Visual Basic 2015 in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

Description

Teaches beginners everything they need to know to create applications using Visual Basic 2015

• Learn how to build complete, reliable, and modern applications with Visual Basic 2015
• Step-by-step guide through key elements for success as well as potential pitfalls as you build a robust application
• Each lesson will build on what you’ve already learned, giving you a strong, practical foundation for success!

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Part I: The Visual Basic 2015 Environment

Hour 1: Jumping in with Both Feet: A Visual Basic 2015 Programming Tour . 1

    Starting Visual Basic 2015 . . . . . . . . . . 2

    Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . 3

    Understanding the Visual Studio 2015 Environment . . . . . 6

    Changing the Characteristics of Objects . . . . . . . 7

    Adding Controls to a Form. . . . . . . . . 13

    Designing an Interface . . . . . . . . . . 15

    Writing the Code Behind an Interface. . . . . . . 20

    Running a Project . . . . . . . . . . . 24

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 28

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Hour 2: Navigating Visual Basic 2015 . . . . . . . . 31

    Using the Visual Basic 2015 Start Page . . . . . . . 31

    Navigating and Customizing the Visual Basic Environment . . . 34

    Working with Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . 40

    Adding Controls to a Form Using the Toolbox . . . . . . 41

    Setting Object Properties Using the Properties Window . . . . 43

    Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . 50

    A Quick-and-Dirty Programming Primer. . . . . . . 57

    Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . 59

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 61

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Hour 3: Understanding Objects and Collections . . . . . . 63

    Understanding Objects . . . . . . . . . . 64

    Understanding Properties. . . . . . . . . . 64

    Understanding Methods. . . . . . . . . . 72

    Building a Simple Object Example Project . . . . . . . 73

    Understanding Collections . . . . . . . . . 79

    Using the Object Browser . . . . . . . . . . 82

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 85

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Hour 4: Understanding Events . . . . . . . . . . 87

    Understanding Event-Driven Programming . . . . . . 87

    Building an Event Example Project . . . . . . . . 97

    Keeping Event Names Current . . . . . . . . 103

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 104

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Part II: Building a User Interface

Hour 5: Building Forms: The Basics . . . . . . . . 107

    Changing a Form’s Name . . . . . . . . . 108

    Changing a Form’s Appearance . . . . . . . . 109

    Showing and Hiding Forms . . . . . . . . . 122

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 129

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Hour 6: Building Forms: Advanced Techniques . . . . . . 131

    Working with Controls . . . . . . . . . . 131

    Creating Topmost Nonmodal Windows. . . . . . . 151

    Creating Transparent Forms . . . . . . . . . 151

    Creating Scrollable Forms . . . . . . . . . 152

    Creating MDI Forms . . . . . . . . . . 154

    Setting the Startup Form . . . . . . . . . 158

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 160

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Hour 7: Working with Traditional Controls . . . . . . . 163

    Displaying Static Text with the Label Control. . . . . . 163

    Allowing Users to Enter Text Using a Text Box. . . . . . 164

    Creating Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . 172

    Creating Containers and Groups of Option Buttons . . . . . 176

    Displaying a List with the List Box . . . . . . . . 180

    Creating Drop-Down Lists Using the Combo Box . . . . . 188

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 191

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Hour 8: Using Advanced Controls. . . . . . . . . 193

    Creating Timers . . . . . . . . . . . 193

    Creating Tabbed Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . 197

    Storing Pictures in an Image List Control . . . . . . 200

    Building Enhanced Lists Using the List View Control . . . . 202

    Creating Hierarchical Lists Using the Tree View Control . . . . 207

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 212

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Hour 9: Adding Menus and Toolbars to Forms . . . . . . 215

    Building Menus . . . . . . . . . . . 215

    Using the Toolbar Control . . . . . . . . . 229

    Creating a Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . 235

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 238

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Part III: Making Things Happen—Programming

Hour 10: Creating and Calling Code Procedures . . . . . . 239

    Creating Visual Basic Code Modules . . . . . . . 239

    Writing Code Procedures . . . . . . . . . 242

    Calling Code Procedures . . . . . . . . . 248

    Exiting Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . 254

    Avoiding Infinite Recursion . . . . . . . . . 255

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 257

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Hour 11: Using Constants, Data Types, Variables, and Arrays . . . . 259

    Understanding Data Types. . . . . . . . . 260

    Defining and Using Constants . . . . . . . . 263

    Declaring and Referencing Variables . . . . . . . 266

    Working with Arrays . . . . . . . . . . 273

    Determining Scope . . . . . . . . . . 276

    Declaring Variables of Static Scope . . . . . . . . 281

    Using Variables in Your Picture Viewer Project. . . . . . 282

    Renaming Variables . . . . . . . . . . 286

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 288

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Hour 12: Performing Arithmetic, String Manipulation, and Date/Time Adjustments . .. 291

    Performing Basic Arithmetic Operations with Visual Basic . . . 291

    Comparing Equalities . . . . . . . . . . 295

    Understanding Boolean Logic. . . . . . . . . 296

    Manipulating Strings. . . . . . . . . . 298

    Working with Dates and Times . . . . . . . . 304

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 310

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Hour 13: Making Decisions in Visual Basic Code . . . . . . 313

    Making Decisions Using If…Then. . . . . . . 313

    Branching Within a Procedure Using GoTo . . . . . . 324

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 327

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Hour 14: Looping for Efficiency . . . . . . . . . 329

    Looping a Specific Number of Times Using For…Next . . . . 329

    Using Do…Loop to Loop an Indeterminate Number of Times . . . 336

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 342

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Hour 15: Debugging Your Code . . . . . . . . . 343

    Adding Comments to Your Code . . . . . . . . 344

    Identifying the Two Basic Types of Errors . . . . . . 346

    Using Visual Basic’s Debugging Tools . . . . . . . 349

    Breaking Only When a Condition Is Met. . . . . . . 358

    Breaking Only When a Breakpoint Is Hit a Certain Number of Times . 359

    Sending Messages to the Output Window Using Tracepoints. . . 360

    Writing an Error Handler Using Try…Catch…Finally . . . 360

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 368

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Hour 16: Designing Objects Using Classes . . . . . . . 371

    Understanding Classes. . . . . . . . . . 372

    Instantiating Objects from Classes . . . . . . . . 381

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 388

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Hour 17: Interacting with Users . . . . . . . . . 391

    Displaying Messages Using the MessageBox.Show() Function. . . 391

    Creating Custom Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . 398

    Using InputBox() to Get Information from a User . . . . . 401

    Interacting with the Keyboard . . . . . . . . 404

    Using the Common Mouse Events . . . . . . . . 406

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 410

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Hour 18: Working with Graphics . . . . . . . . . 413

    Understanding the Graphics Object . . . . . . . 413

    Working with Pens . . . . . . . . . . 416

    Using System Colors . . . . . . . . . . 417

    Working with Rectangles . . . . . . . . . 421

    Drawing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . 422

    Drawing Text . . . . . . . . . . . 423

    Persisting Graphics on a Form . . . . . . . . 425

    Building a Graphics Project Example . . . . . . . 425

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 432

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Part IV: Working with Data

Hour 19: Performing File Operations . . . . . . . . 435

    Using the OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog Controls . . . 435

    Manipulating Files with the File Object. . . . . . . 443

    Manipulating Directories with the Directory Object . . . . 452

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 454

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Hour 20: Working with the Registry and Text Files . . . . . . 457

    Working with the Registry . . . . . . . . . 457

    Reading and Writing Text Files . . . . . . . . 470

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 481

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Hour 21: Working with a Database . . . . . . . . 483

    Introducing ADO.NET . . . . . . . . . . 484

    Manipulating Data . . . . . . . . . . 491

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 503

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Hour 22: Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

    Preparing the Picture Viewer Project . . . . . . . 506

    Printing and Previewing a Document . . . . . . . 509

    Changing Printer and Page Settings . . . . . . . 519

    Scaling Images to Fit a Page . . . . . . . . . 522

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 528

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Hour 23: Sending Emails. . . . . . . . . . 529

    Understanding the Classes Used to

    Send Emails . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

    Sending Email from Your Picture Viewer Application . . . . 530

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 544

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Part V: Deploying Solutions and Beyond

Hour 24: Deploying Applications . . . . . . . . . 545

    Understanding ClickOnce Technology. . . . . . . 545

    Using the Publish Wizard to Create a ClickOnce Application . . . 547

    Testing Your Picture Viewer ClickOnce Install Program . . . . 552

    Uninstalling an Application You’ve Distributed . . . . . 553

    Setting Advanced Options for Creating ClickOnce Programs. . . 556

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

    Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

    Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 557

    Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Appendix A: The 10,000-Foot View . . . . . . . . 559

TOC, 9780672337451, 7/19/2015

 

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll learn how to build complete, reliable, and modern Windows applications with Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2015. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a strong foundation for success with every aspect of VB 2015 development.

Learn how to:

• Master VB 2015 by building a complete feature-rich application
• Navigate VB 2015 and discover its new shortcuts
• Work with objects, collections, and events
• Build attractive, highly-functional user interfaces
• Make the most of forms, controls, modules, and procedures
• Efficiently store data and program databases
• Make decisions in code
• Use powerful object-oriented techniques
• Work with graphics and text files
• Manipulate filesystems and the Registry
• Add email support
• Create efficient modules and reusable procedures
• Interact effectively with users
• Write code to preview and print documents
• Debug with VB 2015’s improved breakpoint features
• Distribute your software

 

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll learn how to build complete, reliable, and modern Windows applications with Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2015. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a strong foundation for success with every aspect of VB 2015 development.

 

Notes present interesting pieces of information.

Tips offer advice or teach an easier way to do something.

Cautions advise you about potential problems and help you steer clear of disaster.

 

Learn How To

 

• Master VB 2015 by building a complete feature-rich application
• Navigate VB 2015 and discover its new shortcuts
• Work with objects, collections, and events
• Build attractive, highly-functional user interfaces
• Make the most of forms, controls, modules, and procedures
• Efficiently store data and program databases
• Make decisions in code
• Use powerful object-oriented techniques
• Work with graphics and text files
• Manipulate filesystems and the Registry
• Add email support
• Create efficient modules and reusable procedures
• Interact effectively with users
• Write code to preview and print documents
• Debug with VB 2015’s improved breakpoint features
• Distribute your software

 

Download all examples and source code presented in this book from informit.com/title/9780672337451 as they become available.

Who Should Read This Book

Those who have little or no programming experience or who might be picking up Visual Basic as a second language.

 

Bug Alert

Description: Changing the startup form’s name in a VB WinForms app does not update the “Startup form” #4517

Explanation: In the latest Visual Basic update on GitHub, Microsoft accidentally introduced a significant bug that you should be aware of. In the Visual Basic project properties dialog on one of the tabs (Application), is a drop down box for selecting the “startup object”. This can be either a Main method or a System.Windows.Forms instance (or System.Windows.Window for WPF). When you do a rename on a form (say from the code editor in source or from the solution explorer) currently set as the startup form the rename doesn’t cascade to the startup object project property cause the project to enter an invalid state where the user must now manually reset this project property from the now nonexistent Form to the new name. This is a huge annoyance.

The fix for the bug (until Microsoft addresses) can be found here:
http://www.jamesfo

James Foxall is President & CEO of Tigerpaw Software, a commercial software company providing complete business automation to more than 40,000 users in 28 countries in the IT/Networking, Telecommunications, Systems Integrator, Security, and Point of Sale industries. In his current role as President and CEO, James provides the vision and management to keep Tigerpaw focused on its customers and properly serving its markets.

 

James has a Masters degree in Business Administration and a BS degree in Management of Information Systems. Devoted to creating better businesses through technology, James has written 15 books, which have been published in over a dozen languages around the world. He is considered an authority on business process improvement and application interface and behavior standards of Windows applications, and serves the business community as an international speaker on automating business processes in the SMB environment.

As mentioned above, many of the changes won’t directly affect the beginner-level material presented in this book. There are changes to the design environment that will be integrated into the existing material appropriately. The Barnes and Noble edition will include two bonus chapters. The author will swap the bonus chapter on printing with the chapter on controlling other applications using Automation. Other changes worth noting:
•Updated screenshots
•Refined example material (for instance, the author plans to add a zoom feature to the Picture Viewer project in the chapter on Graphics).
•Change to current hour 24 (a 10,000 foot overview) to an appendix, and create a new chapter on sending emails. The new TOC reflects this recommendation. Note that the old hour 23 (deploying solutions) was made hour 24, and the new email chapter is hour 23.

If the sales reps ask, coverage of the new 2015 features that will be woven into the appropriate chapters are outlined below:

Code Editor UI and Editing (Roslyn)
• Light Bulbs are the new home for all quick actions you take in the Visual Studio Editor, including fixes to common code issues and refactoring code.
• There are two new core refactoring operations: Inline temporary variable and Introduce local.
• Refactoring support for Visual Basic has been added for the first time, and has also been moved to the Light Bulb.
• Renaming has also been improved; now it highlights all the instances of the identifier you want to rename, letting you type the new name to all instances at once directly in the editor.
• The expression evaluator for C# and Visual Basic has been rewritten. Nameof() provides a refactoring-safe way of getting the name of e.g. a parameter, member or type as a string.
• Using null-conditional operators you can get a built-in null check while accessing and invoking members and indexers.
• String interpolation:  String interpolation provides a concise way of describing string templates that insert expressions into format strings (C# only at Preview, both VB and C# at RTM).
• View Call Hierarchy
• Find all References
• Multi-line strings
• References Node is now in solution explorer
• Custom Windows Layouts
Debugging
• Conditional statements break only when conditions you specify are met. Think of this as adding an “if” statement to your code and placing the breakpoint inside the “if” statement so it is only hit when the conditions you entered are true.
• Hit counts break only after the breakpoint has been hit a certain number of times. These are useful in situations where code is called multiple times, and you either know the exactly when it is failing, or have a general idea that “it fails after at least” a certain number of times.
• Filters break when the breakpoint is hit on a specific thread, process, or machine and are useful for debugging code running in parallel.
• Tracepoints print a message to the output window and are capable of automatically resuming execution. These are useful for doing temporary logging when you need to trace something and don’t want to have to break and manually track values.

 

• Teaches beginners everything they need to know to create applications using Visual Basic 2015
• Shows how to build complete, reliable, and modern applications with Visual Basic 2015
• Step-by-step guide through key elements for success as well as potential pitfalls as you build a robust application
• Each lesson builds on the last, giving a strong, practical foundation for success

Additional information

Dimensions	1.40 × 6.90 × 9.10 in
Series	Sams Teach Yourself
Imprint	Sams Publishing
Format	gen
ISBN-13	09780672337451
ISBN-10	0672337452
Author	James Foxall
BISAC	COM051380, COM051230
Subjects	professional, higher education, COM051380, COM051230, Employability, IT Professional, H-05 SAMS, Visual Basic, VB 2015