Control structures, loops And Procedures

VB CONTROL STRUCTURES

Control Statements are used to control the flow of program's execution. Visual Basic supports
control structures such as if... Then, if...Then ...Else, Select...Case, and Loop structures such as
Do While...Loop, While...Wend, For...Next etc. method.

If...Then selection structure

The If...Then selection structure performs an indicated action only when the condition is True;
otherwise the action is skipped.

Syntax of the If...Then selection

If <condition> Then
statement
End If

e.g.: If average>75 Then

txtGrade.Text = "A"
End If

If...Then...Else selection structure

The If...Then...Else selection structure allows the programmer to specify that a different action is
to be performed when the condition is True than when the condition is False.

Syntax of the If...Then...Else selection

If <condition > Then

statements
Else
statements
End If

e.g.: If average>50 Then

txtGrade.Text = "Pass"
Else
txtGrade.Text = "Fail"
End If

Nested If...Then...Else selection structure

Nested If...Then...Else selection structures test for multiple cases by placing If...Then...Else
selection structures inside If...Then...Else structures.

Syntax of the Nested If...Then...Else selection structure

You can use Nested If either of the methods as shown above

Method 1

If < condition 1 > Then

statements
ElseIf < condition 2 > Then
statements
ElseIf < condition 3 > Then
statements
Else
Statements
End If

Method 2

If < condition 1 > Then

statements
Else
If < condition 2 > Then
statements
Else
If < condition 3 > Then
statements
Else
Statements
End If
End If
EndIf
e.g.: Assume you have to find the grade using nested if and display in a text box

If average > 75 Then

txtGrade.Text = "A"
ElseIf average > 65 Then
txtGrade.Text = "B"
ElseIf average > 55 Then
txtGrade.text = "C"
ElseIf average > 45 Then
txtGrade.Text = "S"
Else
txtGrade.Text = "F"
End If

Select...Case selection structure

Select...Case structure is an alternative to If...Then...ElseIf for selectively executing a single
block of statements from among multiple block of statements. Select...case is more convenient to
use than the If...Else...End If. The following program block illustrate the working of
Select...Case.

Syntax of the Select...Case selection structure

Select Case Index

Case 0
Statements
Case 1
Statements
End Select

e.g.: Assume you have to find the grade using select...case and display in the text box

Dim average as Integer

average = txtAverage.Text
Select Case average
Case 100 To 75
txtGrade.Text ="A"
Case 74 To 65
txtGrade.Text ="B"
Case 64 To 55
txtGrade.Text ="C"
Case 54 To 45
txtGrade.Text ="S"
Case 44 To 0
txtGrade.Text ="F"
Case Else
MsgBox "Invalid average marks"
End Select

Note: In this example I have used a message box function. In later lessons you will learn how to
use message box functions.

Lesson Four

VB LOOPING STRUCTURES
A repetition structure allows the programmer to that an action is to be repeated until given
condition is true.

Do While... Loop Statement

The Do While...Loop is used to execute statements until a certain condition is met. The
following Do Loop counts from 1 to 100.

Dim number As Integer

number = 1
Do While number <= 100
number = number + 1
Loop

A variable number is initialized to 1 and then the Do While Loop starts. First, the condition is
tested; if condition is True, then the statements are executed. When it gets to the Loop it goes
back to the Do and tests condition again. If condition is False on the first pass, the statements are
never executed.

While... Wend Statement

A While...Wend statement behaves like the Do While...Loop statement. The following
While...Wend counts from 1 to 100

Dim number As Integer

number = 1
While number <=100

Print number
number = number + 1
Wend

Do...Loop While Statement

The Do...Loop While statement first executes the statements and then test the condition after
each execution. The following program block illustrates the structure:

Dim number As Long

number = 0
Do

Print number
number = number + 1
Loop While number < 201

The programs executes the statements between Do and Loop While structure in any case. Then it
determines whether the counter is less than 501. If so, the program again executes the statements
between Do and Loop While else exits the Loop.
Do Until...Loop Statement
Unlike the Do While...Loop and While...Wend repetition structures, the Do Until... Loop
structure tests a condition for falsity. Statements in the body of a Do Until...Loop are executed
repeatedly as long as the loop-continuation test evaluates to False.

An example for Do Until...Loop statement. The coding is typed inside the click event of the
command button

Dim number As Long

number=0
Do Until number > 1000
number = number + 1
Print number
Loop

Numbers between 1 to 1000 will be displayed on the form as soon as you click on the command
button.

The For...Next Loop

The For...Next Loop is another way to make loops in Visual Basic. For...Next repetition
structure handles all the details of counter-controlled repetition. The following loop counts the
numbers from 1 to 100:

Dim x As Integer
For x = 1 To 50
Print x
Next

In order to count the numbers from 1 yo 50 in steps of 2, the following loop can be used

For x = 1 To 50 Step 2
Print x
Next

The following loop counts numbers as 1, 3, 5, 7..etc

The above coding will display numbers vertically on the form. In order to display numbers
horizontally the following method can be used.

For x = 1 To 50
Print x & Space$ (2);
Next

To increase the space between the numbers increase the value inside the brackets after the &
Space$.

Following example is a For...Next repetition structure which is with the If condition used.

Dim number As Integer

For number = 1 To 10
If number = 4 Then
Print "This is number 4"
Else
Print number
End If
Next

In the output instead of number 4 you will get the "This is number 4".

LESSON 4
PROCEDURES
Visual Basic offers different types of procedures to execute small sections of coding in applications. The
various procedures are elucidated in details in this section. Visual Basic programs can be broken into
smaller logical components called Procedures. Procedures are useful for condensing repeated operations
such as the frequently used calculations, text and control manipulation etc. The benefits of using
procedures in programming are:

It is easier to debug a program a program with procedures, which breaks a program into discrete logical
limits.

Procedures used in one program can act as building blocks for other programs with slight modifications.

A Procedure can be Sub, Function or Property Procedure.

1. Sub Procedures
A sub procedure can be placed in standard, class and form modules. Each time the procedure is called,
the statements between Sub and End Sub are executed. The syntax for a sub procedure is as follows:

[Private | Public] [Static] Sub Procedurename [( arglist)]

[ statements]
End Sub

arglist is a list of argument names separated by commas. Each argument acts like a variable in the
procedure. There are two types of Sub Procedures namely general procedures and event procedures.

2. Event Procedures
An event procedure is a procedure block that contains the control's actual name, an underscore(_), and
the event name. The following syntax represents the event procedure for a Form_Load event.

Private Sub Form_Load()

....statement block..
End Sub

Event Procedures acquire the declarations as Private by default.

3. General Procedures
A general procedure is declared when several event procedures perform the same actions. It is a good
programming practice to write common statements in a separate procedure (general procedure) and then
call them in the event procedure.

In order to add General procedure:

 The Code window is opened for the module to which the procedure is to be added.
 The Add Procedure option is chosen from the Tools menu, which opens an Add Procedure dialog
box as shown in the figure given below.
 The name of the procedure is typed in the Name textbox
 Under Type, Sub is selected to create a Sub procedure, Function to create a Function procedure
or Property to create a Property procedure.
 Under Scope, Public is selected to create a procedure that can be invoked outside the module, or
Private to create a procedure that can be invoked only from within the module.

We can also create a new procedure in the current module by typing Sub ProcedureName, Function
ProcedureName, or Property ProcedureName in the Code window. A Function procedure returns a value
and a Sub Procedure does not return a value.

Function Procedures
Functions are like sub procedures, except they return a value to the calling procedure. They are
especially useful for taking one or more pieces of data, called arguments and performing some tasks with
them. Then the functions returns a value that indicates the results of the tasks complete within the
function.

The following function procedure calculates the third side or hypotenuse of a right triangle, where A and B
are the other two sides. It takes two arguments A and B (of data type Double) and finally returns the
results.

Function Hypotenuse (A As Double, B As Double) As Double

Hypotenuse = sqr (A^2 + B^2)
End Function

The above function procedure is written in the general declarations section of the Code window. A
function can also be written by selecting the Add Procedure dialog box from the Tools menu and by
choosing the required scope and type.

Property Procedures
A property procedure is used to create and manipulate custom properties. It is used to create read only
properties for Forms, Standard modules and Class modules.Visual Basic provides three kind of property
procedures-Property Let procedure that sets the value of a property, Property Get procedure that returns
the value of a property, and Property Set procedure that sets the references to an object.