CVEV 118/698

Visual Basic
Lecture 1
Prof. Mounir Mabsout
Expert 1: Elsa Sulukdjian
Expert 2: Walid El Asmar
 Introduction
 Visual Studio 6.0: Collection of Microsoft Visual
development applications (Visual C++, Visual
J++, Visual Basic, etc…)
 VB is a programming language. 6 Versions
launched since its creation in the 90’s.
 “Easy and powerful tool for developing
Windows applications in Basic.” Bill Gates.
 VB Development Environment
 Integrated Development Environment (IDE):
visual environment to develop, run, test and
debug.
 Controls: generally visual, and readymade
components, assigned a set of properties (I.e. Text
Box, Button, List Box, etc…).
 IntelliSense: Microsoft’s sophisticated completion
technology. It simplifies the coding process.
 Event driven programming: flow of the
application dictated by the user actions (click of
a mouse, keystrokes, etc…).
 VB IDE
menu
bar
Toolbar

Project
Explorer

Toolbox Properties
window

Immediate
window Form
layout
 VB IDE Components
 Menu Bar: contains all commands needed to run VB
(File, Edit, View etc…).
 Toolbars: quick access to commonly used menu
commands.
 Project Explorer: displays the project’s components.
 Toolbox: contains icons of the controls that can be
placed on the project’s Forms to create the application’s
interface.
 Properties Window: Shows the property settings of
the selected control (size, caption, color, etc…).
 VB IDE Components (Cont’d)
 Form Designer: Main window in which one
can design and edit the application’s user
interface. In this window the user can enter and
edit the application’s code. It displays two
windows: Form and Code window.
 Form Layout: Shows the initial positions of the
forms in the application. It is useful in multiple
forms applications.
 Immediate Window: Debugging tool.
 Programming Steps
 Step 1: Customize the windows that the user
sees. I.e. placing controls and components on
the layouts of the project’s Forms.
 Step 2: Decide on the events each control
should recognize.
 Step 3: Coding the event procedures for those
events.
 Variable Declaration
 Visual Basic code works in two modes:
– Implicit: does not require variable declaration
– Explicit: requires variable declaration
 Declare variables using
Dim VariableName As DataType
Example: Dim length As Integer
Dim greetings As String
 Variable Types
 Numeric: stores numbers
 String: stores text
 Variant: stores any type of data
 Boolean: true/false
 Date
 Object
 Implicit/Explicit
 Implicit Example  Explicit Example
Public Sub VBImplicit() Start code window by:
x=5 Option Explicit
y = “Hello” […]
End Sub Public Sub VBExplicit()
Dim x As Integer, y As String
x=5
y = “Hello”
End Sub

 Implicit: default VB mode, x and y stored as variants

 Explicit: x can only store integers, y only strings
 ALWAYS use explicit mode, it reduces errors
 Variable Scope
Code
Form1 Variables
Form 1
Sub1
Sub1 Variables
...
Sub2
Sub2 Variables

Code
Form 2
 Variable Scope (cont’d)
 The same variable x is
Dim x As Integer
needed in both subroutines
and therefore is defined as Public Sub FirstSub()
a global variable (I.e. x=5
declaration outside subs) Dim y As Integer
End Sub

 There is a different local Public Sub SecondSub()

variable y for each x=6
subroutine (I.e. declaration Dim y As String
End Sub
inside subs)
 Variable Generalities
 Variable names need to be significant for clear coding
practice.
 Don’t be shy of using long names.
 Usually the first character(s) indicate the variable type
(e.g):
– Integer: int… Dim intLength As Integer
– String: str…
– Double: dbl…
– Text Control: txt
– Etc.
 Constants
 Constants do not change their value during the
execution of the program.
 Declaration:
Const ConstantName As DataType
Public Const pi As Double = 3.14159265358979
 Arrays
 Arrays hold a set of related data.
 Declaration:
Dim ArrayName(ArraySize) As DataType
Dim strNames(15) As String
or Dim strNames(1 To 16) As String
strNames is an array that holds 16 string values.
 Multidimensional arrays:
Dim dblTemperature(99,99) As Double
 Dynamic Arrays
 Size not defined at the beginning of the
program:
Dim dblMatrix() as Double
 You can re-dimension the array once you know
the size of the array:
ReDim dblMatrix(UserCount,UserCount)
 What’s Next
 Basic VB syntax
 Functions and Subroutines
 Common VB controls