Visual Basic 2015 in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

James Foxall is President & CEO of Tigerpaw Software, a commercial software company providing complete business automation to more than 40,000 users in 28 countries in the IT/Networking, Telecommunications, Systems Integrator, Security, and Point of Sale industries. In his current role as President and CEO, James provides the vision and management to keep Tigerpaw focused on its customers and properly serving its markets.  James has a Masters degree in Business Administration and a BS degree in Management of Information Systems. Devoted to creating better businesses through technology, James has written 15 books, which have been published in over a dozen languages around the world. He is considered an authority on business process improvement and application interface and behavior standards of Windows applications, and serves the business community as an international speaker on automating business processes in the SMB environment.

• Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviiPart I: The Visual Basic 2015 EnvironmentHour 1: Jumping in with Both Feet: A Visual Basic 2015 Programming Tour . 1Starting Visual Basic 2015 . . . . . . . . . . 2Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . 3Understanding the Visual Studio 2015 Environment . . . . . 6Changing the Characteristics of Objects . . . . . . . 7Adding Controls to a Form. . . . . . . . . 13Designing an Interface . . . . . . . . . . 15Writing the Code Behind an Interface. . . . . . . 20Running a Project . . . . . . . . . . . 24Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 28Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Hour 2: Navigating Visual Basic 2015 . . . . . . . . 31Using the Visual Basic 2015 Start Page . . . . . . . 31Navigating and Customizing the Visual Basic Environment . . . 34Working with Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . 40Adding Controls to a Form Using the Toolbox . . . . . . 41Setting Object Properties Using the Properties Window . . . . 43Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . 50A Quick-and-Dirty Programming Primer. . . . . . . 57Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . 59Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 61Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Hour 3: Understanding Objects and Collections . . . . . . 63Understanding Objects . . . . . . . . . . 64Understanding Properties. . . . . . . . . . 64Understanding Methods. . . . . . . . . . 72Building a Simple Object Example Project . . . . . . . 73Understanding Collections . . . . . . . . . 79Using the Object Browser . . . . . . . . . . 82Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 85Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Hour 4: Understanding Events . . . . . . . . . . 87Understanding Event-Driven Programming . . . . . . 87Building an Event Example Project . . . . . . . . 97Keeping Event Names Current . . . . . . . . 103Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 104Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 105Part II: Building a User InterfaceHour 5: Building Forms: The Basics . . . . . . . . 107Changing a Form’s Name . . . . . . . . . 108Changing a Form’s Appearance . . . . . . . . 109Showing and Hiding Forms . . . . . . . . . 122Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 129Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 130Hour 6: Building Forms: Advanced Techniques . . . . . . 131Working with Controls . . . . . . . . . . 131Creating Topmost Nonmodal Windows. . . . . . . 151Creating Transparent Forms . . . . . . . . . 151Creating Scrollable Forms . . . . . . . . . 152Creating MDI Forms . . . . . . . . . . 154Setting the Startup Form . . . . . . . . . 158Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 160Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 161Hour 7: Working with Traditional Controls . . . . . . . 163Displaying Static Text with the Label Control. . . . . . 163Allowing Users to Enter Text Using a Text Box. . . . . . 164Creating Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . 172Creating Containers and Groups of Option Buttons . . . . . 176Displaying a List with the List Box . . . . . . . . 180Creating Drop-Down Lists Using the Combo Box . . . . . 188Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 190Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 191Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 192Hour 8: Using Advanced Controls. . . . . . . . . 193Creating Timers . . . . . . . . . . . 193Creating Tabbed Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . 197Storing Pictures in an Image List Control . . . . . . 200Building Enhanced Lists Using the List View Control . . . . 202Creating Hierarchical Lists Using the Tree View Control . . . . 207Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 211Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 212Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 213Hour 9: Adding Menus and Toolbars to Forms . . . . . . 215Building Menus . . . . . . . . . . . 215Using the Toolbar Control . . . . . . . . . 229Creating a Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . 235Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 238Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 238Part III: Making Things Happen—ProgrammingHour 10: Creating and Calling Code Procedures . . . . . . 239Creating Visual Basic Code Modules . . . . . . . 239Writing Code Procedures . . . . . . . . . 242Calling Code Procedures . . . . . . . . . 248Exiting Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . 254Avoiding Infinite Recursion . . . . . . . . . 255Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 256Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 257Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 258Hour 11: Using Constants, Data Types, Variables, and Arrays . . . . 259Understanding Data Types. . . . . . . . . 260Defining and Using Constants . . . . . . . . 263Declaring and Referencing Variables . . . . . . . 266Working with Arrays . . . . . . . . . . 273Determining Scope . . . . . . . . . . 276Declaring Variables of Static Scope . . . . . . . . 281Using Variables in Your Picture Viewer Project. . . . . . 282Renaming Variables . . . . . . . . . . 286Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 287Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 288Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 289Hour 12: Performing Arithmetic, String Manipulation, and Date/Time Adjustments . .. 291Performing Basic Arithmetic Operations with Visual Basic . . . 291Comparing Equalities . . . . . . . . . . 295Understanding Boolean Logic. . . . . . . . . 296Manipulating Strings. . . . . . . . . . 298Working with Dates and Times . . . . . . . . 304Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 309Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 310Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 311Hour 13: Making Decisions in Visual Basic Code . . . . . . 313Making Decisions Using If...Then. . . . . . . 313Branching Within a Procedure Using GoTo . . . . . . 324Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 326Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 327Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 328Hour 14: Looping for Efficiency . . . . . . . . . 329Looping a Specific Number of Times Using For...Next . . . . 329Using Do...Loop to Loop an Indeterminate Number of Times . . . 336Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 341Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 342Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 342Hour 15: Debugging Your Code . . . . . . . . . 343Adding Comments to Your Code . . . . . . . . 344Identifying the Two Basic Types of Errors . . . . . . 346Using Visual Basic’s Debugging Tools . . . . . . . 349Breaking Only When a Condition Is Met. . . . . . . 358Breaking Only When a Breakpoint Is Hit a Certain Number of Times . 359Sending Messages to the Output Window Using Tracepoints. . . 360Writing an Error Handler Using Try...Catch...Finally . . . 360Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 368Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 369Hour 16: Designing Objects Using Classes . . . . . . . 371Understanding Classes. . . . . . . . . . 372Instantiating Objects from Classes . . . . . . . . 381Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 388Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 389Hour 17: Interacting with Users . . . . . . . . . 391Displaying Messages Using the MessageBox.Show() Function. . . 391Creating Custom Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . 398Using InputBox() to Get Information from a User . . . . . 401Interacting with the Keyboard . . . . . . . . 404Using the Common Mouse Events . . . . . . . . 406Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 410Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 411Hour 18: Working with Graphics . . . . . . . . . 413Understanding the Graphics Object . . . . . . . 413Working with Pens . . . . . . . . . . 416Using System Colors . . . . . . . . . . 417Working with Rectangles . . . . . . . . . 421Drawing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . 422Drawing Text . . . . . . . . . . . 423Persisting Graphics on a Form . . . . . . . . 425Building a Graphics Project Example . . . . . . . 425Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 432Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 432Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 433Part IV: Working with DataHour 19: Performing File Operations . . . . . . . . 435Using the OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog Controls . . . 435Manipulating Files with the File Object. . . . . . . 443Manipulating Directories with the Directory Object . . . . 452Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 453Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 454Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 455Hour 20: Working with the Registry and Text Files . . . . . . 457Working with the Registry . . . . . . . . . 457Reading and Writing Text Files . . . . . . . . 470Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 480Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 481Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 482Hour 21: Working with a Database . . . . . . . . 483Introducing ADO.NET . . . . . . . . . . 484Manipulating Data . . . . . . . . . . 491Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 502Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 503Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 503Hour 22: Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . 505Preparing the Picture Viewer Project . . . . . . . 506Printing and Previewing a Document . . . . . . . 509Changing Printer and Page Settings . . . . . . . 519Scaling Images to Fit a Page . . . . . . . . . 522Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 527Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 528Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 528Hour 23: Sending Emails. . . . . . . . . . 529Understanding the Classes Used toSend Emails . . . . . . . . . . . . 530Sending Email from Your Picture Viewer Application . . . . 530Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 543Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 544Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 544Part V: Deploying Solutions and BeyondHour 24: Deploying Applications . . . . . . . . . 545Understanding ClickOnce Technology. . . . . . . 545Using the Publish Wizard to Create a ClickOnce Application . . . 547Testing Your Picture Viewer ClickOnce Install Program . . . . 552Uninstalling an Application You’ve Distributed . . . . . 553Setting Advanced Options for Creating ClickOnce Programs. . . 556Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 557Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . 557Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . 558Appendix A: The 10,000-Foot View . . . . . . . . 559TOC, 9780672337451, 7/19/2015

1. 5/5

   En bok för den som vill lära sig grunderna

   En välstrukturerad bok med bra förklaringar till grundläggande begrepp inom Visual Basic. Efter att ha fått lära sig det mest väsentliga om menyer, formulär och diverse andra grundläggande begrepp får läsaren börja läsa om mer teoretiska begrepp som klasser, objekt, egenskaper och först därefter ge sig in i kodandets värld. Till viss del kan man jämföra med en bilskoleelev som helt saknar erfarenhet av bilkörning och först får lära sig var pedaler, instrument etc. sitter och vad de används till innan han eller hon får starta bilen. Förhoppningsvis blir boken översatt till svenska då den kräver relativt goda kunskaper i engelska.

   Hans H

   31 augusti 2015