Visual Basic 2010 How to Program

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- edited by Maysoon Al-Duwais 1
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All Rights Reserved. - edited by Maysoon
Al-Duwais 2
 In Fig. 3.2, displays a code that modify a Label’s text
programmatically.

 The text displayed on the Form to change when you execute

the program.

 This code performs an action (change the label’s text) when

the Form loads that is, when the program executes and
displays the Form.

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Al-Duwais 4
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 Classes
◦ Windows Forms applications consist of pieces called classes.
◦ Classes are logical groupings of methods and data that simplify
program organization.
◦ Methods perform tasks and can return information when the
tasks are completed.
◦ Lines 3–10 define a class that represents our Form.
◦ Every Windows Forms application consists of at least one
class.

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 Keywords

◦ The words Public and Class (line 3) are examples of keywords.

◦ Keywords are words reserved for use by Visual Basic.

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 Class Names and Identifiers

◦ The name of the Class—ASimpleProgram in line 3—is

an identifier, which is a series of characters consisting of
letters, digits and underscores (_).
◦ Identifiers cannot begin with a digit and cannot contain spaces.

valid identifiers Invalid identifiers

•value1 7Welcome
•Welcome1- invalid because it begins with
a digit
•xy_coordinate, _total input field
•grossPay. invalid because it contains a
space

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 Visual Basic Is Not Case Sensitive
◦ Visual Basic keywords and identifiers are not case sensitive.

◦ Uppercase and lowercase letters are considered to be identical,

so asimpleprogram and ASimpleProgram are
interpreted as the same identifier.

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 The Form’s Load Event and Method
ASimpleProgram_Load

◦ GUIs are event driven.

◦ When the user interacts with a GUI component, the interaction

—known as an event—causes the program to perform a task
by “calling” a method.

◦ Common events (user interactions) include clicking a

Button, selecting an item from a menu, closing a window
and moving the mouse.

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 All GUI controls, including Forms, have events
associated with them.
 A method that performs a task in response to an event

is called an event handler,

 The process of responding to events is known as event

handling.
 Most of a GUI application’s functionality executes

based on events.
 Event handling methods are called automatically.

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 A common event for a Form is its Load event, which occurs
just before a Form is displayed on the screen—typically as
a result of executing the program.

 Lines 5–9 define the method ASimple-Program_Load

as the Form’s Load event handler.

 When this event is raised (that is, the event occurs), method
ASimple-Program_Load executes to perform its task
—changing the text in the Label.

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 At the end of line 6, the clause
 Handles MyBase.Load
indicates that method ASimple-Program_Load is
the one that will be called to handle the Form’s Load
event.

 The IDE automatically inserts this clause for you when

you create the event handler.

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 Defining a Method
◦ The keyword Sub (line 5) begins the method declaration

◦ The keywords End Sub (line 9) close the method declaration.

◦ The body of the method declaration appears between the

keywords Sub and End Sub.

◦ The keyword Sub is short for “subroutine”

◦ Methods are also sometimes called procedures.

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 When this line executes, it changes the Label’s Text

 property to the message Visual Basic is fun!.

 This updates the text on the Form (Fig. 3.2).

 The statement uses the assignment operator (=) to give the

Text property a new value.

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 The expression Label1.Text contains two identifiers
separated by the dot separator (.).

◦ The identifier to the right of the dot is the property name

◦ The identifier to the left of the dot is the name of the Label control.

 When you add a Label to a Form, the IDE gives it the name
Label1 by default for the first Label you add.

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 Note About Public and Private

◦ Most classes you’ll define begin with keyword Public

◦ Most event-handling methods begin with the keyword

Private.

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Note: Don’t forget to put “.vb” at the end of the file name when you rename it, or
you will get an error.

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 Writing Code and Using IntelliSense

◦ As you begin typing, a small window appears (Fig. 3.6).

◦ This IDE feature, called Intelli-Sense,

 lists keywords, class names, members of a class (which include
property and method names)

◦ Tabs (Common and All) in Intelli-Sense

 Common : view the most commonly used matches.
 All: view all the available matches.

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 Compiling and Running the Program
◦ To execute your program :
 Select Debug > Start Debugging
 Or press F5
 Or the toolbar button .

◦ When you run a program, the IDE first compiles it.

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 You can also compile the program without running it by:
◦ selecting Debug > Build ASimpleProgram

 This creates a new file with the project’s name and

the .exe file-name extension (ASimpleProgram.exe).

 This file contains a program’s code, which executes on

the .NET Framework.

 The .exe file extension indicates that the file is executable.

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◦ When you type a line in an incorrect way a syntax error occur.
• Happens before execution time.
• Detected by the IDE before the execution .
• The IDE places a blue squiggle below the error, example:
• A detailed description of the error is shown in the Error List window.

◦ Runtime error is a logical mistake in the code.

• Happens at the execution time.
• Cannot be detected by the IDE before the execution.
• It interrupts the execution of the program.
• A detailed description of the error is shown in the Error List window.

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 If the Error List window is not visible in the IDE, select View > Other
Windows > Error List to display it.

 In Fig. 3.7, we removed the parenthesis “)” at the end of line 6.

 The error contains the text “')' expected.” and specifies that the error is in
column 33 of line 6.

 This informs you that a right parenthesis is missing in line 6.

 You can double click an error message in the Error List to jump to the line
of code that caused the error.

 For some errors (such as this one), the IDE shows the Error Correction
Options drop-down list and allows you to simply click a link to fix the
error.

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 Variable Declarations and Naming
◦ Lines 8–10 are declarations, which begin with keyword Dim.

◦ The words number1, number2 and total are identifiers for variables
◦ Variables are locations in the computer’s memory where values can be
stored for use by a program.

◦ All variables must be declared before they can be used.

◦ The variables number1, number2 and total are data of type Integer I

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 A variable name can be any valid identifier.

 Variables of the same type can be declared in separate

statements or they can be declared in one statement separated
by a comma.

 You should choose meaningful variable names to make your

programs “self-documenting” & more readable.

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 Tips in naming variables

- The “camel case”.

◦ It is a way for naming variables so that The first word in a
variable-name begins with a lowercase letter and every
word after the first one should with an uppercase letter.

 Example: firstNumber.

◦ Helps make your programs more readable.

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 Using Variables to Store the Values Entered by the
User

◦ Line 12: number1 = number1TextBox.Text

◦ We call this statement an assignment statement because it

assigns a value to a variable.

◦ The expression number1TextBox.Text gets the value that

the user typed in the TextBox.

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 What if the User Doesn’t Enter an Integer?
◦ For this program, if the user types a noninteger value, such as "hello,"
a runtime error occurs.

◦ A detailed description of the error is displayed in the Error List window.

◦ The message displayed in Fig. 3.10 appears when you run the
application using Debug > Start Debugging (or press F5).

◦ In this case, you can stop running the program by selecting Debug >
Stop Debugging or typing Ctrl + Alt + Break.

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 Suppose the user enters the characters 45.
 This input is returned by number1TextBox.Text and
assigned to number1.
 The program places the Integer value 45 into location
number1, as shown in Fig. 3.20.
 Whenever a value is placed in a memory location, this value
replaces the value previously stored in that location.
 The previous value is lost.

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 Suppose that the user then enters the characters 72 in
number2TextBox.
 Line 13
' get the second number entered number2 =
number2TextBox.Text
places the Integer value 72 into location number2, and
memory appears, as shown in Fig. 3.21.

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 Once the program has obtained values for number1 and
number2, it adds these values and places their total into
variable total.
 The statement (line 14)
total = number1 + number2 ' add the two numbers

 After total is calculated, memory appears, as in Fig. 3.22.

 The values of number1 and number2 appear exactly the same
as they did before they were used in the calculation of total.

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 Programs often perform arithmetic calculations.

◦ The arithmetic operators are summarized in Fig. 3.23.

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 the asterisk (*) indicates multiplication, and the keyword Mod
represents the Mod operator (also known as the modulus or
modulo operator)

 Most of the arithmetic operators in Fig. 3.23 are binary

operators, because each operates on two operands.
◦ Example: The addition operator: 1+2

 Visual Basic also provides unary operators that take only one
operand.
 Example: The minus sign: (-2) ,and the plus sign: (+2)

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 Visual Basic has two types of division:
 Integer division (\):  floating-point division (/):
◦ Gives an Integer result.
◦ Operands are rounded to the nearest integer ◦ Gives a Float number result.
number before performing division. ◦ Operands are not rounded before
◦ Any fractional part in the result simply is performing division.
discarded .
◦ Fractional part in the result is kept.
◦ Example:
• 7\2 =3 ◦ Example:
• 7.1 \ 2 = 7\2 = 3  7/2 =3.5
7.1 is rounded to 7 before the division.  7.1 / 2 = 3.55
• 7.7 \2 = 8 \2 = 4  7.7 / 2 = 3.85
7.7 is rounded to 8 before the division.

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 Mod Operator

◦ The Mod operator gives the remainder after division.

◦ The expression x Mod y gives the remainder after x is divided
by y.
◦ Example: 7 Mod 4 = 3, and 17 Mod 5 = 2.
◦ You use this operator mostly with Integer operands, but it
also can be used with other types.

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 Operators in arithmetic expressions are applied in a precise
sequence determined by the rules of operator precedence
(Fig. 3.24), which are similar to those in algebra.

 Operators in the same row of the table have the same level of
precedence.

 When we say operators are evaluated from left to right, we’re

referring to the operators’ associativity.
 If there are multiple operators, each with the same precedence,
the order in which the operators are applied is determined by
the operators’ associativity.

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 Operators in expressions contained within a pair of parentheses
“()” are evaluated before those that are outside the parentheses.

 Parentheses can be used to group expressions and change the

order of evaluation to occur in any sequence you desire.

 With nested parentheses, the operators contained in the innermost

pair of parentheses are applied first.

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 Redundant Parentheses

◦ As in algebra, it is acceptable to place unnecessary parentheses

in an expression to make the expression clearer—these are
called redundant parentheses.

◦ For example, many people might parenthesize the preceding

assignment statement for clarity as
y = (a * x ^ 2) + (b * x) + c

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 1
1

2
2

3
3

Note: Don’t forget that parenthesis () has the highest

priority amongst all the operators & anything inside them
should be executed first.

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