The ultimate beginner's guide to programming in Visual Basic
2012

Visual Basic, used to write Windows applications and web apps
with ASP.NET, is an essential language for beginning programmers.
Using the time-tested Wrox approach, this guide provides a
step-by-step format that gets beginners up and running quickly and
confidently. Essential topics covered include writing Windows
applications, working with dialog boxes and menus, object oriented
programming techniques, programming for graphics, using Visual
Basic with ASP.NET for web apps, and dealing with data access and
SQL Server.

* Visual Basic is a popular first language for beginning
programmers; this Wrox beginner's guide covers all aspects of the
newest version

* Uses a basic, step-by-step approach to help beginners learn
quickly and easily

* Covers essential topics including flow control, data structure,
writing Windows applications, error handling and debugging, objects
and object oriented techniques, and class libraries

* Explains Windows Forms, graphics programming, accessing
databases, web programming using Visual Basic with ASP.NET, data
access, SQL Server, ADO.NET, and XML

Beginning Visual Basic 2012 is a must-have for
programming newcomers who want to get a solid footing in one of the
most important programming languages.

Bryan Newsome works as a senior programmer and analyst
specializing in Microsoft solutions. He provides clients with
solutions and mentoring on leading-edge Microsoft technologies.
Bryan is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer for
VB.NET.

Visual Basic, used to write Windows applications and web apps with ASP.NET, is an essential language for beginning programmers. Using the time-tested Wrox approach, this guide provides a step-by-step format that gets beginners up and running quickly and confidently. Essential topics covered include writing Windows applications, working with dialog boxes and menus, object oriented programming techniques, programming for graphics, using Visual Basic with ASP.NET for web apps, and dealing with data access and SQL Server.

• Visual Basic is a popular first language for beginning programmers; this Wrox beginner's guide covers all aspects of the newest version
• Uses a basic, step-by-step approach to help beginners learn quickly and easily
• Covers essential topics including flow control, data structure, writing Windows applications, error handling and debugging, objects and object oriented techniques, and class libraries
• Explains Windows Forms, graphics programming, accessing databases, web programming using Visual Basic with ASP.NET, data access, SQL Server, ADO.NET, and XML

Beginning Visual Basic 2012 is a must-have for programming newcomers who want to get a solid footing in one of the most important programming languages.

CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO VISUAL BASIC 2012 1

Event-Driven Programming 2

Installing Visual Basic 2012 3

The Visual Studio 2012 IDE 6

The Profile Setup Page 6

The Menu 7

The Toolbars 8

Creating a Simple Application 9

Windows in the Visual Studio 2012 IDE 10

The Toolbox 14

Modified Hungarian Notation 17

The Code Editor 18

Using the Help System 23

Summary 23

CHAPTER 2: THE MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK 27

Microsoft's Reliance on Windows 28

MSN 1.0 28

The .NET Vision 29

This Sounds Like Java 30

Where Now? 30

Writing Software for Windows 31

The .NET Framework Classes 32

Executing Code 33

Common Language Runtime 34

Code Loading and Execution 35

Application Isolation 35

Security 35

Interoperability 36

Exception Handling 36

The Common Type System and Common Language Specification 37

Summary 37

CHAPTER 3: WRITING SOFTWARE 41

Information and Data 41

Algorithms 42

What Is a Programming Language? 43

Working with Variables 44

Comments and Whitespace 46

Comments 47

Whitespace 48

Data Types 49

Working with Numbers 49

Common Integer Math Operations 50

Integer Math Shorthand 52

The Problem with Integer Math 54

Floating-Point Math 54

Other States 56

Single-Precision Floating-Point Numbers 56

Working with Strings 57

Concatenation 58

Using the Concatenation Operator Inline 59

More String Operations 59

Substrings 61

Formatting Strings 62

Localized Formatting 63

Replacing Substrings 64

Using Dates 65

Formatting Date Strings 66

Extracting Date Properties 67

Date Constants 68

Defining Date Literals 69

Manipulating Dates 70

Boolean 71

Storing Variables 71

Binary 71

Bits and Bytes 72

Representing Values 73

Converting Values 74

Methods 76

Why Use Methods? 76

Methods You've Already Seen 77

Building a Method 80

Choosing Method Names 83

Scope 84

Summary 86

CHAPTER 4: CONTROLLING THE FLOW 89

Making Decisions 89

The If Statement 90

The Else Statement 92

Allowing Multiple Alternatives with ElseIf 92

Nested If Statements 94

Single-Line If Statement 94

Comparison Operators 94

Using Not Equal To 94

Using the Numeric Operators 96

The And and Or Operators 99

Using the And Operator 101

More on And and Or 102

String Comparison 103

Select Case 104

Case-Insensitive Select Case 108

Multiple Selections 110

The Case Else Statement 112

Different Data Types with Select Case 112

Loops 113

The ForNext Loop 113

Using the Step Keyword 116

Looping Backward 117

The For EachNext Loop 118

The DoLoop Loops 119

Do WhileLoop 121

Acceptable Expressions for a DoLoop 123

Other Versions of the DoLoop 123

Nested Loops 124

Quitting Early 126

Quitting DoLoops 128

Infinite Loops 129

Summary 130

CHAPTER 5: WORKING WITH DATA STRUCTURES 133

Understanding Arrays 134

Defining and Using Arrays 134

Using For EachNext 137

Passing Arrays As Parameters 139

Sorting Arrays 1...