page interface written using the .NET Framework. Creating a Web Forms application is very similar to writing a Windows Forms application.

Web services: The class libraries that are written using a standard defined by the same people who defined standards for the World Wide Web. Web services are used for interaction between divergent sys...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Getting to Know .NET Using Visual Basic
• Chapter 1: Wading into Visual Basic
• Chapter 2: Using Visual Studio 2008
• Chapter 3: Designing Applications in VB 2008
• Part II : Building Applications with VB 2008
• Chapter 4: Building Windows Applications
• Chapter 5: Building Web Applications
• Chapter 6: Building Class Libraries
• Chapter 7: Building Web Services
• Chapter 8: Debugging in VB 2008
• Part III : Making Your Programs Work
• Chapter 9: Interpreting Strings and Things
• Chapter 10: Making Decisions in Code
• Chapter 11: Getting Loopy
• Chapter 12: Reusing Code
• Chapter 13: Making Arguments, Earning Returns
• Part IV : Digging into the Framework
• Chapter 14: Writing Secure Code
• Chapter 15: Accessing Data
• Chapter 16: Working with the File System
• Chapter 17: Accessing the Internet
• Chapter 18: Creating Images
• Part V : The Part of Tens
• Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Using the VB User Interface
• Chapter 20: Ten Ideas for Taking Your Next Programming Step
• Chapter 21: Ten Resources on the Internet
• : Further Reading