Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Deluxe Learning Edition--Version 2003

Get on the fast track to professional application development with Visual Basic .NET 2003. This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly guides you through the fundamentals—using step-by-step exercises, code samples, optimization tips, and real-world advice to accelerate your productivity. Work at your own pace, learning core programming skills by selecting just the chapters and lessons you need. Upgrade your Visual Basic 6 applications quickly with the help of “Upgrade Notes” sidebars, a special upgrading index, and insights into the enhanced Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Wizard. It’s everything you need to start creating .NET-connected software now! Discover how to: Create a compelling user interface with Toolbox controls, menus, and dialog boxes Use methods in the .NET Framework 1.1 class libraries Utilize the new debugging tools and structured error handlers to build robust code Manage data in your programs using collections, arrays, and string processing techniques Automate Microsoft Office applications and manage processes Manage Windows Forms and create graphics and animation effects Use inheritance and other new object-oriented programming capabilities Write custom code for printers and dialog boxes for printing Manage Microsoft Access databases and create custom database applications with Microsoft ADO.NET Display HTML documents using Microsoft Internet Explorer Use Web Forms to build Internet interfaces Deploy Visual Basic .NET applications Port Visual Basic 6 programs to Visual Basic .NET CD features: Code examples in Visual Basic .NET 2003 All the book’s practice files Fully searchable eBook

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii PART 1 GETTING STARTED WITH MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC .NET 2003 CHAPTER 1 Opening and Running a Visual Basic .NET 2003 Program 3 The Visual Studio .NET Development Environment 5 The Visual Studio .NET Tools 10 The Windows Forms Designer 12 Running a Visual Basic Program 14 The Properties Window 16 Moving and Resizing the Programming Tools 20 Moving and Resizing Tool Windows in Visual Studio 21 Docking a Tool in Visual Studio 23 Hiding a Tool in Visual Studio 25 Getting Help 27 One Step Further: Exiting Visual Studio .NET 30 CHAPTER 2 Writing Your First Program 33 Lucky Seven: Your First Visual Basic .NET Program 34 Programming Steps 35 Creating the User Interface 35 Setting the Properties 42 The Picture Box Properties 47 Writing the Code 49 A Look at the Button1_Click Procedure 54 Running Visual Basic .NET Applications 56 Building an Executable File 58 One Step Further: Adding to a Program 60 CHAPTER 3 Working with Toolbox Controls 63 The Basic Use of Controls: The "Hello World" Program 64 Using the DateTimePicker Control 70 The Birthday Program 70 Controls for Gathering Input 77 The Input Controls Demo 80 Looking at the Input Controls Program Code 83 Using the LinkLabel Control 86 One Step Further: Installing ActiveX Controls 91 The Microsoft Chart Control 91 CHAPTER 4 Working with Menus and Dialog Boxes 95 Adding Menus Using the MainMenu Control 96 Adding Access Keys to Menu Commands 98 Processing Menu Choices 101 Using Dialog Box Controls 106 Changing the Object Names for Items on the File Menu 109 Disabling a Menu Command 110 Event Procedures That Manage Common Dialog Boxes 111 One Step Further: Assigning Shortcut Keys to Menus 118 PART 2 PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS CHAPTER 5 Visual Basic .NET Variables and Operators 125 The Anatomy of a Visual Basic Program Statement 127 Using Variables to Store Information 127 Setting Aside Space for Variables: The Dim Statement 128 Using Variables in a Program 129 Using a Variable to Store Input 133 Using a Variable for Output 136 Working with Specific Data Types 138 Constants: Variables That Don t Change 144 Working with Visual Basic Operators 146 Basic Math: The +, , *, and / Operators 146 Using Advanced Operators: \, Mod, ^, and & 150 Working with Math Methods in the .NET Framework 155 Operator Precedence 157 One Step Further: Using Parentheses in a Formula 158 CHAPTER 6 Using Decision Structures 161 Event-Driven Programming 162 Using Conditional Expressions 164 If Then Decision Structures 165 Testing Several Conditions in an If...Then Decision Structure 165 Using Logical Operators in Conditional Expressions 170 Short-Circuiting by Using AndAlso and OrElse 172 Select Case Decision Structures 174 Using Comparison Operators with a Select Case Structure 176 One Step Further: Detecting Mouse Events 180 CHAPTER 7 Using Loops and Timers 185 Writing For Next Loops 186 Displaying a Counter Variable in a TextBox Control 187 Creating Complex For Next Loops 190 Opening Files Using a Counter That Has Greater Scope 193 Writing Do Loops 196 Avoiding an Endless Loop 197 The Timer Control 201 Creating a Digital Clock Using a Timer Control 201 One Step Further: Using a Timer Object to Set a Time Limit 204 CHAPTER 8 Debugging Visual Basic .NET Programs 209 Finding and Correcting Errors 210 Three Types of Errors 210 Identifying Logic Errors 212 Debugging 101: Using Break Mode 212 Tracking Variables by Using a Watch Window 218 Using the Command Window 220 Switching to Command Mode in the Command Window 222 One Step Further: Removing Breakpoints 223 CHAPTER 9 Trapping Errors Using Structured Error Handling 225 Processing Errors Using Try...Catch 226 When to Use Error Handlers 227 Setting the Trap: The Try...Catch Statement 228 Path and Disk Drive Errors 228 Writing a Disk Drive Error Handler 231 Using the Finally Clause to Perform Cleanup Tasks 232 More Complex Try...Catch Error Handlers 234 The Err Object 234 Specifying a Retry Period 238 Using Nested Try...Catch Blocks 241 Comparing Error Handlers with Defensive Programming Techniques 241 One Step Further: The Exit Try Statement 242 PART 3 MANAGING CORPORATE DATA CHAPTER 10 Using Modules and Procedures 249 Working with Standard Modules 251 Creating a Standard Module 251 Working with Public Variables 254 Creating Procedures 259 Writing Function Procedures 260 Function Syntax 260 Calling a Function Procedure 262 Using a Function to Perform a Calculation 262 Writing Sub Procedures 266 Sub Procedure Syntax 266 Calling a Sub Procedure 267 Using a Sub Procedure to Manage Input 268 One Step Further: Passing Arguments by Value and by Reference 273 Which to Use: ByVal or ByRef? 274 CHAPTER 11 Using Arrays and Collections to Manage Data 277 Working with Arrays of Variables 278 Creating an Array 279 Declaring a Fixed-Size Array 280 Working with Array Elements 281 Creating a Fixed-Size Array to Hold Temperatures 282 Creating a Dynamic Array 286 Preserving Array Contents by Using ReDim Preserve 289 Working with Object Collections 291 Referencing Objects in a Collection 292 Writing For Each...Next Loops 292 Experimenting with Objects in the Controls Collection 293 Using the Name Property in a For Each...Next Loop 296 Creating Your Own Collections 298 One Step Further: Visual Basic for Applications Collections 302 CHAPTER 12 Exploring Text Files and String Processing 307 Displaying Text Files by Using a Text Box Object 308 Opening a Text File for Input 309 The FileOpen Function 309 Creating a New Text File on Disk 315 Processing Text Strings with Program Code 319 Processing Strings by Using Methods and Keywords 319 Sorting Text 321 Working with ASCII Codes 322 Sorting Strings in a Text Box 323 Protecting Text with Encryption 329 One Step Further: Using the Xor Operator 333 Examining the Encryption Code 335 CHAPTER 13 Automating Microsoft Office Applications and Managing Processes 341 Programming Application Objects by Using Automation 342 Using Automation in Visual Basic 343 The Visual Studio Object Browser 344 Automating Excel from Visual Basic 348 One Step Further: Starting and Stopping Windows Applications by Using the Process Component 356 CHAPTER 14 Deploying Visual Basic .NET Applications 361 Planning a Deployment 362 Different Ways to Deploy an Application 364 Creating a Deployment Project 365 Customizing Your Deployment Options 375 Building a Deployment Project and Testing Setup 381 One Step Further: Examining Setup Files and Uninstalling 386 PART 4 ADVANCED USER INTERFACE DESIGN CHAPTER 15 Managing Windows Forms 393 Adding New Forms to a Program 394 How Forms Are Used 395 Working with Multiple Forms 396 Positioning Forms on the Windows Desktop 403 Minimizing, Maximizing, and Restoring Windows 408 Adding Controls to a Form at Runtime 409 Organizing Controls on a Form 412 One Step Further: Specifying the Startup Object 415 CHAPTER 16 Adding Graphics and Animation Effects 421 Adding Artwork by Using the System.Drawing Namespace 422 Using a Form s Coordinate System 423 The System.Drawing.Graphics Class 424 Using the Form s Paint Event 425 Adding Animation to Your Programs 427 Moving Objects on the Form 428 The Location Property 429 Creating Animation by Using a Timer Object 430 Expanding and Shrinking Objects While a Program Is Running 434 One Step Further: Changing Form Transparency 436 CHAPTER 17 Inheriting Forms and Creating Base Classes 439 Inheriting a Form by Using the Inheritance Picker 440 Creating Your Own Base Classes 445 Adding a New Class to Your Project 446 One Step Further: Inheriting a Base Class 453 CHAPTER 18 Working with Printers 459 Using the PrintDocument Class 460 Printing Text from a Text Box Object 465 Printing Multipage Text Files 469 One Step Further: Adding Print Preview and Page Setup Dialog Boxes 476 PART 5 DATABASE PROGRAMMING CHAPTER 19 Getting Started with ADO.NET 487 Database Programming with ADO.NET 488 Database Terminology 489 Working with an Access Database 490 Creating a Data Adapter 494 Working with Datasets 499 Using Bound Controls to Display Database Information on a Form 501 Creating Navigation Controls 505 One Step Further: Displaying the Current Record Position 509 CHAPTER 20 Data Presentation Using the DataGrid Control 513 Using DataGrid to Display Database Records 514 Formatting DataGrid Cells 523 One Step Further: Updating the Original Database 525 PART 6 INTERNET PROGRAMMING CHAPTER 21 Displaying HTML Documents Using Internet Explorer 531 Getting Started with the Internet Explorer Object 532 Adding the Microsoft Internet Controls Reference to Your Application 533 Investigating the Internet Explorer Object Model 534 Displaying HTML Documents 537 One Step Further: Responding to Internet Explorer Events 541 CHAPTER 22 Using Web Forms to Build Interactive Web Applications 545 Inside ASP.NET 546 Web Forms vs. Windows Forms 547 HTML Controls 548 Web Forms Controls 549 Getting Started with a Web Application 550 Installing the Software for ASP.NET Programming 550 Using the Web Forms Designer 556 Adding Web Forms Controls to a Web Application 559 Writing Event Procedures for Web Forms Controls 561 One Step Further: Creating a Link to Another Web Page 565 PART 7 APPENDIXES APPENDIX A Upgrading Visual Basic 6 Programs to Visual Basic .NET 2003 573 Assessing Visual Basic 6 Programs for Compatibility 574 Problematic Issues 575 Internet Resources for Migration 576 Upgrade Steps 577 Running the Visual Basic Upgrade Wizard 577 APPENDIX B Where to Go for More Information 587 Visual Basic .NET Web Sites 587 http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/ 588 http://www.devx.com/ 588 http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/ 588 http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/ 588 http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/ 589 Books for Visual Basic .NET Programming 589 Visual Basic .NET Programming 589 Web Programming with ASP .NET 590 Database Programming with ADO.NET 590 Visual Basic for Applications Programming 590 UPGRADING INDEX 591 INDEX 597

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