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Introduction to Visual Basic 2008 Express For Engineers

Introduction to Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition The Basic programming language was developed at Dartmouth in the early 1960s. Visual Basic was created by Microsoft in 1991. Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition is similar to the original Visual Basic but is much more powerful. It can be downloaded free from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/Express/Download/ To do any of the example labs, you will need to download and install Microsofts Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition. The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) should look something like this:

Menu and Tool Bars

Blank Form

Solution Explorer

Tool Box

Properties Window

Program Development Cycle Our computer program is called a project, application or solution. Software refers to a collection of instructions to tell the computer what we want done. The computer only knows what the programmer tells it to do. The programmer must know how to solve the problem. The programmer will need to determine the output desired, that is the Graphic User Interface (GUI). Then the programmer needs to determine what input is required to get the desired output. Next the programmer needs to determine the processing needed to take the input and end up with the desired output.

Note, we determine the output first, then the input and then the processing. There are several tools used by programmers to design a solution to the problem. Programming Design Tools Flowcharts (graphic) Pseudo code (similar to computer code) Hierarchy Charts (graphical) Algorithms (list of steps) You can look up each for more detail. We dont need to use any of these tools for our programs. Program Development Cycle 1. Define the problem 2. Design a solution using a programming tool if desired 3. Create the interface (GUI) 4. Set the properties 5. Write the code 6. Run, test and debug 7. Add any documentation We will concentrate on steps 3, 4 and 5.

Visual Basic Controls Visual Basic has many controls and they are found in the toolbox which is usually on the left side in the IDE.

They can be added to the form by double clicking the control or drag and drop the control from the toolbox to the form. You can also single click the control, point where you want the control and stretch to the size you want. We will look at four controls.

Default names are TextBox1, Button1, Label1 and ListBox1.

Controls have events, properties and methods. The Text Box control is usually used for input or output. When it is used for output, the Read Only property is usually set to True. The caption on the Button Control should indicate the effect of clicking the button. Setting the Text property determines the caption on the button. The Label Control is used for information. It is usually used to explain the contents of a text box. Setting the Text property determines the caption in the label. By default, the Auto Size property is set to True. You will need to set the property to False to be able to resize the control manually. The List Box control can be used to display several pieces of information (output). It can be also used to select an item from a list (input). Programmers usually name their controls with a name that something to do with its use. They may also prefix the control name based on the type of control.

Visual Basic Events An event is an action, such as the user clicking a button. That would be a button click event. Usually nothing happens in a Visual Basic program until the user does something that generates an event. What happens depends on how the code is written by the programmer. The user does something to a control, sometimes referred to as an object. Visual Basic is an object-oriented language. When the user does something to an object or control, an event is generated. Sometimes Visual Basic is called an event-driven language. Each control may have many events and many are the same for other controls. The default event for button and a label is the click event. The default event for a text box is the text changed event. The default event for a list box is selected index change event. The default event for the form is the form load event. The form load event takes place when the user runs a program. The programmer can write code for any event.

The code for these event procedures look like this:


Public Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click End Sub Private Sub Label1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Label1.Click End Sub Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged End Sub Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged End Sub Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load End Sub End Class

As you can see, the general form is: Control name_event The easy way to start an event procedure is to double click the control on the form in the IDE. This will automatically place something like the above code into the code window. The form looks like this:

Numbers Much of the data processed by computers consist of numbers. The number are called numeric literals. Numeric literals can NOT contain commas, a dollar sign, a percent sign or mixed numbers like 8 . We use arithmetic operators to process the data. Arithmetic operators () used to change the order of operations ^ raises a number to the power of another number * mutiplies two numbers / devides two number + adds two numbers - subtracts two numbers A variable is a letter or a name that can store a value in the computers memory. You can declare a varible by telling the name and the type of varible you want to use. You can assign a value to the variable. You can use a variable by retrieving the value held by the variable. There are many data types in Visual Basic. Double data type goes to about 10308. Interger data type goes to about 109 and Single data type goes to about 1038. We declare a varible with the Dim statement. Dim speed As Single Dim time As Single Dim distance As Double Or Dim speed, time As Single, distance As Double We assign a value to the variable by an assignment statement. speed = 50 time = 2 We use these variables in a numeric expression. distance = speed * time The variable distance will have the value of 100.

Input and Output A text box can be used for input or output. The content of a text box is stored in the text property and is always a string. A string is a sequence of characters which could be letters, numbers or other characters. Input example: speed = TextBox1.Text Now if the text property of TextBox1 contained the number 50, it would actually be the string 50. Now I cant multiply strings but I can multiply numbers. There is a built-in function that will convert the string 50 to a number 50. The function is the Val function. We will rewrite the code. speed = Val (TextBox1.Text) Now the variable speed contains the number 50 and I can perform mathematic operation with it. We are reading what is already stored in the text box and placing the value into the variable speed. The function CDbl will convert the string to a double data type. The function CSng will convert the string to a single data type. There are many built-in functions. Notice the format: TextBox1.Text is Control name.Property Output example: TextBox1.Text = speed Here the variable speed already contains a value and we are setting the text property of the text box. Even if the value in the variable was a number, the value in the text property of the text box will be a string. A list box can be used for output but we used the add method to add items to the collection displayed in the list box. ListBox1.Items.Add (speed) Notice the method Add, is preceded with a period and followed with an argument in parentheses. Now let us create our first program. We want to write a program that will convert meters to feet. We will need one input and one output. Now let us look at some steps to creating a Visual Basic project, solution or application.

Steps in creating a Visual Basic application

Step 1 Create an interface with 2 labels, 2 text boxes and a button.

Step 2

To set the property, single click the control and in the properties window, select the property that you want to change.

Control Label1 Label 2 Button1 Form1

Property Text Text Text Text

Value Enter meters Converted to feet Calculate Convert

I set many other properties but you dont have to.

Control Label1 Label 2 Label1

Property AutoSize AutoSize Location x y Location x y Size Width Height Size Width Height Size Width Height Size Width Height Size Width Height StartPosition Location x y Location x y

Value FALSE FALSE 25 45 25 135 110 20 110 20 110 20 110 20 300 300 CenterScreen 165 45 165 175

Label2

Label1

Label2

TextBox1

TextBox2

Form1

Form1 TextBox1

TextBox2

Also set the TabIndex property of TextBox1 to 0. This will make the cursor be in the textbox and be ready for the user to type in a value.

Step 3 Write the code for the button click event. Double click on the button while in the IDE. The code window will open. Type in the following code:
Public Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim m, ft As Single m = Val(TextBox1.Text) ft = 3.2808 * m TextBox2.Text = ft End Sub End Class

Now run the program by pressing F5. Type 10 into TextBox1. Click the button. The answer (32.808) should be displayed in TextBox2. Always check you run to make sure it gives the correct answer. There is nothing worse than a program that gives wrong answers. The run should look like this:

After stopping your run, pull down the File menu and select Save All. This will save all the files needed for this project. There are many files, not just one file. We created the GUI, set some properties and wrote some code. Visual Basic is sometimes called RAD- Rapid Application Development system.

Now let us create our next program. We want to computer the flow in a pipe or duct given the cross sectional area and the velocity. Q = AV Q = flow (ft3/sec) A = area (ft2) V = velocity (ft/sec) We will have two inputs and one output. Step 1 Create an interface with 4 labels, 3 text boxes and 1 button. It should look something like this:

Step 2

Set the following properties:

Control Label1 Label2 Button1 Label3 Label4 Form1

Property Text Text Text Text Text Text

Value Enter the area in square feet Enter the velocity in ft / sec Compute The flow is: cu ft / sec Flow

It should look something like this:

Double click on the button while in the IDE. The code window will open. Type in the following code:

Public Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim area, vel, flow As Single area = Val(TextBox1.Text) vel = Val(TextBox2.Text) flow = area * vel TextBox3.Text = flow End Sub End Class

The run (press F5) should look something like this:

Be sure to save all if you get the same answers. If you dont get the same answers, check your code for mistakes or the values entered during the run.

I set the TabIndex property of the controls as follows:

When the TabIndex property is set to 0, the cursor will start there. When you press the Tab key it will move to the next number (1). Press the Tab key again and it moves to the next number (2) which is the button. You can run this entire program without using the mouse. Would you rather be fast or half fast? Any time you can use the keys on the keyboard you will be faster than using the mouse. Again, we created the Graphic User Interface (GUI). We added labels, text boxes and a button. Then we set a few properties. Then we wrote a little code. We could change the program to handle something like: E = IR E = voltage I = current (amps) R = resistance (ohms) Or something like: A = LW A = area (square feet) L = length (feet) W = Width (feet)

I changed many other properties but you only need to set a few properties.

Control Label1

Property Location x y x y x y x y x y x y x y x y Size Width Height StartPosition

Value

Label2 Label3 Label4 TextBox1 TextBox2 Button1 TextBox3 Form1

30 25 30 60 30 170 340 170 290 25 290 60 181 111 181 170 500 300 CenterScreen

Form1

Built-in Functions (Math) Visual Basic has many different types of built-in functions like string functions, conversion function and math functions. Engineers often use math functions so we will look at the once available in Visual Basic.

Action Derive trigonometric functions. General calculations. Generate random numbers. Get absolute value. Get the sign of an expression. Perform numeric conversions.

Function Atn, Cos, Sin, Tan Exp, Log, Sqr Randomize, Rnd Abs Sgn Fix, Int

We can derive many other functions as user defined functions:

Function Secant (Sec(x)) Cosecant (Csc(x)) Cotangent (Ctan(x)) Inverse sine (Asin(x)) Inverse cosine (Acos(x))

Derived function

1 / Cos(x) 1 / Sin(x) 1 / Tan(x) Atan(x / Sqrt(-x * x + 1)) Atan(-x / Sqrt(-x * x + 1)) + 2 * Atan(1) 2 * Atan(1) Atan(Sign(x) / Sqrt(x * x 1)) Atan(Sign(x) / Sqrt(x * x 1))

Inverse secant (Asec(x))

Inverse cosecant (Acsc(x))

Inverse cotangent (Acot(x)) Hyperbolic sine (Sinh(x)) Hyperbolic cosine (Cosh(x)) Hyperbolic tangent (Tanh(x)) Hyperbolic secant (Sech(x)) Hyperbolic cosecant (Csch(x)) Hyperbolic cotangent (Coth(x)) Inverse hyperbolic sine (Asinh(x)) Inverse hyperbolic cosine (Acosh(x)) Inverse hyperbolic tangent (Atanh(x)) Inverse hyperbolic secant (AsecH(x)) Inverse hyperbolic cosecant (Acsch(x)) Inverse hyperbolic cotangent (Acoth(x))

2 * Atan(1) - Atan(x) (Exp(x) Exp(-x)) / 2 (Exp(x) + Exp(-x)) / 2 (Exp(x) Exp(-x)) / (Exp(x) + Exp(x)) 2 / (Exp(x) + Exp(-x)) 2 / (Exp(x) Exp(-x)) (Exp(x) + Exp(-x)) / (Exp(x) Exp(x)) Log(x + Sqrt(x * x + 1)) Log(x + Sqrt(x * x 1)) Log((1 + x) / (1 x)) / 2 Log((Sqrt(-x * x + 1) + 1) / x) Log((Sign(x) * Sqrt(x * x + 1) + 1) / x) Log((x + 1) / (x 1)) / 2

Pi (3.141592654) is built in to Excel but not Visual Basic.

Now let us look at our next program. We want to calculate the angle a road should be banked when given the velocity, radius of curvature and the force of gravity.

Visual Basic uses radians when using trigonometric functions. To convert from radians (R) to degrees (D), we use:

Step 1 Create an interface with 5 labels, 3 text boxes, 3 buttons and one list box. The interface should look something like this:

Step 2 Set some of the properties of the controls.

Control Label1 Label2 Label3 Label4 Label5 Button1 Button2 Button3

Property Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text

Value Enter the velocity of the car in ft / sec Enter the radius of the curve in feet Enter the force of gravity (earth is 32.2 ft / sec) The angle of the banked road is: degrees Com&pute &Quit &Clear

Notice, there is a & character in front of some letters. This will make the letter underlined and an access key or hot key. The user can press the Alt key and the letter (Alt + p) to select the button without the use of the mouse. To get 2, I held down the Alt key while typing the numbers 253 on the numeric key pad. Then let up on the Alt key. The interface should look something like this:

Step 3 Now, we need to write the code (event procedures) for three buttons. Again, double click the compute button while in the IDE. The code window should open. Type in the following code:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim vel, rad, grav, trad, tdeg, pi vel = Val(TextBox1.Text) rad = Val(TextBox2.Text) grav = Val(TextBox3.Text) trad = Math.Atan(vel ^ 2 / (rad * grav)) pi = 3.141592654 tdeg = 180 * trad / pi ListBox1.Items.Add(tdeg) End Sub

Press F5 and your run should look something like this:

If you get the same answer, GREAT! If you get something different, check your code or the numbers you typed in during the run.

In the IDE, click on the Form1.vb [Design] tab. Now double click on the Quit button and the code window should open. Now we want to add code to the Button2 Click event. Add the following code:
Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click Me.Close() End Sub

Here we are using the close method. Me refers to Form1. Therfore, we are saying close the form which ends the run. Remember I said controls or objects have properties, events and methods. Note, we used the Add method to add items to the list box. So a method has a period in front and parenthesis at the end. We could have used the End statement. This ends the run which also closes the form. The code would look something like this:
Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click End End Sub

Now click on the Form1.vb [Design] tab. Double click on the Clear button. This should open the code window so you can write the following code.
Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click TextBox1.Text = "" TextBox2.Clear() TextBox3.Text = "" ListBox1.Items.Clear() End Sub

For text box 1, I set the text property to a null string (a string with nothing in it). For text box 2, I used the clear method. You can use either one for a text box. For list box 1, I used the clear method. A list box does NOT have a text property. As before, I set many other properties. I set the StartPosition property to CenterScreen. I set the size of the text boxes to 125, 20. I set the size of the buttons to 110, 25. I set the Form1 size to 550, 400. I set the size of three of the labels to 300, 25. I set the Location, x value to 35 for three of the labels. I set the Location, x value of the three text boxes to 385. I set the x and y values of all the controls or objects.

I also set values of the TabIndex of all the controls as shown:

Remember, the user can press the Tab key to navigate from text box 1 (number 0) to text box 2 (number 1) all the way to the Quit button and never use the mouse. Remember, using the mouse is not as fast. The user can also use the hot key, (p, q and c). They can hold the Alt key and press p (Alt + p) and it will be the same as clicking on the Compute button. They can press Alt + q and it will be the same as clicking the Quit button and Alt + c for the clear button. Be sure to save all when you finish your run and finish setting all the properties. I created the following folders: C:\Visual Basic 2008\Projects In the projects folder, I now have three folders for Lab1PDH, Lab2PDH and Lab3PDH. This was Lab3PDH. In the following path: C:\Visual Basic 2008\Projects\Lab3PDH\Lab3PDH\bin\Debug There is a Lab3PDH.exe file. This is the file you can send to your friends and they can run it if they have Microsoft Net Framework 3.5. It is free and you installed it when you installed Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition. As you can see many files are created when you create a Visual Basic Project.

Loops There are several tyoes of loops used in Visual Basic. While End While Do Loop For Next For Each Next The For Next loop performs the loop a set number of times. It uses a control variable or counter to keep track of the number of repetions. You specity the starting value and the end value. The default increment is one. You can specify the increment. The format looks something like this:

For counter [ As datatype ] = start To end [ Step step ] [ statements ] [ Exit For ] [ statements ] Next [ counter ]
The items in [] are optional. Examples of For statements:

Now our next program will produce a table. We want the user to enter the value of a resistor in a text box. They will click the button to produce a table in a list box. We will vary the current and compute the power. We will use the following equation: P = I2 R P = Power (watts) I = Current (amps) R = Resistance (ohms or ) Hold the Alt key while typing 234 on the numeric key pad to get .

Step 1 Create the graphic user interface (GUI) with one label, one text box, one button and one long listbox. The width of the form is 500 and the height is 600. The interface should look something like this:

Step 2 Set properties as follows:

Control Form1

Property Font Name Size StartPosition Size Width Height

Value

Form1 Form1

Courier New 10 CenterScreen 500 600

When we set the form Font property, that is the default font for controls placed on the form. The label, text box, button and list box all have the same font unless we change it. This will be useful when we try to produce a table with characters that line-up. Set the following properties:

Control Label1

Property Size Width Height Location x Location x Size Width Height Text Text Size Width Height

Value

270 23 32 32 425 436 Enter the resistance in ohms &Table 120 26

Label1 ListBox1 ListBox1

Label1 Button1 Button1

The form should look something like this:

Step 3 Now we are about ready to write some code. The items placed in a list box are string data type. We will use the String.Format method to add items to the list box. The format or syntax is: String.Format(format, arg0, arg1, arg2) We will have three arguments (power, current and resistance). The format item in the above has a certain format or syntax. {index[,alignment or length][:format specifier character]} We will not use the last item (format specifier character). While in the IDE, double click the button and the code window should open. Remember to set the TabIndex property of the textbox to 0 and the button to 1. Write the following code:
Public Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim p, i, r As Single, fm As String r = Val(TextBox1.Text) fm = "{0,-15}{1,-15}{2,-15}" ListBox1.Items.Clear() ListBox1.Items.Add(String.Format(fm, "Power", "Current", "Resistance")) ListBox1.Items.Add(String.Format(fm, "watts", " amps", " ")) ListBox1.Items.Add(String.Format(fm, "", "", "")) For i = 10 To 20 Step 0.5 p=i^2*r ListBox1.Items.Add(String.Format(fm, p, i, r)) Next i End Sub End Class

The first thing is to dimension all our variables. Then we store the value typed into the text box in the variable r. Looking at:
fm = "{0,-15}{1,-15}{2,-15}"

The 0, 1 and 2 are the index value of the three arguments. The -15 says you want it left aligned and 15 characters long. The next four lines of code clear the list box and display the heading for our table in the list box. The For Next loop creates a table of values in our list box.

Press F5 to run the program. The run should look something like this:

I we change the -15s in, fm = "{0,-15}{1,-15}{2,-15}" , to 15 then the columns will be right justified. Again I held down the Alt key while typing the numbers 234 on the numeric key pad to get the symbol . There are many characters that can be entered this way. It works with most fonts. This also works in Excel, PowerPoint and of course Word.

Special Characters:

Hold down the Alt key and type 237 from the numeric key pad only to get . Hold down the Alt key and type 241 to get . In engineering, we use the degree symbol a lot. Hold down the Alt key and type 248 to get something like this 27 F. We also use square a lot. So how would I get a + b = c. That is right Alt + 253. If you can find it on here, use it. That will be much fast than any other way. In engineering, time is money. If we can save time, we can make more money. I hope we covered enough of Visual Basic 2008 to get you interested in learning more. There are many new books on Visual Basic 2008, some you can download free from the Internet. One is Accelerated VB 2008. Other good books are Beginning VB 2008 From Novice to Professional and Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step. There are many controls like radio buttons, check boxes, timer, combo boxes, group boxes and picture boxes. that we didnt cover. We didnt discuss strings in detail since engineers use number a lot. Arrays are another useful topic for engineers. In addition to event procedures, there are sub and function procedures.

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