Beginning Visual Basic® 2015

introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxvii

chapter 1 Welcome to Visual Basic 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

chapter 2 The Microsoft .NET Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

chapter 3 Writing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

chapter 4 Controlling the Flow  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

chapter 5 Working with Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

chapter 6 Building Windows Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

chapter 7 Displaying Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

chapter 8 Creating Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

chapter 9 Debugging and Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

chapter 10 Building Objects  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

chapter 11 Advanced Object-Oriented Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

chapter 12 Accessing Data Using Structured Query Language . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

chapter 13 Database Programming with SQL Server and ADO .NET . . . . . . . . 427

chapter 14 ASP .NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

chapter 15 Deploying Your Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

chapter 16 Windows 8 Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

appendix Exercise Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Beginning

Visual Basic® 2015

Beginning

Visual Basic® 2015

Bryan Newsome

Beginning Visual Basic® 2015

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com

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ISBN: 978-1-119-09208-7 (ebk)

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For my girls, Jennifer and Katelyn.

aBout the author 

Bryan newsome leads a team of top developers specializing in Microsoft solutions. Since starting building Visual Basic 5 solutions, he has embraced each new version of Visual Basic and now cre-ates all new solutions leveraging the .NET platform and VB.NET. He provides clients with solutions and mentoring on leading-edge Microsoft technologies. For VB.NET, Bryan is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer.

aBout the technical editor 

Valan money is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer for Web and Windows applications. He has been using Visual Basic since 1996 and got his first certification in Visual Basic 4.0. Since then, he has also received certifications in newer versions of VB and VB.NET. He works as Technical Team Lead and Senior Consultant for projects using Microsoft technologies. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli, India.

senior acquisitions editorKenyon Brown

project editorMaureen S . Tullis

technical editorValan Money

production editorDassi Zeidel

copy editorScott D . Tullis

manager of content development & assemblyMary Beth Wakefield

marketing directorDavid Mayhew

marketing managerCarrie Sherrill

professional technology & strategy directorBarry Pruett

Business managerAmy Knies

associate publisherJim Minatel

project coordinator, coverBrent Savage

proofreaderNancy Carrasco

indexerJohnna VanHoose Dinse

cover designerWiley

cover image©anasimin/iStockphoto

credits

acknowledgments 

Thanks to those who worked so hard to get this book on the shelves at Wiley and Wrox. Special thanks (again) to Maureen Tullis who went above and beyond to help me finish mostly on schedule.

Contents

IntroductIon xxvii

Chapter 1: WelCome to Visual BasiC 2015 1

Implementing Event-Driven Programming 2Installing Visual Basic 2015 3The Visual Studio 2015 IDE 5

The Profile Setup Page 5The Menu 6The Toolbars 8

Creating a Simple Application 9Windows in the Visual Studio 2015 IDE 10Modified Hungarian Notation 17The Code Editor 18

Using the Help System 22Summary 23

Chapter 2: the miCrosoft .net frameWork 25

The .NET Vision 25This Sounds Like Java 26Where Now? 27

Writing Software for Windows 27The .NET Framework Classes 28Executing Code 30

Common Language Runtime 31Code Loading and Execution 31Application Isolation 31Security 32Interoperability 33Exception Handling 33

The Common Type System and Common Language Specification 33Summary 34

Chapter 3: Writing softWare 37

Information and Data 37Algorithms 38

xviii

CoNTENTS

What Is a Programming Language? 39Working with Variables 40Comments and Whitespace 43

Comments 43Whitespace 45

Data Types 45Working with Numbers 45Common Integer Math Operations 46Integer Math Shorthand 49The Problem with Integer Math 50Floating-Point Math 50Working with Strings 53Using Dates 62Boolean 69

Storing Variables 69Binary 69Bits and Bytes 70Representing Values 70Converting Values 72

Methods 74Why Use Methods? 74Methods You’ve Already Seen 75Building a Method 78Choosing Method Names 81Scope 82

Summary 84

Chapter 4: Controlling the floW  87

Making Decisions 87The If Statement 88

The Else Statement 90Allowing Multiple Alternatives with ElseIf 90Nested If Statements 92Single-Line If Statement 92Comparison Operators 92String Comparison 101

Select Case 102Case-Insensitive Select Case 106Multiple Selections 108The Case Else Statement 109Different Data Types with Select Case 110

xix

CoNTENTS

Loops 110The For...Next Loop 110The Do...Loop Loops 116Nested Loops 120Quitting Early 121Quitting Do...Loops 123Infinite Loops 124

Summary 125

Chapter 5: Working With Data struCtures 127

Understanding Arrays 128Defining and Using Arrays 128Using For Each...Next 131Passing Arrays as Parameters 133Sorting Arrays 136Going Backward 137Initializing Arrays with Values 138

Understanding Enumerations 139Using Enumerations 140Determining the State 143Setting Invalid Values 146

Understanding Constants 146Using Constants 146Different Constant Types 148

Structures 148Building Structures 149Adding Properties to Structures 152

Working with ArrayLists 153Using an ArrayList 153Deleting from an ArrayList 158Showing Items in the ArrayList 161

Working with Collections 162Creating CustomerCollection 163Adding an Item Property 164

Building Lookup Tables with Hashtable 166Using Hashtables 166Cleaning Up: Remove, RemoveAt, and Clear 169Case Sensitivity 172

Advanced Array Manipulation 173Dynamic Arrays 173Using Preserve 175

Summary 176

xx

CoNTENTS

Chapter 6: BuilDing WinDoWs appliCations 179

Responding to Events 180Counting Characters 184Counting Words 188Creating More Complex Applications 191Creating the Toolbar 192Creating the Status Bar 195Creating an Edit Box 196Clearing the Edit Box 197Responding to Toolbar Buttons 199Using Multiple Forms 202About Dialog 202Summary 206

Chapter 7: Displaying Dialogs 209

The MessageBox 210Available Icons for MessageBox 210Available Buttons for MessageBox 211Setting the Default Button 211Miscellaneous Options 212The Show Method Syntax 212Example Message Boxes 214

The openFileDialog Control 218The OpenFileDialog Control 218The Properties of OpenFileDialog 218OpenFileDialog Methods 220Using the OpenFileDialog Control 221

The SaveDialog Control 226The Properties of SaveFileDialog 226SaveFileDialog Methods 227Using the SaveFileDialog Control 227

The FontDialog Control 231The Properties of FontDialog 231The Methods of FontDialog 232Using the FontDialog Control 232

The ColorDialog Control 235The Properties of ColorDialog 236Using the ColorDialog Control 237

The PrintDialog Control 238The Properties of PrintDialog 239

xxi

CoNTENTS

Using the PrintDialog Control 240The PrintDocument Class 240The Properties of the PrintDocument Class 240Printing a Document 241

The FolderBrowserDialog Control 248The Properties of FolderBrowserDialog 248Using the FolderBrowserDialog Control 249

Summary 252

Chapter 8: Creating menus 255

Understanding Menu Features 255Images 256Access Keys 256Shortcut Keys 256Check Marks 256The Properties Window 257

Creating Menus 259Designing the Menus 259Adding Toolbars and Controls 261Coding Menus 263Coding the View Menu and Toolbars 267Testing Your Code 269

Context Menus 272Creating Context Menus 272Enabling and Disabling Menu Items and Toolbar Buttons 275

Summary 279

Chapter 9: DeBugging anD error hanDling 283

Major Error Types 284Syntax Errors 284Execution Errors 288Logic Errors 288

Debugging 289Creating a Sample Project 289Setting Breakpoints 306Debugging Using the Watch Window and QuickWatch Dialog Box 313Debugging with the Autos Window 316Debugging with the Locals Window 316

Error Handling 318Using Structured Error Handling 319Summary 321

xxii

CoNTENTS

Chapter 10: BuilDing oBjeCts  325

Understanding objects 326Encapsulation 327Methods and Properties 327Events 328Visibility 328What Is a Class? 329

Building Classes 330Reusability 330Designing an object 332

State 332Behavior 333Storing State 333Real Properties 336Read/Write Properties 339Auto-Implemented Properties 342The IsMoving Method 343

Constructors 345Inheritance 346

Adding New Methods and Properties 348Adding a GetPowerToWeightRatio Method 350Changing Defaults 352Polymorphism: Scary Word, Simple Concept 354Overriding More Methods 354Inheriting from the Object Class 356

objects and Structures 357The Framework Classes 357

Namespaces 358The Imports Statement 360Creating Your Own Namespace 361Inheritance in the .NET Framework 364

Summary 365

Chapter 11: aDVanCeD oBjeCt-orienteD teChniques 367

Building a Favorites Viewer 368Internet Shortcuts and Favorites 368Using Classes 371Scanning Favorites 377Viewing Favorites 384

An Alternative Favorite Viewer 386

xxiii

CoNTENTS

Building a Favorites Tray 387Displaying Favorites 388

Using Shared Properties and Methods 392Using Shared Properties 392Using Shared Methods 397

Understanding object-oriented Programming and Memory Management 398

Garbage Collection 400Releasing Resources 400Defragmentation and Compaction 401

Summary 402

Chapter 12: aCCessing Data using struCtureD query language 405

What You Need to Complete This Chapter’s Exercises 406What Is a Database? 407

Database Tables 407Primary and Foreign Keys 413Queries 415

Understanding Basic SQL Syntax 415Using SELECT Statement 416Using the JOIN Statement 417Using the UPDATE Statement 419Using the DELETE Statement 419Using the INSERT Statement 420Using the SQL Comment 421

Executing Queries in SQL Server 421Summary 425

Chapter 13: DataBase programming With sql serVer anD aDo.net 427

ADo.NET 428ADo.NET Data Namespaces 428

The SqlConnection Class 429Working with the Connection String Parameters 430Opening and Closing the Connection 431The SqlCommand Class 431The SqlDataAdapter Class 434The DataSet Class 438DataView 438

The ADo.NET Classes in Action 440

xxiv

CoNTENTS

Data Binding 450BindingContext and CurrencyManager 450Binding Controls 451Binding Examples 452

Summary 480

Chapter 14: asp.net 483

Thin‐Client Architecture 484Web Forms versus Windows Forms 485

Windows Forms Advantages 485Web Forms Advantages 485

Web Applications: The Basic Pieces 486Web Servers 486Browsers 486HyperText Markup Language 487JavaScript 487Cascading Style Sheets 487

Active Server Pages 488Benefits of ASP.NET Web Pages 488Special Website Files 488Development 489Controls: The Toolbox 489

Building Websites 490Creating a Web Form for Client‐ and Server‐Side Processing 490Website Locations with VS 2015 495Performing Data Entry and Validation 498Using the GridView to Build a Data‐Driven Web Form 507

Summary 512

Chapter 15: Deploying your appliCation 515

What Is Deployment? 516ClickOnce Deployment 516XCOPY Deployment 521

Visual Studio 2015 Setup Application options 522Deploying Different Solutions 522

Private Assemblies 523Shared Assemblies 523Deploying Desktop Applications 524Deploying Web Applications 524

xxv

CoNTENTS

Deploying XML Web Services 524Useful Tools 525

Summary 525

Chapter 16: WinDoWs 8 apps 529

Windows 8 Application Design Principles 530Using Touch 530Application Commands 531Windows 8 Controls 532Coding Windows 8 Apps with XAML 533Creating Your First Windows 8 App 534

Application Layout 548Application Views 548Screen Sizes and Orientation 548

Summary 553

APPENDIx: ExERCISE SoLUTIoNS 557

Index 569

IntroductIon

VIsual BasIc 2015 Is Microsoft’s latest version of the highly popular Visual Basic .NET programming language, one of the many languages supported in Visual Studio 2015. Visual Basic 2015’s strength lies in its ease of use and the speed at which you can create Windows Forms and Windows 8 applications, web applications, and mobile device applications.

In this book, we introduce you to programming with Visual Basic 2015 and show you how to create these types of applications and services. Along the way you’ll also learn about object-oriented tech-niques and learn how to create your own business objects and Windows controls.

Microsoft’s .NET Framework provides Visual Basic 2015 programmers with the capability to create full object-oriented programs, just like the ones created using C# or C++. The .NET Framework provides a set of base classes that are common to all programming languages in Visual Studio 2015, which provides you with the same capability to create object-oriented programs as a programmer using C# or C++.

This book will give you a thorough grounding in the basics of programming using Visual Basic 2015; from there the world is your oyster.

Who thIs Book Is For

This book is designed to teach you how to write useful programs in Visual Basic 2015 as quickly and easily as possible.

There are two kinds of beginners for whom this book is ideal:

➤ You’re a beginner to programming and you’ve chosen Visual Basic 2015 as the place to start. That’s a great choice! Visual Basic 2015 is not only easy to learn, it’s also fun to use and very powerful.

➤ You can program in another language but you’re a beginner to .NET programming. Again, you’ve made a great choice! Whether you’ve come from Fortran or Cobol, you’ll find that this book quickly gets you up to speed on what you need to know to get the most from Visual Basic 2015.

What thIs Book coVers

Visual Basic 2015 offers a great deal of functionality in both tools and language. No one book could ever cover Visual Basic 2015 in its entirety—you would need a library of books. What this book aims to do is to get you started as quickly and easily as possible. It shows you the roadmap, so to speak, of what there is and where to go. Once we’ve taught you the basics of creating working appli-cations (creating the windows and controls, how your code should handle unexpected events, what

xxviii

introduction

object-oriented programming is, how to use it in your applications, and so on) we’ll show you some of the areas you might want to try your hand at next:

➤ Chapters 1 through 8 provide an introduction to Visual Studio 2015 and Windows programming.

➤ Chapter 9 provides an introduction to application debugging and error handling.

➤ Chapter 10 provides an introduction to object-oriented programming and building objects.

➤ Chapter 11 provides an introduction to creating Windows Forms user controls.

➤ Chapters 12 and 13 provide an introduction to programming with databases and covers Structured Query Language, SQL Server, and ADO.NET.

➤ Chapter 14 provides an introduction to ASP.NET and shows you how to write applications for the web.

➤ Chapter 15 introduces you to deploying applications using ClickOnce technology.

➤ Chapter 16 show you how to build your first Windows 8 application and introduces you to design principles for touch interfaces.

What You need to use thIs Book

Apart from a willingness to learn, all you’ll need are a PC running Windows 8 (preferred), Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2015; Internet Explorer; and of course:

➤ Microsoft Visual Basic 2015Community Edition or higher

For the database chapters, you should install SQL Server 2014 Express, although, any edition you have should work with little to no changes required.

conVentIons

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what’s happening, we’ve used a number of conventions throughout the book.

trY It out

The Try It Out is an exercise you should work through, following the text in the book.

1. They usually consist of a set of steps.

2. Each step has a number.

3. Follow the steps through with your copy of the database.

How It Works

After each Try It Out, the code you’ve typed will be explained in detail.