Visual Basic 2017

Made Easy

By

Dr.Liew
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Disclaimer
Visual Basic 2017 Made Easy is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, nor
has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.

Trademarks
Microsoft, Visual Basic, Excel and Windows are either registered trademarks or

trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Liability
The purpose of this book is to provide basic guides for people interested in Visual

Basic 2017 programming. Although every effort and care has been taken to make

The information as accurate as possible, the author shall not be liable for any error,

Harm or damage arising from using the instructions given in this book​.

Copyright ® 2017 Liew Voon Kiong

All rights reserved. No Part of this e-book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means,
without permission in writing from the author.
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Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to many people who have made their
contributions in one way or another to the successful publication of this book.
My special thanks go to my children Xiang, Yi and Xun who have contributed their ideas
and help in editing this book. I would also like to appreciate the support provided by my
beloved wife Kim Huang and my youngest daughter Yuan. I would also like to thank the
millions of readers who have visited my ​Visual Basic Tutorial ​website at ​vbtutor.net for
their support and encouragement.

About the Author

Dr. Liew Voon Kiong holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, a master’s degree in
Management and a doctorate in Business Administration. He has been involved in Visual
Basic programming for more than 20 years. He created the popular online Visual Basic
Tutorial at ​www.vbtutor.net​, which has attracted millions of visitors since 1996. It has
consistently been one of the highest ranked Visual Basic websites.

To provide more support for Visual Basic students, teachers, and hobbyists, Dr. Liew has
written this book to complement the free Visual Basic 2017 tutorial with much more content.
He is also the author of the Visual Basic Made Easy series, which includes ​Visual Basic 6
Made Easy, Visual Basic 2008 Made Easy, Visual Basic 2010 Made Easy, Visual Basic
2013 Made Easy ​and ​Excel VBA Made Easy. ​Dr. Liew’s books have been used in high
school and university computer science courses all over the world.
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Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction to Visual Basic 2017 11
1.1 A Brief Description of Visual Basic 2017 11
1.2 The Visual Studio 2017 IDE 13
1.3 Creating a New Project in Visual Studio 2017 14
Chapter 2 Designing the Interface 19
2.1 Customizing the Form 19
2.2 Adding Controls to the Form 24
Chapter 3 Writing the Code 27
3.1 The Concept of Event-Driven Programming 27
3.2 Writing the Code 29
Chapter 4 Working with Controls 31
4.1 TextBox 31
Example 4.1 Adding two numbers in two text boxes 31
4.2 Label 32
Example 4.2 Displaying output on a Label 33
4.3 List Box 34
4.3.1 Adding Items to the List Box 34
a) Adding items using the String Collection Editor 34
b) Adding Items using the Add() Method 35
Example 4.3 Adding an Item to a List Box 35
Example 4.4 Adding items to a List Box via an input box 36
Example 4.5 Creating Geometric Progression 37
4.3.2 Removing Items from a List Box 39
Example 4.6 Removing an item from a list box 39
Example 4.7 Deleting an item from a list box via an input box 40
Example 4.8 Removing a selected item from a list box 41
Example 4.9 Removing multiple selected items in a list box 41
Example 4.10 Removing all items in a list box using the Clear method 41
4.4 ComboBox 42
4.4.1 Adding Items to a combo box 42
4.4.2 Removing Items from a Combo box 46
Chapter 5 Handling Images 47
5.1 Loading an Image in a Picture Box 47
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5.1.1 Loading an Image at Design Time 47

5.1.2 Loading an Image at Runtime 50
5.2 Loading an Image using Open File Dialog Control 50
Chapter 6 Working with Data 54
6.1 Data Types 54
6.1.1 Numeric Data Types 54
6.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types 55
6.1.3 Suffixes for Literals 56
6.2 Variables and Constants 56
6.2.1​ Variable Names 56
6.2.2 Declaring Variables 57
Example 6.1 Declaring Variables using Dim 57
Example 6.2 Displaying Message using MsgBox 58
6.2.3 Assigning Values to Variables 58
Example 6.3 Incompatible Data Type 59
6.2.4 Scope of Declaration 60
6.2.5 Declaring Constants 61
Example 6.4 Calculating the Area of Triangle 61
Chapter 7 Array 62
7.1 Introduction to Arrays 62
7.2 Dimension of an Array 62
7.3 Declaring Arrays 63
Example 7.1 Find the Length of an Array 63
Example 7.2 Using the Length Property 64
Example 7.3 Find the Length of a Two-Dimensional Array 64
Example 7.4 Populating a List Box Involving an Array 65
Chapter 8 Performing Mathematical Operations 67
8.1 Mathematical Operators 67
8.2 Writing Code that Performs Mathematical Operations 68
Example 8.1 Standard Arithmetic Calculations 68
Example 8.2 ​Pythagorean Theorem 68
Example 8.3: BMI Calculator 69
Chapter 9 String Manipulation 71
9.1 String Manipulation Using + and & signs 71
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Example 9.1 String Concatenation 71

Example 9.2 Data Mismatch 72
9.2 String Manipulation Using Built-in Functions 74
9.2.1 Len Function 74
Example 9.3 Finding the Length of a Phrase 74
9.2.2 Right Function 75
Example 9.4 Extracting the Right Portion of a Phrase 75
9.2.3 Left Function 75
9.2.4 Mid Function 76
Example 9.5 Retrieve Part of a Text Using Mid Function 76
Example 9.6 Extracting Text from a Phrase 76
9.2.5 Trim Function 77
Example 9.7 Trimming Both Side of a Phrase 77
9.2.6 Ltrim Function 77
9.2.7 The Rtrim Function 78
9.2.8 The InStr function 78
9.2.9 Ucase and the Lcase Functions 78
9.2.10 Chr and the Asc functions 78
Chapter 10 Using If…Then…Else 80
10.1 Conditional Operators 80
10.2 Logical Operators 81
10.3 Using If...Then...Else 81
10.3.1 If…Then Statement 81
Example 10.1 Lucky Draw 82
10.3.2 If...Then…Else Statement 82
Example 10.2 Lucky Draw Simulation 82
Example 10.3 Lucky Draw 84
10.3.3 If….Then…ElseIf Statement 85
Example 10.4 Grade Generator 86
Chapter 11 Using Select Case 88
Example 11.1: Examination Grades 88
Example 11.2 Using Case Is 89
Example 11.3 Select Case using a Range of Values 90
Example 11.4 Examination Grade 91
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Chapter 12 Looping 93
12.1 For…Next Loop 93
Example 12.1 Creating a Counter 93
Example 12.2 Sum of Numbers 93
Example 12.3 Step-down For Next Loop 94
Example 12.4 Demonstrate Exit For 94
12.2 Do Loop 94
Example 12.5 Do While…Loop 95
Example 12.6 Summation of Numbers 95
12.3 While…End While Loop 96
Example 12.3 Demonstrating While…End While Loop 96
Chapter 13 Sub Procedures 98
13.1 What is a Sub Procedure 98
Example 13.1 A Sub Procedure that Adds Two Numbers 98
Example 13.2: Password Cracker 99
Chapter 14 Creating Functions 102
14.1 Creating User-Defined Functions 102
Example 14.1: BMI Calculator 102
Example 14.2 Future Value Calculator 104
14.2 Passing Arguments by Value and by Reference 105
Example 14.3 ByRef and ByVal 106
Chapter 15 Mathematical Functions 108
15.1 The Abs Function 108
Example 15.1 Compute Absolute Number 108
15.2 The Exp function 109
Example 15.2 Compute Exponential Value 109
15.3 The Fix Function 110
Example 15.3 Truncate Decimals using Fix 110
15.4 The Int Function 111
15.5 The Log Function 111
Example 15.4 Calculate Logarithm of a Number 111
15.6 The Rnd( ) Function 112
15.7 The Round Function 113
Example 15.6 Rounding a Number 113
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Chapter 16 The Format Function 115

16.1 Format Function for Numbers 115
16.1.1 Built-in Format function for Numbers 115
Example 16.1 Formatting Numbers 116
16.1.2 User-Defined Format 116
Example 16.2 User-Defined Formats 117
16.2 Formatting Date and Time 118
16.2.1 Formatting Date and time using predefined formats 118
Example 16.3 Formating Date and Time 119
16.2.2 Formatting Date and time using user-defined formats 120
Example 16.4 Formatting Date and Time 120
Chapter 17 Using Checkbox and Radio Button 122
17.1 Check Box 122
Example 17.1: Shopping Cart 122
Example 17.2 Another Shopping Cart 124
Example 17.3 Formatting Text 124
17.2 Radio Button 126
Example 17.4 Shopping Cart 126
Example 17.2 Using Groupbox 128
Chapter 18 Errors Handling 130
18.1 Introduction 130
18.2 Using On Error GoTo Syntax 130
Example 18.1 Division Errors 131
18.3 Errors Handling using Try...Catch...End Try Structure 132
Example 18.2 Data Type Mismatch Error 133
Chapter 19 Object Oriented Programming 135
19.1 Concepts of Object-Oriented Programming 135
19.1.1 Encapsulation 135
19.1.2 Inheritance 135
19.1.3 Polymorphism 135
19.2 Creating Class 136
Example 19.1 BMI Calculator 137
Chapter 20 Creating Graphics 140
20.1 Introduction 140
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20.2 Creating the Graphics Object 141

20.3 Creating the Pen Object 141
20.4 Drawing a Line 142
Example 20.1 Drawing a Straight Line 142
20.5 Drawing Lines that Connect Multiple Points 143
Example 20.2 Drawing Lines that Connect Multiple Points 144
20.6 Drawing a curve that Connect Multiple Points 145
Example 20.3 Drawing a Curve that Connect Multiple Points 145
20.7 Drawing Quadratic Curve 146
Example 20.4 Drawing a Quadratic Curve 146
20.8 Drawing Sine Curve 148
Example 20.5 Drawing a Sine Curve 149
20.9 Drawing a Rectangle 150
20.10 Customizing Line Style of the Pen Object 151
Example 20.6 Drawing a Rectangle with DashStyle 152
20.11 Drawing an Ellipse 153
Example 20.7 Drawing an Ellipse 154
Example 20.8 Drawing an Ellipse 156
20.12 Drawing a Circle 156
Example 20.9 Draw a Circle 156
20.13 Drawing Text 157
Example 20.10 Drawing Text 158
Example 20.11 Drawing Text Input by the User 160
20.14 Drawing Polygons 161
Example 20.12 Drawing a Triangle 162
Example 20.13 Drawing a Quadrilateral 163
20.15 Drawing a Pie 164
Example 20.14 Drawing a pie that sweeps clockwise through 60 degree. 164
20.16 Filling Shapes with Color 165
Example 20.15 Drawing and Filling a Rectangle with Color 165
Example 20.16 Drawing and Filling an Ellipse with Color 167
Example 20.17 Drawing and Filling a Polygon with Color 168
Example 20.18 Drawing and Filling a Pie 169
Chapter 21 Using Timer 171
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Example 21.1 Creating a Digital Clock 171

Example 21.2 Creating a Stopwatch 172
Example 21.3 Creating a Digital Dice 174
Chapter 22 Creating Animation 176
Example 22.1 Creating Moving Object 176
Example 22.2 Creating an Animated Dice 177
Example 22.3 Creating a Slot Machine 180
Chapter 23 Working with Databases 184
23.1 Introduction to Database 184
23.2 Creating a Database Application 185
23.3 Creating Connection to a Database using ADO.NET 186
23.4 Populating Data in ADO.NET 194
Example 23.1 Creating a Database 196
23.5 Browsing Records 197
23.6 Editing, Saving, Adding and Deleting Records 198
Example 23.2 Browsing Records 199
23.7 Accessing Database using DataGridView 202
Example 23.3 Browsing Data Using DataGridView 203
23.8 Performing Arithmetic Calculations in a Database 204
Example 23.4 Performing Arithmetic Calculation 204
Example 23.5 Calculating Average 206
Example 23.6 Using SQL Count Function 207
Chapter 24 Reading and Writing Text Files 210
24.1 Introduction 210
24.2 Reading a Text File 210
24.3 Writing to a Text File 214
Chapter 25 Building Console Applications 217
Example 25.1: Displaying a Message 219
Example 25.2 Creating a Text File Writer in Console 220
Example 25.3 Creating a Text File Reader in Console 221
Example 25.4 Creating a Console App using If...Then....Else 222
Chapter 26 Creating Menu Bar and Toolbar 225
26.1 Creating Menu Items on the Menu Bar 225
26.2 Creating the Toolbar 233
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Chapter 27 Deploying your VB 2017 Applications 239

Appendix 244
Index 245
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Chapter 1 Introduction to Visual Basic 2017

❖ A brief description of Visual Basic 2017

❖ Getting to know the Visual Basic 2017 Integrated Development Environment

1.1 A Brief Description of Visual Basic 2017

Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language first released by
Microsoft in 1991. The final version of the classic Visual Basic was Visual Basic 6. Visual
Basic 6 is a user-friendly programming language designed for beginners. Many developers
still favor VB6 over its successor VB.NET.

In 2002, Microsoft released Visual Basic.NET(VB.NET) to replace Visual Basic 6.

Thereafter, Microsoft declared VB6 a legacy programming language in 2008. However,
Microsoft still provides some form of support for VB6. VB.NET is a fully object-oriented
programming language implemented in the .NET Framework. It was created to cater for the
development of the web as well as mobile applications.

Subsequently, Microsoft has released many versions of VB.NET. They are Visual Basic
2005, Visual Basic 2008, ​Visual Basic 2010​, Visual Basic 2012, ​Visual Basic 2013​, Visual
Basic 2015 and ​Visual Basic 2017​. Although the .NET portion was discarded in 2005, all
versions of the Visual Basic programming language released since 2002 are regarded as
VB.NET programming language

Visual Basic 2017 was released in 2017. It is bundled as a .NET desktop development
component Visual Studio 2017. VB2017 can be used to build windows desktop applications
using the .NET framework. Besides that, Visual Studio Community 2017 also comes with
other Windows development tools that include Universal Windows Platform Development
that creates applications for the Universal Windows Platform with C#, VB , JavaScript and
C++. On top of that, it also includes Desktop Development with C++.
 12

In addition, to cater for the increasing needs of web and cloud-based applications, VS2017
also provides the Web and Cloud development tools that include ASP.NET, Python, Azure
SDK, Node.js, data storage and processing, data science and analytical applications as
well as Office/SharePoint development. Furthermore, VS2017 also cater for the
development of mobile applications by including the mobile and gaming tools like mobile
development with .NET, game development with Unity, mobile development with
JavaScript, mobile development with C++ and game development with C++. With the
mobile development and gaming tools, you can build IOS and Android mobile apps and
mobile games.

You can download Visual Studio 2017 from the following link:

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/

After downloading the file, run the VS2017RC community installer file. If you receive a User
Account Control notice, click Yes. Next, it will ask you to acknowledge the Microsoft
License Terms and the Microsoft ​Privacy Statement​, as shown in Figure 1.1. Click Install to
continue.

Figure 1.1

You will see several status screens that show the progress of the installation. After
installation completed, you can select the feature set that you want, as shown in Figure 1.2.
Since we are keen on developing Visual Basic 2017 desktop app, we will select the .NET
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desktop development component. Besides that, you might want to install a language by
clicking the Language packs. After making your selections, click install.

Figure 1.2

Upon completion of the installation, you can start programming in Visual Basic 2017.

1.2 The Visual Studio 2017 IDE

When you launch Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, you will be presented with the Start Page of
Microsoft VS 2017, as shown in Figure 1.3
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Figure 1.3 Visual Studio 2017 IDE

The Visual Studio 2017 start page comprises a few sections, the Get Started section, the
Recent section, the Open section, the New project section and the Developers News
section. In the start page, you can either start a new project, open a project or open a
recent project. Besides that, you can also check for the latest news in Visual Studio 2017
for Windows Desktop. The Start Page also consists of a menu bar and a toolbar where you
can perform various tasks by clicking the menu items.

1.3 Creating a New Project in Visual Studio 2017

To start a new Visual Studio 2017 project, click on New Project under the Start section to
launch the Visual Studio 2017 New Project page as shown in Figure 1.4. You can also
choose to open a recent project:
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Figure 1.4 ​Visual Studio 2017 New Project Page

The New Project Page comprises a few templates, among them are Visual Basic, Visual C#
and Visual C++. Since we are only learning Visual Basic 2017, we shall select Visual Basic.
Visual Basic 2017 offers you several types of projects that you can create; they are ​Blank
Apps,​ ​Windows Forms APP(.NET Framework), WPF App(.NET Framework), Console
App(.NET Framework) ,Class ​Library(.NET Framework), Shared Project and more. Since
we are only learning how to create windows desktop applications, we shall select Windows
Forms App.

At the bottom of this dialog box, you can change the default project name
WindowsApplication1 to some other name you like, for example, My First Visual Basic 2017
Program. After you have renamed the project, click OK to continue. The Visual Basic 2017
IDE Windows will appear, as shown in Figure 1.5. Visual Basic 2017 IDE comprises a few
windows, the Form window, the Solution Explorer window and the Properties window. It
also consists of a Toolbox which contains many useful controls that allows a programmer to
develop his or her Visual Basic 2017 programs.
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Figure 1.5 The Visual Basic 2017 Express IDE

The Toolbox is not shown until you click on the Toolbox tab. When you click on the Toolbox
tab or use the shortcut keys Ctrl+Alt+x, the common controls Toolbox will appear, as shown
in Figure 1.6. You can drag and move your toolbox around and dock it to the right, left ,top
or bottom of the IDE.
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Figure 1.6 Visual Basic 2017 Express Toolbox

Next, we shall proceed to show you how to create your first program. First, change the text
of the form to 'My First Visual Basic 2017 Program' in the properties window; it will appear
as the title of the program. Next, insert a button and change its text to OK. The design
interface is shown in Figure 1.7

Figure 1.7 The Design Interface

Now click on the OK button to bring up the code window and enter the following statement
between ​Private Sub​ and ​End Sub​ ​procedure, as shown in Figure 1.6:

MsgBox("My First Visual Basic 2017 Program")

Now click on the Start button on the toolbar or press F5 to run the program then click on the
OK button, a dialog box that displays the “My First Visual Basic 2017 Program" message
will appear, as shown in Figure 1.8. The function ​MsgBox is a built-in function of Visual
Basic 2017 which can display the text enclosed within the brackets
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Figure 1.8 Visual Basic 2017 Code Window

Figure 1.9 The Runtime Interface

Summary
● In section 1.1, you have learned about the history of Visual Basic 2017
● In section 1.2, you have learned how to install and launch Visual Basic Studio 2017
● In section 1.3, you have learned how to launch the new project dialog and the Visual
Basic 2017 IDE. You have also learned how to write your first program.
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Chapter 2 Designing the Interface

❖ Customizing
❖ Adding controls
❖ Setting Control Properties

Since Visual Basic 2017 is a GUI-based programming language, the first step in developing
an application is to build a graphical user interface. To build a graphical user interface, you
need to customize the default form by changing its properties at design phase and at
runtime. After customizing the default form, you may proceed to add controls from the
toolbox to the form and then customize their properties.

2.1 Customizing the Form

When you start a new Visual Basic 2017 project, the VS2017 IDE will display the default
form along with the Solution Explorer window and the Properties window for the form as
shown in Figure 2.1. The name of the default form is Form1. The properties window
displays all the properties related to Form1 and their corresponding attributes or values.
You can change the name of the form, the title of the form using the text property, the
background color, the foreground color, the size and more. Try changing the properties ​in
Table 1.

Table 1

Property Value

Name MyForm

Text My First Visual Basic 2017 Program

BackColor Aqua

ForeColor DarkBlue

MaximizeBox False
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In fact, you do not have to type in the color manually, you may select a color from the color
drop-down list that comprises three tabs, Custom, Web, and System, as shown in Figure
2.1. Clicking on the drop-down arrow will bring out a color palette or a list of color
rectangles where you can select a color.

Figure 2.1

Another method of setting the colors is to manually type in the RGB color code or the hex
color code. The values of R, G and B range from 0 to 255, by varying the values of the RGB
we can obtain different colors. For example, an RGB value of 128, 255, 255 yields the
cyan color.

On the other hand, the hex color code system use a six-digit, three-​byte ​hexadecimal
number to represent colors. The bytes represent the red, green and blue components of the
color. One byte represents a number in the range 00 to ff (in hexadecimal notation), or 0 to
255 in decimal notation. For example, ​#0000ff represents the cyan color. However, when
you type in the hex color code in the properties window of VS2017, it automatically converts
the color to RGB color or the color name. Figure 2.2 shows a list of Hex color codes and the
corresponding colors.
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Figure 2.2 Hex Color Codes

The design interface is shown in Figure 2.2 and the runtime interface is shown in Figure
2.4. In the runtime interface, notice that the title has been changed from Form1 to My First
Visual Basic 2017 Program, background color changed to aqua , the text OK color has
been changed to dark blue and the window cannot be maximized.
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Figure 2.3

Figure 2.4

You can change the properties of the form at run-time by writing the relevant code. The
default form is an object and an instant of the form can be denoted by the name ​Me​. ​The
property of the object is defined by specifying the object’s name followed by a period:

ObjectName.property

For example, we can set the background of the form to blue using the following code:

Me​.BackColor=Color.Blue

In addition, you can also use the ​FromArgb method to specify the color using the RGB
codes, as follows:

Me.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 0)

To achieve the same interface as shown in Figure 2.4, use following code :

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
Me.Text = "My First Visual Basic 2017 Program"
Me.BackColor = Color.Cyan
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Me.MaximizeBox = False
Me.MinimizeBox = True
End Sub

Instead of using the color name cyan, you can use RGB code, as follows:

Me.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(0,255,255)

Press F5 to run the program and you will get the exact interface as that shown in Figure
2.4. In addition, you can also specify the size, the opacity and the position of the default
form using the code, as follows:

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs Handles

MyBase.Load
Me.Text = "My First VB2017 Project"
Me.BackColor =Color.Beige
Me.MaximizeBox = False
Me.MinimizeBox = True
Me.Size = New Size(400, 400)
Me.Opacity = 0.85
Me.CenterToParent()
End Sub

The runtime interface is as shown in Figure 2.5

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Figure 2.5

2.2 Adding Controls to the Form

In section 2.1, we have learned how to build an initial interface in Visual Basic 2017 by
customizing the default form. Next, we shall continue to build the interface by adding some
controls to the form. The controls are objects that consist of three elements, i.e. properties,
methods, and events. Controls can be added to the form from the Toolbox. ​Among the
controls, the most common ones are the button, label, textbox, list box, combo box, picture
box, checkbox, radio button and more. The controls can be made visible or invisible at
runtime. However, some controls will only run in the background and cannot be seen at
runtime, one such control is the timer.

The Toolbox is usually hidden when you start Visual Basic 2017 IDE, you need to click
View on the menu bar and then select Toolbox to reveal the Toolbox, as shown in Figure
2.6. You can also use shortcut keys Ctrl+w+x to bring out the toolbox.
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Figure 2.6: Toolbox

You can drag the Toolbox to any position you like. You can also dock the Toolbox by
right-clicking on the Toolbox and choose dock from the pop-up menu. The docked Toolbox
appears side by side with the Solution Explorer, and as one of the tabbed windows together
with the Form Design window and the code window, as shown in Figure 2.7.
 26

Figure 2.7

You can also dock the Toolbox at the bottom, below the default form, as shown in Figure
2.8. Further, you may also pin the Toolbox to the side bar or the bottom bar. We suggest
that you place the toolbox alongside or at the bottom of the default form so that it is easy for
you to add controls from the toolbox into the form.

Figure 2.8

To add a control to the form, click the control and drag it onto the form. You can drag the
control around in the form and you can also resize it.

To demonstrate how to add the controls and then change their properties, we shall design a
picture viewer. First, change the title of the default form to Picture Viewer in its properties
window. Next, insert a picture box on the form and change its background color to white. To
do this, right click the picture box and select properties in the popup menu, then look for the
BackColor​ Property as shown in the properties window in Figure 2.9. Finally, add two
buttons to the form and change the text to View and Close in their respective properties'
windows. The picture viewer is not yet functional until we write code to it. We shall deal
with the programming part in the coming chapters.
 27

Figure 2.9

Summary
● In section 2.1, you have learned how to customize the form by changing the values of its
properties.
● In section 2.2, you have learned how to add controls to the form and change their
properties at design phase and at runtime.
 28

Chapter 3 Writing the Code

❖ Learn the basics of writing code

In the previous chapter, we have learned how to design the user interface by adding
controls to the form and by changing their properties. However, the user interface alone will
not work without adding code to them. In this chapter, we shall learn how to write code for
all the controls so that they can interact with the events triggered by the users. Before
learning how to write code, let us delve into the concept of event-driven programming

3.1 The Concept of Event-Driven Programming

Visual Basic 2017 is an event-driven programming language. Event-driven means that the
code is executed in response to events triggered by the user actions like clicking the
mouse, pressing a key on the keyboard, selecting an item from​ a drop-down list, typing
some words into textbox and more. It may also be an event that runs in response to some
other programs. ​Some of the common events in Visual Basic 2017 are load, click,
double-click, drag and drop, pressing the keys and more.

Every form and every control you place on the form has a set of events related to them. To
view the events, double-click the control (object) on the form to enter the code window. The
default event will appear at the top part on the right side of the code window. You need to
click on the default event to view other events associated with the control. The code
appears on the left side is the event procedure associated with the load event. Figure 3.1
illustrates the event procedure load associated with the Form (its name has been changed
to PicViewer therefore you can see the words PicViewer events) and Figure 3.2 shows the
events associated with button.
 29

Figure 3.1: Events associated with Form

Figure 3.2: Events associated with the button

 30

3.2 Writing the Code

To start writing the code, click on any part of the form to go into the code window as shown
in Figure 3.1. The event procedure is to load Form1 and it starts with the keywords ​Private
Sub​ and ends with ​End Sub​. This procedure includes the Form1 class and the event Load,
and they are bind together with an underscore, i.e. ​Form_Load​. It does nothing other than
loading an empty form. To make the load event does something, insert the statement.

MsgBox ( "Welcome to Visual Basic 2017")

The Code

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles
MyBase.Load
MsgBox ( "My First Visual Basic 2017 Program", ,"My Message")
End Sub
End Class

MsgBox is a built-in function in Visual Basic 2017 that displays a message in a message
box. The MsgBox function comprises a few arguments, the first is the message and the
third one is the title of the message box. When you run the program, a message box
displaying the text “My First Visual Basic 2017 Program” will appear, as shown in Figure
3.3.

Figure 3.3
 31

You will notice that above Private Sub structure there is a preceding keyword ​Public
Class Form1​. This is the model of an object-oriented programming language. When we
start a windows application in Visual Basic 2017, we will see a default form with the name
Form1 appears in the IDE, it is actually the Form1 Class that inherits from the Form
class ​System.Windows.Forms.Form​. A class has events as it creates an instant of a class
or an object.

You can write code to perform arithmetic calculations. For example, you can use the
arithmetic operator plus to perform addition of two numbers, and display the result in a
message box, as shown below:

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
MsgBox("2" & "+" & "5" & "=" & 2 + 5)
End Sub

*The symbol & (ampersand) is to perform string concatenation. The output is as shown in
Figure 3.4

Figure 3.4

Summary
● In section 3.1, you have learned the concepts of event driven programming
● In section 3.2, you have learned how to write code for the controls
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Chapter 4 Working with Controls

❖ Learn to work with a text box
❖ Learn to work with a label control
❖ Learn to work with a list box
❖ Learn to work with a combo box

In the preceding chapter, we have learned how to write simple Visual Basic 2017 code. In
this chapter, we shall learn how to write codes for some common controls. Some of the
commonly used controls are label, textbox, button, list box and combo box. However, in this
chapter, we shall only deal with textbox , label, list box and combo box. We shall deal with
the other controls later chapters.

4.1 TextBox
A Textbox is the standard control for accepting inputs from the user as well as to display the
output. It can handle string and numeric data but not images or pictures. String in a textbox
can be converted to a numeric data by using the function ​Val(text)​. The following
example illustrates a simple program that processes the input from the user.

Example 4.1 Adding two numbers in two text boxes

In this program, you add two text boxes and a button on the form. The two text boxes are
for accepting inputs from the user. Besides that, we can also program a button to calculate
the sum of the two numbers using the plus operator. The value in a textbox is stored using
the syntax ​TextBox1.Text​ , where Text is one of the properties of textbox.

The following code will add the value in TextBox1 and the value in TextBox2 and displays
the sum in a message box. The runtime interface is illustrated in Figure 4.1.

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click

MsgBox("The sum is" & Val(TextBox1.Text) + Val(TextBox2.Text))

End Sub
 33

Figure 4.1

After clicking the Add button, you will obtain the answer in a message box, as shown in
Figure 4.2

Figure 4.2

4.2 Label

The Label control can be used for multiple purposes like providing instructions and guides
to the users, displaying outputs and more. It is different from the textbox because it is read
only , which means the user cannot change or edit its content at runtime. Using the syntax
 34

Label.Text​, it can display string as well as numeric data . You can change its text property
in the properties window or at runtime by writing an appropriate code.

Example 4.2 Displaying output on a Label

Based on Example 4.1, we add two labels, one is for displaying the text Sum= and the other
label is to display the answer of the Sum. For the first label, change the text property of the
label by typing Sum= over the default text Label1. Further, change its font to bold and the
font size to 10. For the second label, delete the default text Label2 and change its font to
bold and the font size to 10. Besides that, change its background color to white.

In this program, instead of showing the sum in a message box, we display the sum on a
label.

The Code

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Label2.Text = Val(TextBox1.Text) + Val(TextBox2.Text)
End Sub

*The function Val is to convert text to numeric value. Without using Val, you will see that
two numbers are joined instead of adding them.

The output is as shown in Figure 4.3

 35

Figure 4.3

4.3 List Box

The function of the list box is to present a list of items where the user can click and select
the items from the list. Items can be added by the programmer at design time or at runtime
using a code. We can also write code to allow the user to add items to the list box or
remove the items from the list box.

4.3.1 Adding Items to the List Box

a) Adding items using the String Collection Editor

To demonstrate how to add items at design time, start a new project and insert a list box on
the form then right-click on the list box to access the properties window. Next, click on
collection of the Item property to launch the ​String Collection Editor whereby you can enter
the items one by one by typing the text and press the Enter key, as shown in Figure 4.4.
After clicking on the OK button, the items will be displayed in the text box, as shown in
Figure 4.5
 36

Figure 4.4

Figure 4.5
 37

b) Adding Items using the Add() Method

Items can also be added at runtime using the ​Add() method. Before we proceed further, we
should know that Visual Basic 2017 is an object-oriented programming language.
Therefore, visual basic 2017 comprises objects. All objects have methods and properties,
and they can be differentiated and connected by hierarchy. For a list box, an Item is an
object subordinated to the object ListBox . The Item object comprises a method call ​Add()
that is used to add items to the list box. To add an item to a list box, you can use the
following syntax:

ListBox.Item.Add("Text")

Example 4.3 Adding an Item to a List Box

In this example, the item “Nokia” will be added to the end of the list, as shown in Figure 4.6

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
ListBox1.Items.Add("Nokia")
End Sub

Figure 4.6
 38

Example 4.4 Adding items to a List Box via an input box

In this example, you can allow the user to add items via a popup input box. First, we create
a variable ​myitem ​and then assign a value to ​myitem ​via the ​InputBox ​function that store
the input from the user. We then use the Add() method to add the user’s item into the list
box. The code is as follows:

​ Handles
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As ​EventArgs)
Button1.Click
Dim myitem ​'declare the variable myitem
myitem = InputBox("Enter your Item")
ListBox1.Items.Add(myitem)
End Sub

The runtime interface is as shown in Figure 4.7

Figure 4.7

After typing the item ‘Xiaomi” in the input box, the item will be added to the list box, as
shown in Figure 4.8.
 39

Figure 4.8

Example 4.5 Creating Geometric Progression

This is a program that generates a geometric progression and displays the results in a list
box. Geometric progression is a sequence of numbers where each subsequent number is
found by multiplying the previous number with a fixed number. This fixed number is called
the common ratio. The common ratio can be a negative number, an integer, a fraction and
any number but it must not be a zero or 1.

The formula to find the nth term of the geometric progression is ​ar​n-1 , where a is the first

number and r is the common ratio.

In this program, we employ the ​Do.... Loop Until​ ​statement to generate the numbers in
a geometric progression. To design the UI, we need to insert three text boxes for the user
to enter the first number, the common ratio and the number of terms. We also need to insert
a list box to list the generated numbers. Besides that, a command button is needed for the
user to generate the numbers in the geometric progression. In addition, we also add
another button for clearing the list of generated numbers.

To add the numbers to the list box, we use the ​Add()​ ​method. The syntax is
ListBox1.Items.Add(x)​, where x can be any variable.

The code

Private Sub BtnComp_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

 40

BtnComp.Click
Dim x, n, num As Double
Dim r As Double
x = TxtFirst.Text
r = TxtCR.Text
num = TxtN.Text
MyList.Items.Add("n" & vbTab & "x")
MyList.Items.Add("___________")

n = 1
Do
x = x * r
MyList.Items.Add(n & vbTab & x)
n = n + 1
Loop Until n = num + 1
End Sub

Private Sub BtnClr_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

BtnClr.Click
MyList.Items.Clear()
End Sub

Figure 4.9
 41

4.3.2 Removing Items from a List Box

To remove items at design time, simply open the String Collection Editor and delete the
items line by line or all at once using the Delete key. To remove the items at runtime, you
can use the ​Remove​ method, as illustrated in the following Example 4.5.

Example 4.6 Removing an item from a list box

In this example, add a button and label it “Remove Items”. Click on this button and enter
the following code

Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button2.Click
ListBox1.Items.Remove("Ipad")
End Sub

The item “Ipad” will be removed after running the program.

Example 4.7 Deleting an item from a list box via an input box

You can also allow the user to choose an item to delete via an Inputbox. To add this
capability, insert a button at design time and change its text to Delete Item. Click on the
button and enter the following statements in the code window:

Private Sub BtnDelete_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

BtnDelete.Click
Dim myitem
myitem = InputBox("Enter your Item for Deletion")
MyListBox.Items.Remove(myitem)
End Sub

The runtime interface is as shown in Figure 4.10. After entering the item Samsung in the
input box and press OK, the item Samsung will be deleted from the list box.
 42

Figure 4.10

To remove a selected item from the list box, using the following syntax:

Listbox1.Items.Remove(ListBox1.SelectedItem)

Example 4.8 Removing a selected item from a list box

Private Sub BtnDelSel_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

BtnDelSel.Click
MyListBox.Items.Remove(MyListBox.SelectedItem)
End Sub

When the user run the program and select an item to delete, the item will be deleted.

To remove multiple selected items from the list box, you need to use the If...End If structure
together with the For…Next loop. Besides that, you also must ensure that the list box allows
multiple selection. To enable multiple selection, set the selection mode to ​MultipleSimple
in the list box properties windows. The code is as shown in Example 4.7.
 43

Example 4.9 Removing multiple selected items in a list box

In this example, add an extra button to the previous example and label it as Clear Selected
Items. Key in the following code:

Private Sub BtnDelSelected_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

Handles BtnDelSelected.Click
If MyListBox.SelectedItems.Count > 0 Then
For n As Integer = MyListBox.SelectedItems.Count - 1 To 0
Step -1
'remove the current selected item from items
MyListBox.Items.Remove(MyListBox.SelectedItems(n))
Next n
End If
End Sub

To clear all the items at once, use the clear method, as illustrated in Example 4.8.

Example 4.10 Removing all items in a list box using the Clear method

In this example, add a button and label it “Clear the List”

Private Sub BtnClr_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

BtnClr.Click
MyListBox.Items.Clear()
End Sub

When you run the program and click the “Clear the List” button, all the items will be cleared.
The design interface for remove the items from the list box is as shown in Figure 4.11
 44

Figure 4.11

4.4 ComboBox
The function of the combo box is also to present a list of items where the user can click and
select the items from the list. However, the combo box only displays one item at runtime.
The user needs to click on the handle (small arrowhead) on the right of the combo box to
see all the items in a drop-down list.

4.4.1 Adding Items to a combo box

To add items to the combo box at design time, use the String Collection Editor as shown in
Figure 4.12. Besides that, if you want to display an item as the default text in the combo box
when you run the program, enter the name of the item by replacing the text property of the
combo box.
 45

Figure 4.12

After clicking the handle of the right side of the combo box, the user will be able to view all
the items, as shown in Figure 4.13

Figure 4.13
 46

Besides that, you may add items using the ​Add() ​method. For example, if you wish to add
an item to ComboBox1, key in the following statement. The output is as shown in Figure
4.14

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
ComboBox1.Items.Add("Nokia")
End Sub

Figure 4.14

You can also allow the user to add items via an input box, as follows:

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Dim myitem
myitem = InputBox("Enter your Item")
ComboBox1.Items.Add(myitem)
End Sub

The runtime interface is shown in Figure 4.15

 47

Figure 4.15

After you type the item ‘Xiaomi’ and click Ok, you can see that the item has been added to
the combo box, as shown in Figure 4.16.

Figure 4.16
 48

4.4.2 Removing Items from a Combo box

To remove items from the combo box at design stage, simply open the String Collection
Editor and delete the items line by line or all at once using the Delete key.

To remove the items at runtime, use the Remove method, as illustrated in the following
example. In this example, add a second button and label it “Remove Items”. Click on this
button and enter the following code:

Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button2.Click
ComboBox1.Items.Remove("Ipad")
End Sub

The item “Ipad” will be removed after running the program. You can also let the user select
a specific item to delete, the code is as follows:

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
MyCombo.Items.Remove(MyCombo.SelectedItem)
End Sub

To clear all the items at once, use the clear method, as illustrated in the following example.
In this example, add a button and label it “Clear Items”

Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button2.Click
ComboBox1.Items.Clear()
End Sub

Summary
● In section 4.1, you have learned how to work with a text box
● In section 4.2, you have learned how to work with a label
● In section 4.3.1, you have learned how to add items to a list box
● In section 4.3.2, you have learned how to remove items from a list box
● In section 4.4.1, you have learned how to add items to a combo box
● In section 4.4.2, you have learned how to remove items from a combo box
 49

Chapter 5 Handling Images

❖ Learn to load image in a picture box
❖ Learn to browse and load images using the common dialog

In this chapter, we shall learn how to load an image into the picture box at design time and
at runtime. In addition, we shall also learn how to use a common dialog control to browse
for image files in your local drives and then select and load an image into the picture box.

5.1 Loading an Image in a Picture Box

5.1.1 Loading an Image at Design Time

In this section, let us develop an image viewer . To create an image viewer, we insert a
picture box in the form. Next, change its border property to ​FixedSingle and its
background color to white. You might also want to change the ​SizeMode property of the
image to ​StretchImage so that the image can fit in the picture box. In the properties
window, scroll to the Image property, as shown in Figure 5.1. In the properties window, click
on the grey button on the right of the Image item to bring out the “Select Source” dialog box
, as shown in Figure 5.2
 50

Figure 5.1

Figure 5.2

The next step is to select local resource and click on the Import button to view the available
image files in your local drives, as shown in Figure 5.3. Finally, select the image you like
and then click the open button, the image will be displayed in the picture box, as shown in
Figure 5.4
 51

Figure 5.3

Figure 5.4
 52

5.1.2 Loading an Image at Runtime

We can also load an image at runtime, using the code as follows:

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
PictureBox1.Image = Image.FromFile("C:\Users\Toshiba\Pictures\My
Pictures\USA\Chicago 2012.jpg")
End Sub

* You need to search for an image in your local drive and determine its path.

Running the program will display the same image in the picture box as in Figure 5.4

5.2 Loading an Image using Open File Dialog Control

To load an image in a picture box using the ​OpenFileDialog​ ​control, we must add the
OpenFileDialog​ ​control on the form. This control will be invisible during runtime, but it
facilitates the process of launching a dialog box and let the user browse his or her local
drives and then select and open a file. For the ​OpenFileDialog​ to display all types of
image files, we must specify the types of image files under the Filter property. Before that,
rename ​OpenFileDialog​ as ​OFGSelectImage​. Next, right click on the ​OpenFileDialog
control to access its properties window. Beside the Filter property, specify the image files
using the format:

JPEG Files| *.JPG|GIF Files|*.GIF|WIndows Bitmaps|*.BMP

as shown in Figure 5.5. These are the common image file formats. Besides that, you need
to delete the default Filename.
 53

Figure 5.5

Next, double-click on the View button and enter the following code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
If OFGSelectImage.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
PictureBox1.Image = Image.FromFile(OFGSelectImage.FileName)
End If
End Sub

Press F5 to run the program and click the View button, a dialog box showing all the image
files will appear, as shown in Figure 5.6.
 54

Figure 5.6

Notice that that the default image file is JPEG since we have placed it in the first place in
the Filter property. Selecting and opening an image file will load it in the picture box, as
shown in Figure 5.7.
 55

Figure 5.7

Summary
● In section 5.11, you have learned how to load an image at design time using the
properties window
● In section 5.1.2, you have learned how to load an image at runtime
● In section 5.2, you have learned how to load an image using the OpenFileDialog control
 56

Chapter 6 Working with Data

❖ Understand various data types
❖ Learn how to declare variables
❖ Learn how to declare constants

We deal with many kinds of data in our daily life like names, phone number, addresses,
money, date, stock quotes, statistics and more. Similarly, in Visual Basic 2017, we must
deal with all sorts of data, some of them can be mathematically calculated while some are
in the form of text or other non-numeric forms. In Visual Basic 2017, data can be stored as
variables, constants or arrays. The values of data stored as variables always change, just
like the contents of a mailbox or the storage bin while the value of a constant remains the
same throughout.

6.1 Data Types

Visual Basic 2017 classifies information into two major data types, the numeric data types
and the non-numeric data type

6.1.1 Numeric Data Types

Numeric data types are types of data comprises numbers. Numeric data are divided into
seven types based on the range of values they can store.

Calculations that only involve round figures can use Integer or Long integer. Computations
that require high precision must use Single and Double precision data types; they are also
called floating point numbers. For currency calculation, you can use the currency data
types. Lastly, if even more precision is required to perform calculations that involve many
decimal points, we can use the decimal data types. These data types are summarized in
Table 6.1
 57

Table 6.1 Numeric Data Types

Type Storage Range

Byte 1 byte 0 to 255

Integer 2 bytes -32,768 to 32,767

Long 4 bytes -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,648

Single 4 bytes -3.402823E+38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values

1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E+38 for positive values.

Double 8 bytes -1.79769313486232e+308 to -4.94065645841247E-324

for negative values
4.94065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232e+308
for positive values.

Currency 8 bytes -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to

922,337,203,685,477.5807

Decimal 12 bytes +/- 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 if no

decimal is use
+/- 7.9228162514264337593543950335 (28 decimal
places).

6.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types

Non-numeric data comprises string data types, Date data types, Boolean data types, Object
data type and Variant data type .

Table 6.1 Non-numeric Data Types

Type Storage Range

String(fixed length) Length of string 1 to 65,400 characters

String(variable length) Length + 10 0 to 2 billion characters

bytes

Date 8 bytes January 1, 100 to December 31, 9999

Boolean 2 bytes True or False

 58

Object 4 bytes Any embedded object

Variant(numeric) 16 bytes Any value as large as Double

Variant(text) Length+22 bytes Same as variable-length string

6.1.3 Suffixes for Literals

Literals are values that you assign to data. In some cases, we need to add a suffix behind a
literal so that VB can handle the calculation more accurately. For example, we can use num
=1.3089# for a Double type data. The suffixes are summarized in Table 6.3.

Table 6.3 Suffixes

Suffix Data type

& Long

! Single

# Double

@ Currency

In addition, we need to enclose string literals within two quotations and date and time
literals within two # sign. Strings can contain any characters, including numbers. The
following are few examples:

memberName="Turban, John."
TelNumber="1800-900-888-777"
LastDay=#31-Dec-00#
ExpTime=#12:00 am#

6.2 Variables and Constants

Data can be stored as a variable or as a constant. Variables are like mailboxes in the post
office. The content of the variables changes every now and then, just like the mailboxes.
 59

6.2.1​ Variable Names

Like the mailboxes, each variable must be given a name. To name a variable, you must
follow a set of rules. The following are the rules when naming the variables in Visual Basic:

● It must be less than 255 characters

● No spacing is allowed
● It must not begin with a number
● Period is not permitted
Examples of valid and invalid variable names are displayed in Table 6.4

Table 6.4

Valid Names Invalid Names

My_Computer My.Computer

Smartphone123 123Smartphone

Long_Name_Can_beUSE LongName&Canbe&Use
*& is not acceptable

6.2.2 Declaring Variables

We must declare the variables before using them by assigning names and data types. If
you fail to do so, the program will show an error. Variables are usually declared in the
general section of the code windows using the ​Dim​ statement. The syntax is as follows:

Dim VariableName As DataType

If you want to declare more variables, you can declare them in separate lines or you may
also combine more in one line, separating each variable with a comma, as follows:

Dim VariableName1 As DataType1, VariableName2 As DataType2, VariableName3

As DataType3

Example 6.1 Declaring Variables using Dim

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As

System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 60

Dim password As String

Dim yourName As String
Dim firstnum As Integer
Dim secondnum As Integer
Dim total As Integer
Dim doDate As Date
End Sub

You may also combine the statements in one line, separating each variable with a comma.

Dim password As String, yourName As String, firstnum As Integer……

For the string declaration, there are two possible forms, the variable-length string and the
fixed-length string.

Example 6.2 Displaying Message using MsgBox

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Dim YourMessage As String
YourMessage = "Happy Birthday!"
MsgBox(YourMessage)
End Sub

When you run the program, a message box that shows the text “Happy Birthday!” will
appear, as shown in Figure 6.1

Figure 6.1
 61

For the fixed-length string, you must use the syntax as shown below:

Dim VariableName As String * n

Where n defines the number of characters the string can hold.

Dim yourName As String * 10

​yourName can holds no more than 10 Characters.

6.2.3 Assigning Values to Variables

After declaring various variables using the ​Dim statements, we can assign values to those
variables. The syntax of an assignment is

Variable=Expression

The variable can be a declared variable or a control property value. The expression could
be a mathematical expression, a number, a string, a Boolean value, as illustrated in the
following examples:

firstNumber=100
secondNumber=firstNumber-99
userName="John Lyan"
userpass.Text = password
Label1.Visible = True
Command1.Visible = false
Label4.text = textbox1.Text
ThirdNumber = Val(usernum1.Text)
total = firstNumber + secondNumber+ThirdNumber
MeanScore% = SumScores% / NumSubjects%
X=sqr (16)
TrimString= Ltrim ("Visual Basic", 4)
Num=Int(Rnd*6)+1
 62

An error occurs when you try to assign a value to a variable of incompatible data type. For
example, if you have declared a variable as an integer but you assigned a string value to it,
an error occurred, as​ ​shown in Example 6.4.

Example 6.3 Incompatible Data Type

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Dim YourMessage As Integer
YourMessage = "Happy Birthday!"
MsgBox(YourMessage)
End Sub

When you run the program, the following error messages will appear in a dialog box, as
shown in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2
 63

6.2.4 Scope of Declaration

Other than using the ​Dim​ keyword to declare the data, you can also use other keywords to
declare the data. Three other keywords are ​Private, Static​ and ​Public​. The forms are
as shown below:

Private VariableName As Datatype

Static VariableName As Datatype
Public VariableName As Datatype

The keywords indicate the scope of declaration.​ ​Private​ declares a local variable, or a
variable that is local to a procedure or module. However, Private is rarely used; we normally
use Dim to declare a local variable. The ​Static​ ​keyword declares a variable that is being
used multiple times, even after a procedure has been terminated. Most variables created
inside a procedure are discarded by Visual Basic when the procedure is completed, ​static
keyword preserve the value of a variable even after the procedure is terminated.​ ​Public​ is
the keyword that declares a global variable, which means it can be used by all the
procedures and modules of the whole program.

6.2.5 Declaring Constants

Constants are different from variables in the sense that their values do not change during
the running of the program. The syntax to declare a constant is

Const ConstantName As Single=K

Example 6.4 Calculating the Area of Triangle

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Const Pi As Single = 3.142
Dim R As Single = 10
Dim AreaCircle As Single
AreaCircle = Pi * R ^ 2
MsgBox("Area of circle with " & "radius" & R & "=" & AreaCircle)
End Sub
 64

Running the program and clicking the OK button will produce the following message.

Figure 6.3

Summary
● In section 6.11, you have understood numeric data types
● In section 6.1.2, you have understood non-numeric data types
● In section 6.1.3, you have learned how to use suffixes for literals
● In section 6.2.1, you have understood rules that govern variable names
● In section 6.2.2, you have learned how to declare variables
● In section 6.2.3, you have understood the scope of declaration of variables
● In section 6.2.3, you have learned how to declare a constant

Chapter 7 Array
❖ Understand the concept of array
❖ Learn how to declare a one-dimensional array
❖ Learn how to declare a two-dimensional array

7.1 Introduction to Arrays

An array is a group of variables with the same data type. When we work with a single item,
we only need to use one variable. However, if we deal with a list of items of similar type , it
is better to declare an array of variables instead of using a variable for each item

Imagine if we need to enter one thousand names, it would be very tedious to declare one
hundred different names. Therefore, instead of declaring one thousand different variables,
we just need to declare only one array. We differentiate each item in the array by using a
 65

subscript, the index value of each item, for example name(1), name(2),name(3) …….etc. ,
which will make declaring variables streamline and much more systematic.

7.2 Dimension of an Array

An array can be one dimensional or multidimensional. One dimensional array is a list of
items that consists of one row of items or one column of items. ​A two-dimensional array is a
table of items that is made up of rows and columns. The way to reference an element in a
one-dimensional array is ​ArrayName(x)​, where x is the index of the element. The way to
reference an element in a two-dimensional array is ​ArrayName(x,y) , where (x,y) is the
index of the element. Usually it is sufficient to use one dimensional and two-dimensional
arrays, we only need to use higher dimensional arrays if we need to deal with more
complex problems. Let me illustrate the arrays with tables.

Table 7.1 One-Dimensional Array

Student
SName(0) SName(1) SName(2) SName(3) SName(4) SName(5)
Name

Table 7.1 Two-Dimensional Array

SName(0,0) SName(0,1) SName(0,2) SName(0,3)

SName(1,0) SName(1,1) SName(1,2) SName(1,3)

SName(2,0) SName(2,1) SName(2,2) SName(2,3)

SName(3,0) SName(3,1) SName(3,2) SName(3,3)

7.3 Declaring Arrays

We use ​Public or Dim statement to declare an array, just as the way we declare a single
variable. The ​Public statement declares an array that can be used throughout an
 66

application while the ​Dim statement declares an array that could be used only in a local
procedure or module. The statement to declare a one-dimensional array is as follows:

Dim arrayName(n) As dataType

Please note that n does not indicate the number of elements in the array, it is one less than
the number of elements (n-1) because the first element is always the zeroth element. The
first element is arrayName(0), the second element is arrayName(1), the third element
is arrayName(2) and so forth. The number of elements in an array is also known as length,
we can retrieve the length of an array using the syntax ​arrayName.length​

For example, the following statement declares an array that consists of 11 elements starting
from CusName(0) through to CusName(10)

Dim CusName(10) As String

To find out the length of the array, you can write the following code:

Example 7.1 Find the Length of an Array

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
Dim CusName As String()
CusName = New String() {1, 2, 3}
MsgBox(CusName.Length)
End Sub

Running the program displays the length of the array i.e. 11, as shown in Figure 7.1

Figure 7.1
 67

You might also declare an array with a non-zero starting index by initializing an index value
other than zero, as follows:

Dim arrayname As DataType()

arrayName = New String(){1,2,3,....,n)

This array consists of n elements, starting with arrayName(1)

​Example 7.2 Using the Length Property

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
Dim CusName As String()
CusName = New String() {1, 2, 3}
MsgBox(CusName.Length)
End Sub
The message box will display the length as 3.

he statement to declare a two-dimensional array is as follow, where m and n indicate the

last indices in the array. The number of elements or the length of the array is (m+1) x (n+1)

Dim ArrayName(m,n) As dataType

Example 7.3 Find the Length of a Two-Dimensional Array

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
Dim CusName(5,6) As String
MsgBox(CusName.Length)
End Sub

The program produces a message box will display the length of the array, i.e.42, as shown
in Figure 7.2
 68

Figure 7.2

Example 7.4 Populating a List Box Involving an Array

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

MyBase.Load
Dim num As Integer
Dim CusName(5) As String
For num = 0 To 5
CusName(num) = InputBox("Enter the customer name", "Enter Name")
ListBox1.Items.Add(CusName(num))
Next
End Sub
This program will prompt the user to enter names in an input box for a total of 6 times and
the names will be entered into a list box, as shown in Figure 7.3 and Figure 7.4

Figure 7.3
 69

Figure 7.4

Summary
● In section 7.1, you have understood the concept of arrays
● In section 7.2, you have understood dimension in arrays
● In section 7.3, you have learned how to declare an array
 70

Chapter 8 Performing Mathematical Operations

❖ Recognize various mathematical operators
❖ Learn to write code that perform mathematical operations

Computer execute mathematical calculations much faster than human beings do. However,
computer itself cannot perform any mathematical calculations without receiving instructions
from the user. In Visual Basic 2017, we can write code to instruct the computer to perform
mathematical calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and many
other kinds of mathematical operations.

8.1 Mathematical Operators

For Visual Basic 2017 to perform mathematical calculations, we need to write code that
involves the use of various mathematical operators. The mathematical operators are
remarkably like the normal arithmetic operators, only with some slight variations. The plus
and minus operators are the same while the multiplication operator use the * symbol and
the division operator use the / symbol. The list of Visual Basic 2017 mathematical operators
is shown in table 8.1.

Table 8.1 Mathematical Operators

Operator Mathematical function Example

+ Addition 1+2=3

- Subtraction 10-4=6

^ Exponential 3^2=9

* Multiplication 5*6=30

/ Division 21/7=3

Mod Modulus(returns the remainder of an integer 15 Mod

division) 4=3

\ Integer Division(discards the decimal places) 19/4=4

 71

8.2 Writing Code that Performs Mathematical Operations

Once you can recognize all the mathematical operators , it is quite easy to write code that
can perform mathematical operations. First you need to think of a mathematical problem
and the equations as well as formulas that are required to for solving it then write the code
using those formulas and equations.

Example 8.1 Standard Arithmetic Calculations

In this program, you need to insert two text boxes, four labels and one button. Click the
button and enter the code as shown below. This program performs standard arithmetic
operations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The Code is as
follows:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim num1, num2, difference, product, quotient As Single
num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = TextBox2.Text
sum=num1+num2
difference=num1-num2
product = num1 * num2
quotient=num1/num2
LblSum.Text=sum
LblDiff.Text=difference
LblPro.Text = product
LblQt.Text = quotient
End Sub

Example 8.2 ​Pythagorean Theorem

This program uses Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the length of hypotenuse c given the
length of the adjacent side a and the opposite side b. In case you have forgotten the
formula for the Pythagorean Theorem, it is written as:

c^2=a^2+b^2
 72

The code is as follows:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim a, b, c As Single
a = TextBox1.Text
b = TextBox2.Text
c= (a^2+b^2)^(1/2)
Label3.Text=c
End Sub

Example 8.3: BMI Calculator

A lot of people are obese now and that could affect their health seriously. Obesity has
proven by the medical experts to be a one of the main factors that brings many adverse
medical problems, including the cardiovascular disease. If your BMI is more than 30, you
are considered obese. You can refer to the following range of BMI values for your weight
status.

Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
Overweight = 25-29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

To calculate your BMI, you just need use a calculator or create a homemade computer
program, and this is exactly what I am showing you here. The BMI calculator is a Visual
Basic program that can calculate the BMI of a person based on the body weight in kilogram
and the body height in meter. BMI can be calculated using the formula weight/( height )^2,
where weight is measured in kg and height in meter. If you only know your weight and
height in lb. and feet, then you need to convert them to the metric system.

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim height, weight, bmi As Single
height = TextBox1.Text
weight = TextBox2.Text
bmi = (weight) / (height ^ 2)
 73

Label4.Text = bmi
End Sub

The output is shown in Figure 8.1. In this example, height is 1.80m (about 5 foot 11), your
weight is 75 kg (about 168Ib), and the BMI is 23.14815. The reading suggests that you are
healthy. (Note: 1 foot=0.3048, 1 lb. =0.45359237 kilogram)

Figure 8.1

Summary
● In section 8.1, you have recognized all mathematical operators
● In section 8.2, you have learned to write code that perform arithmetic operations
 74

Chapter 9 String Manipulation

❖ Learn how to manipulate string using + and & signs
❖ Learn how to manipulate string using built-in functions

String manipulation means writing code to process characters like names, addresses,
gender, cities, book titles, sentences, words, text, alphanumeric characters (@,#,$,%,^,&,*,
etc.) and more. String manipulation is best demonstrated in the area of word processing
which deals with text editing. A string is a single unit of data that made up of a series of
characters that includes letters, digits, alphanumeric symbols etc. It is treated as the String
data type and therefore it is non-numeric in nature which means it cannot be manipulated
mathematically though it might consist of numbers.

9.1 String Manipulation Using + and & signs

Strings can be manipulated using the & sign and the + sign, both perform the string
concatenation which means combining two or more smaller strings into a larger string. For
example, we can join “Visual” ,”Basic” and “2017" into “Visual Basic 2017" using “Visual” &
”Basic” or “Visual “+”Basic”, as shown in the Examples below:

Example 9.1 String Concatenation

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim text1, text2, text3, text4 As String
text1 = "Visual"
text2 = "Basic"
text3 = "2017"
text4 = text1 + text2 + text3
MsgBox(text4)
End Sub

The line ​text4=text1+ text2 + text3 can be replaced by ​text4=text1 & text2 &
text3 ​and produces the same output. However, if one of the variables is declared as
numeric data type, you cannot use the + sign, you can only use the & sign.

The output is shown in Figure 9.1

 75

Figure 9.1

Example 9.2 Data Mismatch

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim text1, text3 As string
Dim Text2 As Integer
text1 = "Visual"
text2 = 22
text3 = text1 + text2
MsgBox(text3)
End Sub

This code will produce an error because of data mismatch. The error message appears as
shown in Figure 9.2.
 76

Figure 9.2

However, using & instead of + will be alright.

Dim text1, text3 As string

Dim Text2 As Integer
text1 = "Visual"
text2 = 22
text3 = text1 & text2
MsgBox(text3)

The output is shown in Figure 9.3

 77

Figure 9.3

9.2 String Manipulation Using Built-in Functions

A function is like a normal procedure, but the main purpose of the function is to accept a
specific input and return a value which is passed on to the main program to finish the
execution. There are numerous string manipulation functions that are built into Visual Basic
2017.

9.2.1 Len Function

The Len function returns an integer value which is the length of a phrase or a sentence,
including the empty spaces. The syntax is

Len("Phrase")

Example 9.3 Finding the Length of a Phrase

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As

System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim MyText As String
MyText="Visual Basic 2017"
MsgBox(Len(MyText))
End Sub

The output is shown in Figure 9.4

 78

Figure 9.4

9.2.2 Right Function

The Right function extracts the right portion of a phrase. The syntax is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right("Phrase",n)

Example 9.4 Extracting the Right Portion of a Phrase

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim MyText As String
MyText = "Visual Basic"
MsgBox(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right(MyText, 4))
End Sub

The program returns four right most characters of the phrase , as shown in Figure 9.5

Figure 9.5

9.2.3 Left Function

The Left function extract the left portion of a phrase. The syntax is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left("Phrase",n)

Where n is the starting position from the left of the phase where the portion of the phrase is
will be extracted. For example,

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left ("Visual Basic", 4) = Visu

 79

9.2.4 Mid Function

The Mid function is used to retrieve a part of text form a given phrase. The syntax of the
Mid Function is

Mid(phrase, position,n)

* position is the starting position of the phrase from which the retrieving process begins, and
n is the number of characters to retrieve.

Example 9.5 Retrieve Part of a Text Using Mid Function

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

Button1.Click
Dim myPhrase As String
myPhrase = InputBox("Enter your phrase")
LblPhrase.Text = myPhrase
blExtract.Text = Mid(myPhrase, 2, 6)
End Sub

This program extracts six characters starting from position 2 of the phrase. For example, if
you enter the phrase “Visual Basic 2017”, the extracted text is ​isual​.

Example 9.6 Extracting Text from a Phrase

You can let the user decide the starting position of the text to be extracted as well as the
number of characters to be extracted, as shown in the following code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles

BtnExtract.Click
Dim myPhrase As String
Dim pos, n As Integer
myPhrase = TxtPhrase.Text
pos = TxtPos.Text
n = TxtNumber.Text
 80

LblExtract.Text = Mid(myPhrase, pos, n)

End Sub

The runtime interface is shown in Figure 9.6

Figure 9.6

9.2.5 Trim Function

The Trim function trims the empty spaces on both side of the phrase. The syntax is

Trim("Phrase")

For example, Trim (” Visual Basic “) = Visual basic

Example 9.7 Trimming Both Side of a Phrase

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim myPhrase As String
myPhrase = InputBox("Enter your phrase")
Label1.Text = Trim(myPhrase)
End Sub

9.2.6 Ltrim Function

The Ltrim function trims the empty spaces of the left portion of the phrase. The syntax is
 81

Ltrim("Phrase")

For example,

Ltrim("Visual Basic 2017") = Visual basic 2017

9.2.7 The Rtrim Function

The Rtrim function trims the empty spaces of the right portion of the phrase. The syntax is

Rtrim("Phrase")

For example,

Rtrim("Visual Basic 2017") = Visual Basic 2017

9.2.8 The InStr function

The InStr function looks for a phrase that is embedded within the original phrase and
returns the starting position of the embedded phrase. The syntax is

Instr(n, original phase, embedded phrase)

Where n is the position where the Instr function will begin to look for the embedded phrase.
For example

Instr(1, "Visual Basic 2017 ","Basic")=8

9.2.9 Ucase and the Lcase Functions

The Ucase function converts all the characters of a string to capital letters. On the other
hand, the Lcase function converts all the characters of a string to small letters.

The syntaxes are

Microsoft.VisualBasic.UCase(Phrase)
Microsoft.VisualBasic.LCase(Phrase)

For example,

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Ucase("Visual Basic") = VISUAL BASIC

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Lcase("Visual Basic") = visual basic
 82

9.2.10 Chr and the Asc functions

The Chr function returns the string that corresponds to an ASCII code while the Asc
function converts an ASCII character or symbol to the corresponding ASCII code. ASCII
stands for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”. Altogether there are 255
ASCII codes and as many ASCII characters. Please refer to the ASCII table in the
Appendix for a complete list of the codes. Some of the characters may not be displayed as
they may represent some actions such as the pressing of a key or produce a beep sound.
The syntax of the Chr function is

Chr(charcode)

and the syntax of the Asc function is

Asc(Character)

The followings are some examples:

Chr(65)=A, Chr(122)=z, Chr(37)=% , Asc("B")=66, Asc("&")=38

Summary
● In section 9.1, you have learned how to manipulate string using the & and + signs
● In section 9.2, you have learned how to manipulate string using various built-in function