VISUAL BASIC

Visual Basic is the most widely used programming language for creating Windows applications. Creating a Windows application ordinarily requires you to write lengthy and complex code. Visual Basic development environment relieves you of this task. Instead, it enables you to create the application program and its components literally with the click of a button or menu item. It even writes all of the necessary code to get the application started for you, which you can then view and fine-tune.

Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft for its COM programming model first released in 1991. Microsoft intends Visual Basic to be relatively easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects. The scripting language VBScript is a subset of Visual Basic.

A programmer can create an application using the components provided by the Visual Basic program itself. Programs written in Visual Basic can also use the Windows API, but doing so requires external function declarations. Though the program has received criticism for its perceived faults, version 3 of Visual Basic was a runaway commercial success,and many companies offered third party controls greatly extending its functionality.

The final release was version 6 in 1998. Microsoft's extended support ended in March 2008 and the designated successor was Visual Basic .NET (now known simply as Visual Basic).

Visual Basic Language Features

• Arrays : - Arrays make your code more compact and powerful by declaring and using arrays, which hold multiple related values.
• Collection Initializers :- Describes collection initializers, which enable you to create a collection and populate it with an initial set of values.
• Constants and Enumerations : - Discusses storing unchanging values for repeated use, including sets of related constant values.
• Control Flow : -Shows how to regulate the flow of your program's execution.
• Data Types : - Describes what kinds of data a programming element can hold and how that data is stored.
• Declared Elements : - Covers programming elements you can declare, their names and characteristics, and how the compiler resolves references to them.
• Delegates : - Provides an introduction to delegates and how they are used in Visual Basic.
• Early and Late Binding (Visual Basic) : -Describes binding, which is performed by the compiler when an object is assigned to an object variable, and the differences between early-bound and late-bound objects.
• Error Types (Visual Basic) : -Provides an overview of syntax errors, run-time errors, and logic errors.
• Events: - Shows how to declare and use events.
• Interfaces: - Describes what interfaces are and how you can use them in your applications.
• LINQ : - Provides links to topics that introduce Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) features and programming.
• Objects and Classes : - Provides an overview of objects and classes, how they are used, their relationships to each other, and the properties, methods, and events they expose.
• Operators and Expressions: - Describes the code elements that manipulate value-holding elements, how to use them efficiently, and how to combine them to yield new values.
• Procedures: - Describes Sub, Function, Property, and Operator procedures, as well as advanced topics such as recursive and overloaded procedures.
• Statements: - Describes declaration and executable statements.
• Strings: - Provides links to topics that describe the basic concepts about using strings in Visual Basic.
• Variables: - Introduces variables and describes how to use them in Visual Basic.
• XML: - Provides links to topics that describe how to use XML in Visual Basic.

Visual Basic contents

• Introduction to Visual Basic : - Introduction Graphical User Interface (GUI), Programming Language (Procedural, Object Oriented, Event Driven), The Visual Basic Environment, How to use VB complier to compile / debug and run the programs.
• Introduction to VB Controls: - Textboxes, Frames, Check Boxes , Option Buttons, Images, Setting a Border & Styles, The Shape Control, The line Control, Working with multiple controls and their roperties, Designing the User Interface, Keyboard access, tab controls, Default & Cancel property, Coding for controls.
• Variables, Constants, and Calculations: - Variables, Variables Public, Private, Static, Constants, Data Types, Naming rules/conventions, Constants, Named & intrinsic, Declaring variables, Scope of variables, Val Function, Arithmetic Operations, Formatting Data.
• Decision & Conditions: - If Statement, If ?then-else Statement, Comparing Strings, Compound Conditions(And, Or, Not), Nested If Statements, Case Structure ,Using If statements with Option Buttons & Check Boxes, Displaying Message in Message Box, Testing whether Input is valid or not Using Call Statement to call a procedure
• Menus, Sub-Procedures and Sub-functions: - Defining / Creating and Modifying a Menu, Using common dialog box, Creating a new sub-procedure, Passing Variables to Procedures, Passing Argument ByVal or ByRef, Writing a Function Procedure
• Multiple Forms: - Creating , adding, removing Forms in project, Hide, Show Method, Load, Unload Statement, Me Keyword, Referring to Objects on a Different Forms
• List, Loops and Printing: - List Boxes & Combo Boxes, Filling the List using Property window / AddItem Method, Clear Method, List box Properties, Removing an item from a list, List Box/ Combo Box, Do/Loops, For/Next Loops, Using MsgBox Function, Using String Function, Printing to printer using Print Method,
• Arrays Single-Dimension Arrays: - Initializing an Array using for Each, User-Defined Data Types, Accessing Information with User-Defined Data Types, Using List Boxes with Array, Two dimensional arrays.
• OOP in VB:- Classes, Creating a new Class, Creating a new object using a class, choosing when to create New Objects, The Initialize & Terminate events.
• Data Files: - Opening and Closing Data Files, The Free File Function, Viewing the data in a file, Sequential File Organization (Writing Data to a sequential Disk File, Creating a sequential data file, Reading the Data in a sequential file, Finding the end of a Data file, Locating a file). Trapping Program Errors, The Err Object, Random Data File Opening a random file, Reading and writing a random file(Get, Put, LOF, Seek).
• Accessing Database File: - Creating the database files for use by Visual Basic ( Using MS-Access), Using the Data Control ,setting its property, Using Data Control with forms, navigating the database in code ( the recordset object using the movenext, movepreviouse, movefirst & movelast methods , checking for BOF & EOF, using listboxes & comboboxes as data bound controls, updating a database file ( adding, deleting records ).
• Advanced data handling: - Displaying data in grids ( grid control, properties of grid ) , displaying the record no & record count, opening the database, validation & error trappings ( locking text boxes, trap errors with On Error, file open errors ) , Recordset , searching for a specific record ( findfirst, findnext, findlast, findprevious,) , seek method, working with database fields, creating a new dynaset.