Group 2 VB - Net Programming Fundamentals
Group 2 VB - Net Programming Fundamentals
GROUP MEMBERS
QUESTIONS:
What is VB.Net:
A basic Visual Basic Program consists of a “Module” or a “Class” that contains a “Main”
method, which is the entry point of the program. The syntax is as follows:
Module ModuleName
Sub Main ()
‘Program code goes here
End Sub
End Module
OR
Class ClassName
Shared Sub Main ()
‘Program code goes here
End Sub
End Class
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“Sub Main ()” is the entry point of the program, where the program begins to execute.
“Shared” This is the Keyword used by the Sub Main () when it is declared inside a class.
Thus meaning the main method can be called upon without creating the instance of a class.
“End Sub”, “End Module” or “End Class” mark the end of the respective blocks of code.
For Instance:
Module HelloWorld
Sub Main ()
Console.WriteLine (“Hello World! “)
Console.ReadLine ()
End Sub
End Module
In VB.Net, data types determine the data that a variable can store, allocating different
amounts of memory space accordingly.
There are various data types used in the VB .Net Programming Language and thus they
include as follows:
1. Boolean
The Boolean value Range is dependant whether the values are true or false
2. Byte
The Byte value range as data type runs from 0 to 255 in unsigned form
3. Char
The char data type usually accommodates a single character such as ‘a’ or ‘b’ and it supports
a value range of 0 to 655635 unsigned characters
The char data type has a storage allocation of only two bytes.
4. String
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A string is made up of several characters that makeup a word, a sentence or even a paragraph
and thus as the definition of a string, it occupies 0 to approximately 2 billion Unicode
characters.
In a string, the spaces, the punctuation or any other special symbol in between words are
counted as characters. For Instance: “Hello World!” has 13 characters.
The storage allocation of the string data type depends on the implementing platform.
5. Int
The int data type usually accommodates whole numbers such as ‘10’ or ‘-1’ and it can be
either signed or unsigned
The int data type can be used to record the number of people in a certain room, the number of
animals in a farm, the age of a person, the number of solid objects etc.
6. Double
Unlike the int data type, which only accommodates whole numbers, the double data type
accommodates number with fractions such as ’10.34’ or ‘-60.99999999’
Like the int data type, the double data type can accommodate both positive (unsigned) and
negative (signed) numbers.
The double data type can be used to record the temperature of a room etc.
The double data type has a storage allocation of 8 bytes, which is the double of int data type.
Variables in VB.Net:
Variables are named memory locations that hold values that would be manipulated in the
program. Variables are used to store of different data types; they might include integers,
strings, characters etc.
The following are the rules followed when naming variables in VB.Net:
1. The variable names should begin with alphabets or an underscore. For Instance, _van
or name is accurate.
2. The variable names should only use underscores , _ , as the only special symbols that
are allowed
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3. A variable name should be unique within its scope .(Either in a class or a method)
In VB.Net, one can declare a variable using the “Dim” statement and thus the basic syntax of
declaring a variable is as follows:
Where, “variableName” is the name of the variable you want to declare and “dataType" is the
data type of the variable which might either be an integer, a character or perhaps a character.
One can also initialize the variables as per the following examples:
Operators in VB.Net
Operands are the values or variables in which the operators perform operations.
Operators are special symbols that perform specific operations on variables and values. There
are several operators used in VB.Net and thus they include the following:
Arithmetic Operators
1. Addition (+)
Module Operators
Sub Main ()
Dim a As Integer = 10
Dim b As Integer = 30
Dim c As Integer = a + b
Console. WriteLine (“c: “& c )
End Sub
End Module
2. Subtraction (-)
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3. Multiplication (*)
The multiplication sign is used to compute the product within the values. It is usually
represented by the (*) sign.
An example of the code snippet showing the multiplication concept is as follows:
Module Operators
Sub Main ()
Console.WriteLine (“Input the value of G”)
Dim G As Double = CDbl (Console.ReadLine ())
Console.WriteLine (“Input the value of H”)
Dim H As Double = CDbl (Console.ReadLine ())
Dim I As Double = G * H
Console.WriteLine (“The product of G and H is:” & I)
End Sub
End Module
4. Division (/)
The division is used to compute the division of values, which always output the quotient. The
(/) sign usually represent it
An example of the code snippet showing the division concept is as follows:
Module Operators
Sub Main ()
Console.WriteLine (“Input the value of J”)
Dim J As Double = CDbl (Console.ReadLine ())
Console.WriteLine (“Input the value of K”)
Dim K As Double = CDbl (Console.ReadLine ())
Dim L As Double = J / K
Console.WriteLine (“The value of L when divide by J and K is:” & L)
End Sub
End Module
Arrays in VB.Net
Arrays in VB.Net are fundamental data structures that allow you to store a collection of
elements of the same type in contiguous memory locations
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Arrays are particularly useful for managing lists of data where you want to access elements
using an index.
An array is a fixed-size sequential collection of elements all of the same type. The first
element is accessed with an index of 0, and the last element is accessed with the index of ‘n-
1’ where n is the total number of elements in the array.
Declaration of Arrays
In VB.Net, one can declare the arrays using the “Dim” statement .The appropriate syntax of
declaring an array in VB.Net is as follows:
Dim arrayName () As Data type
Where the “arrayName” one is supposed to name their various arrays, then specify the array
length in the parenthesis “()” and finally in the “Data Type” one can specify the data type the
array belongs to.
The following are further examples to demonstrate array declaration
Dim myNumber (4) As Integer
Dim Name (30) As String
Initialization of Arrays
One can be able to initialize the arrays by assigning values to its elements. For Instance:
Dim myNumber (4) As Integer
myNumber (0) = 10
myNumber (1) = 20
myNumber (2) = 30
myNumber (3) = 40
OR
Dim myNumber (4) As Integer = {10, 20, 30, 40}
Accessing Array Elements
To access array elements, one should start with the arrayName, then the index of the element
in the parenthesis.
For Instance:
Console.WriteLine (myNumber (2)) ‘which outputs 30
Array Properties and Methods
Arrays in VB.Net have several properties and methods on how you can manipulate them. For
Instance:
‘Having an array called myNumber with an element list of uncertain elements; we
can get the array length using the following example:
Dim myNumber () As Integer = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}
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‘If need be, I am required to sort my array elements, then I will proceed with the
following syntax:
Array.Sort (myNumber)
Console.WriteLine (myNumber (0))
‘If I want to reverse my array elements in an Array, then I will proceed with the
following syntax:
Array.Reverse (myNumber)
Console.WriteLine (myNumber (0))
Multi-dimensional Arrays
Multi-dimensional arrays are categorized into two thus; it includes the rectangular array and
the jagged arrays
i. Rectangular Arrays
A rectangular array is an array which has two or more dimensions (two arrays’ elements)
which the first array element may represent a row and the other array element may represent
a column.
To declare a rectangular array, one should take note of the following syntax using the “Dim”
statement:
Dim ArrayName (,) As Data type
Where the “ArrayName” is the name given to the array, displaying it.
An example of the declaration array is as follows:
Dim myNumbers (3, 4) As Integer
ii. Jagged Arrays
A Jagged array is an array of arrays.
Unlike the rectangle array, the jagged array is a multi-dimensional array in which each row
can be a different size from all the other rows.
To declare a Jagged Array, one must use the following syntax, where the number of pair of
parentheses indicates the number of dimensions in the array:
Dim arrayName () () As Data type
For example:
Dim myJaggedArray () () As Integer
Functions in VB.NET
Function is used to declare the name, parameter and the body of a function.
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Sub Main ()
Dim a As Integer = 100
Dim b As Integer = 200
Dim res As Integer
Explanation: The above code snippet shows a function FindMax that takes two integer values
and returns the larger of the two.
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
Max value is 200
Sub Procedures in VB.NET
Sub Procedures is used to declare the name, parameter and the body of a sub procedure.
The following is the syntax of the sub procedures:
[modifiers] Sub SubName [(ParameterList)]
[Statements]
End Sub
An example of a sub-procedure in a code of block is as follows:
Module mysub
Sub CalculatePay (ByRef hours As Double, ByRef wage As Decimal)
Dim pay As Double
pay = hours * wage
Console.writeline (“Total Pay: {0}”, pay)
End Sub
Sub Main ()
CalculatePay (25, 10)
CalculatePay (40, 20)
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Explanation: The above demonstrates a sub procedure CalculatePay that takes two
parameters hours and wages and displays the total pay of an employee.
It will produces the following when compiled and executed;
Total Pay: 250.00
Total Pay: 800.00
Total Pay: 825.00