Visual Basic Dot Net

(VB.NET)

Hudson Nandere Lubinga

Email: [email protected], TEL: 0753625255
 VB.NET IDE

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Integrated Development Environment
(IDE)
 It allows the automation of many of the common programming
tasks in one environment
 Writing the code
 Checking for Syntax (Language) errors
 Compiling and Interpreting(Transferring to computer language)
 Debugging (Fixing Run-time or Logic Errors)
 Running the Application

• Visual Basic.NET is one of several languages supported by Visual Studio (VS) IDE
• Other languages supported are called C++, C# and Java

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 Using Visual Studio.NET

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Creating an Application
• Select the “Create Project” option from the “Recent Projects”
box on the Start Page

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Default Settings

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Visual Basic Forms
• This is a Visual Basic
GUI object called a form
• Forms are the windows
and dialog boxes that
display when a program
runs.
• A form is an object that
contains other objects
such as buttons, text
boxes, and labels

Slide 1- 7
Visual Basic Controls
• Form elements are
objects called controls
• This form has:
• Two TextBox controls
• Four Label controls
• Two Button controls
• The value displayed by
a control is held in the text property of the control
• Left button text property is Calculate Gross Pay
• Buttons have methods attached to events

Slide 1- 8
 Design
T Window
Solution
o Explorer
o
l
b Properties
o Window
x

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Creating the Application
• Step 1: Add a Control to the Form – Button
• Look in the Toolbox for the Button Control
• Select the Button with the Mouse
• Draw a Rectangle Region in the Design Window by holding the mouse button
down
• Release the mouse button to see your button
• (Can also be added by double clicking on the button in the Toolbox)

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Creating the Application
• Add a Second Button to the Form
• Put it in the lower right corner

• The project now contains

• a form with 2 button
• controls

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Control Properties
• Properties
• All controls have properties
• Each property has a value (or values)
• Determine the Look and Feel (and sometimes behavior) of a Control
• Set initially through the Properties Window
• Properties Set for this Application
• Name
• Text

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Name Property
• The name property establishes a means for the program to refer to
that control
• Controls are assigned relatively meaningless names when created
• Change these names to something more meaningful
• Control names must start with a letter
• Remaining characters may be letters, digits, or underscore

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Examples of Names
 The label controls use the default names (Label1, etc.)
 Text boxes, buttons, and the Gross Pay label play an
active role in the program and have been changed

Label1 txtHoursWorked

Label2 txtPayRate

Label3 lblGrossPay

btnCalcGrossPay btnClose

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Control Naming Conventions
• Should be meaningful
• 1st 3 lowercase letters indicate the type of control
• txt… for Text Boxes
• lbl… for Labels
• btn… for Buttons
• After that, capitalize the first letter of each word
• txtHoursWorked is clearer than txthoursworked
• Change the name property
• Set the name of button1 to btnWelcome
• Set the name of button2 to btnExit
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Setting Control Properties
• Click on the Control in the Design Window
• Select the appropriate property in the Properties
Window

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Text Property
• Determines the visible text on the control
• Change the text property
• btnWelcome  set to “Say Welcome”
• btnExit  set to “Exit”

• Do not need to include the “ “ in your text field

• Notice how the buttons now display the new text

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Event Driven Programming
• The GUI environment is event-driven
• An event is an action that takes place within a program
• Clicking a button (a Click event)
• Keying in a TextBox (a TextChanged event)
• Visual Basic controls are capable of detecting many, many events
• A program can respond to an event if the programmer writes an event
procedure

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Event Procedures
• An Event Procedure is a block of code that executes
only when particular event occurs
• Writing an Event Procedure
• Create the event procedure sub
• Double click on control from Design Window – for default event
for that control
OR
• Open the Code Editor (F7 or View Menu/Code option)
• Select Control & Select Event from drop down windows in Code
Editor
• Add the event code to the event procedure stub

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Open the Code Editor

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Select the Control for the Event Procedure
• Select the btnWelcome control from the Form Controls List Box

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Select the Event for the Event Procedure
• Select the Click event from the list of many available events
• Buttons have 57 possible events they can respond to

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Event Procedure Sub
• Beginning of Procedure is created for you
• If you create sub by double clicking on control it will create
a sub for the most commonly used event for that control

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Add the Event Code
• Write the code that you want executed when the user clicks on the
btnWelcome button
• Type: MsgBox (“Welcome to Visual Basic”)

• Must be contained within the Event Procedure Stub

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Writing Visual Basic Code
• Not Case Sensitive
• Visual Basic will “correct” case issues for you
• Keywords are in Blue
• Special reserved words
• Comments in Green
• Problems with Syntax (Language) will be underlined in
blue

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Coding Conventions
• Rules
• Use spaces to separate the words and operators
• Indentation and capitalization have no effect
• Recommendations
• Use indentation and extra spaces for alignment
• Use blank lines before and after groups of related
statements
• Code all variable declarations at the start of the procedure
• Group related declarations

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Comments
• Usage
• Type an apostrophe ( ' ) followed by the comment
• The compiler ignores everything on the line after ‘
• Used for documentation/readability and to disable chosen
statements during testing
• Recommendations
• Follow apostrophe with a star for readability ( ‘* )
• Use at beginning of program to indicate author, purpose, date,
etc.
• Use for groups of related statements and portions of code that
are difficult to understand

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Create Event Procedure for Exit Button
• Create an Event Procedure for when the btnExit button is clicked
• Have it display “Goodbye” in a MsgBox
• Then “End” – this will terminate the program

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Switching to Design Window
• You can switch between the Design Window and the
Code Window (once opened) by clicking on the tabs
at the top of the
• Design and Code Windows
• Form1.vb(Design) is the
• design window
• Form1.vb is the Code Window

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Running the Application
 Click the Run Icon on the
Standard Toolbar
 Or Press F5

 This will begin the program

 Display the Form/Window
 Nothing will happen
 Waiting on an Event

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Test the Events
• Click on the “Say Welcome” button
• The message box should display
• Click on the “Exit” button
• The message box should display
• The application should terminate

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Save the Project
• Make sure to save your work
• SAVE ALL (not Save Form)
• Visual Basic applications are
• made of several files -
• Often even several forms

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