Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2017

Chapter 1
An Introduction
to Visual
Studio 2017
and Visual
Basic
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accessible website, in whole or in part
 FOCUS ON THE CONCEPTS LESSON

Concepts covered in this lesson:

• F-1 Computer programming terminology
• F-2 The programmer’s job
• F-3 The Visual Basic programming language
• F-4 The Visual Studio IDE
• F-5 Assigning names to objects

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
F-1 Computer Programming Terminology
(1 of 2)
• In essence, the word programming means giving a
mechanism the directions to accomplish a task.
• A set of instructions that tells a computer how to
accomplish a task is called a computer program or,
more simply, a program.
• Programs are written by programmers using a variety
of special languages called programming languages.
• An integrated development environment (IDE) is an
environment that contains all of the tools and features
you need to create, run, and test your programs.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-1 Computer Programming Terminology
(2 of 2)
• A graphical user interface (or GUI) is what the person
using your program (referred to as the user) sees and
interacts with while your program is running.
• Program instructions (code) is what we code to let the
program do a job.
• The user interface and its program instructions are referred
to as an application.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 To run the Good Morning application:

• Use Windows to locate and then open the

VB2017\Chap01 folder on your computer’s hard disk or
on the device designated by your instructor.
• Double-click Good Morning.exe in the list of
filenames.
• The application’s user interface appears on the screen
with a blinking “It’s time to get up!!!!” message.
• Click the Exit button to close the application.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-2 The Programmer’s Job

• The software developer/analyst will meet with the

user and then outline the problem specification for the
programmer.
• The programmer meets with the person responsible
for describing the problem (analyst).
• After the planning is complete, the programmer will
translate the solution into computer instructions—a
process called coding.
• The programmer then will test the program rigorously
with sample data to make sure it works both correctly
and to the user’s satisfaction.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-3 The Visual Basic Programming
Language
• Visual Basic is an object-oriented programming
language, which is a language that allows the
programmer to use objects to accomplish a program’s
goal.
• In object-oriented programming, or OOP, an object is
anything that can be used.
• Every object in an object-oriented program is created
from a class, which is a pattern that the computer
uses to create the object.
• An object created from a class is called an instance of
the class.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-4 Object vs Class

• A class specifies 2 things:

– Attribute / properties
 A button has a name and text
 The person “class” specifies that a person has a name,
surname and birth date
– Behavior
 The person “class” specifies that a person can run and talk and
walk
 A button is clickable
• An object created from the class will have the attributes
and behavior specified in the class.

Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-5 Object vs Class

• An object created from the class will have the attributes

and behavior specified in the class.
– Attribute / properties
 A button has a name (btnShow) and text (Show picture)
 The person “class” specifies that a person has a name (Ben),
surname (Motloung) and birth date (2000/01/30)
– Behavior
 btnShow is clickable and we can specify what must happen
when it is clicked

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 To run the applications (1 of 3)

• If necessary, open the VB2017\Chap01 folder.

• Double-click Payment.exe
• After a few moments, the Monthly Payment Calculator
application appears on the screen. The interface
contains a text box, a list box, buttons, radio buttons,
and labels.
• First, you will use the application to calculate the
monthly payment for a $15,000 loan at 3.5% interest
for five years. Type 15000 in the Principal text box.
Scroll down the Interest list box and then click 3.50%.
Finally, click the Calculate button.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 To run the applications (2 of 3)

• The application indicates that your monthly payment

would be $272.88.
• Next, you will determine what your monthly payment
would be if you borrowed $4,500 at 2.75% interest for
four years. Type 4500 in the Principal text box, click
2.75% in the Interest list box, click the 4 years radio
button, and then click the Calculate button.
• Click the Exit button to close the application.
• Now double-click Einstein.exe. Click the Show
equation button to display Einstein’s famous equation.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 To run the applications (3 of 3)
• Click the Hide equation button to hide the equation,
and then click the Exit button to close the application

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-4 The Visual Studio IDE (1 of 4)

• The Visual Studio IDE contains many different

windows, each with its own special purpose.
• The designer window is where you create (or design)
your application’s GUI.
• A form is the foundation for the user interface in an
application created for the Windows environment.
• You use the Toolbox window to add other objects,
called controls, to the form.
• Each tool listed in the Toolbox window represents a
class.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-4 The Visual Studio IDE (2 of 4)

• Each object has a set of attributes that determines its

appearance and behavior.

• The attributes, called properties, are listed in the

Properties window when the object is selected in the
designer window.

• The Solution Explorer window displays a list of the

projects contained in the current solution and the items
contained in each project.

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 F-4 The Visual Studio IDE (3 of 4)

• The Solution Explorer window indicates that the

Einstein Solution contains the Einstein Project, which
contains several items:

– The Einstein.png and Equation.png items are the names

of files on your disk.

– The Main Form.vb file stores the program instructions

(code) that tell the three buttons how to respond when
the user clicks them.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 F-5 Assigning Names to Objects (1 of 2)

• Each object has a set of properties attached to it.

• One of the most important of these properties is the
Name property.
• This is because you use the Name property to refer to
the object in code.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
F-5 Assigning Names to Objects (2 of 2)

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 Assignment Statements and Comments
(1 of 7)
• You can set an object’s properties during design time,
which is when you are building the interface.

• You can also set an object’s properties during run

time, which occurs while the application is running; you
do this by using an assignment statement.

• An assignment statement is one of many different

types of Visual Basic instructions.

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
Assignment Statements and Comments
(2 of 7)
• The operator indicates that the property is a member of
the object. (property belongs to object)
• The equal sign in an assignment statement is called the
assignment operator.

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 Assignment Statements and Comments
(3 of 7)
Create a UI:

Purpose: The show and hide buttons must make the

View button appear and disappear

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 Assignment Statements and Comments
(4 of 7)
• Code a comment before the class (program, author,
date)
• Code an event procedure for btnShow (a click event):
– btnView.Visible = True
– (This stores true in btnView’s visible property as soon as
the instruction is executed (run). If the button is visible, it
is displayed)
• Code an event procedure for btnHide (a click event):
– btnView.Visible = False
– (This stores false in btnView’s visible property as soon as
the instruction is executed (run). If the button is NOT
visible, it disappears)

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
Assignment Statements and Comments
(7 of 7)

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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 Summary (1 of 3)
• Programs are the step-by-step instructions that tell a
computer how to perform a task.
• Programmers use various programming languages to
communicate with the computer.
• Programmers are responsible for translating a
problem’s solution into instructions that the computer
can understand.
• Programmers rigorously test a program before
releasing the program to the user.
• An object-oriented programming language, such as
Visual Basic, enables programmers to use objects
(e.g.,

Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 Summary (2 of 3)
• check boxes and buttons) to accomplish a program’s goal.
An object is anything that can be used.
• Every object in an object-oriented program is instantiated
(created) from a class,
• A class is a pattern that tells the computer how the object
should look (data) and behave (do). An object is referred to
as an instance of the class.
• The four windows you use most often when designing
application’s GUI are:
– the designer Window,
– Toolbox Window,
– solution explorer Window,
– properties Window.

Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
 Summary (3 of 3)

• Each tool (control) in the toolbox represents a class.

• Each object has a set of properties that determines its data
(appearance)
• Each object has behavior as is specified by the class.

• Windows applications in Visual Basic are composed of

solutions, projects, and files.
• You enter your application’s program instructions in the
Code Editor window.
• An object’s name, which is entered in its Name property,
can be used to refer to (use) the object in code.

Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part