Beginning Visual Basic 2015

Book description

Learn Visual Basic step by step and start programming right away

Beginning Visual Basic 2015 is the ideal guide for new programmers, especially those learning their first language. This new edition has been updated to align with Visual Studio 2015, and also refocused to concentrate on key beginner topics. Precise, step-by-step instructions walk you through important tasks, and clear explanations targeted to beginners will have you writing your first Visual Basic application quickly. You'll start from the absolute beginning, assuming no prior programming experience, and then gradually build your skills to write Visual Basic applications for Windows and the Web. Coverage includes objects, class libraries, graphics, databases, and much more, with explicit instructions on using ASP.NET, SQL Server, ADO.NET, and XML.

Visual Studio is the usual environment for Visual Basic programming, and the latest upgrade has made Visual Basic more feature compatible with C# to allow programmers to move fluidly between the two languages. Don't know C#? Don't worry! This book starts from the very beginning of Visual Basic programming to help you build your skills from the ground-up.

  • Understand flow control and data structure
  • Debug Windows applications, dialog boxes, and menus
  • Master objects and object-oriented techniques
  • Access databases, program graphics, and program for the Web

Over three million programmers use Visual Basic, and many of them learned it as their first language. It's beginner-friendly, versatile, and visually oriented, making it an ideal introduction to the programming mindset, workflow, and hard skills. Beginning Visual Basic 2015 gets you started on the right foot, with clear, patient instruction and plenty of hands-on practice.

Table of contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
    2. WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
    3. WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK
    4. CONVENTIONS
    5. SOURCE CODE
    6. ERRATA
    7. P2P.WROX.COM
  2. 1 WELCOME TO VISUAL BASIC 2015
    1. IMPLEMENTING EVENT-DRIVEN PROGRAMMING
    2. INSTALLING VISUAL BASIC 2015
    3. THE VISUAL STUDIO 2015 IDE
    4. CREATING A SIMPLE APPLICATION
    5. USING THE HELP SYSTEM
    6. SUMMARY
  3. 2 THE MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK
    1. THE .NET VISION
    2. WRITING SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS
    3. COMMON LANGUAGE RUNTIME
    4. THE COMMON TYPE SYSTEM AND COMMON LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION
    5. SUMMARY
  4. 3 WRITING SOFTWARE
    1. INFORMATION AND DATA
    2. WORKING WITH VARIABLES
    3. COMMENTS AND WHITESPACE
    4. DATA TYPES
    5. STORING VARIABLES
    6. METHODS
    7. SUMMARY
  5. 4 CONTROLLING THE FLOW
    1. MAKING DECISIONS
    2. THE IF STATEMENT
    3. SELECT CASE
    4. LOOPS
    5. SUMMARY
  6. 5 WORKING WITH DATA STRUCTURES
    1. UNDERSTANDING ARRAYS
    2. UNDERSTANDING ENUMERATIONS
    3. UNDERSTANDING CONSTANTS
    4. STRUCTURES
    5. WORKING WITH ARRAYLISTS
    6. WORKING WITH COLLECTIONS
    7. BUILDING LOOKUP TABLES WITH HASHTABLE
    8. ADVANCED ARRAY MANIPULATION
    9. SUMMARY
  7. 6 BUILDING WINDOWS APPLICATIONS
    1. RESPONDING TO EVENTS
    2. COUNTING CHARACTERS
    3. COUNTING WORDS
    4. CREATING MORE COMPLEX APPLICATIONS
    5. CREATING THE TOOLBAR
    6. CREATING THE STATUS BAR
    7. CREATING AN EDIT BOX
    8. CLEARING THE EDIT BOX
    9. RESPONDING TO TOOLBAR BUTTONS
    10. USING MULTIPLE FORMS
    11. ABOUT DIALOG
    12. SUMMARY
  8. 7 DISPLAYING DIALOGS
    1. THE MESSAGEBOX
    2. THE OPENFILEDIALOG CONTROL
    3. THE SAVEDIALOG CONTROL
    4. THE FONTDIALOG CONTROL
    5. THE COLORDIALOG CONTROL
    6. THE PRINTDIALOG CONTROL
    7. THE FOLDERBROWSERDIALOG CONTROL
    8. SUMMARY
  9. 8 CREATING MENUS
    1. UNDERSTANDING MENU FEATURES
    2. CREATING MENUS
    3. CONTEXT MENUS
    4. SUMMARY
  10. 9 DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING
    1. MAJOR ERROR TYPES
    2. DEBUGGING
    3. ERROR HANDLING
    4. USING STRUCTURED ERROR HANDLING
    5. SUMMARY
  11. 10 BUILDING OBJECTS
    1. UNDERSTANDING OBJECTS
    2. BUILDING CLASSES
    3. REUSABILITY
    4. DESIGNING AN OBJECT
    5. CONSTRUCTORS
    6. INHERITANCE
    7. OBJECTS AND STRUCTURES
    8. THE FRAMEWORK CLASSES
    9. SUMMARY
  12. 11 ADVANCED OBJECT-ORIENTED TECHNIQUES
    1. BUILDING A FAVORITES VIEWER
    2. AN ALTERNATIVE FAVORITE VIEWER
    3. USING SHARED PROPERTIES AND METHODS
    4. UNDERSTANDING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING AND MEMORY MANAGEMENT
    5. SUMMARY
  13. 12 ACCESSING DATA USING STRUCTURED QUERY LANGUAGE
    1. WHAT YOU NEED TO COMPLETE THIS CHAPTER’S EXERCISES
    2. WHAT IS A DATABASE?
    3. UNDERSTANDING BASIC SQL SYNTAX
    4. EXECUTING QUERIES IN SQL SERVER
    5. SUMMARY
  14. 13 DATABASE PROGRAMMING WITH SQL SERVER AND ADO.NET
    1. ADO.NET
    2. ADO.NET DATA NAMESPACES
    3. THE ADO.NET CLASSES IN ACTION
    4. DATA BINDING
    5. SUMMARY
  15. 14 ASP.NET
    1. THIN-CLIENT ARCHITECTURE
    2. WEB FORMS VERSUS WINDOWS FORMS
    3. WEB APPLICATIONS: THE BASIC PIECES
    4. ACTIVE SERVER PAGES
    5. BUILDING WEBSITES
    6. SUMMARY
  16. 15 DEPLOYING YOUR APPLICATION
    1. WHAT IS DEPLOYMENT?
    2. VISUAL STUDIO 2015 SETUP APPLICATION OPTIONS
    3. DEPLOYING DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS
    4. SUMMARY
  17. 16 WINDOWS 8 APPS
    1. WINDOWS 8 APPLICATION DESIGN PRINCIPLES
    2. APPLICATION LAYOUT
    3. SUMMARY
  18. APPENDIX EXERCISE SOLUTIONS
  19. ADVERT
  20. EULA

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Visual Basic 2015
  • Author(s): Bryan Newsome
  • Release date: December 2015
  • Publisher(s): Wrox
  • ISBN: 9781119092117