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Visual Basic Notes

INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING......................................................................... 3
Basic Definitions ............................................................................................................. 3
Types of Programming Languages ................................................................................. 3
Machine Languages .................................................................................................... 3
Assembly or low-level languages ............................................................................... 4
High level languages ................................................................................................... 4
Language Translators ...................................................................................................... 4
Assemblers .................................................................................................................. 4
Compilers .................................................................................................................... 4
Interpreters .................................................................................................................. 5
The Stages of Program Development ............................................................................. 5
PROGRAM DESGN TOOLS............................................................................................. 8
Introduction to Algorithms ............................................................................................. 8
Pseudo codes ............................................................................................................... 8
Flowcharts ................................................................................................................... 8
Jackson Structure Diagrams ...................................................................................... 10
OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING ....................................................................... 12
Visual Basic features or capabilities ............................................................................. 12
Visual Interactive Development Concepts.................................................................... 12
Visual Basic Objects Concepts. .................................................................................... 13
Properties .................................................................................................................. 13
Methods..................................................................................................................... 13
Event ......................................................................................................................... 13
Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment(IDE) ........................................... 13
Debugging Programs .................................................................................................... 15
Syntax errors ............................................................................................................. 15
Run time errors. ........................................................................................................ 16
Logic errors ............................................................................................................... 16
Using Debug Toolbar ................................................................................................ 16
Loading a New Project.................................................................................................. 17
Creating User Interface ............................................................................................. 17
Setting the Properties ................................................................................................ 17
Caption Property ....................................................................................................... 18
Name property .......................................................................................................... 18
Naming conventions ................................................................................................. 18
Programming Visual Basic Controls ............................................................................ 19
Text Box and Command Button ............................................................................... 19
Label ......................................................................................................................... 20
Check Box ................................................................................................................. 23
Option Button............................................................................................................ 24
Combo Box ............................................................................................................... 26
List Box..................................................................................................................... 28
Timer ......................................................................................................................... 29
Frames ....................................................................................................................... 31
VARIABLES, CONSTANTS, DATA TYPES AND OPERATORS .............................. 34
Variables ....................................................................................................................... 34
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Constants ....................................................................................................................... 37
Data Types .................................................................................................................... 38
Visual Basic Operators ................................................................................................. 39
Mathematical Operators ............................................................................................ 39
Other Visual Basic Operators ................................................................................... 41
Control Structures ......................................................................................................... 41
Sequential .................................................................................................................. 41
Decision structure ..................................................................................................... 41
Iteration / Loop control structure .............................................................................. 45
WORKING WITH FORMS ............................................................................................. 50
Appearance of Forms .................................................................................................... 50
Start-Up Form ............................................................................................................... 51
Showing Forms ............................................................................................................. 52
Hiding Forms ................................................................................................................ 52
Designing Menus .......................................................................................................... 52
The Menu Editor. ...................................................................................................... 53
DATABASE PROGRAMING ......................................................................................... 56
Relational Database concepts ....................................................................................... 56
Creating Database in Visual Basic ................................................................................ 56
Visual Data Control .................................................................................................. 57
Creating a Database .................................................................................................. 57
Creating a Table ........................................................................................................ 57
Connecting the Database to the form controls .......................................................... 58
Generating Reports ....................................................................................................... 63
Modifying the appearance of the report .................................................................... 66
Viewing the Report through the form ....................................................................... 66

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INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING

Basic Definitions
Programming
A computer as we know consist of the hardware or the tangible parts. We’re said to use computer
to carry out our day-to-day tasks to process data in order to produce information. The computer
itself can not do anything on its own and therefore needs to have instructions which “direct” the
hardware in carrying out a given task or tasks. Programming is the technique used to create
these instructions. Below are some basic definitions that are relevant to understanding of
programming.

Program
This refers a set of instructions that directs the computer hardware in carrying out given task or
tasks. For example if you use a computer to compute employee salaries at the end of the month,
a program will have been created to do this.

Programming language
This refers to a set of symbols and the rules governing their use, that are employed in
constructing computer program.

Language translator
This is a program that converts a program written in a language other than machine sensible
language into machine sensible language for the computer to execute.

Programmer
This is the person trained in the technique of creating computer instructions (programs).

System
A group elements e.g. people, resources, equipment that work together to achieve a given
objective.

Program system
This refers to a group of programs that will work together each carrying its own singular task to
achieve the objective of processing information in a certain aspect of an organization.

Types of Programming Languages

In creating computer programs, a media has to be used. In the first computers which were very
large, programming involved the “programmer” walking into the computer and physically re-
arranging the circuitry in order for a specific task to be achieved. With time however, researchers
came up with ways where the programmer could type the instructions through the keyboard.

Machine Languages
These were the first programming languages to be used. The program instructions were written
using binary digits (0’sand 1’s).
The computer being driven by electricity is a bi-state device in that the internal circuitry is either in
“ON” state or “OFF” state.
The 1’s are meant to represent “ON” while 0’s represent “OFF”. When carrying out a given task;
the computer internal circuits will keep changing states from “OFF” to “ON” or vise-versa.
When a program was written in machine language, it directly addressed the internal circuit of the
machine. It is called so because is the language that the computer “understands”.
The language had the advantage of fast program execution since translation was not required,
and also the ability of the programmer to directly address and control the internal circuits of the
computer. On the other hand, tracing of errors in program written in machine language was
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extremely difficult, writing the program itself was time consuming and cumbersome and the
programmer had to be expert on the internal working of the computer.

Assembly or low-level languages

These languages replaced machine and were much easier to use. They involve the programmer
writing the program instructions using “mnemonic” or symbolic code e.g. using a word like SUB to
represent “subtract” or a word like LD to represent “load”. Made by computer manufacturers, they
were provided with an “Assembler” which is a program used to translate program instruction
written in these languages into machine language for execution. They made a task of writing
programs much easier for the programmer and were time saving compared to machine
languages. On the other hand, one could not use these languages on different type of machine
(they were machine specific), they were slower in execution than machine languages and the
programmer still had to be an expert in the computers internal working.

High level languages

These were third generation languages and shifted the focus from the machine to the problem,
thereby reducing greatly the workload on the programmer. They are still widely in use today, and
later developed programming languages are an offshoot of these languages. The languages have
the following features:
(i) They have an extensive vocabulary of words, symbols and sentences. Program
instructions are therefore written using familiar English statements and mathematical
(algebraic) terms.
(ii) A single program statement (instruction) is translated into many machine language
instructions.
(iii) Sub-routines and procedures are easily incorporated when writing a program.
(iv) A programmer can work independently of the machine and focus on the problem to solve,
high level language are created by software manufacturers and can therefore work on a
wide variety of machines (they are portable)

When writing programs using a high level language, the programmer has the advantages of
using less item to create the program, ease of error tracing, ability to work on different types of
machines and the ability to incorporate” structured programming”. Also the programmer does not
have to be an expert on the internals working of the machine. On the other hand, some of the
languages e.g. scientific languages are hard to learn, they are slow in execution due to the
translation process, and the programmer can not effectively address the internal circuitry of the
computer as in the previous types of languages.
The other type of language to be discussed later is ”object-oriented” languages or “Event-driven”
languages.

Language Translators
These are programs that translate programs written in a language other than machine language
for execution by the computer. They include the following:-

Assemblers
They translate a source program written in assembly or low-level language into an equivalent
machine code object program. A source program is fed through the assembler, which goes
through it translating every error free instruction into an equivalent machine code instruction (1:1
ratio). Instructions having errors are not translated, but are put in the source program error listing
for the programmer to correct. Only when the entire program is error free the assembler will
generate a machine code object program. This is stored for subsequent execution.

Compilers
They translate a source program into a high level language into an equivalent machine code
object program. A source program is fed through the compiler, which goes through its translating
every error free instruction into many machine code instructions(1: many ratio). Instructions

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having errors are not translated but are put in the source program error listing for the programmer
to correct. Only when the entire program is error free will the compiler generate a machine code
object program. This is stored for subsequent execution.

Interpreters
Also translate high level language program instructions to machine code for execution, but in this
case, no object program is produced. The programmer, after writing the program, will then
attempt to execute it. The interpreter reads each program instruction, translates it and executes it
before moving into the next instruction. Where an error is encountered, the circle of “read,
translates, executes” is aborted for the programmer to correct the error. After correcting the error
on errors, the circle starts again from the beginning of the program. Whenever a program that
uses an interpreter is executed, this cycle must take place.
Programming languages that user interpreters are suitable for training beginners since error
trapping is made much easier, and execution is usually halted at the exact point where the error
has occurred.
NB: The errors which prevent a source program from being translated and executed are referred
to as syntax or semantic errors.
Some errors do not prevent the program from running, but cause production of erroneous results.
These are called logical errors

The Stages of Program Development

In creating a functional program or program system, a programmer has to follow some steps.
These can broadly be classified into three:
1. Determine what is required of the program, i.e. the information that the program or system is
required to produce. The programmer must have clear view of what the program or system is
meant to achieve.
2. Determining the inputs or data needs if the required output/information from the program or
system is to be effectively produced.
3. Determine the processes that will be carried out on the input in order for the program or the
system to produce the required or stated output or information. Here, the programmer has to
find out exactly what needs to be done on the input data, and in what sequence e.g. storage,
retrieval, arithmetic or logical operations etc, in order to come up with the required output or
information.

The above are just broad classifications that give an insight into how the programmer approaches
a problem in order to produce a working program or system.

The detailed steps to be followed are:

i) Problem analysis
The programmer looks at existing problem or situation for which the program or system is to be
created in order to determine exactly what is required. The programmer may communicate with
the people in need of the program or systems (these are called the “End-User”) in order to
determine their information needs from the program or system. They also identify exactly what
the program/system is meant to accomplish.
In doing this, the programmer/analyst will find out how the end users operate in their situation,
what they do and how they do it, in order to identify the problems that are encountered. This will
give the programmer/analyst idea of what to do to overcome these problems.

NB: An area that requires a program or one for which a program is being developed is referred to
as “problem area”.

ii) Algorithm design

An algorithm design is defined as a logical sequence of steps which are followed to achieve a
given task. When the programmer/analyst has identified the information requirements from the

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program or the system has identified the problems encountered, they will proceed to lay down a
series of steps in a sequence that is to be followed in order to solve the problem. These steps will
include what is to be input and how, the process to be carried out, and what is to be output.
In laying down the steps to be followed i.e. the algorithm, the programmer will use algorithm
development tools e.g. flowcharts, pseudo code, JSP’s etc. when developing the algorithm; the
programmer should check that the logical arrangement of steps is correct. Lack of doing this will
cause a situation where the program or system gives the wrong results.

iii) Program coding

At this stage, the programmer will proceed to translate their algorithm not program instructions
using a pre-defined programming language. Each step in algorithm is translated into a
corresponding program instruction. At this stage, the programmer should check for errors which
might lead to program not working. Spelling errors are an example. The programmer should also
write the program in a clear and easily understandable manner, bearing in mind that one time in
the future, the program might need to be maintained or modified by someone else. They are
therefore required to use appropriate comments and explanations in their programs. Coding is
usually done on paper, and in case of some programming languages, special coding sheets are
used.

iv) Transcription
After checking that the program they have written is free from errors, the programmer then
proceeds to transcribe it. This involves the programmer typing the program into the computer for
storage in preparation for compilation. The program written on paper is now typed in through the
keyboard. The programmer should be careful at this stage not to make any error which might lead
to compilation difficulties.

v) Compilation
This stage involves the source program being translated into its equivalent machine code object
program for subsequent storage and execution on the computer. (Refer to the compilers section
above to see how compilation works).

vi) Testing and Debugging:

In this stage the program is executed to check whether it is producing the required results and
carrying out the required tasks. The programmer uses “Dummy” data (fake data) which is fed into
the program. They will usually have manipulated data manually in order to come up with expected
results. After the data has been run through the program, the results produced by the program
are compared to the expected results. A difference signifies that a logical error exists in the
program. If this occurs the programmer will have to go back and modify the source program. In
some cases, they may have to go back up to the algorithm development stage to make
modification to the sequence of operation and activities. Testing and debugging is important as it
checks that the program or system is fully functional and ready for implementation in the problem
area.

vii) Documentation and maintenance

This stage involves creating documents for the program/system, and subsequent changes to
accommodate new developments or correct errors that were not discovered in the testing and
debugging stage.
In documentation, the programmer/analyst is required to produce two sets of documentation:
A technical manual detailing the development of the program/system that will help other
programmers in subsequent maintenance.
A user’s manual which will be used for training the end users of the program/system in order for
them to get optimum required results from the program/system.

In maintenance, new changes in the organization or problem areas may signify new information
need from the program/system, and some times errors do occur in program or system, that

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required modifications. This is a duty that can be performed by the programmer, and in their
absence, another programmer may undertake it guided by the technical manual created during
documentation.

NB: some of the above stages may take place concurrently when developing the program or
system. For example, when the programmer/analyst carries out the problem analysis, they come
up with documentation called the “system specification”. This acts as terms of reference when
developing the program/system and will form part of the technical manual.
The algorithm (flowcharts etc.) and some source program code also form part of the
documentation.

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PROGRAM DESIGN TOOLS

Introduction to Algorithms
An algorithm is a sequence of steps which results to a plan or strategy on how to go about in
solving a problem. You use a variety of algorithms to solve everyday tasks and you certainly
realize that there may be several algorithms or plans that will result in the solution to problem.
Thus there are different ways of presenting an algorithm. Some common ways include:
1. Pseudo code
2. Flowcharts
3. Jackson structure diagrams(JSD’s)

Pseudo codes
This is a case where an algorithm is expressed in English like statements (description)
For example, the following is a pseudo code for a program to calculate the pay amount for five (5)
employees:-
1. Start
2. Initialize counter to 1
3. Enter employee details
4. Compute pay amount
5. Print the pay amount
6. Increment counter by one (counter =counter +1)
7. Check the value of the counter
If counter < 6
Loop to step 3
Else
8. End

Flowcharts
A flowchart is a representation of a whole program by use of special graphical symbols called
flowchart symbols.

Advantages
1. Provide a visual aid to the programmer
2. Are easier to understand because they are summarized and use standard symbols.
3. One is able to distinguish various stages uniquely by use of symbols
4. They show a sequence of procedures
5. They are good communication aids to both programmers and the users
6. They form part of system documentation

The following are some of the common flowchart symbols:-

Magnetic Input/output
tape Documents
Initialization/
Preparation

Magnetic Connector
Manual Punched
disk
Keyboard card

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Decision Terminator
Action or process

The above example, written in pseudo code can be translated into the equivalent flowchart
diagram to appear as follows:

Start

Initialize
Counter to
o

Enter employee
Details

Compute Pay amount

Print answer

Add 1 to counter

No Is counter
5

Yes

End

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Jackson Structure Diagrams

These are block diagrams that are useful in representing the structure of the programs and how
the modules are related to each other. They are diagrams that resemble a tree diagram (family
tree) with the main program statement written across the top line.

program

initialise input and process output

results

clear screen set variables to 0

input data calculate etc
grosss

Example
Building blocks
There are three different building blocks for Jackson structure program diagrams. They include:-

Sequence blocks
One statement follows another and program executes them in the sequence given. In sequential
statements plain blocks are used to represent the structure.

Selection blocks
The next statement to be executed depends on the value of an expression. Selection is
represented by a small circle in each of boxes representing the alternative paths.
Example:
If(answer=’y’)or(answer=’y’)
Statement1
else
Statement2
end if

testuser
response

statement1 0 statement2 0

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Iteration blocks
A section of the program is repeated many times depending on a condition. Asterisk in a box with
the condition outside the box and the statement and modules within the loop on the next level
down, is used to indicate a section of code repeated many times.

Example:
While a<b do
Begin
Statement 1
Statement 2
Statement 3
End {end while}

calculate
results

statement 1 stament 2 statement 3

Answer=’y’or’y?’
Assignment 1:
As a programmer you are told to write a program for computing the sum of the first 20 positive
integers. The program is supposed to output the sum after computing.
a) Write an algorithm for performing the above task using the pseudo code method.
b) Rewrite the algorithm using both the flowchart and the JSP methods.

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OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
Object Orient Programming (O.O.B) is an approach of creating programs which are window
based (Graphical User Interface [G.U.I] applications). It support objects.
Examples of object oriented programming languages are:-
❖ Visual Basic
❖ Visual C++
❖ Visual Fox Pro
❖ Visual Interter
❖ Java

Visual Basic (V.B)

It allows the programmer to develop Graphical User Interface (G.U.I) applications. Its event driven
programming, meaning that the code remains idle until it is called to respond to some events. e.g.
An event like a mouse-click.

Visual Basic is governed by event processor meaning that nothing happens until an event is
detected. When the event is detected, the code responds to the event (the event procedure is
executed). After execution, the control is returned back to the processor.

There is no pre-determined path the code should follow in even driven application. Since the code
can not predict the sequence of events, it makes some certain assumptions about the “state of
the world”. This means that the commands must be disabled until every field contains a value.

Visual Basic features or capabilities

1. It consists of a full set of objects for drawing an application e.g. Form, command buttons,
labels, text boxes etc.
2. It has many icons and pictures for use. E.g. folders.
3. It has response to mouse and keyboard actions.
4. It has clipboard (can copy and paste several times) and printer access facilities.
5. It allows one to write code which instructs the printer to print required information.
6. It has full array of mathematical, string handling and graphical factions.
7. It can handle fixed and dynamic variables and control arrays.
8. It allows sequential and random access file support.
9. It offers useful debugger and error handling facilities.
10. It offers powerful database access tools.
11. It offers packages and deployment wizard that makes distribution of applications or
software simple.

Visual Interactive Development Concepts

Visual Basic uses interactive approach to program development. In most languages making a
mistake in writing the source code leads to errors being caught by the compiler when compiling
starts, the errors are fixed and the compiling process is repeated. Contrary, since Visual Basic
supports interactive development, code is interpreted as it is coded (type), catches and highlights
most syntax or spelling errors. i.e. It provides “experts watching” facility as the code is being
typed a process known as “catching errors on the fly”.

Visual Basic compiles the code as it is being typed. Running and testing the program takes very
short time since much of the compiling is done during typing. Incase of an error, it is fixed and
compiling continues without starting again. Due to the interactive nature of Visual Basic, the
application is run frequently as it is being developed rather than waiting to compile later.

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Visual Basic Objects Concepts.
The objects supported by Visual Basic include forms and controls. Controls are objects that are
placed on the form during the interface design. Forms and controls demonstrate the following
features.
i) Properties
ii) Methods
iii) Events.

Properties
They are characteristics of an object. Objects of the same type have same properties but
different setting or values e.g. Balloon properties include visible attributes such as height, color,
diameter etc. A period is used to separate objects from their properties.
Example:
❖ Balloon.color = Red
❖ Balloon.diameter = 10
Where Balloon is the Object, color and diameter are the properties, Red and 10 are the values
(settings)

Methods
-These are actions that an object can perform or that can be performed on an object. For
instance a Balloon has inflate method when filled with air and deflate method when air is
expelled.
Example:
❖ Balloon.inflate = True
❖ Balloon.deflate= False
Where inflate & deflate are the actions or methods while True & False are the values

Event
An event is the response from the object after an action is undertaken. e.g. a balloon has some
predefined actions to certain external events. e.g. a balloon would respond to the event of being
punctured by deflating or making noise. In this case puncture is the event.
Example:
Balloon_puncture ( )
Balloon.inflate= False
Balloon.deflate= True
Balloon.makenoise= ‘Bang’
The above code describes the balloon’s behavior when a puncture event occurs.

Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

A standard Visual Basic window consists of the following elements.
1. Title Bar- Contains the name of the opened project. A project is a Visual Basic file. By
default it will be known as ‘Project1’.
2. Menu Bar- Appears below the title bar. It has standard menus that contain commands.
3. Tool Bar- Provides quick access to the frequently used menu commands.
4. Context menu- Contains short cuts for the frequently performed actions. It appears when an
object is clicked.
5. Tool Box- contains the objects that can be added on the form to create the user interface for
the application.
6. Form Design window- This is where the application is designed. On the form, the controls
are added to create the G.U.I. It contains a title bar and control box with minimizing,
maximizing and closing buttons. User can add or remove forms on the project.
❖ To add a new form, choose ‘Add Form’ from ‘Project’ menu. In the dialog box that
appears click on the ‘New’ tab and choose ‘Form’. Click on ‘Open’ to load the
new form.

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❖ To add an existing form from another project, choose ‘Add Form’ from ‘Project’
menu. In the dialog box that appears, click on the ‘Existing’ tab and browse to
locate the form to add and click ‘Open’ to load. It should be of note that forms can
not share the same name, so the form to be loaded should not share similar
name to any of the forms in the project. The added form is not removed
completely from its initial project.
❖ To remove form, choose ‘Remove Form’ from ‘Project’ menu.

Below is a sample of a form design window

Title Bar

Menu Bar

Tools Bar

Tool Project
Box Explorer
window
New
Form Properties
window
Context
Menu

7. Project Explorer Window-It gives the list of collection files used to build the application. It
enables one to view the available forms in the project. It allows switching between the object
and the view code windows. To access it, choose ‘project explores’ from ‘view’ menu.
8. Properties Window- Gives a list of property setting for the selected form or controls. It
describes the characteristics of the object such as size, color etc.To access it, choose
‘properties window’ from ‘view’ menu.
9. Code Editor Window-Is where Visual Basic statements for the application are written. The
code can be associated with a form or a control in the application. It enables one to view and
edit the code. To access the code editor window for any control/ object, double click it and
the window will appear.
Alternatively: Select the control and from ‘View’ menu choose ‘Code’. Any object in Visual
Basic consists of two views
i) Object view- Graphical appearance of the object.
ii) Code view- Language statements, constants and declaration that make up the
object.

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10. Object Browser Window-Gives the list of objects available for use in the project and a quick
way to navigate through the code. It enables one to explore the object in Visual Basic and
other applications. To access it, use the ‘View’ menu and click on ‘Object Browser’.

11. Form layout window-It allows viewing the position of the form in the application using a
small graphical representation on the screen. It shows the position where the window will be
positioned when the application will be running. To access it, use the ‘View’ menu and click
on ‘Form Layout Window’.

Debugging Programs
Debugging is the process of identifying and removing errors in a program. The program errors are
referred to as bugs.
The program errors may appear in the program due to:
i) Complexity of the program being designed
ii) The masterly skills of the program being designed.
Visual basic language provides several tools which helps to diagnose the errors in a program. It
provides debugging tools which makes it easier for the programmer to identify and correct errors
in a program.

Types of errors
Programming errors are generally categorized into three groups:
i) Syntax errors
ii) Run-time errors/semantic errors
iii) Logic

Syntax errors
This occurs when the code is constructed incorrectly i.e. when the rules for the particular
language are violated.

Examples
- Incorrectly typed keywords
- Omission of required punctuations
- Incorrect construct e.g. failure to terminate ‘If’ statement with ‘End If’.
Visual basic includes an auto syntax check that can detect and correct the syntax error as you
write the code. When this option is enabled, visual basic interprets the code as you type it. When
it spots an error, visual basic highlights the code and displays a message box explaining the error
and offering help.
To set or check the auto syntax option, on tools menu, choose options, then click editor tab on

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Run time errors.

This occurs when a statement attempts an operation that is impossible to carry out.
Example:
Referring to an object that is inaccessible.
Accessing an undefined variable.
Attempting to read data from non-existent file.
Dividing a value with a zero e.g. speed = Distance, if the variable hours is equal to zero
(=0) Hours
Then the division is an invalid operation although the formula syntax is correct.

Logic errors
This occurs when the application does not perform the way it is intended to.
These errors are difficult to identify, because the application has syntax valid code, run without
performing any invalid operation and still produce incorrect results.
Logic errors are also hard to identify because the language has no way of identifying human
intentions.
Examples:
- Use of a wrong operator in arithmetic computations
- Incorrect formula.
To identify logic errors, run the system with a simple data (“dummy” or “test” data), then compare
the results with some known results.

Using Debug Toolbar

The programmer can use the extensive debugging tools provides by visual basic to investigate
the errors that appears in the program.
Debug tool bar offers quick access to a number of frequently used debugging features. To access
the debug tool bar, right click on the toolbar then click debug option and the tool bar appears.

Start - It runs the application from the starter form specified on the project properties
dialogue box, if the application is in break mode, the start button changes to continue.
End - It stops the program and returns to design mode.
Toggle break point – It creates and removes a break point. A break point is a place on
the code where visual basic automatically halts execution and enters break mode.
Step into – It runs the next executable line of code stepping through each line of the
code that follows. If the code calls another procedure, the procedure runs completely
before stepping to the next line of the code in first procedure.
Local window – It displays the current values of the local variables.
Immediate window – It displays the immediate window if it is not already displayed. The
immediate window allows the programmer to execute the code or query values, while the
application is in break mode.
Watch window button – Displays the watch window if it not already displayed. The
watch window displays the value of the selected expressions.
Quick window – It displays value of the current expression when the cursor is on the
break mode. The expression can easily be added to the watch window.

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Loading a New Project
A project is a Visual Basic file or document. By default, a new project will have one form. The
programmer can add more forms depending on the requirements of the program being designed.
Therefore, a project can be compared with a booklet where the forms on the project are taken to
be the pages on the booklet.

Steps:
i) Click on the start button. A menu appears.
ii) Point at programs and select “Microsoft visual studio 6.0”.
iii) From the menu list that appears click on “Microsoft visual Basic 6.0”.The program loads.
iv) In the “New Project” window that appears, click on ‘New’ tab and double click on “Standard
EXE” to open a new form. Alternatively, click on “Standard EXE” and click on “Open”
button. A new project is loaded with a single form.

The form is the designing area of the program. With the form on the project, designing of the
G.U.I can start by placing the necessary controls on the form. Controls are contained in the
toolbox. Therefore controls (objects) are the tools used to design the G.U.I. The following are
some of the controls found on the tool box.
Tool Box
Toolbox control Description
i) Label - Displays text which the user cannot change.
Pointer, PictureBox
ii) Textbox - Obtains information from the user or displays
Label, TextBox
information provided by the application.
iii) Command Button- Performs a task when clicked. Frame, CommandButton
iv) Checkbox – Presents a single or several different options to CheckBox, OptionButton
the user. One or all of them can be selected. ComboBox, ListBox
v) Option button – Presents a group of options from which the HScrollBar, VScrollBar
user selects only one option.
Timer, DriveListBox
vi) Frame – Groups together related controls either visually or
functionally. DirListBox, FileListBox
vii) Picture box – Displays graphic or text. Can be used to Shape,display
Line
animated graphics. Image, Data
viii) Image – Displays a graphic but uses fewer system OLE resources
than a picture box control. Also supports fewer features than picture
box control.
ix) List Box – Displays a list of items from which the user can select one or several.
x) Data – Used to connect the database with the other controls on the form.

❖ In designing a program, there are three main steps that are followed. The steps follow
one another in this order, Designing the G.U.I, Setting the control properties and Coding
(Giving instructions to the controls). After coding, the program is run by choosing ‘Start’
from ‘Run’ menu. Alternatively, click on ‘Start’ tool on the tools bar.

Creating User Interface

The User Interface makes the basis through which the user interacts with the system. This is the
first step in designing a Visual Basic program. This is placing the controls where required on the
form. To add a control to the form, select it from the toolbox and using the mouse, draw and
reposition it where necessary on the form. Alternatively, the control can be double clicked. This
will place the control at the centre of the form from where the programmer can position it where
necessary.

Setting the Properties

Each object has properties specified to it by default. These are the characteristics of the object.
The programmer can change the value of the properties of an object.

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Properties are arranged in two ways:-

i) Alphabetic- This is alphabetical order.
ii) Categorized – They are arranged according to various attributes or major characteristics
which may need to be set. e.g. Appearance, behavior, data etc.

Caption Property
This is the text/label that appears on the object. It identifies the label for that object. In the caption
property, ampersand (&)sign is included which makes it possible to create an ”Access key” which
is used to invoke an event using the keyboard rather than the use of the mouse. The key is
normally pressed in conjunction with ‘ALT’ key. The ‘&’ sign precedes the letter to be used as the
access key.

Example:
Setting on the properties window Appearance on the control
i) &Save - Save
ii) E&xit - Exit
iii) &Ok - Ok
iv) Can&cel - Cancel
Note that the preceded by the ampersand sign is underlined on the control. This shows that the
character being underlined is the access key. This format is mostly used on command buttons.

Name property
Each control should have a name. The name should be unique in a particular scope. Name is
used for identification of the control on the project.

When giving a name to a control, observe the following rules.

i) Start with an alphabetical letter (a - z).
ii) Name consist of either letters only, letter & numbers Or letters, number & underscore. Only
these are allowed.
iii) Name should not have a space between words or characters, instead an underscore is
used.
iv) Name should not be a Visual Basic keyboard.
v) Name should be unique in the same scope.

Naming conventions
Visual Basic has a naming convention of its objects. The convention includes use of three (3)
character-prefixes depending on the type of the object. After the prefix, the other part of the name
follows.

Examples:
i) frmstundents – an example of a form
ii) Iblstundent - an example of a label
iii) cmdsave - an example of a command button
iv) optmale - an example of an option button

Common objects and their prefixes

Object Prefix Example
Check box chk chkreadonly
Combo box cbo cboenglish
Command button cmd cmdcancel
Data dta dtabiblio
Directory list box dir dirsource
File list box fil filsource
Form frm frmfileopen

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Frame fra fralaugnage
Grid grd grdprices
Horizontal scrollbar hsb hsbvolume
Image img imgicon
Label lbl lblname
Line lin linvertical
List box lst lstpolily
Menu mnu mnufileopen
OLE ole oleobject
Option button opt optfrench
Picture box pic picdiskspace
Shape shp shpcicrle
Text box txt txtname
Timer tmr tmralerm
Vertical scrollbar vsb vsbrate

Programming Visual Basic Controls

Text Box and Command Button

Example 1:
Write a simple program that
display the sentence “Welcome to Visual Basic programming” on a textbox after clicking a
command button.

Step 1: Design the G.U.I as show below.

Form1
TextBox1
Command2

Command3

Command1

Step 2: Set the properties as follows.

Object Name Caption
Textbox1 txtsentence N/A
Command1 cmdsentence Sentence
Command2 cmdclear Clear
Command3 cmdend End
Form1 frmsentence Simple Program

Step 3: Writing the code

Double click on the command button, cmdsentence and write the following:-
Private Sub cmdsentence _Click() ……………………………………1
txtsentence.Text = "Welcome to Visual Basic Programming" …………....2
End Sub ………………………………………………………………..3

Double click on the command button, cmdclear and type the following:-
Private Sub cmdclear _Click()

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txtsentence.Text = "" ……………………………………………………..4
End Sub

Double click on the command button, cmdend and type the following:-
Private Sub cmdend_Click()
End ……………………………………………………………………….5
End Sub

Explanation:
Statements 1 and 3 will always appear by default and enclose the section where the codes
should be typed. Statement 1 shows the name of the control (cmdsentence) that contains the
instructions (statement 2) to be executed when the event (click) occurs.

The first part of the code (statement 2), txtsentense, is the name given to the text box. After the
period, we have ‘Text’ which is the property of the text box being assigned the sentence. The
sentence, “Welcome to Visual Basic programming” is the value of the property ‘Text’. Therefore,
from this understanding the sentence will appear on the text box after the button is clicked.
Remember that the general format is ObjectName.Property = Value

Note that the property “text” is for all textboxes but the value can change as shown on the code in
statement 4. In this case there in nothing assigned to the property ‘Text’ and the result after
clicking on the button ‘cmdclear’ will be to clear the contents of the text box.

Statement 5 shows the code which is used to terminate the running of a program. This works
similar to the code ‘Unload Me’ which can be used to replace ‘End’.

A single object can have several properties as it is shown on the object’s properties window and
their values specified in the same coding section as shown below. We can have different
properties for the textbox in our example as follows.
Private Sub cmdsentence_Click()
txtsentence.Text = "Welcome to Visual Basic Programming"
txtsentence.ForeColor = &H8080FF
txtsentence.Alignment = 2
End Sub

Explanation:
The added code specifies other properties (characteristics) of the object txtsentense (textbox)
and their values.

Where:
➢ ForeColor – Specifies a characteristic of text (color) that will be displayed on the text box.
➢ &H8080FF – Specifies the particular color for that text. This code can be obtained from the
properties window by selecting the color and copying the code from the
properties window. The copied code is pasted on the coding section.
➢ Alignment – Specifies another characteristic of text (alignment). The alignment can either be:-
❖ Left justify code 0
❖ Right justify code 1
❖ Centre code 2
To specify the alignment, specify the code number only. Therefore as indicated on the code, the
text on the text box will be placed at the center of the textbox.

Label
Example 2:

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In example 1 above, the text displayed on the text box can be changed when the program is
running. To avoid this, we can use a label instead of a text box. The text displayed on a label can
not be changed by the user of the program when it is running.
To achieve this, we will write another program using a label instead of a text box.

Step 1: Design the same GUI but instead of using the textbox, use a label and give it the name
lblsentence. The G.U.I is as shown below.

Form1

Label1

Command1

Command3

Command2

Step 2: Set the properties as follows;

Object Name Caption
Form1 frmlabelsentence Simple Program
Label1 lblsentense N/A
Command1 cmdclickme Click Me
Command2 cmdclear Clear
Command3 cmdend End

Step 3: Writing the Code

Double click on cmdckickme command button and type the following.
Private Sub cmdclickme_Click()
lblsentense.Caption = "Welcome to Visual Basic Programming"
lblsentense.ForeColor = &H8080FF
lblsentense.Alignment = 2
End Sub

Double click on cmdclear on cmdclear command button and type the following
Private Sub cmdclear_Click()
lblsentense.Caption = ""
End Sub
Explanation:
The two programs will work the same way but the only difference on their working is that for the
2nd one, the text on the label can not be interfered with i.e. no changes can be made.
Label property, similar to textbox ‘Text’ property is the ‘Caption’ property. The values of these two
properties according to the two programs are the same.

About textboxes and label controls

Textbox control is used to display text (data) from a database or indicate text on a code of a
particular control as indicated in example1 above. It can also be used to enter data into the form
where the user types the data on the text box. The data can be saved into a database.

Since the data in a textbox can be changed especially when the textbox is active. To prevent this
we can use a label instead of a textbox. Label control can not be used to get data from the user

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directly unless the data is input into the label through another control like we shall see as we
continue in our study.

The following example will show how we can use text boxes to display text that can not be
changed by the user while the program is running.

Example 3:
Write a program that will request for input of two numbers through text boxes and compute their
sum after clicking a command button.

Step 1: Designing the G.U.I

Form1

Label1 Text1

Label2 Text2

Label3 Label4

Command1

Command2

Step 2: Setting the properties

Object Name Caption Border style
Form 1 frmsum Sum of two numbers
Label 1 lblfirstnumber First Number 0-None
Label 2 lblsecond number Second Number 0-None
Label 3 lblsum Sum 0-None
Command 1 cmdsum Compute sum N/A
Command 2 cmdclear Clear Entries N/A
Text1 txtfirst N/A N/A
Text2 txtsecond N/A N/A
Label4 lblanswer N/A 1 – Fixed single

Step 3: Coding
Double click on cmdsum command button and enter the following
Private Sub cmdsum_Click()
lblanswer.Caption = Val(txtfirst.Text) + Val(txtsecond.Text)
End Sub

Double click on cmdclear command button and enter the following

Private Sub cmdclear_Click()

txtfirst.Text = ""
txtsecond.Text = ""
lblanswer.Caption = ""
txtfirst.SetFocus
End Sub

Explanation:

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The code on the cmdsum button, display the sum of the two values entered into the text boxes on
a label. The answer from the computation can not be changed from the label.
The keywords val( ) helps in carrying out the computation of the value entered. It changes the
value from string format to numerical format. A string format can not be computed to a
mathematical value. Without these keywords, then if 2 and 3 are entered in the text boxes, 23 will
be displayed on the label as the answer rather than 5 (the right computational value). Therefore
the computation will not be carried out since they will be treated as strings.

The “txtfirst.Setfocus” on the “cmdclear” command button is used to put the insertion cursor on
the textbox “txtfirst” once the command button is clicked. Also this command button clears all the
entries on the other controls ie. The text boxes and the label “lblanswer”.

Check Box
Check boxes are used to select more than one option from several choices given. If the checkbox
is selected, then a tick appears on it and is said to have a value 1 otherwise will have value o.

Example 4;
Design a simple program that will display a message on a label when checkbox is selected or not.
The message is displayed after clicking a command button.

Step 1: Design the G.U.I

Form1

Checkbox1

Checkbox2

Label1

Command1 Command2

Step 2: Setting the properties

Object Name Caption
Form1 frmchoice Simple Choice
Label 1 lblchoice make your choice
Checkbox1 chkmathew Mathew
Checkbox2 chkpeter Peter
Command 1 cmdconfirm Confirm
Command 2 cmdend End

Step3: Coding
Double click on cmdconfirm and type the following

Private Sub cmdconfirm_Click()

If chkmathew.Value = 1 And chkpeter.Value = 1 Then ……………………………1
lblchoice.Caption = "Mathew and Peter" …………………………………...2
ElseIf chkmathew.Value = 1 And chkpeter.Value = 0 Then ………………..3
lblchoice.Caption = "Mathew" …………………………………...4
ElseIf chkmathew.Value = 0 And chkpeter.Value = 1 Then ………………..5

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lblchoice.Caption = "Peter" ………………………………………………………6
Else
lblchoice.Caption = "No Choice" .……………………………………………7
End If
End Sub

Explanation:
Statement 1 means that if both the check boxes are checked (have a tick, value 1) then
statement 2 will be executed. Statement 3 means that only the check box for Mathew is ticked but
for Peter is not checked. This will executed statement 4. In case there is no check box selected,
then statement 7 will be executed.
The selection in execution of statements is as a result of the use of control structures (If-Else If)
which will be discussed later in our study.

Option Button
These buttons are used to present a group of options from which the user can select only one
option. They are used in areas where some restrictions are required. For instance, where the
user has to choose gender (Male or Female). In this case the user if is not careful may choose
the two options if a check box is used. To avoid this then option buttons are used instead.
The option button can be turned ON or OFF by the user. When ON, its value is said to be ‘True’
and when OFF is said to ‘False’. An option button will be ON when selected and OFF when not
selected.

Example 5:
Write a program that allows one to choose one option from a list of choices and confirm his
selection by clicking a command button. The confirmation message should be displayed on a
message box.

Step1: Design the G.U.I

Option1

Option2

Option3

Command1 Command2

Step 2: Set the properties

Object Name Caption
Option 1 optit IT
Option 2 optengineering Computer Engineering
Option 3 optprogramming Programming
Command 1 cmdconfirm Confirm
Command 2 cmdend End

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Step 3: Coding
Double click on the cmdconfirm and type the following
Private Sub cmdconfirm_Click()
If optit.Value = True Then ……………………………….1
MsgBox "Information Technology" ……………………..2
ElseIf opteng.Value = True Then ……………………..3
MsgBox "Computer Engineering" ……………………..4
ElseIf optprog.Value = True Then ……………………..5
MsgBox "Computer Programming" ……………………..6
Else
MsgBox "Make a choice", vbCritical ……………………..7
End If ……………………………………………………………8
End Sub

Double click on the form and type the following

Private Sub Form_Load()
optit.Value = False ………………………………………..9
opteng.Value = False ……………………………………….10
optprog.Value = False ……………………………………….11
End Sub

Explanation:
Statements 1, 3 and 5 mean that the option buttons are selected. If they are not selected, the
value is ‘False’. For each case of selection, then the other options are deselected automatically
according to the settings of option buttons. Remember that in a particular section on the form, if
one option is selected then the other options will be deselected. If ‘IT’ is selected then statement
1 will be true and statement 2 will be executed. For each case of selection then the corresponding
statement is executed. In case that there is no option selected and the command button is
clicked, then statements 1, 3 and 5 will be false and will not be executed. Instead statement 7 will
be executed.
For statements 9, 10 and 11 put on the form-load event will make sure that all the option buttons
are deselected when the form is loading.

Assignment 2:
1. Write a program that will compute at a time the sum, difference, product and quotient of two
integer values entered through textboxes when a command button is clicked. Take care
when coding for the quotient not to divide one value by zero. The answer should be
displayed on a label.
2. Re-write the program above again but don’t use the command button to execute the
computations but use the option button indicating the computation option to execute the
corresponding computation when clicked. The answer should also be displayed on a label.
3. Write a program that multiplies three numbers and divides the result with the fourth
number. The user inputs the numbers through textboxes and the result is displayed in a
label.
4. A program is required to compute net salary of employees. The computation is based on
the number of hours worked and pay per hour. 10% of the payable amount is given as
allowance. The employee pays a tax of 16% of the gross pay. The user inputs the hours
worked and pay per hour through text boxes. The program should display the following
through labels.
❖ The amount payable (Hours worked * pay per hour)
❖ Allowance
❖ Tax payable
❖ Gross pay (amount payable + allowance)
❖ Net pay (Gross pay - Tax)

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Combo Box
A combo box is used to hold a list of options where the options are displayed when the drop-
down arrow is clicked. After clicking the option of interest from the list, it is displayed on the
combo box while the other options are hidden. It displays only one option at a time after selection.
There are two ways of adding the contents in a combo box.
i) Through the properties window
ii) Through an operation from a control. e.g. Form-Load or clicking a command
button.

I. Through The Properties Window

Steps:
a) Click on the combo box you want to add items and open the properties window.
b) Click on ‘List’ and type the items one by one. After you type the item press enter and
click on the drop down arrow on the list field of the properties window to add the
next item. Repeat this until all the items are added on the list.
Combo box doesn’t have ‘Caption’ property but has ‘Text’ property that holds the text that
appears on the combo box when the program is loaded.
You can also set the other necessary properties of interest and then don’t forget to name the
combo box.

II. Through the Form – load activity or any other control.

After placing the combo box where necessary on the form and setting the necessary properties
do the following;-
➢ For form – load activity
Double –click on the form containing the combo box and when the code –editor window opens
type the following in the “private sub” section.
Object-name .Additem “Item – name” …………………..1

Where:
❖ Object-name is the name of the combo box you are adding the items.
❖ Additem is a method (event) used to add items to the combo box.
❖ Item –name is the item to be added to the combo box.

Repeat statement 1 above until all the items to be added to the combo box are exhausted.

➢ For any other control like a command button.

Double click on the control and in the “private sub” section add the commands as shown above
on statement 1 (i.e. in the form-load activity)
The only difference between form–load and any other control is only that the coding sections are
different. i.e. the form-load you are coding on the form while for any other control you are coding
on the control’s code section. The other things remain the same.

Example 6:
Design a GUI with three combo boxes and a command button that displays the three concepts
discussed above.

Step1: Design the GUI as follows.

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Step 2: Setting the properties

Object Name caption Text
Combo1 cbolist1 N/A select
Combo2 cbolist2 N/A select
Combo3 cbolist3 N/A select
Command1 cmdadd Add Item N/A
Command2 cmdremove Remove Item N/A

On the properties window for cbolist1 combo box click on the ‘List’ property and enter the towns
one after the other.

The List

The list shown is for the first combo box. This is the first method of populating a combo box. The
other two ways are shown on the coding section below.

Step 3: Coding
Double-click on the form and code the following
Private Sub Form_Load()
cbolist1.AddItem "Nairobi"
cbolist2.AddItem "Mombasa"
cbolist3.AddItem "Thika"
End Sub
Double-click on the command button cmdadd and type the following
Private Sub cmdadd_Click()
cbolist1.AddItem "Nairobi"

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cbolist2.AddItem "Mombasa"
cbolist3.AddItem "Thika"
End Sub

Explanation:
After running the program, click on the cbolist1 and cbolist2. You will realize that in both, the list
appears but if you click on the third combo box (i.e. cbolist3), it is empty until you click on he
command button cmdadd to add the elements (items) of the combo box.

List Box
A list box is a scrollable list of choices from which the user can choose one. In visual basic a list is
an array of strings formally referred to with the list property (The List property is common to the
ListBox and ComboBox). In a list box, one can add items and also remove items. The following
example shows how is possible to Add, Remove one-by-one and Remove All the items from the
ListBox.

Example 7:
Design a GUI as shown below with a Text box, List box and three Command buttons. One of the
command buttons should be adding items to the list box, another command button should be
removing the items one-by-one and the last one should be clearing all the contents of the list box.

Step 1: Designing the GUI

Text box List box

Command1 Command3

Command2

Step 2: Setting the properties

Object Name Caption
Text1 txtunit N/A
List1 lstunit N/A
Command1 cmdadd Add
Command2 cmdremove Remove
Command3 cmdclear Clear

Step 3: Coding
Double click on the cmdadd button and type the following
Private Sub cmdadd_Click()
lstunits.AddItem txtunit.Text ……………………………..1
txtunit.Text = "" ………………………………………………..2
txtunit.SetFocus ……………………………………...3
End Sub
Double click on the cmdremove and type the following
Private Sub cmdremove_Click()

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lstunits.RemoveItem (lstunits.ListIndex) ………………..4
End Sub

Double click on the cmdclear and type the following

Private Sub cmdclear_Click()
lstunits.Clear ……………………………………………5
End Sub

Explanation:
Statement 1 transfers the items from the text box to the list box one-by-one. The key word used
to add the text to the list box is ‘Additem’. Please note that there is no equal sign between
‘Additem’ and ‘txtunit.Text’. Statement 2 clears the contents of the text box. As the statements will
be executed one after the other as they appear on the code, then statement 1 should not be
interchanged with 2 because there will be no items to be added to the list box after they are
cleared. Statement 3 sets the curser back to the text box.
Statement 4 clears the selected item from the list box. The part that specifies the selected item is
the part enclosed in the brackets.
Statement 5 clears all the contents of the list box. The key word used is ‘Clear’.

Timer
The timer is one of the windowless controls (controls which do not appear on the form during run
time). It is used to automate activities on the form.
The increment of time measured by the timer is set on the properties window. The ‘Interval’
property is used to set the interval increment. The timer measures time in intervals of 1/1000 of a
second. This is milliseconds. Therefore to measure time in one-second interval, the value of the
interval should be set to 1000. For half-second interval, the value should be 500.
To automate a given activity, then you have to put the code on the timer’s ‘Timer’ event.

Example 8:
Design a program that will display the system time on a label.

Step 1: Designing the GUI

Label1

Timer1

Step 2: Setting the properties

Object Name Caption Interval Enabled
Label1 lblclock - N/A True
Timer1 tmrclock N/A 1000 True

Step 3: Coding
Double click on the timer tmrclock and code the following
Private Sub tmrclock_Timer()
lblclock.Caption = Time
End Sub

Explanation:

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The code above will display the system time on the label. The keyword used to pick the system
time is ‘Time’ which is assigned to the caption of the label. Incase you want to display the syatem
date you use ‘Date’ keyword instead of ‘Time’. The out put is as shown below.

Out Put:

The timer is not only used to display the system time on a program but it can be used to automate
any other event. For instance it can be used to close the program after some defined period of
time, move other controls on the form and many more.

Example 9:
Design a program with a close button such that when clicked will fold the form, move it to the left,
downwards and then close the program.

Step 1: Design the GUI with a command button to close the program. Put a timer on the form.
Step 2: Name the command button as ‘cmdclose’ and the timer ‘tmrclose’. Set the interval of the
timer to be 5 and also disable it.
Step 3: Coding
Double click on the timer and code the following on the ‘Timer’ event.
Private Sub tmrclose_Timer()
If frmtimerclose.Height > 510 Then …………………………………1
frmtimerclose.Height = frmtimerclose.Height – 10 ………...……2
ElseIf frmtimerclose.Width > 1845 Then …………………...…..3
frmtimerclose.Width = frmtimerclose.Width – 10 ……………………….4
ElseIf frmtimerclose.Left < 10000 Then ………………...……..5
frmtimerclose.Left = frmtimerclose.Left + 10 ……………………….6
ElseIf frmtimerclose.Top < 7000 Then ……………………….7
frmtimerclose.Top = frmtimerclose.Top + 10 ……………………….8
Else
Unload Me ……………………………………………………………..9
End If
End Sub
Double click on the close button cmdclose and code the following.
Private Sub cmdclose_Click()
Tmrclose.Enabled=True …………………………………………10
End Sub

Explanation:
Condition 1 will make sure that statement 2 is executed if and only if the height of the form is
greater than 510 pixels. So, the statement 2 will be executed first because the minimum height of
the form should be 510. Therefore, statement 2 will be executed and it will reduce the height of
the form by 10 pixels after every 5/1000 seconds until when its height will be equal to 510 pixels.

Afterwards, since the width of the form is greater than its minimum width (1845 pixels) then
statement 3 will be true hence condition 4 will be executed. This will reduce the width of the form
by 10 pixels after every 5/1000 seconds until when the width will be equivalent to 1845 pixels.

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‘Left’ property of the form specifies the position of the form with respect to the left margin of the
computer screen. If its position is less than 10000 pixels, then condition 5 is true making
statement 6 to be executed. This statement will increase the position of the form from the left
screen margin by 10 pixels after every 5/1000 seconds hence making it to move to the right hand
side of the screen. This will take place until the position of the form will be equivalent or greater
then 10000 pixels, making condition 5 false. If condition 5 is false, then statement 6 will not be
executed.

Just like the ‘Left’ property, the ‘Top’ property specifies the position of the form with respect to the
top margin of the computer screen. If the form’s position is less than 70000 pixels, then condition
7 holds true and statement 8 will be executed. This will increase the position of the form from the
top margin by 10 pixels after every 5/1000 seconds making it move downwards until its position is
greater than or equal to 7000 pixels from the top margin of the screen when condition 7 will be
false.

After condition 7 is false, then statement 9 will be executed because all the other conditions so far
are false. This statement will close the program.

Therefore, for all these conditions and statements, the form will be folded, moved and later
closed. The codes on the timer will be executed when the command button ‘cmdclose’ is clicked
because is the one that will enable the timer (statement 10). Remember that on the settings of the
timer, we made it disabled. Therefore, it will remain inactive until activated by clicking the
necessary command whereby in our case is the command button.

Frames
A frame is used to group controls on the form. They are mostly used to hold sets of option buttons
and check boxes. They can also be used to hold other controls. In case of a scenario where
many sets of options are to be selected, it’s appropriate to place each set of options within a
frame as each frame is treated separately. Remember that only one option can be selected from
a list of several options placed within the same location. With the use of frames, then it is possible
to select more than one option if the option buttons are placed on different frames. Although, the
option buttons will be treated separately, this does not mean that the option button on different
frames can share the same name. This is because they are in the same form.
When a frame is made visible or invisible, all the controls within it appear or disappear with the
frame. In case the frame is made to move, they also move with it.

Example 10:
Design a program that will allow the user to choose a lecturer and the unit that he/she lecturers.
Use option buttons.

Step 1: Design the G.U.I as shown

Frame1 Frame2
Option1
Option3
Option2
Option4

Command1

Command2 Command3 Command4

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Step 2: Setting the properties

Control Name Caption
Frame1 fralect Select Lecturer
Frame2 fraunit Select Unit
Option1 optmathew Mathew
Option2 optmary Mary
Option3 optvb Visual Basic
Option4 opthtml HTML
Command1 cmdconfirm Confirm
Command2 cmdunit Only Units
Command3 cmdlect Only Lecturers
Command4 cmdall View All

Step 3: Coding
Double click on the cmdconfirm and type the following
Private Sub cmdconfirm_Click()
If optmathew.Value = True And optvb.Value = True Then ……………1
MsgBox "Visual Basic taught by Mathew" ……………………………….2
ElseIf opthtml.Value = True And optmathew.Value = True Then ……………3
MsgBox "HTML taught by Mathew" ………………………………………..4
ElseIf optvb.Value = True And optmary.Value = True Then …………...5
MsgBox "Visual Basic taught by Mary" ………………………………………..6
ElseIf opthtml.Value = True And optmary.Value = True Then …………...7
MsgBox "HTML taught by Mary" ………………………………………………….8
Else
MsgBox "Please meke your choice" ………………………………………..9
End If
End Sub

Double click on the cmdunit and type the following

Private Sub cmdunit_Click()
fralect.Visible = False …………………………………………………………..10
fraunit.Visible = True …………………………………………………………..11
End Sub

Double click on the cmdlect and type the following

Private Sub cmdlect_Click()
fralect.Visible = True ………………………………………………………….12
fraunit.Visible = False ………………………………………………………….13
End Sub

Double click on the cmdall and type the following

Private Sub cmdall_Click()
fralect.Visible = True ………………………………………………………….14
fraunit.Visible = True ………………………………………………………….15
End Sub

Explanation:
Remember our discussion on option buttons that if the option button is selected, its value is
equivalent to ‘True’. This means that for statements 2, 4, 6 and 8 to be executed then both the
corresponding option buttons should be selected. If you are careful you will realize that the two
options to be selected are on different frames. Option buttons on the same frame can be selected

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one at a time. Therefore the option buttons on different frames are treated to on different sections
of the form. Therefore the main purpose of frames is to group similar controls together.
Although the option buttons on different frames are treated differently, this does not mean that
they can share the same name. This is because so long as the controls are on the same form
then they can not share the same name.
Statement 10 will hide the frame fralect and this will make even the option buttons on that frame
hidden. This is similar to statement 13 which will hide frame fraunit. Statements 14 and 15 will
unhide both the frames and their option buttons. This means that frames are used as containers
as they contain the option buttons. It is possible to put other controls on the frames.

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VARIABLES, CONSTANTS, DATA TYPES AND OPERATORS

Variables
These are memory locations which temporarily store values before execution. They are place
holders in the memory for unknown values. On running the program the user provides a value for
the variable. For instance calculating the total sales of certain goods, the user provides the values
for units sold and the unit price. The value computed is assigned to the variable.

That is: Total sales = unit price * quantity

 Always before using a variable it must be declared. Declaring is specifying the data type of
the value to be held by that variable during program running.

A variable holds different values each time the program is run. Variable enables one to make
calculations without having to know in advance what value the user provides.
A variable consists of:-
i. Name – Is the word referring to the value contained in a variable
ii. Data type – Determines the type of data to be held by the variable. e.g. string, integers,
data, currency etc

Naming Variables in Visual Basic

There are rules which must be followed when naming variables in Visual Basic. They include:-
i) The first character must be a letter of alphabet
ii) Name can only contain letters, alphanumerical or a combination of the two given and
underscores.
Combination Examples
❖ Letters myname, num, answer
❖ Alphanumericals myname1, myname2, netsalary
❖ Letters, alphanumericals with an underscore. my_Name, My_Name1
iii) Never use a Visual Basic keyword as a variable name.
iv) A variable name should be unique in a particular scope or current procedure/ module.
v) The name should not be longer than 255 characters.

Declaring Variables.
This refers to informing the program in advance that it will encounter such a variable name.
Variables are declared using Visual Basic keyword statements depending on their location on the
program. For instance, Dim is a keyword which is mostly used.
While declaring the variable name, supply the variable name and the data type.
When declaring a variable, it is not a must to supply the data type because the variable name can
be assigned any value which means that it will have different values.
This is not recommended because;-
i) It can waste memory resources.
ii) Variable type can produce unpredictable default value behaviors, particularly with arrays.
Not specifying the variable type is not advisable to beginners for this may bring confusion during
program coding and may also hider one from learning how to use the proper data type for the
proper situation.

General syntax will be: Dim variable_ name [As type]

Example;
Dim num As Integer
Where: -Dim -Is the keyword used in variable declaration.
- num -Is the variable name
-As - Is another keyword used during declaration
-Integer - is the data type.

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 A variable declared with the Dim statement exist as long as the procedure is existing. When
the procedure finishes, the value of the variable disappears. The variable is local to that
procedure.

Other examples.
Dim firstname As string
Dim Totalcost As Currency
Dim closedata As Data
Dim Age As Integer

Storing and Retrieving data from variables

Some variables my be declared with predefined values. The assignment operator (=) is used to
assign a value to the variable.
Example:
Dim Age As Integer ………….Declaring the variable ‘Age’ to contain Integer values
Age = 20 …………………...Assigning 20 to the variable
Dim course As String …………Declaring the variable ‘course’ to contain String values
course = “programming”

Example 11:
Design a program that computes the total sales on items. The user inputs the unit price and the
quantity sold through text boxes. The total sales are displayed through a label.

Step 1: Design the G.U.I as shown

txtprice

txtsold

lblans

cmdcompute cmdrefresh

Step 2: Coding
Double click on the form ( or any control) to open the code window. Open the General section
and code the following.
Dim unitprice As Currency
Dim unitssold As Integer
Dim sales As Currency

Double click on the command button cmdcompute and code the following.
Private Sub cmdcompute_Click()
unitprice = Val(txtprice.Text)
unitssold = Val(txtsold.Text)
sales = unitprice * unitssold
lblans.Caption = sales
End Sub

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Double click on the command button cmdrefresh and code the following
Private Sub cmdrefresh_Click()
txtprice.Text = ""
txtsold.Text = ""
lblans.Caption = ""
txtprice.SetFocus
End Sub

Explanation:
The code on the General section of the code window is used for declaration of the variable
names unitprice, unitssold and sales. Currency and Integer are the data types of the respective
variable names. This means that the value to be assigned to the variable names during the
program execution will be only of currency and integer types. Since the variables are declared on
the general section, then they can be accessed from any part of the program.

In the command button cmdcompute, the variable names are assigned different values
i.e. – unitprice is assigned the value to be entered in the text box txtprice.
-unitssold is assigned the value to be entered in the text box txtsold.
-sales is assigned the product of the two values entered in txtprice and txtsold text boxes.

The value assigned to sales variable name is made to be the caption of the label lblans. This
means that, the total sales will be displayed on the label.

On the command button cmdrefresh, the code clears all the values entered in the text boxes and
the product displayed on the label lblans. Also, it takes the curser (insertion point) to the text box
txtprice because of the code “txtunitprice.Setfocus”

Assignment 3:
1. A program is required that will compute either the total surface area of a closed cylinder or
the volume. The values of the radius and the height will be entered during program execution
through text boxes. The answer should be displayed on a label. The program should compute
each quantity at a time. Use the necessary controls to take care of this. Design the program.

Re-design the program above (No.1) but this time round the user can compute both the surface
area and the volume at the same time or one of the quantities. The settings remain the same as
in question one.

Variable scope:
This defines which part of the code is aware of the variable existence. It refers to the visibility of a
variable within a module or application.
There are four variable scopes:-
i) Procedure level/local
ii) Procedure level static
iii) Form / module level
iv) Global level.

i) Procedure level
They are recognized only in the procedure or control in which they are declared. They are local in
that they can only be recognized by and in that procedure. They do not retain their value once the
procedure terminates. They are good for temporary calculations.
They are declared using the Dim keyword. e.g. Dim number As Integer
The examples above show the procedure level variables.

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ii) Procedure level static

They exist the entire time the application is running i.e. they retain their value in between
procedures.
They are declared using the Static keyword. e.g. Static age As Integer.

iii) Form / Module level

They retain their value and are available to all procedures within the form. They are declared in
the general section code window. They are declared using the Dim keyword. e.g. Dim basicpay
As Currency.
Private keyword can also be used to replace the Dim keyword. e.g. Private basicpay As
Currency.

iv) Global level

These are variables that retain their values and are available to all procedures within the
application (project). They should be kept in one module or form. They are declared using the
keyword Global e.g. Global mydate As Date.
They are declared at the declaration section at the top of one of the module.

Constants
They are entries that do not change their values during program execution. They have fixed
values that do not change.
There are two types of constants in Visual Basic.

i) Intrinsic (system defined) constants

They are provided by Visual Basic application and controls. They are inbuilt in Visual Basic
program. They are listed in Visual Basic and for Visual Basic applications in the object libraries.
They start with the keyword vb e.g. vbyes, vbRed, vbCancel etc

ii) Symbolic (user define) constants

They are provided by the user. They are declared using Const keyword.
e.g. Const NHIF =200

Naming Constants
The rules for naming constant are the same as the rules for naming variables. Constant should
be used in uppercase to differentiate them from variable names.

Declaring Constants
The general syntax is as following:-
[public /private] Const constantName [As Type] = Expression.
Where:
❖ [Public/Private] –Defines the scope of the constant
e.g Public – Indicates that the constant is available for all the applications.
Private – Indicates that the constant is available for the form in which it is
declared.
- They are called permission levels and are optional.
❖ Const – is the keyword for defining a const.
❖ Constant Name – Is valid symbolic name to represent the constant.
❖ As Type – Define the type of data object for the constant e.g. Integer, string, currency etc.
❖ Expression – Is the value to be held by the constant. It can be a numerical value, a string,
a symbolic constant or an expression

Examples:
1. Private const MAXPLANETS AS Integer =9
2. Const PI = 3.14

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3. Const SEC_ PER_HOUR =60*60


1. To define a string constant, the value must be enclosed in double quotes.
e.g. const COUNTRY = “Kenya”

2. It’s possible to place more than one constant declaration in a single line by separating them
with a comma. e.g. const PI = 3.142, ZIPCODE = “254” ; In this case, the keyword Const is
used only once.
3. The expression on the right side of the assignment operator can be a number, a string or an
expression that result to a number or another defined constant.
e.g. PI2 = PI *2 – expression. The constant can only be placed on the code once it has
been declared.

Data Types
You can store almost anything in a variable. A variable can hold a number, a string of text, or an
instance of an object including form, controls and database objects. It can hold any type of
information, but different types of variables are designed to work efficiently with different types of
information.
Different data types have different memory requirements and can hold different range of values.
At some point you may wonder whether you are using a variable of the right size, particularly with
regard to numbers. But a good rule of thumb is to go with the larger variable size if you don’t have
a very good idea of what the limit of your variable will be.
e.g. If you think that your program at some point might be required to use number with decimals
or fractions, you might want to use double and single variable type instead of Integer and Longs

Type Stores Memory Range of values

Requirements
Integer Whole Numbers 2 Bytes -32,768 to 32,767
Long Whole Numbers 4 bytes Approx. +/- 21.x109
Single Decimal Numbers 4 Bytes -3.402823x1038 to
-1.401298x10-45 for negative values
and 1.401298x10-48 to 3.402823x1038
for positive values
Double Decimal Numbers(double 8 Bytes -1.79769313486232x
precision floating point) 10308 to
-4.9406564581247x10-324
For negative values and
4.9406545841247x10-324 to
1.797691348623x10308
For positive values.
Currency Numbers with up o 15 digits left 8 Bytes 922,337,203,685,477.5808 to
& 4 digits right of the decimal. 922,337,203,685,477.5807
String Text information 1 byte per Up to 6500 characters for fixed length
character strings and up to 2 billion character
for dynamic strings.
Bytes Whole Numbers 1 byte 0 to 255
Boolean Logical values 2 bytes True or False

Date Date & time information 8 bytes Jan 1st 100 to Dec 31st 9999
Object Pictures & any object reference 4 bytes N/A
Variant Any of the preceding data types 16 bytes + 1 byte N/A
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per character
Visual Basic Operators
Mathematical Operators
They are used to carry out computations in Visual Basic. Visual Basic supports a number of
different mathematical operators that can be used in program statements.
The table below summaries the mathematical operators and their corresponding Visual Basic
symbols that can be used when programming.

Operator Symbol
Addition +
Subtraction -
Multiplication X
Division /
Integer division \
Modulus Mod
Exponentiation ^

❖ Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication Operators

These are the simplest. They are put between the operands on the right side of the assignment
operator (=)
e.g. sum = num1+ num2
diff = total - deduction
prod = sal * days
Where – num1, num2, total, deductions, sal and days are the operators to be computed
(operated)
- sum, diff and prod are the variables or object properties that are assigned the
computed values after the computation.

❖ Division Operator
This operator is a little bit complicated than multiplication operator. This is because there are 3
types as shown on the table above.
For the division where the forward slash (/) is used called the floating – point – division (normal
type of division). This type of division returns a number with its decimal portion if it has.
e.g. sum = 9/4
sum = 2.25
For the division where the backward slash (\) is used is called the Integer division. This returns
the whole number only incase the two values involved would give a quotient with a
decimal/fractional part. The decimal/fractional part is truncated.
e.g. sum = 9\4
sum = 2
For modulus division where Mod keyword is used, the remainder (which results to the
decimal/fractional part of a quotient) is given but the whole number is truncated.
e.g. x = 9 Mod 4 gives 1
y = 15 Mod 4 gives 3

Example 12:
Design a program that will employ the three types of division operator.

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Step 1: Design the G.U.I. as shown below

txtfirst

lbln txtsecond

lblr

lblfrac

lblw

cmdcompute

Step 2: Coding
Double click on the coming button and type the following
Private Sub cmdcompute_Click()
lbln.Caption = Val(txtfirst.Text) / Val(txtsecond.Text) ………………..1
lblw.Caption = Val(txtfirst.Text) \ Val(txtsecond.Text) …………….….2
lblr.Caption = Val(txtfirst.Text) Mod Val(txtsecond.Text) ………….…….3
lblfrac.Caption = lblr.Caption & "/" & txtsecond.Text ……….……….4
End Sub

Explanation:
Statement 1 computes the normal division (Floating-point-division). It returns values with decimal
values. Statement 2 computes the integer division. It returns the whole part of the quotient only.
Statement 3 computes the remainder of the quotient only. It returns the remainder only.
Statement 4 will be used to display the fractional part of the quotient as it should be on normal
mathematical computation. It will take the remainder displayed on the label lblr and display it as
the numerator of the value entered on the text box txtsecond. The ‘&’ symbols are used to
concatenate (join) Visual Basic statements. Therefore in this case they are used to join the text
on the label lblr, the forward slash (/) and the text on the text box txtsecond.
If we run the program we can have an out put as shown below.

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Other Visual Basic Operators

The other Visual Basic operators include concatenation (string) operator, comparison
operators and Logical operators.

Order of precedence in statements

In Visual Basic, the order of execution of operators depends on their precedence. Operators with
higher precedence than others are executed first if they are in a single statement.
Mathematical operators are performed first, then comparison operators and finally logical
operators.
The table below shows the order of Visual Basic operators

Operator Operator Symbol

Exponential ^
Negation (unary) -
Multiplication, Division *, /
Integer division \
Modulus Mod
Addition, subtraction +, -
Concatenation (string) &
Comparison operators =, <>, <, >, <=, >=
Logical operators Not, And, Or, Xor, Eqv, Imp, Like, Is

Experienced programmers use parentheses to define the ordering of operations within their
programs. Using parentheses to define order of precedence removes ambiguity. The use of
parentheses does not affect the speed of your program and assures the accuracy and clarity of
your code.

Control Structures
They determine the order of execution of program statements. By default, the program is
executed from left to right and from top to bottom. This is called the sequential control structure.
This is related to the way one writes down on a paper. i.e. from the left side of a line to the right
side and from the first line at the top of the page to the last bottom line of the page.
The programmer can control the way the statements will be executed in the program. Inclusive of
the default control structure we have three different types of control structure;
i.) Sequential control structure
ii.) Selection / Decision control structure.
iii.) Iteration / loop control structure.

Sequential
In this category of control structure we don’t have much to discuss because is the default way of
statement execution.
Example.
Dim Age As integer ……………………. 1
Dim money As currency ………………… 2
In this example, line 1 will be executed first and then line 2. In line 1, the keyword ‘Dim’ will be
executed first, then Age and the order will continue till the last word in that line.

Decision structure
The statements are executed conditionally. A logical test is carried out using relational operators
and the Visual Basic procedures perform different operations depending on the outcome of the
test. The decision structure allows choosing a statement to execute out of a given alternatives. It
normally requires comparison of magnitude of quantities.
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Some of the relational operation include:-

Greater than >

Less than <
Greater than or equal to >=
Less than or equal to <=
There are two types of decision structures in Visual Basic
a. If statement
b. Select case

A. If Control structure
It allows an application written in Visual Basic to respond to different situations depending upon
the result of a logical test. There are 3 ways of using ‘if’ statement.

i) If – Then – End If statement

It is used where the program executes the statement only if the condition is true. If the condition is
false, the statement is skipped. It does not provide an alternative for what will happen if the
condition is false.
General syntax:
If condition Then
Statement
End If
Examples:
i) If age > =20 Then
MsgBox “Adult”
End If

ii) If marks > = 60 Then

remarks = “Pass”
End If

The ‘If’ constant can be written in two ways:-

❖ Single line syntax
General syntax:
If condition Then statement
e.g If Age > = 20 Then MsgBox “Adult”
In this format the statement is written in the same line with the condition. This syntax does not
require “End If” as the terminator of the “If” construct.

❖ Block / multiple line syntax

General syntax:
If condition Then
Statement
End If
In this syntax, the If construct must be terminated with “End If” terminator. The condition is put on
a different line with the statement.

ii) If – Then – Else statement

It allows defining two blocks of statements whereby only one is executed depending on the
outcome of the test. It evaluates to True or False.
The General syntax:
If condition Then
Statement1
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Else
Statement 2
End If
If the condition is true, then statement 1 is executed otherwise statement 2 is executed.
e.g. If age > = 20 Then
MsgBox “Adult”
Else
MsgBox “Child”
End If
If the value assigned to ‘age’ is greater or equal to 20, then it will give “Adult”, otherwise “child”.

iii) If – Then – Else If statement

If allows to define more than two blocks of codes of which it is only one block which will be
executed depending on the outcome of the test.
General syntax:
If condition 1 Then
Statement 1
ElseIf condition 2 Then
Statement 2
.
.
.
ElseIf condition n Then
Statement n
Else
Statement x
End If

Explanation:
If condition 1 is true, statement 1 will be executed and if condition 2 is true, statement 2 will be
executed. This continues by testing the conditions until condition n. Then condition that holds
true, its corresponding statement will be executed. Incase there is no condition holding true,
then statement x will be executed.

Example 13:
A program is required to allocate remarks to marks obtained by students as follows:-
70% to 100% - Distinction
60% to 69% - Credit
50% to 59% - Pass
0% to 49% - Fail
Any other -Invalid
The marks should be entered through a test box named txtmarks and the remarks displayed
through a label named lblremarks when a command button named cmdcomp is clicked.

Step 1: Design the GUI as shown below

txtmarks

lblremarks

cmdcomp

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Step 2: Coding
Double click on the command button cmdcomp and code the following codes.
Private Sub cmdcomp_Click()
If Val(txtmarks.Text) >= 70 And Val(txtmarks.Text) <= 100 Then …..1
lblremarks.Caption = "Distinction"
ElseIf Val(txtmarks.Text) >= 60 And Val(txtmarks.Text) < 70 Then …..2
lblremarks.Caption = "Credit"
ElseIf Val(txtmarks.Text) >= 50 And Val(txtmarks.Text) < 60 Then …..3
lblremarks.Caption = "Pass"
ElseIf Val(txtmarks.Text) >= 0 And Val(txtmarks.Text) < 50 Then …..4
lblremarks.Caption = "Fail"
Else
lblremarks.Caption = "Invalid" …………………………………………..5
End If
End Sub

Explanation:
Statements 1, 2, 3 and 4 will take care of the different ranges given. Incase he user inputs any
entry and it lies in any of the given ranges, the corresponding statement will executed. If the
marks entered are above 100 or less than 0, then statement 5 will be executed.

Assignment 4:
A program is required to compute discount on the amount of goods sold. The amount of discount
depends on the quantity of sales made. The sales amount categories include:-

20,000 and above -16%

15,000 to 19,999 -14%
10,000 to 9,999 -12%
3,000 to 9,999 -10%
5,000 to 7,999 -6%
0 to 4,999 -No discount
Any other entry -Invalid Entry.

The amount of sales should be input through a text box and the computed discount displayed
through a label when a command button is clicked. Design the GUI, set the properties of the
required controls and write complete code for the program.

B. Select – Case Control structure

It allows for multiple choice of selection of items at one level of a condition. This is far much
neater way of writing multiple ‘If’ statements.
The general format is:-
Select Case (text expression)
(Case expression list 1)
(Statement block 1)
(Case expression list 2)
(Statement block 2)
.
.
.
Case Else
(Statement block n)
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End select
The statement to be executed will be determined by the outcome of the case expression. If the
case expression executes to true then the corresponding statement will be executed.

Example 14:
A program is required to compute tax on basic salary figures depending on the ranges indicated
below:
50,000 and 49,999 -16%
46,000 to 49,999 -14%
30,000 to 39,999 -12%
20,000 to 29,999 -10%
Less than 20,000 - No tax.

Step1: Design the GUI as shown below

txbp

lbltax

cmdtax

Step 2: Coding
Private Sub cmdcomp_Click()
Dim bp As Double
Dim tax As Double
bp = Val(txtbp.Text)
Select Case bp
Case Is >= 50000
tax = (16 / 100) * bp
lbltax.Caption = tax
Case Is >= 40000
tax = (14 / 100) * bp
lbltax.Caption = tax
Case Is >= 30000
tax = (12 / 100) * bp
lbltax.Caption = tax
Case Is >= 20000
tax = (10 / 100) * bp
lbltax.Caption = tax
Case Else
lbltax.Caption = "No Tax"
End Select
End Sub

Iteration / Loop control structure

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They make the operation to be repeated many times depending on the value of the condition.
Loops are blocks of code that are executed repeatedly. They typically require the initialization of
one or more variable, a test to determine if the loop should continue or stop, and a counter
variable that changes as the loop executes in order to bring about the fulfillment of the stopping
condition.
There are 3 main types of these control structures.
i.) For – Next loop
ii.) Do Loops
iii.) While – Wend

A. For – Next loop

This type of loop is best used when the number of loops is known.
The general syntax is;
For counter = start To end [stop increment]
Statements
Next [counter]

Example 15:
Design a program to display numbers 1 to 10 on the form.
Step 1: Design the GUI as shown

cmddisplay

Step 2: Coding
Double click on the command button cmddisplay and code the following
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
For num = 1 To 10 Step 1 .....................1
Print num …………………….2
Next num …………………………….3
End Sub
Explanation:
Statement 1 specifies the initial point (1) and the terminal point (10). Also it specifies the steps (1
step) from one number to the other. Statement 2 prints the numbers on the form. Statement 3 is
the incremental operator which will increase the counting from one point to the other.
The out put will be as shown:

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Example 16:
Design a program to display numbers from1 to 10 and their squares.

Step 1: Designing the GUI as shown on example 15 above.

Step 2: Coding
Double click on the command button and type the following code
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
;
Explanation:
On statement 1 above the underlined part should be double quoted. This part will be displayed as
it appears on the code and is joined with the ‘known’ parts of the code (num) by concatenating (&)
operator. This operator is used to join strings.
The out put will be as shown below.

Assignment 5:
Modify the program above to make it more user friendly by allowing the user to be specifying the
lower limit, upper limit and the power of computation of the numbers displayed.

B. Do – Loops
They are used to execute block of statements as long as the condition is true. They offer the most
flexible way to repeat set of lines.
They are of two types.
i) Do until (while)
ii) The Do

i Do While
This loop has the general format as follows;-
Do Until or While [condition]
Statements
…..[Exit Do]..
Loop
When Visual Basic executes this Do loop, it first test the condition. If the condition is false (zero) it
skips past all the statements. If its true (non zero), Visual Basic executes the statements and then

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goes back to the Do while statement and tests the condition again. Thus the statements never
execute if the condition is initially false.

Example 17:
The following code on a command button named cmddisplay will display numbers from 1 to 10.
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
num = 1 …………………………………………1
Do Until num = 11 …………………………………2
Print num, num * num, num ^ 3 …………………3
num = num + 1 …………………………………4
Loop ………………………………………………....5
End Sub
Explanation:
Statement 1 is used to initialize the loop and 2 the terminating value. Statement 3 is for displaying
the numbers, squares and the cubes. The three computations should be separated with commas.
Statement 4 specifies the steps from one number to the other. In this case the step is 1 (meaning
that a number minus its previous number gives 1). Statement 5 makes the program loop.
The output will be as shown:

ii The Do loop
Do-Loop statement execute the statement first and then tests condition after each execution of
statements.
The general format is:
Do
Statement
[Exit Do]
Loop until or white test.

The two forms (Do while and Do loop) are effectively the same, except that the logic of a
while test is reversed.

Example 18:
The following code on a command button named cmddisplay will display numbers from 1 to 10. It
uses ‘Do-Until’ loop.
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
num = 1
Do
Print num, num * num, num ^ 3
num = num + 1
Loop Until num = 11
End Sub

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Example 19:
The following code on a command button named cmddisplay will display numbers from 1 to 10. It
uses ‘Do-While’ loop.
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
num = 1
Do
Print num, num * num, num ^ 3
num = num + 1
Loop While num <= 10
End Sub

C. While-Wend Loop
This loop executes a block of statements while a condition is True.
The general syntax is:
While condition
Statement-block
Wend
If the condition is true, all the statements are executed and when the ‘Wend’ statement is
reached, control is returned to the ‘While’ statement which evaluates the condition again. If the
condition is still True, the process is repeated. If condition is False, the program resumes with the
statement following the ‘Wend’ statement.

Example 20:
The following code prompts the user for numeric data. The user can type a negative value to
indicate that all values are entered.
Private Sub cmddisplay_Click()
num = 0
While num >= 0
total = total + num
num = InputBox("Please enter another number")
Print num ………………………………………………1
Wend
End Sub

Explanation:
You assign the value 0 to the num variable before the loop starts because this value can’t affect
the total. The entered numbers will be printed on the form by statement 1. In case the user inputs
a value less than 1, the loop will terminate.
It is possible to precede the ‘While’ statement with an ‘InputBox’ function to get the first number
from the user.

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WORKING WITH FORMS
In visual basic, the Form is the container for all the controls that make up the user interface.
When the Visual Basic application is executing, each window it displays on the desktop is a Form.
The Form is the top-level object in a Visual Basic application and every application starts with the
Form. Forms have a built-in functionality that is always available without any programming effort
on your part. You can move a form around, resize it and even cover it with other forms.

Appearance of Forms
The main characteristic of the Form is the title bar on which the Form’s caption is displayed. On
the left end of the title bar is the Control menu icon. Clicking this icon opens the control menu. On
the right side of the title bar are three buttons: Minimize, Maximize and Close. Clicking this
buttons performs associated functions. When a Form is maximized, the maximizing button is
replaced by the Normal button. When clicked, the Normal button will restore the Form to its size
and position before it was maximized.

Control menu icon Minimize Button Maximize Button

Close Button

Control Menu

The control menu contains the following commands:

❖ Restore -Restores a maximized Form to the size before it was maximized. It is
available only if the Form has been maximized.
❖ Move -Lets the user move the Form around with the mouse.
❖ Size -Lets the user resize the control with the mouse
❖ Minimize -Minimizes the Form
❖ Maximize -Maximizes the Form
❖ Close -Closes the Form

You can customize the appearance of the Form with the following Form properties.
❖ MinButton, MaxButton -These two properties are ‘True’ by default. Set them to ‘False’ to
hide the corresponding buttons on the title bar.
❖ ControlBox -This property is also ‘True’ by default. Set it to False to hide the icon and
disable the control menu. Although the control menu is rarely used, Windows applications
don’t disable it. When the ControlBox property is False, the three buttons on the title bar
are also disabled. If you set the Caption property to an empty string, the title bar
disappears altogether.

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❖ BorderStyle -This property determines the style of the Form’s bolder and the
appearance of the Form. The BolderStyle property can take one of the values shown
below.
Values of BolderStyle property

Value Constant Description

0-None vbBSNone Form has no bolder and can’t be resized. This setting
should be avoided.
1-Fixed Singe vbFixedSingle Form has a visible bolder, can’t be resized
2-Sizable vbSizable Bolder and a title bar and can be repositioned on the
Desktop and resized.
3-Fixed Dialog vbFixedDialog Fixed dialog box
4-Fixed vbFixedToolWindow Form has a close button only and can’t be resized;
ToolWindow looks like a toolbar
5- Sizable vbSizableToolWindow Same as the Fixed ToolWindow, but can be resized.
ToolWindow

Start-Up Form
A typical application has more than a single Form. When the application starts, the main Form is
loaded. You can control which Form is initially loaded by setting the start-up object in the Project
Properties window shown below. To open this properties window, choose Project > Project
Properties

On this field
specify the
form to be
loaded when
the application
is started.
Afterwards
click on the
OK button.

Loading, Showing and Hiding Forms

The form has three possible states:
❖ Not Loaded -The form lives on a disk file and doesn’t take up any resources.
❖ Loaded but not shown -The form is loaded into the memory, takes up the required
resources and is ready to be displayed.
❖ Loaded and shown -The form is shown and the user can interact with it.

Loading and Unloading Forms

To load and unload Forms, use the ‘Load’ and ‘Unload’ statements. The following are the
syntaxes for the two statements

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Load formName

Unload formName

Where formName is the name of the form to be loaded or unloaded. Unlike the show method
which takes care of both loading and displaying the Form, the Load statement doesn’t show the
Form. You have to call the Form’s Show method to display it on the Desktop.

Once a form is loaded, it takes over the required resources, so you should always unload a form
that’s no longer needed. When a form is loaded, the resources it occupies are returned to the
system and can be used by other Forms and / or applications. Because loading a form isn’t
instantaneous, especially if the form contains bitmaps or other resource that entail loading large
files, don’t unload a form frequently in the course of an application. If your application contains
many forms, balance the benefits of having them all in memory versus loading certain form as
needed. Opening a database and setting up the related structures, for instance, doesn’t take
place instantly, and your application shouldn’t load and unload forms that access database. Its
best to keep the form loaded in the memory and display it when the user needs it.

Showing Forms
To show a form, you use the show method. If the form is loaded but invisible, the show method
brings the specified form on top of every other window on the Desktop. If the form isn’t loaded,
the show method loads it and then displays it. The show method has the following syntax:

formName.Show

The formName variable is the Form’s name.

Hiding Forms
If your application uses many Forms, you may want to hide some of them to make room on the
Desktop for others. To hide a Form, use the Form’s Hide method, whose syntax is:

Form.Hide

To hide a form from within its own code, use the statement:

Me.Hide

Forms that are hidden are not unloaded; they remain in the memory and can be displayed
instantly with the show method. Forms that may be opened frequently, such as a Search &
Replace window, should be hidden when they are not needed. The next time the user opens the
same window there will be no noticeable delay. Form’s that aren’t opened frequently in the course
of an application, such as a Preferences or Option window, should be unloaded to reclaim the
resources.

When a form is hidden, you can still access its properties and code. For example, you can
change the setting of its control properties or call any public functions in the form, even its event
handlers (as long as you make them public by changing the default “Private” declaration of the
corresponding event handler to “public”).

Designing Menus
Menus are one of the most common and characteristic elements of the windows user interface.
Even in the old days of character-based displays, menus were used to display methodically
organized choices and guide the user through an application and the many alternatives, menus
are still the most popular means of organizing a large number of options. Many applications

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duplicate some or all of their menus in the form of icons on a toolbar, but the menu is a standard
fixture of a form. You can turn the toolbars on and off, but not the menus.

The Menu Editor.

Menus can be attached only to forms, and you design them with the Menu Editor. To see how the
Menu Editor works, start a new standard EXE project, and when Form1 appears in the design
window, choose Tool > Menu Editor to open the Menu Editor, as shown below. Alternatively,
you can click the menu Editor button on the toolbar.

In the Menu Editor window you can specify the structure of your menu by adding one command
at a time. Each menu command has two mandatory properties:

• Caption - This is the string that appears on the application’s menu bar.
• Name – this is the name of the menu command. This property doesn’t appear on the
screen, but your code uses it to program the menu command.

The Caption and Name properties of a menu item are analogous to the properties that have
the same name as the Command button or label control. Caption is what the user sees on
the form, and Name is the means of accessing the control from within the code. As far as
your code is concerned, each menu command is a separate object, just like a command
button or label control.

To add command to the Form’s menu bar, enter a caption and a name for each command.
As soon as you start typing the command’s caption, it also appears in a new line in the list at
the bottom of the menu Editor window. Let’s create the menu structure shown below.

Arrangement
arrows

Caption and Name properties for File and Edit commands are shown in the table below.

CAPTION NAME
File mnuFile
Open mnuOpen
Save mnuSave
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Exit mnuExit
Edit mnuEdit
Copy mnuCopy
Cut mnuCut
Paste mnuPaste

The commands that belong to each menu form the corresponding submenu and are indented
from the left. To design the menu, follow these steps:

1. Open a new Form in the Design pane, and choose Tools > Menu Editor to open the
menu editor window.
2. In the Caption box, type the Caption of the first command (file).
3. In the Name box, enter the command’s name (mnuFile).
4. Press Enter or click Next to enter the next command. Repeat step 1 through 3 for all the
commands listed.
5. For the indented commands, use the arrow facing to the right to indent. When a
command is indented, it’s made to be inside the command on the higher level. The levels
of the commands depend on the vertical arrangement of the commands. In the example
given above, ‘File’ and ‘Edit’ are in the same level (highest level) while ‘Open’, ‘Save’ and
‘Edit’ are inside the ‘File’ command. The three (Open, Save and Edit) form the File menu.
In the same way, ‘Copy’, ‘Cut’ and ‘Paste’ are inside ‘Edit’ command forming the Edit
menu.
The Left and Right arrows are used to change the level of the commands. Left arrow moves
the command to a higher level while right arrow to a lower level. The Up and Down arrows
arrange the commands.

The Index Field

Use Index field to create an array of menu commands. All the commands of the array have same
name and a unique index that distinguishes them, just like arrays of controls. When appending a
list of recently opened filenames in the file menu, it’s customary create an array of menu
commands (one for each filename); all have the same name and a different index.

The checked field

Some menu commands act as toggles, and they are usually checked to indicate that they are on
or unchecked to indicate that they are off. To display a checkmark next to a menu command
initially, select the command from the list by clicking its name, and then check the checked box in
the Menu Editor window. You can also access this property from within your code to change the
checked status of a menu command at runtime. For example, to toggle the status of a menu
command called Frmtbold, use the statement:

frmtBold.checked = Not frmtBold. Checked

The visible field

To remove a command temporarily from the menu, set the command’s visible property to false.
The visible property isn’t used frequently in menu design. In general, you should prefer to disable

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a command to indicate that it can’t be used (some other action is required to enable it). Making a
command invisible frustrates users, who try to locate the command in another menu.

The window field

This option is used with MDI (Multiple Document Interface) applications to maintain a list of all
open windows.

Programming Menu commands

Menu commands are similar to controls. They have certain properties that you can manipulate
from within your code, and they recognize a single event, the click event. If you select a menu
command at design time, Visual Basics open the code for the click event in the code window. The
name of the event handler for the click event is composed of the command’s name followed by an
underscore character and the event’s name, as with all other controls. Type the codes on the
coding section which will be executed when the menu will be clicked.

Access keys
Access keys allow the user to open a menu by pressing the Alt key and letter key. To open the
Edit menu in all window application, for example, you can press Alt+ E. E is the Edit menu’s
access key.

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DATABASE PROGRAMING

Relational Database concepts

Database
This is an organized collection of related data about an organization. A database structure is
made up of a number of components; the common being tables, queries and indexes. Therefore
the database must consist of these elements in order to store data.

Table
It’s a logical grouping of related information. A relational database presents data inform of a table.
A table consists of rows referred to as records and columns referred to as fields.

Example:

Name Id Number Age

Records

Fields

Records -Each record in a table contains information about a single entry in a table e.g. in
an employees table, a record will contain all the details for a particular employee.
Fields -Each field contains a single piece of information about a record. Several fields will
constitute a record. E.g. Age , Id number etc.

Primary key
• To identify each row in a table, then a primary key is required for the table. Primary key is
a unique field or a combination of fields whose values are unique for each row. A table
may also contain a field that is a foreign key. A foreign key points to a primary key in a
related table. The foreign key should be the same as the primary key for the other table.
It is required for creating relationship or links between the tables.

Creating Database in Visual Basic

When creating a database in visual basic, we use Ms-Access of Visual Data manager, which is
an integrated part of Visual Basic. A table is then created inside the database to store the data.
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When creating a table, the first thing is to identify the fields from the program form and their data
types. This is because the fields on the form will be connected to the table.

Visual Data Control

It’s an access data object that enables the other controls in the form to be
connected to the database. This control allows easy access to the database
when adding, searching, deleting and updating records.
When a data control is placed on a form, it is connected to the database by use
of DatabaseName property. To connect to the specific field in the table, the
RecordSource property of the Data control is set to the specific table (table name).
For a control to be connected to the database using the Data control, the DataSource property of
the control has to be set to the name of the Data control connected to the database.
To connect the fields in the table to the controls, the DataField property of the control has to be
set to the specific field of the table.

Creating a Database
Steps:
i) From “Add-Ins” menu choose “Visual Data manager…”.
ii) Make sure that “Table Type Recordset” and “Used Data control” are clicked.
iii) On Visual Data window, choose “New Ms Access version 7.0” from the “File” menu.
iv) Specify where to save the database.
v) Type the database name then click “Save”.

Creating a Table
The table is created inside the database window.
Steps:
i) While creating the database (after saving), on the window that appears, right-click on
the window and click on “New Table”. A “Table structure” dialog box appears.
ii) Type the name of the table.
iii) Click on the “Add Field” button to add the fields of the table that should correspond to
the controls you have on the form.
iv) Type the name of the fields and select the data types one after the other by clicking the
OK button always after entering the field.
v) After entering all the fields, click on the “Close” button.
vi) Click on the “Add Index” button to add the primary field. (This is the unique field in the
table).
vii) On the “Available Fields” section, click on the field name that shows the primary field to
be copied to the “Index Fields” section. Type the same name copied on the “Index
Fields” on the “Name” field.
viii) Make sure that the “primary” and “unique” checkboxes are checked.
ix) Click on the OK button. If you need other fields to be unique and primary, then follow
the same procedure as in step 7 and 8.
x) After adding all the indexed fields, click on close button.

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xi) On the “Table structure” dialog box, click on “Build the table” to generate the table in
the database.
xii) Close the “Visdata” window to go back to the form.

Connecting the Database to the form controls

At this point, the form controls are not connected with the database and as a result the program
won’t save the entered data.
The following are the steps to follow in order to connect the controls with the database. Make
sure that there is a “Data” control placed in your form because this is the control used to connect
the database to the controls on the form.

Steps:
i) If the “data” control is not there, place it on the form and give it a name. write the
caption of the “Data” control also.
ii) Open the properties window for the “Data” control and connect the “Data” control to the
database through the “Databasename” property. Click on the button on this property to
and click on “open” to connect the “Data” control to the database.
iii) Still on the properties of the “Data” control, connect “Recordsource” property to the
table you created on the database. A database can have several tables, so connect the

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table that you want to use to be storing the data entered through the controls you have
in your form. At this point, the “Data” control as connected to the Database and the
table. The remaining bit is to connect the other controls to the database.
iv) Since the other controls are to be connected to the database; this is done through
connecting them to the “Data” control. Click on the first control to be connected to the
database and open its properties window. On the “Datasource” property, click on the
drop-down arrow and click on the name of the “Data” control connecting to the
database. On the “Datafield” property, click on the drop-down arrow and select the
field (from the table you connected to the “Data” control) that corresponds to the control
you are connecting to the database. Repeat the same procedure of connecting the
“Datasource” and “Datafield” to all the other controls to be connected to the database.
NB; Before connecting the “Datafield” property of any control, first connect the
“Datasource” property. This will let the table fields to be displayed on the “Datafield”
property for the programmer to select.
v) Remember to click on the save tool on the tool bar or choose “save” from “file” menu to
save the connections.

At this point the controls on the form are connected to the database but there is nothing that the
program can save to the database because there are no codes put on the command buttons.

Coding
To understand very well on how to code, we need to come up with an example which is working.

Example 20:
Design a program that will save student names and their index numbers in a database.

Step 1: Design the GUI as shown below.

cmdnew
cmdsave
txtindex
cmdsearch

txtfirst cmdedit
cmddelet
e
txtlast cmdexit

dtarecords cmdreport

Step 2: Coding
1) Creating the Database and a table
Following the steps on how to create a database as explained on the previous page, create the
database and give it the name “Studentrecords”.
Create a table in the database following the steps given on the previous page and give it the
name “Students”.

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Add “Index”, “First” and “Last” as the data field on the table with “text” as the datatype. Add
“Index” datafield as the index field of the table. This should be primary and unique. This field will
be used during searching of the data in the database.

2) Connecting the database with the form controls

Open the properties window of the “Data” control dtarecords and set the following properties.
i.) DatabaseName – Use the browse option to connect it to the database
“Studentrecords”
ii.) Recodsource - Click the drop down arrow and choose the table “Students”

For each of the text boxes set the “Datasource” to “dtarecords” by use of the down arrow. Set the
appropriate “Datafield” for each of them using the down arrow as indicated below.

Field Datasource Datafield

txtindex dtarecords Index
txtfirst dtarecords First
txtlast dtarecords Last

The “Datasource” for each field should be set fist and then the “Datafiled” follows.

3) Necessary codes for the six command buttons

i) New command button
Private Sub cmdnew_Click()
dtarecords.Recordset.AddNew …………………………………………….1
cmdsave.Enabled = True
cmdsearch.Enabled = True
cmdedit.Enabled = True
cmddelete.Enabled = True ….....…………………………………….2
txtindex.Enabled = True
txtfirst.Enabled = True
txtlast.Enabled = True
cmdnew.Enabled = False ………………………………………….…3
txtindex.SetFocus ……………………………………………………...4
End Sub

ii) Save command button

Private Sub cmdsave_Click()
If txtindex.Text = "" Then …………………………………………….5
MsgBox ("You can not save a Null Entry.") ………………………....6
txtindex.SetFocus ………………………………………………………7
Else
dtarecords.Recordset.Update …………………………………………….8
cmdnew.Enabled = True …………………………………………….9
cmdsave.Enabled = False …………………………………………….10
End If
End Sub

iii) Search command button

Private Sub cmdsearch_Click()
Dim sindex As String ……………………………………………………..11
Dim sbookmark As String ……………………………………………12
sindex = InputBox("Type the student index number") ……………….13

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With dtarecords.Recordset ……………………………………………14
sbookmark = .Bookmark ……………………………………………15
.FindFirst "Index like ' " + sindex + " ' " …………………………………..16
If .NoMatch Then …………………………………………………......17
MsgBox ("Student does not exist") …………………………...…......18
.Bookmark = sbookmark …………………………………………….19
Else
cmdedit.Enabled = True …………………………………………….20
cmddelete.Enabled = True …………………………………………….21
End If
End With
End Sub

iv) Edit command button

Private Sub cmdedit_Click()
dtarecords.Recordset.Edit ……………………………………………22
txtindex.Enabled = True
txtfirst.Enabled = True ……………………………………………23
txtlast.Enabled = True
cmdsave.Enabled = True ……………………………………………24
End Sub

v) Delete command button

Private Sub cmddelete_Click()
With dtarecords.Recordset ……………………………………………………………..25
If MsgBox("Are you sure that you want to delete this record?", vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
MsgBox ("The record will be permanently deleted.") ………………………………...27
.Delete ………………………………………………………………………………...28
.MoveFirst ………………………………………………………………………………...29
If .EOF Then …………………………………………………………………………………30
.MoveLast …………………………………………………………………………………31
End If
End If
End With
End Sub

vi) Exit command button

Private Sub cmdexit_Click()
Unload Me …………………………………………………………………………………32
End Sub

vii) Form load code

Private Sub Form_Load()
txtindex.Enabled = False
txtfirst.Enabled = False ………………………………………………………………33
txtlast.Enabled = False
cmdsave.Enabled = False …………………………………………... ………………………..34
frmdatabase.Top = 2000 ………………………………………………………………35
frmdatabase.Left = 2500
End Sub

Explanation:
❖ Form load
The form-load event is executed when the form loads. This is when the program is made to run.
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The controls (text boxes) indicated are disabled (statements 33) because the user may start
typing the data straight away without first clicking on the “New” button. The “New” button is
clicked first before entering the data to prepare the database to receive the entered data. This is
done by the code on statement 1. If the data will be typed without first clicking on the “New”
button, the action will be cancelled by the program.
The “Save” button is disabled (statement 34), to avoid the user clicking on it before first entering
the data for this will bring an error of saving without first clicking on “New” or “Edit” buttons. When
these two buttons are clicked they prepare the database to receive data.
Statements 35 are made to position the form at a particular point depending on the dimensions
set by the programmer. This is not a must to be put but for more professional looking program
they are important.

❖ New command button

The code on statement 1 is used to prepare the database to receive the data entered through the
form. As the programmer, you should make sure that before the user types and saves any data,
has clicked a command button with this code.
After clicking on this command button, the other command buttons together with the textboxes
will be enabled (statements 2). At the same time, this command button will be disabled to avoid
the user from clicking on it again (statement 3).

❖ Save command button

Remember that the field for the index is primary and unique. It is also a must to put some data in
this field. Because of this characteristic of the field, statement 5 is made available on the code to
avoid having an error if the user clicks on the “Save” button before entering the index. The double
quotes on statement 5 signify that there is no data entered in the text box txtindex. As a result,
the user will get a message (statement 6) and statement 7 will take the curser to the textbox
txtindex for a value to be entered. The user can enter the index alone and save and get no error.
This because it is the only required entry in this form. A program can have several fields which
require data before saving the data in the database. No saving will take place if the fields will be
containing nothing when the user clicks on the save button.
If the index is supplied, then by clicking on the save button, statement 8 will be executed. This will
save the entered data in the database.
This button will enable the “New” button (statement 9) for more entries and disable itself
(statement 10) because if the user will click on it again before clicking on the “New” button then it
will lead to an error.

❖ Search command button

The codes will help the user to search or an entry in the database. Statements 11 and 12 are
used to declare the variable names “sindex” and “sbookmark”. Statement 13 is used to assign the
value entered through the input box generated by the function “Inputbox( )”, to the variable name
“sindex”.
Statement 14 will direct the computer to the database to search the requested entry. The
database to be searched is the one connected to the data control “dtarecords”.
Statement 15 sets the “Bookmark” which is used to identify that particular entry during the search
process. Statement 16 finds the first entry in the table with the field “Index” that resemble the
value assigned to the variable name “sindex”. The word “Index” should be the name given to the
unique and primary field in the database.
Statement 17 is executed if there is no entry matching with the entered value. Therefore a
message box will be generated (statement 18). After the message box, statement 19 is executed
which resets the searching since there is no matching entry in the table.
If there is a matching entry, then the statements after the “Else” keyword (20 and 21) will be
executed and the matching entry will be displayed on the form controls. The “Edit” and “Delete”
buttons are enabled because the user may decide to edit or delete the record.

❖ Edit command button

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Statement 22 on the code prepares the database for some editing (changes) and even makes it
ready to save the changes made. The code will also enable the text boxes (statements 23) for
editing and the Save button (statement 24) for saving the change made. Incase the user tries to
edit without clicking the edit command then, an error will occur during the saving process.

❖ Delete command button

Statement 25 prepares the database to delete the desired record (displayed record on the form
controls) from the records.
Statement 26 generates a message in a message box with two button “Yes” and “No”. If the user
clicks on “Yes” statement 27 will generate a message box to warn the user on the effect of
deleting the record. Statement 28 will delete the entry displayed on the form controls and 29 will
display the first entry in the database on the form controls.
The “EOF” on statement 30 means “End Of File” and this will be executed incase the user deletes
the last entry in the database. In such a case, statement 31 will be executed which will display the
last entry in the database.

❖ Exit command button

The command on this button is used to stop the running of the program. This ends the program. It
will act the same way as “End” command.

Assignment 6;
Modify the program such that it will not be deleting the displayed entry on the form once the
delete command button is clicked but it will be requesting the user to input the index of the entry
to be deleted. The program will be searching for the entry to be deleted and after finding it, it will
be requesting if to delete or not. Incase the user chooses to delete the entry will be deleted
otherwise the entry will not be deleted.
Incase the program fails to find the index of the entry to be deleted; it should inform the user and
give him/her another chance to re-enter the index again.
Also, Modify the codes on the search button such that incase the index being searched is not
found, it will be notifying the user and give him/her another chance to re-enter the index number
for a new search.

Generating Reports
Reports are generated from tables and show the summary of the data from that particular table.
They are used for management purpose such as analysis.
The most common control used in generation of reports is the DataEnvironment. This object is
flexible is that it can be used in connecting controls placed on the form to the database. For a
Data control to be connected to the database a Connection must be established. This specifies
the path of the database and the database provider used in the connection. To get connected to a
table, a Command is created.
In general, generating a report follows the given steps;
1. Adding Data Environment.
2. Establishing a Connection
3. Adding a Command
4. Creating the Data report.

We will create a report for the above example.

Data Environment
This is the first step in creating the data report. It is designed within visual Basic and is used to tell
the report what is in the database.

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Steps to Add Data Environment
i.) From “Project” menu click on “Add Data Environment”. Data Environment window appears.
ii.) Click on “DataEnviroment1” and open its properties window. Enter the name property as
“DataEnvstudents”.
iii.) Click on “connection1” and open its properties window. Set the name as “connstudents”.
iv.) Right click on the connection “connstudents” and click on “Add command”.
v.) Click on the command added and open its properties window. Set the name as
“commstudents”. Make sure that the property “ConnectionName” has the name of the
connection, “connstudents”.
vi.) Right click on the connection and choose “Properties”. On the “Data link properties” dialog
box that appears, click on the “Provider” tab and click on “Microsoft jet 3.51 OLE DB
provider”. Click on the “Next” button on the “Connection” tab.
vii.) Enter the database name by clicking on the browser button next to “select or enter a
database name:” field and navigating through until you open the required database. In our
case it should be “studentrecords”. Click on “Open” button to connect the connection with the
database.
viii.) Click on the “Test connection” button to confirm the connection. On success a message box
with the message, “Test connection succeeded” is displayed. Click on the OK button and OK
again to go back to the “Data Environment” window.
ix.) Right click on the command “commstudents” and choose “Properties”. A dialog box appears.
x.) Click on the “General” tab and confirm that on the “Command Name” and “Connection” fields
have the names of the Command and the Connection, “commstudents” and “connstudents”,
respectively.
xi.) On the “Database object” field, click on the down arrow and choose “Table”.
xii.) Click on the SQL statement option button and type the following.

SELECT Students.* FROM Students

Where:
Students - is the name of the table in our database.
Student.* - is used to retrieve all the fields from the table “Students”. Incase one is interested to
retrieve particular fields from the table, then instead of putting an asterisk after the period on table
name, should specify the field names as used in the table and separate each set of table name
and field name with a comma.
Example: If we want to retrieve only index and first name we will type the following.

SELECT Students.Index,Students.First FROM Students

Where: “Index” and “First” should be the field names on the table “Students”.

❖ SELECT and FROM should be typed in upper case only

❖ There should be a single space between SELECT & table fields, table fields & FROM and
FROM & the table name.
❖ On the success of the connection,a plus (+) sign will appear on the SQL command on the
“Data Environment” window. When you click on the plus (+) sign, a list of all the retrieved
fields from the table will be displayed.
❖ By opening the “Project Explorer” window, a folder named “Designers” will be found
containing the data environment created.
At this point you are through with creating the Data environment.

Data Report

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This is the second stop in generating a data report. It is designed in the visual Basic window.
Once the Data Report and Data Environment are designed they become part of visual Basic
project.

Steps to add Data Report

i.) From “Project” menu click on “Add Data Report”. A data report window
will be displayed.
ii.) Open the “Properties” window of the Data Report and set the following
properties.

Name – DataRepStudents
Caption – Student Records
Datasource – DataEnvstudents; this is the name of the Data Environment we created. Click on
the down arrow to select it.
Datamember – Commstudents; this is the command name we created. Also use the down arrow
to set it

Before setting the “Datamember” , the “Datasource” property has to be set first.

The Data Report window has five sections as follows:

c) Report Header- It contains the information displayed on top of the whole
report. A report can have several pages, so the information placed in this section
will be displayed on the first page on the report. Example: The name of the
institution.
d) Page Header- It contains the information displayed on top of each page e.g.
student exam records.
e) Detail section – This section contains the fields from the data environment. To
add the fields, open Data Environment and drug the fields into this section.
f) Page footer – It contains the information displayed at the bottom of each page
on the report. e.g. Student department name.
g) Report footer – It contains the information displayed at the bottom of the
whole report. This information appears on the last page of the report.
The details section can contain a single record from the Database or several depending on the
amount of information on each record.

iii.) Open both the Report window and the Data Environment window. Make sure that, you resize
them to a point that both will be seen on the same computer screen.
iv.) Click on the fields from the Data Environment and drag them into the Data Report details
section. Position them where necessary to give the best output of the report.

Data Environment

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Data Report

Report Header
Fields
Page Header

Details

Page Footer

Report Footer

Modifying the appearance of the report

The data report has its tool box that contains controls that can be used to modify the report. To
put a label on the different sections as the headers and the footers, click on the “Rptlabel” control
on the tool box and draw it where necessary on the report. This is done in a similar manner to the
designing of the GUI of the program.
Each control has its properties so by opening the properties window of a particular control, will
help you to format the controls.
Put the labels for the report header, page header, page footer and report footer and format them.
The fields dragged and dropped on the details section are in pairs. The first one (the one on left)
is the filed label while the other (one on the right) is the field which will display different entries
entered through the form. It is possible to modify the appearance of the fields on the details
section by clicking on each of them and opening its properties window. On the properties window
you can format as required by your report. For the labels dragged from the fields, you can change
the caption because the caption displayed on the report by default is obtained from name given to
the connected table on the database.

Viewing the Report through the form

On the form, a command button can be added which will be displaying the report once clicked.
This is similar to the way we display other forms. Therefore the required code will have the name
of that particular report.
For instance, if we want to have this report displayed on clicking on a command button we will
add it on the form and code the following on the coding window.
Private sub cmdreport_click( )
DataRepStudents.Show
End sub

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