Chapter 3

Variables, Constants,
and Calculations

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 Objectives (1 of 2)

• Distinguish between variables, constants, and

controls.
• Differentiate among the various data types.
• Apply naming conventions incorporating standards
and indicating the data type.
• Declare variables and constants.
• Select the appropriate scope for a variable.
• Convert text input to numeric values.

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 Objectives (2 of 2)

• Perform calculations using variables and constants.

• Convert between numeric data types using implicit and
explicit conversions.
• Round decimal values using the Decimal.Round
method.
• Format values for output using the ToString method.
• Use Try/Catch blocks for error handling.
• Display message boxes with error messages.
• Accumulate sums and generate counts.

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 Data — Variables and Constants (1
of 2)

Variable
• Memory locations that hold data that can be
changed during project execution
• Example: customer’s name
• Named Constant
• Memory locations that hold data that cannot
be changed during project execution
• Example: sales tax rate

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 Data — Variables and Constants (2
of 2)

• In Visual Basic, when you declare a Variable or

Named Constant
• An area of memory is reserved
• A name is assigned called an Identifier
• Follow rules and naming conventions
• Use Declaration Statements to establish
Variables and Constants,
• Assign name and data type,
• Not executable unless initialized on same line
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 Data Types
Data Type Use For Storage Size in bytes
Boolean True or False value 2
Byte 0 to 255, binary data 1
Clear Single Unicode character 2
Date 1/1/0001 through 12/31/9999 8
Decimal Decimal fractions, such as dollars/cents 16
Single Single precision floating-point numbers with six digits of 4
accuracy
Double Double precision floating-point numbers with 14 digits of 8
accuracy
Short Small integer in the range -32,768 to 32,767 2
Integer Whole numbers in the range -2,147,483,648 to 4
+2,147,483,647
Long Larger whole numbers 8
String Alphanumeric data: letters, digits, and other characters Varies
Object Any type of data 4

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 Data Types
Data Type Prefix

Boolean bln
Byte byt
Character chr
Date dtm
Decimal dec
Single sng

Double dbl

Short sht
Integer int

Long lng
String str

Object obj

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 Naming Variables and Constants

• Must follow Visual Basic Naming Rules

• Should follow Naming Conventions
• Meaningful names consisting of letters, digits, and
underscores; must begin with a letter and no spaces or
periods. Include class (data type) of variable
(QUOTA_Integer)
• Use mixed case for variables and uppercase for
constants (quantityInteger).
• Cannot use reserved words or keywords to which
Basic has assigned a meaning, such as print, name,
and value

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 Constants

• Named
• User assigned name, data type, and value
• Use CONST keyword to declare.
Const COMPANY_ADDRESS_String As String = "101 S. Main Street"
Const SALES_TAX_RATE_Decimal As Decimal = .08D

• Intrinsic
• System defined within Visual Studio
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 Assigning Values to Constants

• Declare the data type of numeric constants by

appending a type-declaration character.
Decimal D Decimal – 850.50D
Double R Double – 52875.8R
Integer I Integer – 12345678I
Long L Long – 134257987L
Short S Short – 350S
Single F Single – 101.25F

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 Declaring Variables

• Declared inside a procedure using a Dim

statement
• Declared outside a procedure using Public,
Private, or Dim statements
• Always declare the variable’s data type.
• May declare several variables with one
statement.
• Use IntelliSense to assist in writing statements.

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 Declaration Statement Examples

Dim customerNameString As String As String

Private totalSoldInteger As Integer As Integer
Dim temperatureSingle As Single As Single
Dim priceDecimal As Decimal As Decimal
Private priceDecimal As Decimal As Decimal

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 Scope and Lifetime of Variables (1 of
2)

• Visibility of a variable is its scope.

• Scope may be
• Namespace
• Module level
• Local
• Block level

• Lifetime of a variable is the period of time the variable

exists.

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 Module Level Variable Declaration
Example
Code module-level declarations in the Declaration section
at the top of the code.

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 Guidelines for User Input
• Each Input object (textbox, etc) and Output object (label,
textbox, etc.) will have its own variable associated with it
• All calculations (formulas) will be done ONLY with
variables, constants and functions; the results of all
calculations will be placed in a variable
• All variables will be formatted into an output object (label,
textbox, etc.) in order to make them visible and appear in
user friendly format

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15
Chapter 4: Variables and
McGraw-Hill © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-16
16
Chapter 4: Variables and
 Calculations

• Calculations can be performed with variables,

constants, functions and numeric literals.
• Do not use strings in calculations.
• Values from Text property of Text Boxes
• Are strings, even if they contain numeric data
• Must be converted to a numeric data type
before performing a calculation

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 Converting Strings to a
Numeric Data Type
• Use Parse methods to convert the Text property to
its numeric form before it’s used in a calculation.
• Each numeric data type class has a Parse method.
• Parse method returns a value that can be used in
calculations.
• Parse method fails if user enters nonnumeric data
or leaves data blank.

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 Converting to String

• Values assigned to string variables or Text

properties must be string.
• Convert any numeric data type to string
using .ToString method.

Examples:
ResultTextBox.Text = ResultDecimal.ToString()
CountTextBox.Text = CountInteger.ToString()
IDString = IDInteger.ToString()
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 Conversion Methods

Method Convert
To
Integer.Parse Integer
Decimal.Parse Decimal
.ToString String

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 Conversion Examples

QuantityInteger
=Integer.Parse(quantityTextBox.Text)
PriceDecimal =Decimal.Parse(priceTextBox.Text)
WholeNumberInteger =Integer.Parse(digitString)
ResultTextBox.Text =ResultDecimal.ToString( )
CountTextBox.Text =CountInteger.ToString( )
IDString =IDInteger.ToString( )

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 Arithmetic Operations

Operator Operation
+ Addition
– Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
\ Integer Division
Mod Modulus – Remainder of
division
^ Exponentiation
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 Order of Operations

• Hierarchy of operations, or order of precedence, in

arithmetic expressions from highest to lowest
1. Any operation inside parentheses
2. Exponentiation
3. Multiplication and division
4. Integer division
5. Modulus
6. Addition and subtraction

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 Evaluation of Expression
1. All operations within parentheses. Multiple operations within
the parentheses are performed according to the rules of
precedence.
2. All exponentiation. Multiple exponentiation operations are
performed from left to right.
3. All multiplication and division. Multiple operations are
performed from left to right.
4. All integer division. Multiple operations are performed from left
to right.
5. Mod operations. Multiple operations are performed from left to
right.
6. All addition and subtraction are performed from left to right.
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 Mathematical Examples

• Note the use of parentheses to control order of

precedence.

3+4*2 = 11 Multiply then add

(3+4)*2 = 14 Parentheses control: add then multiply
8/4*2 = 4 Same level, left to right: divide then multiply

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 Using Calculations in Code

• Perform calculations in assignment statements.

• What appears on right side of assignment operator
is assigned to item on left side.
• Assignment operators — allows shorter versions of
code =, +=, -=, *=, /=, \=, &=

‘Accumulate a total.
TotalSalesDecimal += salesDecimal

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 Option Explicit and Option Strict

• Option Explicit forces variables to be declared

before using.
• Option Strict
• Makes VB a strongly typed language like C++, Java
and C#
• Does not allow implicit conversions from a wider data
type to a narrower one or between String and numeric
data types
• Best practice to always turn on either in code or in
Project Properties dialog box

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 Converting Between Numeric Data Types

• Implicit (automatic) conversion

• Converts value from narrower data type to wider
type where no danger of losing precision exists
• Explicit conversion (casting)
• Uses methods of Convert class to convert
between data types
• Convert Class has methods that begin with “To”
for each of the data types.

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 Performing Calculations with
Unlike Data Types

• VB performs the calculations using the wider

data type.
• Use a cast if converting the result to a different
data type.
Example:
Convert.ToInt32(CountInteger / NumberDecimal) or
Convert.ToSingle(CountInteger / NumberDecimal).

• VB does not convert to a different data type

until it is necessary.
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 Rounding Numbers

• Round decimal fractions

• Decimal.Round method returns a decimal result rounded to a specified
number of decimal positions.
• Decimal.Round and Convert methods use technique called “rounding
toward even.”

Decimal Value to Number of Decimal Positions Results

Round
1.455 2 1.46
1.445 2 1.44
1.5 0 2
2.5 0 2

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 Formatting Data for Display

• To display numeric data in a label or text box, first convert

value to string.
• Use ToString method
DisplayTextBox.Text = NumberInteger.ToString()
• Format the data using formatting codes.
• Specifies use of dollar sign, percent sign, and
commas
• Specifies number of digits that appear to right of
decimal point

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 Using Format Specifier Codes
• "C" code
• Currency — String formatted with dollar sign,
commas separating each group of 3 digits and 2
digits to the right of decimal point
• "N" code
• Number — String formatted with commas
separating each group of 3 digits and 2 digits to the
right of decimal point
• Can specify number of decimal positions
• Example: "C0" zero digits

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 Format Specifier Codes

Format Specifier Codes Name

C or c Currency

F or f Fixed-point

N or n Number

D or d Digits

P or p Percent

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 Format Specifier Code Examples

Variable Value Code Output

totalDecimal 1125.6744 "C" $1,125.67
totalDecimal 1125.6744 "N0" 1,126
pinInteger 123 "D6" 000123
rateDecimal 0.075 "P" 7.50%
rateDecimal 0.075 "P3" 7.500%
rateDecimal 0.075 "P0" 8%
valueInteger -10 "C" ($10.00)

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 Date Specifier Code

• Format DateTime values using format

codes and ToString method.
• Date codes are case sensitive.

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 Handling Exceptions

• Use structured exception handling to easily

catch errors before run-time error occurs.
• Catching exceptions is referred to as error
trapping.
• Coding to handle exception is called error
handling.
• Error handling in Visual Studio.NET is
standardized for all languages using the
Common Language Runtime, CLR, which
improves on previous versions of VB.
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 Try/Catch Blocks

• Enclose statements that might cause an

error within Try/Catch block.
• If an exception occurs while statements in the
Try block are executing, program control is
transferred to the Catch Block.
• If a Finally statement is included, the code in
that section executes last, whether or not an
exception occurred.

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 Try Block — General Form

Try
‘statements that may cause an error
Catch [VariableName As ExceptionType]
‘statements for action when an exception occurs
[Finally
‘statements that always execute before exit of the Try
block]
End Try

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 Try Block — Example
Catches Any Exception

Try
QuantityInteger = Integer.Parse(QuantityTextBox.Text)
QuantityTextBox.Text = QuantityInteger.ToString( )
Catch
MessageLabel.Text = "Error in input data."
End Try

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 Try Block — Example
Catches Specific Exception
• This Catch statement catches bad input
data that cannot be converted to numeric.

Catch theException As FormatException

MessageLabel.Text="Error in input data."
End Try

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 Common Exception Classes

Each exception is an instance of the

Exception class. The properties of this
class allow you to determine the code
location of the error, the type of error,
and cause.

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 Try Block — Example
Handling Multiple Exceptions

Catch TheException As FormatException

' Statements for nonnumeric data.
Catch TheException As ArithmeticException
' Statements for calculation problem.
Catch TheException As Exception
' Statements for any other exception.

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 MessageBox Object (1 of 2)

• The MessageBox is an overloaded method.

• Signatures correspond to the argument list.
• There are multiple signatures to choose from.
• Do not reverse, transpose, or leave out any of the arguments.
• IntelliSense displays argument list (also called signatures).

MessageBox.Show (TextMessage, TitlebarText, _

MessageBoxButtons, MesssageBoxIcon)

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 MessageBox Object (2 of 2)

• TextMessage string
• String literal or variable that displays message
• Title Bar text
• String that appears in title bar of message box
• MessageBox Buttons
• OK, OKCancel, RetryCancel, YesNo, YesNoCancel,
AbortRetryIgnore
• MessageBox Icons
• Asterisk, Error, Exclamation, Hand, Information, None,
Question, Stop, Warning

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 Using Overloaded Methods

• This OOP feature allows the Show method to act

differently for different arguments.
• Each argument list is called a signature so the
Show method has several signatures.
• Supplied arguments must exactly match one of the
signatures provided by the method.
• IntelliSense in Visual Studio editor helps when
entering arguments so that they don’t need to be
memorized.

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 Testing Multiple Fields

• Each input field presents an opportunity for an

exception.
• To indicate specific fields that caused the exception,
use nested Try/Catch blocks.
• Pinpoints specific errors, and after error, sets focus
back to field in error
• Use SelectAll method of text box to make text appear
selected to aid user.

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 Counting and Accumulating Sums

• Declare module-level variables, since local level variables

reset to 0 each time the procedure is called.
• Summing Numbers
DiscountedPriceSumDecimal += DiscountedPriceDecimal
• Counting
Private saleCountInteger As Integer
saleCountInteger += 1
• Calculating an Average
AverageDiscountedSaleDecimal = DiscountedPriceSumDecimal /
SaleCountInteger

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