Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook

Larger Cover

Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers

By Tim Patrick, John Clark Craig

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: September 2006

Pages: 744

This book will help you solve more than 300 of the most common and not-so-common tasks that working Visual Basic 2005 programmers face every day. If you're a seasoned .NET developer, beginning Visual Basic programmer, or a developer seeking a simple and clear migration path from VB6 to Visual Basic 2005, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook delivers a practical collection of problem-solving recipes for a broad range of Visual Basic programming tasks.

The concise solutions and examples in the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook range from simple tasks to the more complex, organized by the types of problems you need to solve. Nearly every recipe contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a discussion of how the underlying technology works and that outlines alternatives, limitations, and other considerations. As with all O'Reilly Cookbooks, each recipe helps you quickly understand a problem, learn how to solve it, and anticipate potential tradeoffs or ramifications.

Useful features of the book include:

Over 300 recipes written in the familiar O'Reilly Problem-Solution-Discussion format
Hundreds of code snippets, examples, and complete solutions available for download
VB6 updates to alert VB6 programmers to code-breaking changes in Visual Basic 2005
Recipes that target Visual Basic 2005 features not included in previous releases
Code examples covering everyday data manipulation techniques and language fundamentals
Advanced projects focusing on multimedia and mathematical transformations using linear algebraic methods
Specialized topics covering files and file systems, printing, and databases

In addition, you'll find chapters on cryptography and compression, graphics, and special programming techniques. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook is sure to save you time, serving up the code you need, when you need it.

Chapter 1 Visual Basic Programming
1. Introduction
2. Creating a Windows Forms Application
3. Creating a Console Application
4. Creating an ASP.NET Web Forms Application
Chapter 2 The Development Environment
1. Introduction
2. Discovering and Using a Code Snippet
3. Creating a New Snippet
4. Sharing Snippets
5. Adding Snippet Files to Visual Studio
6. Getting an Application's Version Number
7. Letting Visual Studio Automatically Update an Application's Version Number
8. Setting the Startup Form for an Application
9. Setting the Startup to a Sub Main Procedure
10. Getting an Application's Command Line
11. Testing an Application's Command Line
12. Obfuscating an Application
13. Determining if an Application Is Running in the Visual Studio Environment
14. Accessing Environment Variables
15. Accessing the Registry
16. Getting System Information
17. Getting the User's Name
Chapter 3 Application Organization
1. Introduction
2. Creating a Code Module
3. Creating a Class
4. Creating a Structure
5. Creating Other Item Types
6. Creating Object Instances
7. Initializing a Class Instance with Data
8. Releasing an Instance's Resources
9. Using Namespaces
10. Splitting a Class Across Multiple Files
11. Creating a Form Based on Another Form
12. Passing and Returning Structures and Other Objects
13. Creating and Using an Enumeration
14. Converting Between Numeric and String Enumeration Values
15. Creating a Method That Accepts Different Sets of Arguments
16. Using Standard Operators for Nonstandard Purposes
17. Enforcing Strong Data Typing in an Otherwise Weakly Typed Collection
Chapter 4 Forms, Controls, and Other Useful Objects
1. Introduction
2. Creating and Adding Controls at Runtime
3. Iterating Through All Controls on a Form
4. Sharing Event-Handler Logic Among Many Controls
5. Working with Timers
6. Determining If a Control Can Take the Focus
7. Programmatically Clicking a Button
8. Drawing a Control
9. Making a Form the Top-Most Form
10. Indicating the Accept and Cancel Buttons on a Form
11. Remembering a Form's Position Between Uses
12. Attaching a Control to the Edge of a Form
13. Moving or Resizing Controls as a Form Resizes
14. Limiting the Sizing of a Form
15. Centering a Form
16. Creating and Moving a Borderless Form
17. Creating a Fading Form
18. Creating a Nonrectangular Form
19. Changing Menus at Runtime
20. Creating Shortcut Menus
Chapter 5 Strings
1. Introduction
2. Using a StringBuilder
3. Creating a String of N Identical Characters
4. Creating a String by Repeating a String N Times
5. Obfuscating a String
6. Converting Binary Data to a Hexadecimal String
7. Extracting Substrings from Larger Strings
8. Converting a String's Case
9. Comparing Strings with Case Sensitivity
10. Comparing Strings Without Case Sensitivity
11. Converting Strings to and from Character Arrays
12. Converting Strings to and from Byte Arrays
13. Tallying Characters
14. Counting Words
15. Removing Extra Whitespace
16. Using the Correct End-of-Line Characters
17. Replacing Substrings
18. Inserting a Character or String
19. Inserting a Line
20. Double-Spacing a String
21. Formatting Numbers into Strings
22. Trimming Sets of Characters from a String
23. Identifying and Validating Types of Data in a String
24. Converting Strings Between Encoding Systems
25. Determining a Character's Type
26. Parsing Strings
27. Concatenating Strings
28. Speeding Up String Manipulation
29. Counting Occurrences of a Substring
30. Padding a String for Exact Length and Alignment
31. Converting Tabs to Spaces
32. Reversing a String
33. Shuffling a String
34. Using a Simple String Encryption
35. Converting a String to Morse Code
36. Adding Strings to an Application's Resources
37. Converting Any Data to a String
38. Using Regular Expressions to Extract All Numbers
39. Getting a Count of Regular Expression Matches
40. Getting the Nth Regular Expression Match
41. Compiling Regular Expressions for Speed
42. Using Regular Expressions to Validate Data
43. Using Regular Expressions to Count Characters, Words, or Lines
44. Converting a String to and from Base64
45. Splitting a String
46. Creating a String of Space Characters
Chapter 6 Numbers and Math
1. Introduction
2. Using Compact Operator Notation
3. Choosing Integers of the Right Size and Type for the Job
4. Using Unsigned Integers
5. Swapping Two Integers Without Using a Third
6. Using Single- and Double-Precision Variables
7. Using Decimal Variables for Maximum Precision
8. Converting Between Number Types
9. Rounding Numbers Accurately
10. Declaring Loop Counters Within Loops
11. Converting Between Radians and Degrees
12. Limiting Angles to a Range
13. Creating Double-Precision Point Variables
14. Converting Between Rectangular and Polar Coordinates
15. Creating Three-Dimensional Variables
16. Converting Between Rectangular, Spherical, and Cylindrical Coordinates
17. Working with Complex Numbers
18. Solving Right Triangles
19. Solving Any Triangle
20. Determining if a String Contains a Valid Number
21. Converting Numbers to Integers
22. Calculating π to Thousands of Digits
23. Getting a Number's Prime Factors
24. Using Recursion to Calculate Factorials
25. Manipulating Bits with Bitwise Operators
26. Storing and Retrieving Bits in a BitArray
27. Enhancing the Random Number Generator
28. Generating Random Integers in a Range
29. Generating Random Real Numbers in a Range
30. Generating Normal-Distribution Random Numbers
31. Generating Exponential-Distribution Random Numbers
32. Creating a Matrix
33. Inverting a Matrix
34. Calculating the Determinant of a Matrix
35. Solving Simultaneous Equations
36. Listing of the MatrixHelper Class
Chapter 7 Dates and Times
1. Introduction
2. Getting the System Date and Time
3. Accessing the System's Time Zone
4. Using System Ticks
5. Timing Application Activities
6. Calculating Elapsed Time Using Ticks
7. Calculating Elapsed Time with the Stopwatch
8. Extracting Year, Month, and Day Numbers from a Date Value
9. Extracting Hour, Minute, and Second Numbers from a Date Value
10. Creating a Date or Time Value from Its Parts
11. Formatting Dates and Times
12. Parsing and Validating Dates and Times
13. Adding to Dates and Times
14. Subtracting from Dates and Times
15. Determining the Number of Days Between Two Dates
16. Determining the Day of the Week for a Date
17. Determining the Day of the Year for a Date
18. Determining the Number of Days in a Month
19. Using Controls to Enter or Select a Date
20. Calculating the Phase of the Moon
21. Creating a Calendar
22. Checking for Leap Years
23. Dates and Times in ISO 8601 Formats
Chapter 8 Arrays and Collections
1. Introduction
2. Filling an Array While Declaring It
3. Sorting Array Elements
4. Reversing an Array
5. Inserting into an Array
6. Shuffling an Array
7. Swapping Two Array Values
8. Resizing Arrays Without Losing Existing Values
9. Quickly Copying Part of an Array into Another
10. Writing a Comma-Separated-Values File from a String Array
11. Reading a Comma-Separated-Values File into a String Array
12. Using a Multivalue Array Instead of a Two-Dimensional Array
13. Converting Between Delimited Strings and Arrays
14. Formatting an Array as a Single String
15. Iterating Through Array Elements
16. Passing Arrays to Methods
17. Returning Arrays from Functions
18. Creating a Collection
19. Inserting an Item into a Collection
20. Deleting a Collection Item
21. Iterating Through a Collection
Chapter 9 Graphics
1. Introduction
2. Creating Graphics Objects
3. Drawing on Controls for Special Effects
4. Letting the User Select a Color
5. Working with Coordinate Systems (Pixels, Inches, Centimeters)
6. Creating a Bitmap
7. Setting a Background Color
8. Drawing Lines, Ellipses, and Rectangles
9. Drawing Lines One Pixel Wide Regardless of Scaling
10. Forcing a Form or Control to Redraw
11. Using Transparency
12. Scaling with Transforms
13. Using an Outline Path
14. Using Gradients for Smooth Color Changes
15. Drawing Bezier Splines
16. Drawing Cardinal Splines
17. Limiting Display Updates to Specific Regions
18. Drawing Text
19. Rotating Text to Any Angle
20. Mirroring Text on the Canvas
21. Getting the Height and Width of a Graphic String
22. Drawing Text with Outlines and Drop Shadows
23. Calculating a Nice Axis
24. Drawing a Simple Chart
25. Creating Odd-Shaped Forms and Controls
26. Using the RGB, HSB (HSV), and HSL Color Schemes
27. Creating a Rubber-Band Rectangular Selection
28. Animating with Transparency
29. Substitutions for Obsolete Visual Basic 6.0 Features
Chapter 10 Multimedia
1. Introduction
2. Playing an Audio File
3. Displaying Image Files
4. Playing a Video File
5. Making Your Computer Beep
6. Creating an Animation Using Multiple Images
7. Creating an Animation by Generating Multiple Bitmaps
8. Creating an Animation by Drawing at Runtime
9. Creating Animated Sprites
10. Resizing and Compressing JPEG Files
11. Getting JPEG Extended Information
12. Creating Thumbnails
13. Displaying Images While Controlling Stretching and Sizing
14. Scrolling Images
15. Merging Two or More Images
16. Using Resource Images
17. Capturing an Image of the Screen
18. Getting Display Dimensions
19. Speeding Up Image Processing
20. Converting an Image to Grayscale
21. Performing Edge Detection on an Image
22. Full Listing of the LockImage Class
Chapter 11 Printing
1. Introduction
2. Enumerating Printers
3. Sending "Raw" Data to a Printer
4. Get Details About the Default Printer
5. Creating a Print Preview
6. Prompting for Printed Page Settings
7. Drawing Text and Graphics to a Printer
8. Determining the Print Destination
9. Creating Graph Paper
Chapter 12 Files and File Systems
1. Introduction
2. Enumerating Drives
3. Determining if a Directory Exists
4. Creating a New Directory
5. Copying Directories
6. Moving Directories
7. Renaming Directories
8. Parsing File and Directory Paths
9. Searching Iteratively Through Directories and Subdirectories
10. Finding Directories and Files Using Wildcards
11. Determining If a File Exists
12. Getting and Setting File Attributes
13. Accessing Special User and Windows Directories
14. Determining the Space on a Drive
15. Browsing for a Directory
16. Getting File Information
17. Using File-Access Methods
18. Reading and Writing Files as Strings
19. Reading and Writing Binary Files
20. Copying or Moving a File
21. Sending a File to the Recycle Bin
22. Creating a Temporary File
23. Calculating a Checksum for a File
24. Comparing Two Files for Equality
25. Locking a File During Access
26. Reading from a File at a Specific Position
27. Reading and Writing Objects in a File
28. Creating a Comma-Separated-Values File
Chapter 13 Databases
1. Introduction
2. Connecting to a Data Provider
3. Issuing SQL Commands
4. Retrieving Results from a Database Query
5. Using SQL Parameters
6. Using Stored Procedures
7. Using Transactions
8. Storing the Results of a Query in Memory
9. Creating In-Memory Data Tables Manually
10. Writing In-Memory Data Tables to an XML File
11. Reading an XML File into In-Memory Data Tables
Chapter 14 Special Programming Techniques
1. Introduction
2. Preventing Multiple Instances of a Running Application
3. Creating a Simple User Control
4. Describing User Control Properties
5. Starting Other Applications by EXE, Document, or URL
6. Waiting for Applications to Finish
7. List All Running Processes
8. Terminating a Running Process
9. Pausing Execution of a Program
10. Control Applications by Simulating Keystrokes
11. Watching for File and Directory Changes
12. Creating an Icon in the System Tray
13. Accessing the Clipboard
14. Adding Tooltips to Controls
15. Dragging and Dropping Files to a ListBox
16. Dragging and Dropping Between ListBox Controls
17. Disposing of Objects Appropriately
18. Fine-Tuning Garbage Collection
19. Moving the (Mouse) Cursor
20. Intercepting All Key Presses on a Form
21. Accessing the Registry
22. Running Procedures in Threads
23. Reading XML into a TreeView
24. Creating an XML Document
25. Validating an XML Document
26. Using Generic Collections
27. Creating a Screensaver
28. Localizing the Controls on a Form
29. Adding Pop-up Help to Controls
30. Maintaining User-Specific Settings Between Uses of an Application
31. Verifying a Credit Card Number
32. Capturing a Console Application's Output
33. Reading an Assembly's Details
34. Performing Serial I/O
35. Rebooting the System
Chapter 15 Exceptions
1. Introduction
2. Catching an Exception
3. Throwing an Exception
4. Catching Unhandled Exceptions
5. Displaying Exception Information
6. Creating New Exception Types
7. Ignoring Exceptions in a Block of Code
Chapter 16 Cryptography and Compression
1. Introduction
2. Generating a Hash
3. Encrypting and Decrypting a String
4. Encrypting and Decrypting a File
5. Prompting for a Username and Password
6. Handling Passwords Securely
7. Compressing and Decompressing a String
8. Compressing and Decompressing a File
9. Generating Cryptographically Secure Random Numbers
10. Complete Listing of the Crypto.vb Module
11. Complete Listing of the Compress.vb Module
Chapter 17 Web Development
1. Introduction
2. Displaying Web Pages on a Form
3. Accessing Content Within an HTML Document
4. Getting All Links from a Web Page
5. Get the Local Computer's IP Address
6. Resolving a Host Name or IP Address for Another Computer
7. Pinging an IP Address
8. Using FTP to Download Files
9. Calling a Web Service
10. Sending Email Using SMTP
11. Getting POP3 Emails
12. Sending a Message to Another Computer
13. Adding Hyperlinks to a (Desktop) Form

Colophon

Title:

Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook

By:

Tim Patrick, John Clark Craig

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

September 2006

Ebook:

December 2008

Pages:

744

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-10177-0

| ISBN 10:

0-596-10177-5

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-15877-4

| ISBN 10:

0-596-15877-7

Tim Patrick

Tim Patrick is a software architect and developer of custom software solutions targeting Microsoft Windows and Web-based users. Tim has over 20 years of experience in software development and software architecture, and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). He wrote The Visual Basic DEFANGED_STYLEGuide and its successor, The Visual Basic .NET Style Guide, and recently co-authored O'Reilly's Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell.

View Tim Patrick's full profile page.
John Clark Craig

John Clark Craig's programming experiences and interests go back quite a ways. In 1974 he was programming a DEC PDP8E attached to a teletype and running a paper tape loaded version of FOCAL, a simple programming language similar to BASIC. Over the years, John programmed in just about every version of the BASIC language available, and authored several books on the subject along the way. During John's career as a full-time Software Engineer, he has worked on several fascinating energy and environmental projects. Currently, he's enjoying his software guru position working with a small team of bright R&D engineers as they create the next generation of high-tech self-erecting towers for the world's largest wind turbines.

View John Clark Craig's full profile page.

Description

Table of Contents

Product Details

About the Author

Recommended for You

Chapter 1 Visual Basic Programming

Introduction

Creating a Windows Forms Application

Creating a Console Application

Creating an ASP.NET Web Forms Application

Chapter 2 The Development Environment

Introduction

Discovering and Using a Code Snippet

Creating a New Snippet

Sharing Snippets

Adding Snippet Files to Visual Studio

Getting an Application's Version Number

Letting Visual Studio Automatically Update an Application's Version Number

Setting the Startup Form for an Application

Setting the Startup to a Sub Main Procedure

Getting an Application's Command Line

Testing an Application's Command Line

Obfuscating an Application

Determining if an Application Is Running in the Visual Studio Environment

Accessing Environment Variables

Accessing the Registry

Getting System Information

Getting the User's Name

Chapter 3 Application Organization

Introduction

Creating a Code Module

Creating a Class

Creating a Structure

Creating Other Item Types

Creating Object Instances

Initializing a Class Instance with Data

Releasing an Instance's Resources

Using Namespaces

Splitting a Class Across Multiple Files

Creating a Form Based on Another Form

Passing and Returning Structures and Other Objects

Creating and Using an Enumeration

Converting Between Numeric and String Enumeration Values

Creating a Method That Accepts Different Sets of Arguments

Using Standard Operators for Nonstandard Purposes

Enforcing Strong Data Typing in an Otherwise Weakly Typed Collection

Chapter 4 Forms, Controls, and Other Useful Objects

Introduction

Creating and Adding Controls at Runtime

Iterating Through All Controls on a Form

Sharing Event-Handler Logic Among Many Controls

Working with Timers

Determining If a Control Can Take the Focus

Programmatically Clicking a Button

Drawing a Control

Making a Form the Top-Most Form

Indicating the Accept and Cancel Buttons on a Form

Remembering a Form's Position Between Uses

Attaching a Control to the Edge of a Form

Moving or Resizing Controls as a Form Resizes

Limiting the Sizing of a Form

Centering a Form

Creating and Moving a Borderless Form

Creating a Fading Form

Creating a Nonrectangular Form

Changing Menus at Runtime

Creating Shortcut Menus

Chapter 5 Strings

Introduction

Using a StringBuilder

Creating a String of N Identical Characters

Creating a String by Repeating a String N Times

Obfuscating a String

Converting Binary Data to a Hexadecimal String

Extracting Substrings from Larger Strings

Converting a String's Case

Comparing Strings with Case Sensitivity

Comparing Strings Without Case Sensitivity

Converting Strings to and from Character Arrays

Converting Strings to and from Byte Arrays

Tallying Characters

Counting Words

Removing Extra Whitespace

Using the Correct End-of-Line Characters

Replacing Substrings