CVEV 118/698 Visual Basic

Lecture 1
Prof. Mounir Mabsout Expert 1: Elsa Sulukdjian Expert 2: Walid El Asmar

Introduction

Visual Studio 6.0: Collection of Microsoft Visual development applications (Visual C++, Visual J++, Visual Basic, etc) VB is a programming language. 6 Versions launched since its creation in the 90s. Easy and powerful tool for developing Windows applications in Basic. Bill Gates.

VB Development Environment

Integrated Development Environment (IDE): visual environment to develop, run, test and debug. Controls: generally visual, and readymade components, assigned a set of properties (I.e. Text Box, Button, List Box, etc). IntelliSense: Microsofts sophisticated completion technology. It simplifies the coding process. Event driven programming: flow of the

application dictated by the user actions (click of a mouse, keystrokes, etc).

VB IDE
Toolbar menu bar Project Explorer

Toolbox

Properties window

Immediate window

Form layout

VB IDE Components

Menu Bar: contains all commands needed to run VB (File, Edit, View etc). Toolbars: quick access to commonly used menu commands. Project Explorer: displays the projects components. Toolbox: contains icons of the controls that can be placed on the projects Forms to create the applications interface. Properties Window: Shows the property settings of the selected control (size, caption, color, etc).

VB IDE Components (Contd)

Form Designer: Main window in which one can design and edit the applications user interface. In this window the user can enter and edit the applications code. It displays two windows: Form and Code window. Form Layout: Shows the initial positions of the forms in the application. It is useful in multiple forms applications. Immediate Window: Debugging tool.

Programming Steps

Step 1: Customize the windows that the user sees. I.e. placing controls and components on the layouts of the projects Forms. Step 2: Decide on the events each control should recognize. Step 3: Coding the event procedures for those events.

Variable Declaration

Visual Basic code works in two modes:

Implicit: does not require variable declaration Explicit: requires variable declaration

Declare variables using

Dim VariableName As DataType Example: Dim length As Integer Dim greetings As String

Variable Types

Numeric: stores numbers String: stores text Variant: stores any type of data Boolean: true/false Date Object

Implicit/Explicit

Implicit Example

Explicit Example

Public Sub VBImplicit() x=5 y = Hello End Sub

Start code window by: Option Explicit [] Public Sub VBExplicit() Dim x As Integer, y As String x=5 y = Hello End Sub

Implicit: default VB mode, x and y stored as variants Explicit: x can only store integers, y only strings ALWAYS use explicit mode, it reduces errors

Variable Scope
Code Form 1
Form1 Variables Sub1 Sub1 Variables

...
Sub2 Sub2 Variables

Code Form 2

Variable Scope (contd)

The same variable x is needed in both subroutines and therefore is defined as a global variable (I.e. declaration outside subs) There is a different local variable y for each subroutine (I.e. declaration inside subs)

Dim x As Integer
Public Sub FirstSub() x=5 Dim y As Integer End Sub Public Sub SecondSub() x=6 Dim y As String End Sub

Variable Generalities

Variable names need to be significant for clear coding practice. Dont be shy of using long names. Usually the first character(s) indicate the variable type (e.g): Integer: int Dim intLength As Integer String: str Double: dbl Text Control: txt Etc.

Constants

Constants do not change their value during the execution of the program. Declaration: Const ConstantName As DataType Public Const pi As Double = 3.14159265358979

Arrays

Arrays hold a set of related data. Declaration:

Dim ArrayName(ArraySize) As DataType Dim strNames(15) As String

or Dim strNames(1 To 16) As String strNames is an array that holds 16 string values. Multidimensional arrays:
Dim dblTemperature(99,99) As Double

Dynamic Arrays

Size not defined at the beginning of the program:

Dim dblMatrix() as Double

You can re-dimension the array once you know the size of the array:
ReDim dblMatrix(UserCount,UserCount)

Whats Next

Basic VB syntax Functions and Subroutines Common VB controls