23/09/2016 VB.
NetQuickGuide
VB.NetQuickGuide
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VB.NetOverview
Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) is an objectoriented computer programming language
implemented on the .NET Framework. Although it is an evolution of classic Visual Basic
language,itisnotbackwardscompatiblewithVB6,andanycodewrittenintheoldversion
doesnotcompileunderVB.NET.
Like all other .NET languages, VB.NET has complete support for objectoriented concepts.
EverythinginVB.NETisanobject,includingalloftheprimitivetypes(Short,Integer,Long,
String, Boolean, etc.) and userdefined types, events, and even assemblies. All objects
inheritsfromthebaseclassObject.
VB.NETisimplementedbyMicrosoft's.NETframework.Therefore,ithasfullaccesstoallthe
libraries in the .Net Framework. It's also possible to run VB.NET programs on Mono, the
opensourcealternativeto.NET,notonlyunderWindows,butevenLinuxorMacOSX.
ThefollowingreasonsmakeVB.Netawidelyusedprofessionallanguage:
Modern,generalpurpose.
Objectoriented.
Componentoriented.
Easytolearn.
Structuredlanguage.
Itproducesefficientprograms.
Itcanbecompiledonavarietyofcomputerplatforms.
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23/09/2016 VB.NetQuickGuide
Partof.NetFramework.
StrongProgrammingFeaturesVB.Net
VB.Nethasnumerousstrongprogrammingfeaturesthatmakeitendearingtomultitudeof
programmersworldwide.Letusmentionsomeofthesefeatures:
BooleanConditions
AutomaticGarbageCollection
StandardLibrary
AssemblyVersioning
PropertiesandEvents
DelegatesandEventsManagement
EasytouseGenerics
Indexers
ConditionalCompilation
SimpleMultithreading
VB.NetEnvironment
Inthischapter,wewilldiscussthetoolsavailableforcreatingVB.Netapplications.
WehavealreadymentionedthatVB.Netispartof.Netframeworkandusedforwriting.Net
applications.ThereforebeforediscussingtheavailabletoolsforrunningaVB.Netprogram,let
usunderstandhowVB.Netrelatestothe.Netframework.
The.NetFramework
The.Netframeworkisarevolutionaryplatformthathelpsyoutowritethefollowingtypesof
applications:
Windowsapplications
Webapplications
Webservices
The .Net framework applications are multiplatform applications. The framework has been
designedinsuchawaythatitcanbeusedfromanyofthefollowinglanguages:VisualBasic,
C#,C++,Jscript,andCOBOL,etc.
Alltheselanguagescanaccesstheframeworkaswellascommunicatewitheachother.
The .Net framework consists of an enormous library of codes used by the client languages
likeVB.Net.Theselanguagesuseobjectorientedmethodology.
Followingaresomeofthecomponentsofthe.Netframework:
CommonLanguageRuntime(CLR)
The.NetFrameworkClassLibrary
CommonLanguageSpecification
CommonTypeSystem
MetadataandAssemblies
WindowsForms
ASP.NetandASP.NetAJAX
ADO.Net
WindowsWorkflowFoundation(WF)
WindowsPresentationFoundation
WindowsCommunicationFoundation(WCF)
LINQ
Forthejobseachofthesecomponentsperform,pleaseseeASP.NetIntroduction , and
fordetailsofeachcomponent,pleaseconsultMicrosoft'sdocumentation.
IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironment(IDE)ForVB.Net
MicrosoftprovidesthefollowingdevelopmenttoolsforVB.Netprogramming:
VisualStudio2010(VS)
VisualBasic2010Express(VBE)
VisualWebDeveloper
The last two are free. Using these tools, you can write all kinds of VB.Net programs from
simple commandline applications to more complex applications. Visual Basic Express and
VisualWebDeveloperExpresseditionaretrimmeddownversionsofVisualStudioandhas
thesamelookandfeel.TheyretainmostfeaturesofVisualStudio.Inthistutorial,wehave
used Visual Basic 2010 Express and Visual Web Developer (for the web programming
chapter).
You can download it from here . It gets automatically installed in your machine. Please
notethatyouneedanactiveinternetconnectionforinstallingtheexpressedition.
WritingVB.NetProgramsonLinuxorMacOS
Although the.NET Framework runs on the Windows operating system, there are some
alternativeversionsthatworkonotheroperatingsystems.Monoisanopensourceversion
ofthe.NETFrameworkwhichincludesaVisualBasiccompilerandrunsonseveraloperating
systems,includingvariousflavorsofLinuxandMacOS.ThemostrecentversionisVB2012.
ThestatedpurposeofMonoisnotonlytobeabletorunMicrosoft.NETapplicationscross
platform,butalsotobringbetterdevelopmenttoolstoLinuxdevelopers.Monocanberunon
many operating systems including Android, BSD, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris and
UNIX.
VB.NetProgramStructure
Before we study basic building blocks of the VB.Net programming language, let us look a
bareminimumVB.Netprogramstructuresothatwecantakeitasareferenceinupcoming
chapters.
VB.NetHelloWorldExample
AVB.Netprogrambasicallyconsistsofthefollowingparts:
Namespacedeclaration
Aclassormodule
Oneormoreprocedures
Variables
TheMainprocedure
Statements&Expressions
Comments
Letuslookatasimplecodethatwouldprintthewords"HelloWorld":
ImportsSystem
ModuleModule1
'ThisprogramwilldisplayHelloWorld
SubMain()
Console.WriteLine("HelloWorld")
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Whentheabovecodeiscompiledandexecuted,itproducesthefollowingresult:
Hello,World!
Letuslookvariouspartsoftheaboveprogram:
The first line of the program Imports System is used to include the System
namespaceintheprogram.
ThenextlinehasaModuledeclaration,themoduleModule1.VB.Netiscompletely
objectoriented,soeveryprogrammustcontainamoduleofaclassthatcontainsthe
dataandproceduresthatyourprogramuses.
Classes or Modules generally would contain more than one procedure. Procedures
containtheexecutablecode,orinotherwords,theydefinethebehavioroftheclass.
Aprocedurecouldbeanyofthefollowing:
Function
Sub
Operator
Get
Set
AddHandler
RemoveHandler
RaiseEvent
Thenextline('Thisprogram)willbeignoredbythecompilerandithasbeenputto
addadditionalcommentsintheprogram.
The next line defines the Main procedure, which is the entry point for all VB.Net
programs. The Main procedure states what the module or class will do when
executed.
TheMainprocedurespecifiesitsbehaviorwiththestatement
Console.WriteLine("HelloWorld")
WriteLineisamethodoftheConsoleclassdefinedintheSystemnamespace.This
statementcausesthemessage"Hello,World!"tobedisplayedonthescreen.
The last line Console.ReadKey() is for the VS.NET Users. This will prevent the
screen from running and closing quickly when the program is launched from Visual
Studio.NET.
Compile&ExecuteVB.NetProgram:
IfyouareusingVisualStudio.NetIDE,takethefollowingsteps:
StartVisualStudio.
Onthemenubar,chooseFile,New,Project.
ChooseVisualBasicfromtemplates
ChooseConsoleApplication.
Specify a name and location for your project using the Browse button, and then
choosetheOKbutton.
ThenewprojectappearsinSolutionExplorer.
WritecodeintheCodeEditor.
ClicktheRunbuttonortheF5keytoruntheproject.ACommandPromptwindow
appearsthatcontainsthelineHelloWorld.
YoucancompileaVB.NetprogrambyusingthecommandlineinsteadoftheVisualStudio
IDE:
Openatexteditorandaddtheabovementionedcode.
Savethefileashelloworld.vb
Openthecommandprompttoolandgotothedirectorywhereyousavedthefile.
Typevbchelloworld.vbandpressentertocompileyourcode.
Iftherearenoerrorsinyourcodethecommandpromptwilltakeyoutothenextline
andwouldgeneratehelloworld.exeexecutablefile.
Next,typehelloworldtoexecuteyourprogram.
Youwillbeabletosee"HelloWorld"printedonthescreen.
VB.NetBasicSyntax
VB.Net is an objectoriented programming language. In ObjectOriented Programming
methodology,aprogramconsistsofvariousobjectsthatinteractwitheachotherbymeans
of actions. The actions that an object may take are called methods. Objects of the same
kindaresaidtohavethesametypeor,moreoften,aresaidtobeinthesameclass.
When we consider a VB.Net program, it can be defined as a collection of objects that

communicateviainvokingeachother'smethods.Letusnowbrieflylookintowhatdoclass,
object,methodsandinstantvariablesmean.
Object Objects have states and behaviors. Example: A dog has states color,
name, breed as well as behaviors wagging, barking, eating, etc. An object is an
instanceofaclass.
Class A class can be defined as a template/blueprint that describes the

behaviors/statesthatobjectofitstypesupport.
MethodsAmethodisbasicallyabehavior.Aclasscancontainmanymethods.It
is in methods where the logics are written, data is manipulated and all the actions
areexecuted.
InstantVariablesEachobjecthasitsuniquesetofinstantvariables.Anobject's
stateiscreatedbythevaluesassignedtotheseinstantvariables.
ARectangleClassinVB.Net
For example, let us consider a Rectangle object. It has attributes like length and width.
Dependinguponthedesign,itmayneedwaysforacceptingthevaluesoftheseattributes,
calculatingareaanddisplayingdetails.
Let us look at an implementation of a Rectangle class and discuss VB.Net basic syntax on
thebasisofourobservationsinit:
ImportsSystem
PublicClassRectangle
PrivatelengthAsDouble
PrivatewidthAsDouble
'Publicmethods
PublicSubAcceptDetails()
length=4.5
width=3.5
EndSub
PublicFunctionGetArea()AsDouble
GetArea=length*width
EndFunction
PublicSubDisplay()
Console.WriteLine("Length:{0}",length)
Console.WriteLine("Width:{0}",width)
Console.WriteLine("Area:{0}",GetArea())
EndSub
SharedSubMain()
DimrAsNewRectangle()
r.Acceptdetails()
r.Display()
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndClass
Length:4.5
Width:3.5
Area:15.75
Inpreviouschapter,wecreatedaVisualBasicmodulethatheldthecode.SubMainindicates
the entry point of VB.Net program. Here, we are using Class that contains both code and
data.Youuseclassestocreateobjects.Forexample,inthecode,risaRectangleobject.
Anobjectisaninstanceofaclass:
Aclassmayhavemembersthatcanbeaccessiblefromoutsideclass,ifsospecified.Data
membersarecalledfieldsandproceduremembersarecalledmethods.
Sharedmethodsorstaticmethodscanbeinvokedwithoutcreatinganobjectoftheclass.
Instancemethodsareinvokedthroughanobjectoftheclass:
SharedSubMain()
r.Acceptdetails()
r.Display()
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
Identifiers
Anidentifierisanameusedtoidentifyaclass,variable,function,oranyotheruserdefined
item.ThebasicrulesfornamingclassesinVB.Netareasfollows:
A name must begin with a letter that could be followed by a sequence of letters,
digits(09)orunderscore.Thefirstcharacterinanidentifiercannotbeadigit.
Itmustnotcontainanyembeddedspaceorsymbollike?+!@#%^&*()[]{
}.:"'/and\.However,anunderscore(_)canbeused.
Itshouldnotbeareservedkeyword.
VB.NetKeywords
ThefollowingtableliststheVB.Netreservedkeywords:
AddHandler AddressOf Alias And AndAlso As Boolean
ByRef Byte ByVal Call Case Catch CBool
CByte CChar CDate CDec CDbl Char CInt
Class CLng CObj Const Continue CSByte CShort
CSng CStr CType CUInt CULng CUShort Date
Decimal Declare Default Delegate Dim DirectCast Do
Double Each Else ElseIf End EndIf Enum
Erase Error Event Exit False Finally For
Friend Function Get GetType GetXML Global GoTo
Namespace
Handles If Implements Imports In Inherits Integer
Interface Is IsNot Let Lib Like Long
Loop Me Mod Module MustInherit MustOverride MyBase
MyClass Namespace Narrowing New Next Not Nothing
Not Not Object Of On Operator Option
Inheritable Overridable
Optional Or OrElse Overloads Overridable Overrides ParamArray

Partial Private Property Protected Public RaiseEvent ReadOnly
ReDim REM Remove Resume Return SByte Select
Handler
Set Shadows Shared Short Single Static Step
Stop String Structure Sub SyncLock Then Throw
To True Try TryCast TypeOf UInteger While
Widening With WithEvents WriteOnly Xor
VB.NetDataTypes
Datatypesrefertoanextensivesystemusedfordeclaringvariablesorfunctionsofdifferent
types.Thetypeofavariabledetermineshowmuchspaceitoccupiesinstorageandhowthe
bitpatternstoredisinterpreted.
DataTypesAvailableinVB.Net
VB.Net provides a wide range of data types. The following table shows all the data types
available:
DataType Storage ValueRange

Allocation
Boolean Dependson TrueorFalse

implementing
platform
Byte 1byte 0through255(unsigned)
Char 2bytes 0through65535(unsigned)
Date 8bytes 0:00:00(midnight)onJanuary1,0001through11:59:59PM

onDecember31,9999
Decimal 16bytes 0through+/79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335

(+/7.9...E+28)withnodecimalpoint0through
+/7.9228162514264337593543950335with28placesto
therightofthedecimal
Double 8bytes 1.79769313486231570E+308 through

4.94065645841246544E324,fornegativevalues
4.94065645841246544E324 through
1.79769313486231570E+308,forpositivevalues
Integer 4bytes 2,147,483,648through2,147,483,647(signed)
Long 8bytes 9,223,372,036,854,775,808through

9,223,372,036,854,775,807(signed)
Object 4 bytes on 32 AnytypecanbestoredinavariableoftypeObject

bitplatform
8 bytes on 64
bitplatform
SByte 1byte 128through127(signed)
Short 2bytes 32,768through32,767(signed)
Single 4bytes 3.4028235E+38 through 1.401298E45 for negative

values
1.401298E45 through 3.4028235E+38 for positive

values
String Dependson 0toapproximately2billionUnicodecharacters

implementing
platform
UInteger 4bytes 0through4,294,967,295(unsigned)
ULong 8bytes 0through18,446,744,073,709,551,615(unsigned)
User Dependson Eachmemberofthestructurehasarangedeterminedbyits

Defined implementing datatypeandindependentoftherangesoftheother
platform members
UShort 2bytes 0through65,535(unsigned)
Example
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesuseofsomeofthetypes:
ModuleDataTypes
SubMain()
DimbAsByte
DimnAsInteger
DimsiAsSingle
DimdAsDouble
DimdaAsDate
DimcAsChar
DimsAsString
DimblAsBoolean
b=1
n=1234567
si=0.12345678901234566
d=0.12345678901234566
da=Today
c="U"c
s="Me"
IfScriptEngine="VB"Then
bl=True
Else
bl=False
EndIf
IfblThen
'theoathtaking
Console.Write(c&"and,"&s&vbCrLf)
Console.WriteLine("declaringonthedayof:{0}",da)
Console.WriteLine("WewilllearnVB.Netseriously")
Console.WriteLine("Letsseewhathappenstothefloatingpointvariables:")
Console.WriteLine("TheSingle:{0},TheDouble:{1}",si,d)
EndIf
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Uand,Me
declaringonthedayof:12/4/201212:00:00PM
WewilllearnVB.Netseriously
Letsseewhathappenstothefloatingpointvariables:
TheSingle:0.1234568,TheDouble:0.123456789012346
TheTypeConversionFunctionsinVB.Net
VB.Netprovidesthefollowinginlinetypeconversionfunctions:
S.N Functions&Description
1 CBool(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoBooleandatatype.
2 CByte(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoBytedatatype.
3 CChar(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoChardatatype.
4 CDate(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoDatedatatype
5 CDbl(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoDoubledatatype.
6 CDec(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoDecimaldatatype.
7 CInt(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoIntegerdatatype.
8 CLng(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoLongdatatype.
9 CObj(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoObjecttype.
10 CSByte(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoSBytedatatype.
11 CShort(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoShortdatatype.
12 CSng(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoSingledatatype.
13 CStr(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoStringdatatype.
14 CUInt(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoUIntdatatype.
15 CULng(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoULngdatatype.
16 CUShort(expression)
ConvertstheexpressiontoUShortdatatype.
Example:
Thefollowingexampledemonstratessomeofthesefunctions:
ModuleDataTypes
SubMain()
DimnAsInteger
DimdaAsDate
DimblAsBoolean=True
n=1234567
da=Today
Console.WriteLine(bl)
Console.WriteLine(CSByte(bl))
Console.WriteLine(CStr(bl))
Console.WriteLine(CStr(da))
Console.WriteLine(CChar(CChar(CStr(n))))
Console.WriteLine(CChar(CStr(da)))
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
True
1
True
12/4/2012
1
1
VB.NetVariables
Avariableisnothingbutanamegiventoastorageareathatourprogramscanmanipulate.
Each variable in VB.Net has a specific type, which determines the size and layout of the
variable'smemorytherangeofvaluesthatcanbestoredwithinthatmemoryandtheset
ofoperationsthatcanbeappliedtothevariable.
Wehavealreadydiscussedvariousdatatypes.ThebasicvaluetypesprovidedinVB.Netcan
becategorizedas:
Type Example
Integraltypes SByte,Byte,Short,UShort,Integer,UInteger,Long,ULongandChar
Floatingpointtypes SingleandDouble
Decimaltypes Decimal
Booleantypes TrueorFalsevalues,asassigned
Datetypes Date
VB.NetalsoallowsdefiningothervaluetypesofvariablelikeEnumandreferencetypesof
variableslikeClass.WewilldiscussdatetypesandClassesinsubsequentchapters.
VariableDeclarationinVB.Net
TheDim statement is used for variable declaration and storage allocation for one or more
variables.TheDimstatementisusedatmodule,class,structure,procedureorblocklevel.
SyntaxforvariabledeclarationinVB.Netis:
[<attributelist>][accessmodifier][[Shared][Shadows]|[Static]]
[ReadOnly]Dim[WithEvents]variablelist
Where,
attributelistisalistofattributesthatapplytothevariable.Optional.
accessmodifierdefinestheaccesslevelsofthevariables,ithasvaluesasPublic,
Protected,Friend,ProtectedFriendandPrivate.Optional.
Shareddeclaresasharedvariable,whichisnotassociatedwithanyspecificinstance
ofaclassorstructure,ratheravailabletoalltheinstancesoftheclassorstructure.
Optional.
Shadows indicate that the variable redeclares and hides an identically named
element,orsetofoverloadedelements,inabaseclass.Optional.
Static indicates that the variable will retain its value, even when the after
terminationoftheprocedureinwhichitisdeclared.Optional.
ReadOnlymeansthevariablecanberead,butnotwritten.Optional.
WithEvents specifies that the variable is used to respond to events raised by the
instanceassignedtothevariable.Optional.
Variablelistprovidesthelistofvariablesdeclared.
Eachvariableinthevariablelisthasthefollowingsyntaxandparts:
variablename[([boundslist])][As[New]datatype][=initializer]
Where,
variablename:isthenameofthevariable
boundslist: optional. It provides list of bounds of each dimension of an array

variable.
New:optional.ItcreatesanewinstanceoftheclasswhentheDimstatementruns.
datatype:RequiredifOptionStrictisOn.Itspecifiesthedatatypeofthevariable.
initializer: Optional if New is not specified. Expression that is evaluated and

assignedtothevariablewhenitiscreated.
Somevalidvariabledeclarationsalongwiththeirdefinitionareshownhere:
DimStudentIDAsInteger
DimStudentNameAsString
DimSalaryAsDouble
Dimcount1,count2AsInteger
DimstatusAsBoolean
DimexitButtonAsNewSystem.Windows.Forms.Button
DimlastTime,nextTimeAsDate
VariableInitializationinVB.Net
Variables are initialized (assigned a value) with an equal sign followed by a constant
expression.Thegeneralformofinitializationis:
variable_name=value;
forexample,
DimpiAsDouble
pi=3.14159
Youcaninitializeavariableatthetimeofdeclarationasfollows:
DimStudentIDAsInteger=100
DimStudentNameAsString="BillSmith"
Example
Trythefollowingexamplewhichmakesuseofvarioustypesofvariables:
ModulevariablesNdataypes
SubMain()
DimaAsShort
DimbAsInteger
DimcAsDouble
a=10
b=20
c=a+b
Console.WriteLine("a={0},b={1},c={2}",a,b,c)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
a=10,b=20,c=30
AcceptingValuesfromUser
The Console class in the System namespace provides a function ReadLine for accepting
inputfromtheuserandstoreitintoavariable.Forexample,
DimmessageAsString
message=Console.ReadLine
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesit:
ModulevariablesNdataypes
SubMain()
DimmessageAsString
Console.Write("Entermessage:")
message=Console.ReadLine
Console.WriteLine()
Console.WriteLine("YourMessage:{0}",message)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Whentheabovecodeiscompiledandexecuted,itproducesthefollowingresult(assumethe
userinputsHelloWorld):
Entermessage:HelloWorld
YourMessage:HelloWorld
LvaluesandRvalues
Therearetwokindsofexpressions:
lvalue:Anexpressionthatisanlvaluemayappearaseitherthelefthandorright
handsideofanassignment.
rvalue:Anexpressionthatisanrvaluemayappearontherightbutnotlefthand
sideofanassignment.
Variables are lvalues and so may appear on the lefthand side of an assignment. Numeric
literals are rvalues and so may not be assigned and can not appear on the lefthand side.
Followingisavalidstatement:
DimgAsInteger=20
Butfollowingisnotavalidstatementandwouldgeneratecompiletimeerror:
20=g
VB.NetConstantsandEnumerations
The constants refer to fixed values that the program may not alter during its execution.
Thesefixedvaluesarealsocalledliterals.
Constantscanbeofanyofthebasicdatatypeslikeanintegerconstant,afloatingconstant,
acharacterconstant,orastringliteral.Therearealsoenumerationconstantsaswell.
The constants are treated just like regular variables except that their values cannot be
modifiedaftertheirdefinition.
Anenumerationisasetofnamedintegerconstants.
DeclaringConstants
InVB.Net,constantsaredeclaredusingtheConststatement.TheConststatementisused
atmodule,class,structure,procedure,orblocklevelforuseinplaceofliteralvalues.
ThesyntaxfortheConststatementis:
[<attributelist>][accessmodifier][Shadows]
Constconstantlist
Where,
attributelist: specifies the list of attributes applied to the constants you can
providemultipleattributesseparatedbycommas.Optional.
accessmodifier:specifieswhichcodecanaccesstheseconstants.Optional.Values
canbeeitherofthe:Public,Protected,Friend,ProtectedFriend,orPrivate.
Shadows:thismakestheconstanthideaprogrammingelementofidenticalname
inabaseclass.Optional.
Constantlist:givesthelistofnamesofconstantsdeclared.Required.
Where,eachconstantnamehasthefollowingsyntaxandparts:
constantname[Asdatatype]=initializer
constantname:specifiesthenameoftheconstant
datatype:specifiesthedatatypeoftheconstant
initializer:specifiesthevalueassignedtotheconstant
Forexample,
'Thefollowingstatementsdeclareconstants.
ConstmaxvalAsLong=4999
PublicConstmessageAsString="HELLO"
PrivateConstpiValueAsDouble=3.1415
Example
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesdeclarationanduseofaconstantvalue:
ModuleconstantsNenum
SubMain()
ConstPI=3.14149
Dimradius,areaAsSingle
radius=7
area=PI*radius*radius
Console.WriteLine("Area="&Str(area))
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Area=153.933
PrintandDisplayConstantsinVB.Net
VB.Netprovidesthefollowingprintanddisplayconstants:
Constant Description
vbCrLf Carriagereturn/linefeedcharactercombination.
vbCr Carriagereturncharacter.
vbLf Linefeedcharacter.
vbNewLine Newlinecharacter.
vbNullChar Nullcharacter.
vbNullString Notthesameasazerolengthstring("")usedforcallingexternal
procedures.
vbObjectError Errornumber.Userdefinederrornumbersshouldbegreaterthanthis
value.Forexample:
Err.Raise(Number)=vbObjectError+1000
vbTab Tabcharacter.
vbBack Backspacecharacter.
DeclaringEnumerations
AnenumeratedtypeisdeclaredusingtheEnumstatement.TheEnumstatementdeclares
anenumerationanddefinesthevaluesofitsmembers.TheEnumstatementcanbeusedat
themodule,class,structure,procedure,orblocklevel.
ThesyntaxfortheEnumstatementisasfollows:
[<attributelist>][accessmodifier][Shadows]
Enumenumerationname[Asdatatype]
memberlist
EndEnum
Where,
attributelist:referstothelistofattributesappliedtothevariable.Optional.
asscessmodifier: specifies which code can access these enumerations. Optional.

Valuescanbeeitherofthe:Public,Protected,FriendorPrivate.
Shadows: this makes the enumeration hide a programming element of identical

nameinabaseclass.Optional.
enumerationname:nameoftheenumeration.Required
datatype:specifiesthedatatypeoftheenumerationandallitsmembers.
memberlist: specifies the list of member constants being declared in this

statement.Required.
Eachmemberinthememberlisthasthefollowingsyntaxandparts:
[<attributelist>]membername[=initializer]
Where,
name:specifiesthenameofthemember.Required.
initializer:valueassignedtotheenumerationmember.Optional.
Forexample,
EnumColors
red=1
orange=2
yellow=3
green=4
azure=5
blue=6
violet=7
EndEnum
Example
ThefollowingexampledemonstratesdeclarationanduseoftheEnumvariableColors:
ModuleconstantsNenum
EnumColors
red=1
orange=2
yellow=3
green=4
azure=5
blue=6
violet=7
EndEnum
SubMain()
Console.WriteLine("TheColorRedis:"&Colors.red)
Console.WriteLine("TheColorYellowis:"&Colors.yellow)
Console.WriteLine("TheColorBlueis:"&Colors.blue)
Console.WriteLine("TheColorGreenis:"&Colors.green)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
TheColorRedis:1
TheColorYellowis:3
TheColorBlueis:6
TheColorGreenis:4
VB.NetModifiers
VB.NetModifiers
The modifiers are keywords added with any programming element to give some especial
emphasisonhowtheprogrammingelementwillbehaveorwillbeaccessedintheprogram
Forexample,theaccessmodifiers:Public,Private,Protected,Friend,ProtectedFriend,etc.,
indicatetheaccesslevelofaprogrammingelementlikeavariable,constant,enumerationor
aclass.
ListofAvailableModifiersinVB.Net
ThefollowingtableprovidesthecompletelistofVB.Netmodifiers:
S.N Modifier Description
1 Ansi SpecifiesthatVisualBasicshouldmarshalallstringstoAmerican
NationalStandardsInstitute(ANSI)valuesregardlessofthe
nameoftheexternalprocedurebeingdeclared.
2 Assembly Specifiesthatanattributeatthebeginningofasourcefile
appliestotheentireassembly.
3 Async Indicatesthatthemethodorlambdaexpressionthatitmodifies
isasynchronous.Suchmethodsarereferredtoasasyncmethods.
Thecallerofanasyncmethodcanresumeitsworkwithout
waitingfortheasyncmethodtofinish.
4 Auto ThecharsetmodifierpartintheDeclarestatementsuppliesthe
charactersetinformationformarshalingstringsduringacallto
theexternalprocedure.ItalsoaffectshowVisualBasicsearches
theexternalfilefortheexternalprocedurename.TheAuto
modifierspecifiesthatVisualBasicshouldmarshalstrings
accordingto.NETFrameworkrules.
5 ByRef Specifiesthatanargumentispassedbyreference,i.e.,thecalled
procedurecanchangethevalueofavariableunderlyingthe
argumentinthecallingcode.Itisusedunderthecontextsof:
DeclareStatement
FunctionStatement
SubStatement
6 ByVal Specifiesthatanargumentispassedinsuchawaythatthe
calledprocedureorpropertycannotchangethevalueofa
variableunderlyingtheargumentinthecallingcode.Itisused
underthecontextsof:
DeclareStatement
FunctionStatement
OperatorStatement
PropertyStatement
SubStatement
7 Default Identifiesapropertyasthedefaultpropertyofitsclass,
structure,orinterface.
8 Friend Specifies that one or more declared programming elements

are accessible from within the assembly that contains their
declaration,notonlybythecomponentthatdeclaresthem.
Friendaccessisoftenthepreferredlevelforanapplication's
programming elements, and Friend is the default access
levelofaninterface,amodule,aclass,orastructure.
9 In Itisusedingenericinterfacesanddelegates.
10 Iterator SpecifiesthatafunctionorGetaccessorisaniterator.An
iteratorperformsacustomiterationoveracollection.
11 Key TheKeykeywordenablesyoutospecifybehaviorforpropertiesof
anonymoustypes.
12 Module Specifiesthatanattributeatthebeginningofasourcefile
appliestothecurrentassemblymodule.Itisnotsameasthe
Modulestatement.
13 MustInherit Specifiesthataclasscanbeusedonlyasabaseclassandthat
youcannotcreateanobjectdirectlyfromit.
14 MustOverride Specifiesthatapropertyorprocedureisnotimplementedinthis
classandmustbeoverriddeninaderivedclassbeforeitcanbe
used.
15 Narrowing Indicatesthataconversionoperator(CType)convertsaclassor
structuretoatypethatmightnotbeabletoholdsomeofthe
possiblevaluesoftheoriginalclassorstructure.
16 NotInheritable Specifiesthataclasscannotbeusedasabaseclass.
17 NotOverridable Specifiesthatapropertyorprocedurecannotbeoverriddenina
derivedclass.
18 Optional Specifiesthataprocedureargumentcanbeomittedwhenthe
procedureiscalled.
19 Out Forgenerictypeparameters,theOutkeywordspecifiesthatthe
typeiscovariant.
20 Overloads Specifiesthatapropertyorprocedureredeclaresoneormore
existingpropertiesorprocedureswiththesamename.
21 Overridable Specifiesthatapropertyorprocedurecanbeoverriddenbyan
identicallynamedpropertyorprocedureinaderivedclass.
22 Overrides Specifiesthatapropertyorprocedureoverridesanidentically
namedpropertyorprocedureinheritedfromabaseclass.
23 ParamArray ParamArrayallowsyoutopassanarbitrarynumberofarguments
totheprocedure.AParamArrayparameterisalwaysdeclared
usingByVal.
24 Partial Indicatesthataclassorstructuredeclarationisapartial
definitionoftheclassorstructure.
25 Private Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredprogrammingelementsare
accessibleonlyfromwithintheirdeclarationcontext,including
fromwithinanycontainedtypes.
26 Protected Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredprogrammingelementsare
accessibleonlyfromwithintheirownclassorfromaderived
class.
27 Public Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredprogrammingelementshave
noaccessrestrictions.
28 ReadOnly Specifiesthatavariableorpropertycanbereadbutnotwritten.
29 Shadows Specifiesthatadeclaredprogrammingelementredeclaresand
hidesanidenticallynamedelement,orsetofoverloaded
elements,inabaseclass.
30 Shared Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredprogrammingelementsare
associatedwithaclassorstructureatlarge,andnotwitha
specificinstanceoftheclassorstructure.
31 Static Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredlocalvariablesaretocontinue
toexistandretaintheirlatestvaluesafterterminationofthe
procedureinwhichtheyaredeclared.
32 Unicode SpecifiesthatVisualBasicshouldmarshalallstringstoUnicode
valuesregardlessofthenameoftheexternalprocedurebeing
declared.
33 Widening Indicatesthataconversionoperator(CType)convertsaclassor
structuretoatypethatcanholdallpossiblevaluesoftheoriginal
classorstructure.
34 WithEvents Specifiesthatoneormoredeclaredmembervariablesrefertoan
instanceofaclassthatcanraiseevents.
35 WriteOnly Specifiesthatapropertycanbewrittenbutnotread.
VB.NetStatements
AstatementisacompleteinstructioninVisualBasicprograms.Itmaycontainkeywords,
operators,variables,literalvalues,constantsandexpressions.
Statementscouldbecategorizedas:
Declarationstatements these are the statements where you name a variable,

constant,orprocedure,andcanalsospecifyadatatype.
Executablestatements these are the statements, which initiate actions. These

statementscancallamethodorfunction,looporbranchthroughblocksofcodeor
assignvaluesorexpressiontoavariableorconstant.Inthelastcase,itiscalledan
Assignmentstatement.
DeclarationStatements
Thedeclarationstatementsareusedtonameanddefineprocedures,variables,properties,
arrays, and constants. When you declare a programming element, you can also define its
datatype,accesslevel,andscope.
The programming elements you may declare include variables, constants, enumerations,
classes,structures,modules,interfaces,procedures,procedureparameters,functionreturns,
externalprocedurereferences,operators,properties,events,anddelegates.
FollowingarethedeclarationstatementsinVB.Net:
S.N StatementsandDescription Example
1 DimStatement DimnumberAsInteger
DimquantityAsInteger=100
Declares and allocates storage space for DimmessageAsString="Hello!"
oneormorevariables.
2 ConstStatement ConstmaximumAsLong=1000
Declaresanddefinesoneormoreconstants. ConstnaturalLogBaseAsObject
=CDec(2.7182818284)
3 EnumStatement EnumCoffeeMugSize
Declaresanenumerationanddefinesthe Jumbo
valuesofitsmembers. ExtraLarge
Large
Medium
Small
EndEnum
4 ClassStatement ClassBox
PubliclengthAsDouble
PublicbreadthAsDouble
Declares the name of a class and
PublicheightAsDouble
introduces the definition of the variables, EndClass
properties,events,andproceduresthatthe
classcomprises.
5 StructureStatement StructureBox
PubliclengthAsDouble
PublicbreadthAsDouble
Declares the name of a structure and
PublicheightAsDouble
introduces the definition of the variables, EndStructure
structurecomprises.
6 ModuleStatement PublicModulemyModule
SubMain()
DimuserAsString=
Declares the name of a module and
InputBox("Whatisyourname?")
introduces the definition of the variables, MsgBox("Usernameis"&user)
EndSub
EndModule
modulecomprises.
7 InterfaceStatement PublicInterfaceMyInterface
SubdoSomething()
EndInterface
Declaresthenameofaninterfaceand
introducesthedefinitionsofthemembersthat
theinterfacecomprises.
8 FunctionStatement FunctionmyFunction
(ByValnAsInteger)AsDouble
Return5.87*n
Declares the name, parameters, and code
EndFunction
thatdefineaFunctionprocedure.
9 SubStatement SubmySub(ByValsAsString)
Return
Declares the name, parameters, and code EndSub
thatdefineaSubprocedure.
10 DeclareStatement DeclareFunctiongetUserName
Lib"advapi32.dll"
Alias"GetUserNameA"
Declares a reference to a procedure
(
implementedinanexternalfile. ByVallpBufferAsString,
ByRefnSizeAsInteger)AsInteger
11 OperatorStatement PublicSharedOperator+
(ByValxAsobj,ByValyAsobj)As
obj
Declares the operator symbol, operands,
DimrAsNewobj
andcodethatdefineanoperatorprocedure 'implementioncodeforr=x+y
Returnr
onaclassorstructure.
EndOperator
12 PropertyStatement ReadOnlyPropertyquote()AsString
Get
ReturnquoteString
Declares the name of a property, and the
EndGet
property procedures used to store and EndProperty
retrievethevalueoftheproperty.
13 EventStatement PublicEventFinished()
Declaresauserdefinedevent.
14 DelegateStatement DelegateFunctionMathOperator(
ByValxAsDouble,
ByValyAsDouble
Usedtodeclareadelegate.
)AsDouble
ExecutableStatements
Anexecutablestatementperformsanaction.Statementscallingaprocedure,branchingto
anotherplaceinthecode,loopingthroughseveralstatements,orevaluatinganexpression
are executable statements. An assignment statement is a special case of an executable
statement.
Example
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesadecisionmakingstatement:
Moduledecisions
SubMain()
'localvariabledefinition'
DimaAsInteger=10
'checkthebooleanconditionusingifstatement'
If(a<20)Then
'ifconditionistruethenprintthefollowing'
Console.WriteLine("aislessthan20")
EndIf
Console.WriteLine("valueofais:{0}",a)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
aislessthan20;
valueofais:10
VB.NetDirectives
The VB.Net compiler directives give instructions to the compiler to preprocess the
informationbeforeactualcompilationstarts.
All these directives begin with #, and only whitespace characters may appear before a
directiveonaline.Thesedirectivesarenotstatements.
VB.Net compiler does not have a separate preprocessor however, the directives are
processed as if there was one. In VB.Net, the compiler directives are used to help in
conditionalcompilation.UnlikeCandC++directives,theyarenotusedtocreatemacros.
CompilerDirectivesinVB.Net
VB.Netprovidesthefollowingsetofcompilerdirectives:
The#ConstDirective
The#ExternalSourceDirective
The#If...Then...#ElseDirectives
The#RegionDirective
The#ConstDirective
Thisdirectivedefinesconditionalcompilerconstants.Syntaxforthisdirectiveis:
#Constconstname=expression
Where,
constname:specifiesthenameoftheconstant.Required.
expression: it is either a literal, or other conditional compiler constant, or a

combinationincludinganyorallarithmeticorlogicaloperatorsexceptIs.
Forexample,
#Conststate="WESTBENGAL"
Example
Thefollowingcodedemonstratesahypotheticaluseofthedirective:
Modulemydirectives
#Constage=True
SubMain()
#IfageThen
Console.WriteLine("YouarewelcometotheRoboticsClub")
#EndIf
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
YouarewelcometotheRoboticsClub
The#ExternalSourceDirective
Thisdirectiveisusedforindicatingamappingbetweenspecificlinesofsourcecodeandtext
external to the source. It is used only by the compiler and the debugger has no effect on
codecompilation.
Thisdirectiveallowsincludingexternalcodefromanexternalcodefileintoasourcecodefile.
Syntaxforthisdirectiveis:
#ExternalSource(StringLiteral,IntLiteral)
[LogicalLine]
#EndExternalSource
Theparametersof#ExternalSourcedirectivearethepathofexternalfile,linenumberofthe
firstline,andthelinewheretheerroroccurred.
Example
Modulemydirectives
PublicClassExternalSourceTester
SubTestExternalSource()
#ExternalSource("c:\vbprogs\directives.vb",5)
Console.WriteLine("ThisisExternalCode.")
#EndExternalSource
EndSub
EndClass
SubMain()
DimtAsNewExternalSourceTester()
t.TestExternalSource()
Console.WriteLine("InMain.")
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
ThisisExternalCode.
InMain.
The#If...Then...#ElseDirectives
ThisdirectiveconditionallycompilesselectedblocksofVisualBasiccode.
#IfexpressionThen
statements
[#ElseIfexpressionThen
[statements]
...
#ElseIfexpressionThen
[statements]]
[#Else
[statements]]
#EndIf
Forexample,
#ConstTargetOS="Linux"
#IfTargetOS="Windows7"Then
'Windows7specificcode
#ElseIfTargetOS="WinXP"Then
'WindowsXPspecificcode
#Else
'CodeforotherOS
#Endif
Example
Modulemydirectives
#ConstclassCode=8
SubMain()
#IfclassCode=7Then
Console.WriteLine("ExamQuestionsforClassVII")
#ElseIfclassCode=8Then
Console.WriteLine("ExamQuestionsforClassVIII")
#Else
Console.WriteLine("ExamQuestionsforHigherClasses")
#EndIf
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
ExamQuestionsforClassVIII
The#RegionDirective
ThisdirectivehelpsincollapsingandhidingsectionsofcodeinVisualBasicfiles.
#Region"identifier_string"
#EndRegion
Forexample,
#Region"StatsFunctions"
'InsertcodefortheStatisticalfunctionshere.
#EndRegion
VB.NetOperators
An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical
manipulations.VB.Netisrichinbuiltinoperatorsandprovidesfollowingtypesofcommonly
usedoperators:
ArithmeticOperators
ComparisonOperators
Logical/BitwiseOperators
BitShiftOperators
AssignmentOperators
MiscellaneousOperators
Thistutorialwillexplainthemostcommonlyusedoperators.
ArithmeticOperators
FollowingtableshowsallthearithmeticoperatorssupportedbyVB.Net.AssumevariableA
holds2andvariableBholds7,then:
ShowExamples
Operator Description Example
^ Raisesoneoperandtothepowerofanother BÂwillgive49
+ Addstwooperands A+Bwillgive9
Subtractssecondoperandfromthefirst ABwillgive5
* Multipliesbothoperands A*Bwillgive14
/ Dividesoneoperandbyanotherandreturnsa B/Awillgive3.5
floatingpointresult
\ Dividesoneoperandbyanotherandreturnsan B\Awillgive3
integerresult
MOD ModulusOperatorandremainderofafteraninteger BMODAwillgive1

division
ComparisonOperators
FollowingtableshowsallthecomparisonoperatorssupportedbyVB.Net.AssumevariableA
holds10andvariableBholds20,then:
ShowExamples
= Checksifthevaluesoftwooperandsareequalor (A=B)isnottrue.
notifyes,thenconditionbecomestrue.
<> Checksifthevaluesoftwooperandsareequalor (A<>B)istrue.

notifvaluesarenotequal,thenconditionbecomes
true.
> Checksifthevalueofleftoperandisgreaterthan (A>B)isnottrue.

thevalueofrightoperandifyes,thencondition
becomestrue.
< Checksifthevalueofleftoperandislessthanthe (A<B)istrue.

valueofrightoperandifyes,thencondition
becomestrue.
>= Checksifthevalueofleftoperandisgreaterthan (A>=B)isnottrue.

orequaltothevalueofrightoperandifyes,then
conditionbecomestrue.
<= Checksifthevalueofleftoperandislessthanor (A<=B)istrue.

equaltothevalueofrightoperandifyes,then
conditionbecomestrue.
Apartfromtheabove,VB.Netprovidesthreemorecomparisonoperators,whichwewillbe
usinginforthcomingchaptershowever,wegiveabriefdescriptionhere.
Is Operator It compares two object reference variables and determines if two

objectreferencesrefertothesameobjectwithoutperformingvaluecomparisons.If
object1 and object2 both refer to the exact same object instance, result is True
otherwise,resultisFalse.
IsNotOperatorItalsocomparestwoobjectreferencevariablesanddeterminesif
twoobjectreferencesrefertodifferentobjects.Ifobject1andobject2bothreferto
theexactsameobjectinstance,resultisFalseotherwise,resultisTrue.
LikeOperatorItcomparesastringagainstapattern.
Logical/BitwiseOperators
FollowingtableshowsallthelogicaloperatorssupportedbyVB.Net.AssumevariableAholds
BooleanvalueTrueandvariableBholdsBooleanvalueFalse,then:
ShowExamples
And ItisthelogicalaswellasbitwiseANDoperator.If (AAndB)isFalse.

boththeoperandsaretrue,thenconditionbecomes
true.Thisoperatordoesnotperformshort
circuiting,i.e.,itevaluatesboththeexpressions.
Or ItisthelogicalaswellasbitwiseORoperator.If (AOrB)isTrue.
anyofthetwooperandsistrue,thencondition
becomestrue.Thisoperatordoesnotperform
shortcircuiting,i.e.,itevaluatesboththe
expressions.
Not ItisthelogicalaswellasbitwiseNOToperator.Use Not(AAndB)isTrue.

toreversesthelogicalstateofitsoperand.Ifa
conditionistrue,thenLogicalNOToperatorwill
makefalse.
Xor ItisthelogicalaswellasbitwiseLogicalExclusive AXorBisTrue.

ORoperator.ItreturnsTrueifbothexpressionsare
TrueorbothexpressionsareFalseotherwiseit
returnsFalse.Thisoperatordoesnotperformshort
circuiting,italwaysevaluatesbothexpressionsand
thereisnoshortcircuitingcounterpartofthis
operator.
AndAlso ItisthelogicalANDoperator.Itworksonlyon (AAndAlsoB)isFalse.

Booleandata.Itperformsshortcircuiting.
OrElse ItisthelogicalORoperator.Itworksonlyon (AOrElseB)isTrue.

Booleandata.Itperformsshortcircuiting.
IsFalse ItdetermineswhetheranexpressionisFalse.
IsTrue ItdetermineswhetheranexpressionisTrue.
BitShiftOperators
We have already discussed the bitwise operators. The bit shift operators perform the shift
operationsonbinaryvalues.Beforecomingintothebitshiftoperators,letusunderstandthe
bitoperations.
Bitwise operators work on bits and perform bitbybit operations. The truth tables for &, |,
andâreasfollows:
p q p&q p|q p^q
0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 1
1 1 1 1 0
1 0 0 1 1
AssumeifA=60andB=13nowinbinaryformattheywillbeasfollows:
A=00111100
B=00001101
A&B=00001100
A|B=00111101
A^B=00110001
~A=11000011
WehaveseenthattheBitwiseoperatorssupportedbyVB.NetareAnd,Or,XorandNot.The
Bitshiftoperatorsare>>and<<forleftshiftandrightshift,respectively.
AssumethatthevariableAholds60andvariableBholds13,then:
ShowExamples
And BitwiseANDOperatorcopiesabittotheresultifit (AANDB)willgive12,which

existsinbothoperands. is00001100
Or BinaryOROperatorcopiesabitifitexistsineither (AOrB)willgive61,whichis
operand. 00111101
Xor BinaryXOROperatorcopiesthebitifitissetinone (AXorB)willgive49,which

operandbutnotboth. is00110001
Not BinaryOnesComplementOperatorisunaryandhas (NotA)willgive61,which

theeffectof'flipping'bits. is11000011in2's
complementformduetoa
signedbinarynumber.
<< BinaryLeftShiftOperator.Theleftoperandsvalue A<<2willgive240,whichis

ismovedleftbythenumberofbitsspecifiedbythe 11110000
rightoperand.
>> BinaryRightShiftOperator.Theleftoperands A>>2willgive15,whichis

valueismovedrightbythenumberofbits 00001111
specifiedbytherightoperand.
AssignmentOperators
TherearefollowingassignmentoperatorssupportedbyVB.Net:
ShowExamples
= Simpleassignmentoperator,Assignsvaluesfrom C=A+Bwillassignvalueof
rightsideoperandstoleftsideoperand A+BintoC
+= AddANDassignmentoperator,Itaddsright C+=AisequivalenttoC=C
operandtotheleftoperandandassignstheresult +A
toleftoperand
= SubtractANDassignmentoperator,Itsubtracts C=AisequivalenttoC=C
rightoperandfromtheleftoperandandassignsthe A
resulttoleftoperand
*= MultiplyANDassignmentoperator,Itmultiplies C*=AisequivalenttoC=C
rightoperandwiththeleftoperandandassignsthe *A
resulttoleftoperand
/= DivideANDassignmentoperator,Itdividesleft C/=AisequivalenttoC=C
operandwiththerightoperandandassignsthe /A
resulttoleftoperand(floatingpointdivision)
\= DivideANDassignmentoperator,Itdividesleft C\=AisequivalenttoC=C
operandwiththerightoperandandassignsthe \A
resulttoleftoperand(Integerdivision)
^= Exponentiationandassignmentoperator.Itraises C^=AisequivalenttoC=C
theleftoperandtothepoweroftherightoperand Â
andassignstheresulttoleftoperand.
<<= LeftshiftANDassignmentoperator C<<=2issameasC=C

<<2
>>= RightshiftANDassignmentoperator C>>=2issameasC=C

>>2
&= ConcatenatesaStringexpressiontoaString Str1&=Str2issameas

variableorpropertyandassignstheresulttothe
variableorproperty. Str1=Str1&Str2
MiscellaneousOperators
TherearefewotherimportantoperatorssupportedbyVB.Net.
ShowExamples
AddressOf Returnstheaddressofaprocedure.
AddHandlerButton1.Click,
AddressOfButton1_Click
Await Itisappliedtoanoperandinan
asynchronousmethodorlambdaexpression DimresultAsres
tosuspendexecutionofthemethoduntil =Await
AsyncMethodThatReturnsResult()
theawaitedtaskcompletes.
AwaitAsyncMethod()
GetType ItreturnsaTypeobjectforthespecified MsgBox(GetType(Integer).ToString())

type.TheTypeobjectprovidesinformation
aboutthetypesuchasitsproperties,
methods,andevents.
Function Itdeclarestheparametersandcodethat Dimadd5=Function(numAs

Expression defineafunctionlambdaexpression. Integer)num+5
'prints10
Console.WriteLine(add5(5))
If Itusesshortcircuitevaluationto Dimnum=5
conditionallyreturnoneoftwovalues.The Console.WriteLine(If(num>=0,
Ifoperatorcanbecalledwiththree "Positive","Negative"))
argumentsorwithtwoarguments.
OperatorsPrecedenceinVB.Net
Operatorprecedencedeterminesthegroupingoftermsinanexpression.Thisaffectshowan
expressionisevaluated.Certainoperatorshavehigherprecedencethanothersforexample,
themultiplicationoperatorhashigherprecedencethantheadditionoperator:
Forexample,x=7+3*2here,xisassigned13,not20becauseoperator*hashigher
precedencethan+,soitfirstgetsmultipliedwith3*2andthenaddsinto7.
Here,operatorswiththehighestprecedenceappearatthetopofthetable,thosewiththe
lowest appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher precedence operators will be
evaluatedfirst.
ShowExamples
Operator Precedence
Await Highest
Exponentiation(^)
Unaryidentityandnegation(+,)
Multiplicationandfloatingpointdivision(*,/)
Integerdivision(\)
Modulusarithmetic(Mod)
Additionandsubtraction(+,)
Arithmeticbitshift(<<,>>)
Allcomparisonoperators(=,<>,<,<=,>,>=,Is,
IsNot,Like,TypeOf...Is)
Negation(Not)
Conjunction(And,AndAlso)
Inclusivedisjunction(Or,OrElse)
Exclusivedisjunction(Xor) Lowest
VB.NetDecisionMaking
Decisionmakingstructuresrequirethattheprogrammerspecifyoneormoreconditionsto
be evaluated or tested by the program, along with a statement or statements to be
executed if the condition is determined to be true, and optionally, other statements to be
executediftheconditionisdeterminedtobefalse.
Following is the general form of a typical decision making structure found in most of the
programminglanguages:
VB.Netprovidesthefollowingtypesofdecisionmakingstatements.Clickthefollowinglinks
tochecktheirdetails.
Statement Description
If...Thenstatement AnIf...Thenstatementconsistsofabooleanexpression
followedbyoneormorestatements.
If...Then...Elsestatement AnIf...ThenstatementcanbefollowedbyanoptionalElse
statement,whichexecuteswhenthebooleanexpressionis
false.
nestedIfstatements YoucanuseoneIforElseifstatementinsideanotherIfor
Elseifstatement(s).
SelectCasestatement ASelectCasestatementallowsavariabletobetestedfor
equalityagainstalistofvalues.
nestedSelectCase Youcanuseoneselectcasestatementinsideanotherselect
statements casestatement(s).
VB.NetLoops
There may be a situation when you need to execute a block of code several number of
times.Ingeneral,statementsareexecutedsequentially:Thefirststatementinafunctionis
executedfirst,followedbythesecond,andsoon.
Programming languages provide various control structures that allow for more complicated
executionpaths.
A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements multiple times

andfollowingisthegeneralformofaloopstatementinmostoftheprogramminglanguages:
VB.Netprovidesfollowingtypesofloopstohandleloopingrequirements.Clickthefollowing
linkstochecktheirdetails.
LoopType Description
DoLoop ItrepeatstheenclosedblockofstatementswhileaBoolean
conditionisTrueoruntiltheconditionbecomesTrue.Itcouldbe
terminatedatanytimewiththeExitDostatement.
For...Next Itrepeatsagroupofstatementsaspecifiednumberoftimesand
aloopindexcountsthenumberofloopiterationsastheloop
executes.
ForEach...Next Itrepeatsagroupofstatementsforeachelementinacollection.
Thisloopisusedforaccessingandmanipulatingallelementsinan
arrayoraVB.Netcollection.
While...EndWhile Itexecutesaseriesofstatementsaslongasagivenconditionis
True.
With...EndWith Itisnotexactlyaloopingconstruct.Itexecutesaseriesof
statementsthatrepeatedlyrefertoasingleobjectorstructure.
Nestedloops YoucanuseoneormoreloopsinsideanyanotherWhile,FororDo
loop.
LoopControlStatements:
Loopcontrolstatementschangeexecutionfromitsnormalsequence.Whenexecutionleaves
ascope,allautomaticobjectsthatwerecreatedinthatscopearedestroyed.
VB.Net provides the following control statements. Click the following links to check their
details.
ControlStatement Description
Exitstatement Terminatesthelooporselectcasestatementandtransfers
executiontothestatementimmediatelyfollowingtheloopor
selectcase.
Continuestatement Causesthelooptoskiptheremainderofitsbodyandimmediately
retestitsconditionpriortoreiterating.
GoTostatement Transferscontroltothelabeledstatement.Thoughitisnot
advisedtouseGoTostatementinyourprogram.
VB.NetStrings
InVB.Net,youcanusestringsasarrayofcharacters,however,morecommonpracticeisto
use the String keyword to declare a string variable. The string keyword is an alias for the
System.Stringclass.
CreatingaStringObject
Youcancreatestringobjectusingoneofthefollowingmethods:
ByassigningastringliteraltoaStringvariable
ByusingaStringclassconstructor
Byusingthestringconcatenationoperator(+)
Byretrievingapropertyorcallingamethodthatreturnsastring
By calling a formatting method to convert a value or object to its string

representation
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesthis:
Modulestrings
SubMain()
Dimfname,lname,fullname,greetingsAsString
fname="Rowan"
lname="Atkinson"
fullname=fname+""+lname
Console.WriteLine("FullName:{0}",fullname)
'byusingstringconstructor
DimlettersAsChar()={"H","e","l","l","o"}
greetings=NewString(letters)
Console.WriteLine("Greetings:{0}",greetings)
'methodsreturningString
Dimsarray()AsString={"Hello","From","Tutorials","Point"}
DimmessageAsString=String.Join("",sarray)
Console.WriteLine("Message:{0}",message)
'formattingmethodtoconvertavalue
DimwaitingAsDateTime=NewDateTime(2012,12,12,17,58,1)
DimchatAsString=String.Format("Messagesentat{0:t}on{0:D}",waiting)
Console.WriteLine("Message:{0}",chat)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
FullName:RowanAtkinson
Greetings:Hello
Message:HelloFromTutorialsPoint
Message:Messagesentat5:58PMonWednesday,December12,2012
PropertiesoftheStringClass
TheStringclasshasthefollowingtwoproperties:
S.N PropertyName&Description
1 Chars
GetstheCharobjectataspecifiedpositioninthecurrentStringobject.
2 Length
GetsthenumberofcharactersinthecurrentStringobject.
MethodsoftheStringClass
TheStringclasshasnumerousmethodsthathelpyouinworkingwiththestringobjects.The
followingtableprovidessomeofthemostcommonlyusedmethods:
S.N MethodName&Description
1 Public Shared Function Compare ( strA As String, strB As String ) As

Integer
Compares two specified string objects and returns an integer that indicates their
relativepositioninthesortorder.
2 Public Shared Function Compare ( strA As String, strB As String,

ignoreCaseAsBoolean)AsInteger
Compares two specified string objects and returns an integer that indicates their
relativepositioninthesortorder.However,itignorescaseiftheBooleanparameter
istrue.
3 PublicSharedFunctionConcat(str0AsString,str1AsString)AsString
Concatenatestwostringobjects.
4 Public Shared Function Concat ( str0 As String, str1 As String, str2 As

String)AsString
Concatenatesthreestringobjects.
5 Public Shared Function Concat ( str0 As String, str1 As String, str2 As

String,str3AsString)AsString
Concatenatesfourstringobjects.
6 PublicFunctionContains(valueAsString)AsBoolean
Returns a value indicating whether the specified string object occurs within this
string.
7 PublicSharedFunctionCopy(strAsString)AsString
CreatesanewStringobjectwiththesamevalueasthespecifiedstring.
8 pPublic Sub CopyTo ( sourceIndex As Integer, destination As Char(),

destinationIndexAsInteger,countAsInteger)
Copiesaspecifiednumberofcharactersfromaspecifiedpositionofthestringobject
toaspecifiedpositioninanarrayofUnicodecharacters.
9 PublicFunctionEndsWith(valueAsString)AsBoolean
Determineswhethertheendofthestringobjectmatchesthespecifiedstring.
10 PublicFunctionEquals(valueAsString)AsBoolean
Determines whether the current string object and the specified string object have
thesamevalue.
11 PublicSharedFunctionEquals(aAsString,bAsString)AsBoolean
Determineswhethertwospecifiedstringobjectshavethesamevalue.
12 Public Shared Function Format ( format As String, arg0 As Object ) As

String
Replaces one or more format items in a specified string with the string
representationofaspecifiedobject.
13 PublicFunctionIndexOf(valueAsChar)AsInteger
Returns the zerobased index of the first occurrence of the specified Unicode
characterinthecurrentstring.
14 PublicFunctionIndexOf(valueAsString)AsInteger
Returns the zerobased index of the first occurrence of the specified string in this
instance.
15 Public Function IndexOf ( value As Char, startIndex As Integer ) As

Integer
Returns the zerobased index of the first occurrence of the specified Unicode
characterinthisstring,startingsearchatthespecifiedcharacterposition.
16 Public Function IndexOf ( value As String, startIndex As Integer ) As

Integer
Returns the zerobased index of the first occurrence of the specified string in this
instance,startingsearchatthespecifiedcharacterposition.
17 PublicFunctionIndexOfAny(anyOfAsChar())AsInteger
Returnsthezerobasedindexofthefirstoccurrenceinthisinstanceofanycharacter
inaspecifiedarrayofUnicodecharacters.
18 PublicFunctionIndexOfAny(anyOfAsChar(),startIndexAsInteger)As
Integer
Returnsthezerobasedindexofthefirstoccurrenceinthisinstanceofanycharacter
inaspecifiedarrayofUnicodecharacters,startingsearchatthespecifiedcharacter
position.
19 PublicFunctionInsert(startIndexAsInteger,valueAsString)AsString
Returns a new string in which a specified string is inserted at a specified index

positioninthecurrentstringobject.
20 PublicSharedFunctionIsNullOrEmpty(valueAsString)AsBoolean
IndicateswhetherthespecifiedstringisnulloranEmptystring.
21 Public Shared Function Join ( separator As String, ParamArray value As

String())AsString
Concatenates all the elements of a string array, using the specified separator
betweeneachelement.
22 Public Shared Function Join ( separator As String, value As String(),

startIndexAsInteger,countAsInteger)AsString
Concatenatesthespecifiedelementsofastringarray,usingthespecifiedseparator
betweeneachelement.
23 PublicFunctionLastIndexOf(valueAsChar)AsInteger
ReturnsthezerobasedindexpositionofthelastoccurrenceofthespecifiedUnicode
characterwithinthecurrentstringobject.
24 PublicFunctionLastIndexOf(valueAsString)AsInteger
Returns the zerobased index position of the last occurrence of a specified string
withinthecurrentstringobject.
25 PublicFunctionRemove(startIndexAsInteger)AsString
Removesallthecharactersinthecurrentinstance,beginningataspecifiedposition
andcontinuingthroughthelastposition,andreturnsthestring.
26 Public Function Remove ( startIndex As Integer, count As Integer ) As

String
Removes the specified number of characters in the current string beginning at a

specifiedpositionandreturnsthestring.
27 PublicFunctionReplace(oldCharAsChar,newCharAsChar)AsString
ReplacesalloccurrencesofaspecifiedUnicodecharacterinthecurrentstringobject
withthespecifiedUnicodecharacterandreturnsthenewstring.
28 Public Function Replace ( oldValue As String, newValue As String ) As

String
Replaces all occurrences of a specified string in the current string object with the
specifiedstringandreturnsthenewstring.
29 PublicFunctionSplit(ParamArrayseparatorAsChar())AsString()
Returns a string array that contains the substrings in the current string object,
delimitedbyelementsofaspecifiedUnicodecharacterarray.
30 PublicFunctionSplit(separatorAsChar(),countAsInteger)AsString()
Returns a string array that contains the substrings in the current string object,
delimited by elements of a specified Unicode character array. The int parameter
specifiesthemaximumnumberofsubstringstoreturn.
31 PublicFunctionStartsWith(valueAsString)AsBoolean
Determines whether the beginning of this string instance matches the specified
string.
32 PublicFunctionToCharArrayAsChar()
ReturnsaUnicodecharacterarraywithallthecharactersinthecurrentstringobject.
33
Public Function ToCharArray ( startIndex As Integer, length As Integer )

AsChar()
ReturnsaUnicodecharacterarraywithallthecharactersinthecurrentstringobject,
startingfromthespecifiedindexanduptothespecifiedlength.
34 PublicFunctionToLowerAsString
Returnsacopyofthisstringconvertedtolowercase.
35 PublicFunctionToUpperAsString
Returnsacopyofthisstringconvertedtouppercase.
36 PublicFunctionTrimAsString
Removes all leading and trailing whitespace characters from the current String
object.
Theabovelistofmethodsisnotexhaustive,pleasevisitMSDNlibraryforthecompletelist
ofmethodsandStringclassconstructors.
Examples:
Thefollowingexampledemonstratessomeofthemethodsmentionedabove:
ComparingStrings:
#include<include.h>
Modulestrings
SubMain()
Dimstr1,str2AsString
str1="Thisistest"
str2="Thisistext"
If(String.Compare(str1,str2)=0)Then
Console.WriteLine(str1+"and"+str2+
"areequal.")
Else
Console.WriteLine(str1+"and"+str2+
"arenotequal.")
EndIf
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
ThisistestandThisistextarenotequal.
StringContainsString:
Modulestrings
SubMain()
Dimstr1AsString
str1="Thisistest"
If(str1.Contains("test"))Then
Console.WriteLine("Thesequence'test'wasfound.")
EndIf
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Thesequence'test'wasfound.
GettingaSubstring:
Modulestrings
SubMain()
DimstrAsString
str="LastnightIdreamtofSanPedro"
Console.WriteLine(str)
DimsubstrAsString=str.Substring(23)
Console.WriteLine(substr)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
LastnightIdreamtofSanPedro
SanPedro.
JoiningStrings:
Modulestrings
SubMain()
DimstrarrayAsString()={"Downthewaywherethenightsaregay",
"Andthesunshinesdailyonthemountaintop",
"Itookatriponasailingship",
"AndwhenIreachedJamaica",
"Imadeastop"}
DimstrAsString=String.Join(vbCrLf,strarray)
Console.WriteLine(str)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Downthewaywherethenightsaregay
Andthesunshinesdailyonthemountaintop
Itookatriponasailingship
AndwhenIreachedJamaica
Imadeastop
VB.NetDate&Time
Most of the softwares you write need implementing some form of date functions returning
currentdateandtime.Datesaresomuchpartofeverydaylifethatitbecomeseasytowork
with them without thinking. VB.Net also provides powerful tools for date arithmetic that
makesmanipulatingdateseasy.
TheDatedatatypecontainsdatevalues,timevalues,ordateandtimevalues.Thedefault
valueofDateis0:00:00(midnight)onJanuary1,0001.Theequivalent.NETdatatypeis
System.DateTime.
The DateTime structure represents an instant in time, typically expressed as a date and
timeofday
'Declaration
<SerializableAttribute>_
PublicStructureDateTime_
ImplementsIComparable,IFormattable,IConvertible,ISerializable,
IComparable(OfDateTime),IEquatable(OfDateTime)
YoucanalsogetthecurrentdateandtimefromtheDateAndTimeclass.
The DateAndTime module contains the procedures and properties used in date and time
operations.
'Declaration
<StandardModuleAttribute>_
PublicNotInheritableClassDateAndTime
Note:
Both the DateTime structure and the DateAndTime module contain properties like Now
and Today, so often beginners find it confusing. The DateAndTime class belongs to the
Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace and the DateTime structure belongs to the System
namespace.
Therefore, using the later would help you in porting your code to another .Net language
like C#. However, the DateAndTime class/module contains all the legacy date functions
availableinVisualBasic.
PropertiesandMethodsoftheDateTimeStructure
ThefollowingtablelistssomeofthecommonlyusedpropertiesoftheDateTimeStructure:
S.N Property Description
1 Date Getsthedatecomponentofthisinstance.
2 Day Getsthedayofthemonthrepresentedbythisinstance.
3 DayOfWeek Getsthedayoftheweekrepresentedbythisinstance.
4 DayOfYear Getsthedayoftheyearrepresentedbythisinstance.
5 Hour Getsthehourcomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
6 Kind Getsavaluethatindicateswhetherthetimerepresentedbythis
instanceisbasedonlocaltime,CoordinatedUniversalTime
(UTC),orneither.
7 Millisecond Getsthemillisecondscomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
8 Minute Getstheminutecomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
9 Month Getsthemonthcomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
10 Now GetsaDateTimeobjectthatissettothecurrentdateandtime
onthiscomputer,expressedasthelocaltime.
11 Second Getsthesecondscomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
12 Ticks Getsthenumberofticksthatrepresentthedateandtimeofthis
instance.
13 TimeOfDay Getsthetimeofdayforthisinstance.
14 Today Getsthecurrentdate.
15 UtcNow GetsaDateTimeobjectthatissettothecurrentdateandtime
onthiscomputer,expressedastheCoordinatedUniversalTime
(UTC).
16 Year Getstheyearcomponentofthedaterepresentedbythis
instance.
ThefollowingtablelistssomeofthecommonlyusedmethodsoftheDateTimestructure:
1 PublicFunctionAdd(valueAsTimeSpan)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthevalueofthespecifiedTimeSpantothevalue
ofthisinstance.
2 PublicFunctionAddDays(valueAsDouble)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofdaystothevalueofthis
instance.
3 PublicFunctionAddHours(valueAsDouble)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofhourstothevalueofthis
instance.
4 PublicFunctionAddMinutes(valueAsDouble)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofminutestothevalueof
thisinstance.
5 PublicFunctionAddMonths(monthsAsInteger)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofmonthstothevalueof
thisinstance.
6 PublicFunctionAddSeconds(valueAsDouble)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofsecondstothevalueof
thisinstance.
7 PublicFunctionAddYears(valueAsInteger)AsDateTime
ReturnsanewDateTimethataddsthespecifiednumberofyearstothevalueofthis
instance.
8 Public Shared Function Compare (t1 As DateTime,t2 As DateTime) As

Integer
ComparestwoinstancesofDateTimeandreturnsanintegerthatindicateswhether
thefirstinstanceisearlierthan,thesameas,orlaterthanthesecondinstance.
9 PublicFunctionCompareTo(valueAsDateTime)AsInteger
Compares the value of this instance to a specified DateTime value and returns an
integerthatindicateswhetherthisinstanceisearlierthan,thesameas,orlaterthan
thespecifiedDateTimevalue.
10 PublicFunctionEquals(valueAsDateTime)AsBoolean
Returnsavalueindicatingwhetherthevalueofthisinstanceisequaltothevalueof
thespecifiedDateTimeinstance.
11 Public Shared Function Equals (t1 As DateTime, t2 As DateTime) As

Boolean
ReturnsavalueindicatingwhethertwoDateTimeinstanceshavethesamedateand
timevalue.
12 PublicOverridesFunctionToStringAsString
Converts the value of the current DateTime object to its equivalent string
representation.
Theabovelistofmethodsisnotexhaustive,pleasevisitMicrosoftdocumentation forthe
completelistofmethodsandpropertiesoftheDateTimestructure.
CreatingaDateTimeObject
YoucancreateaDateTimeobjectinoneofthefollowingways:
By calling a DateTime constructor from any of the overloaded DateTime

constructors.
ByassigningtheDateTimeobjectadateandtimevaluereturnedbyapropertyor
method.
Byparsingthestringrepresentationofadateandtimevalue.
BycallingtheDateTimestructure'simplicitdefaultconstructor.
ModuleModule1
SubMain()
'DateTimeconstructor:parametersyear,month,day,hour,min,sec
Dimdate1AsNewDate(2012,12,16,12,0,0)
'initializesanewDateTimevalue
Dimdate2AsDate=#12/16/201212:00:52AM#
'usingproperties
Dimdate3AsDate=Date.Now
Dimdate4AsDate=Date.UtcNow
Dimdate5AsDate=Date.Today
Console.WriteLine(date1)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Whentheabovecodewascompiledandexecuted,itproducesthefollowingresult:
12/16/201212:00:00PM
12/16/201212:00:52PM
12/12/201210:22:50PM
12/12/201212:00:00PM
GettingtheCurrentDateandTime:
ThefollowingprogramsdemonstratehowtogetthecurrentdateandtimeinVB.Net:
CurrentTime:
ModuledateNtime
SubMain()
Console.Write("CurrentTime:")
Console.WriteLine(Now.ToLongTimeString)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
CurrentTime:11:05:32AM
CurrentDate:
ModuledateNtime
SubMain()
Console.WriteLine("CurrentDate:")
DimdtAsDate=Today
Console.WriteLine("Todayis:{0}",dt)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Todayis:12/11/201212:00:00AM
FormattingDate
A Date literal should be enclosed within hash signs (# #), and specified in the format
M/d/yyyy,forexample#12/16/2012#.Otherwise,yourcodemaychangedependingonthe
localeinwhichyourapplicationisrunning.
Forexample,youspecifiedDateliteralof#2/6/2012#forthedateFebruary6,2012.Itis
alright for the locale that uses mm/dd/yyyy format. However, in a locale that uses
dd/mm/yyyy format, your literal would compile to June 2, 2012. If a locale uses another
formatsay,yyyy/mm/dd,theliteralwouldbeinvalidandcauseacompilererror.
ToconvertaDateliteraltotheformatofyourlocaleortoacustomformat,usetheFormat
functionofStringclass,specifyingeitherapredefinedoruserdefineddateformat.
Thefollowingexampledemonstratesthis.
ModuledateNtime
SubMain()
Console.WriteLine("IndiaWinsFreedom:")
DimindependenceDayAsNewDate(1947,8,15,0,0,0)
'Useformatspecifierstocontrolthedatedisplay.
Console.WriteLine("Format'd:'"&independenceDay.ToString("d"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'D:'"&independenceDay.ToString("D"))
Console.WriteLine("Format't:'"&independenceDay.ToString("t"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'T:'"&independenceDay.ToString("T"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'f:'"&independenceDay.ToString("f"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'F:'"&independenceDay.ToString("F"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'g:'"&independenceDay.ToString("g"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'G:'"&independenceDay.ToString("G"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'M:'"&independenceDay.ToString("M"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'R:'"&independenceDay.ToString("R"))
Console.WriteLine("Format'y:'"&independenceDay.ToString("y"))
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
IndiaWinsFreedom:
Format'd:'8/15/1947
Format'D:'Friday,August15,1947
Format't:'12:00AM
Format'T:'12:00:00AM
Format'f:'Friday,August15,194712:00AM
Format'F:'Friday,August15,194712:00:00AM
Format'g:'8/15/194712:00AM
Format'G:'8/15/194712:00:00AM
Format'M:'8/15/1947August15
Format'R:'Fri,15August194700:00:00GMT
Format'y:'August,1947
PredefinedDate/TimeFormats
The following table identifies the predefined date and time format names. These may be
usedbynameasthestyleargumentfortheFormatfunction:
Format Description
GeneralDate,orG Displaysadateand/ortime.Forexample,1/12/201207:07:30AM.
LongDate,Medium Displaysadateaccordingtoyourcurrentculture'slongdateformat.
Date,orD Forexample,Sunday,December16,2012.
ShortDate,ord Displaysadateusingyourcurrentculture'sshortdateformat.For
example,12/12/2012.
LongTime,Medium Displaysatimeusingyourcurrentculture'slongtimeformattypically
Time,orT includeshours,minutes,seconds.Forexample,01:07:30AM.
ShortTimeort Displaysatimeusingyourcurrentculture'sshorttimeformat.For
example,11:07AM.
f Displaysthelongdateandshorttimeaccordingtoyourcurrent
culture'sformat.Forexample,Sunday,December16,201212:15AM.
F Displaysthelongdateandlongtimeaccordingtoyourcurrentculture's
format.Forexample,Sunday,December16,201212:15:31AM.
g Displaystheshortdateandshorttimeaccordingtoyourcurrent
culture'sformat.Forexample,12/16/201212:15AM.
M,m Displaysthemonthandthedayofadate.Forexample,December16.
R,r FormatsthedateaccordingtotheRFC1123Patternproperty.
s Formatsthedateandtimeasasortableindex.Forexample,201212
16T12:07:31.
u FormatsthedateandtimeasaGMTsortableindex.Forexample,
2012121612:15:31Z.
U FormatsthedateandtimewiththelongdateandlongtimeasGMT.
Forexample,Sunday,December16,20126:07:31PM.
Y,y Formatsthedateastheyearandmonth.Forexample,December,
2012.
Forotherformatslikeuserdefinedformats,pleaseconsultMicrosoftDocumentation .
PropertiesandMethodsoftheDateAndTimeClass
The following table lists some of the commonly used properties of the DateAndTime
Class:
1 Date ReturnsorsetsaStringvaluerepresentingthecurrentdate
accordingtoyoursystem.
2 Now ReturnsaDatevaluecontainingthecurrentdateandtime
3 TimeOfDay ReturnsorsetsaDatevaluecontainingthecurrenttimeofday
4 Timer ReturnsaDoublevaluerepresentingthenumberofseconds
elapsedsincemidnight.
5 TimeString ReturnsorsetsaStringvaluerepresentingthecurrenttimeof
dayaccordingtoyoursystem.
6 Today Getsthecurrentdate.
ThefollowingtablelistssomeofthecommonlyusedmethodsoftheDateAndTimeclass:
1 Public Shared Function DateAdd (Interval As DateInterval, Number As

Double,DateValueAsDateTime)AsDateTime
Returns a Date value containing a date and time value to which a specified time
intervalhasbeenadded.
2 Public Shared Function DateAdd (Interval As String,Number As

Double,DateValueAsObject)AsDateTime
Returns a Date value containing a date and time value to which a specified time
intervalhasbeenadded.
3 Public Shared Function DateDiff (Interval As DateInterval, Date1 As

DateTime, Date2 As DateTime, DayOfWeek As FirstDayOfWeek,
WeekOfYearAsFirstWeekOfYear)AsLong
Returns a Long value specifying the number of time intervals between two Date
values.
4 Public Shared Function DatePart (Interval As DateInterval, DateValue As

DateTime, FirstDayOfWeekValue As FirstDayOfWeek,
FirstWeekOfYearValueAsFirstWeekOfYear)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluecontainingthespecifiedcomponentofagivenDatevalue.
5 PublicSharedFunctionDay(DateValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom1through31representingthedayofthemonth.
6 PublicSharedFunctionHour(TimeValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom0through23representingthehouroftheday.
7 PublicSharedFunctionMinute(TimeValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom0through59representingtheminuteofthehour.
8 PublicSharedFunctionMonth(DateValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom1through12representingthemonthoftheyear.
9 Public Shared Function MonthName (Month As Integer, Abbreviate As

Boolean)AsString
ReturnsaStringvaluecontainingthenameofthespecifiedmonth.
10 PublicSharedFunctionSecond(TimeValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom0through59representingthesecondoftheminute.
11 PublicOverridableFunctionToStringAsString
Returnsastringthatrepresentsthecurrentobject.
12 PublicSharedFunctionWeekday(DateValueAsDateTime,DayOfWeekAs
FirstDayOfWeek)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluecontaininganumberrepresentingthedayoftheweek.
13 Public Shared Function WeekdayName (Weekday As Integer, Abbreviate

AsBoolean,FirstDayOfWeekValueAsFirstDayOfWeek)AsString
ReturnsaStringvaluecontainingthenameofthespecifiedweekday.
14 PublicSharedFunctionYear(DateValueAsDateTime)AsInteger
ReturnsanIntegervaluefrom1through9999representingtheyear.
The above list is not exhaustive. For complete list of properties and methods of the
DateAndTimeclass,pleaseconsultMicrosoftDocumentation .
Thefollowingprogramdemonstratessomeoftheseandmethods:
ModuleModule1
SubMain()
DimbirthdayAsDate
DimbdayAsInteger
DimmonthAsInteger
DimmonthnameAsString
'Assignadateusingstandardshortformat.
birthday=#7/27/1998#
bday=Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime.Day(birthday)
month=Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime.Month(birthday)
monthname=Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime.MonthName(month)
Console.WriteLine(birthday)
Console.WriteLine(bday)
Console.WriteLine(month)
Console.WriteLine(monthname)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
7/27/199812:00:00AM
27
7
July
VB.NetArrays
Anarraystoresafixedsizesequentialcollectionofelementsofthesametype.Anarrayis
used to store a collection of data, but it is often more useful to think of an array as a
collectionofvariablesofthesametype.
All arrays consist of contiguous memory locations. The lowest address corresponds to the
firstelementandthehighestaddresstothelastelement.
CreatingArraysinVB.Net
TodeclareanarrayinVB.Net,youusetheDimstatement.Forexample,
DimintData(30)'anarrayof31elements
DimstrData(20)AsString 'anarrayof21strings
DimtwoDarray(10,20)AsInteger 'atwodimensionalarrayofintegers
Dimranges(10,100) 'atwodimensionalarray
Youcanalsoinitializethearrayelementswhiledeclaringthearray.Forexample,
DimintData()AsInteger={12,16,20,24,28,32}
Dimnames()AsString={"Karthik","Sandhya",_
"Shivangi","Ashwitha","Somnath"}
DimmiscData()AsObject={"HelloWorld",12d,16ui,"A"c}
Theelementsinanarraycanbestoredandaccessedbyusingtheindexofthearray.The
followingprogramdemonstratesthis:
ModulearrayApl
SubMain()
Dimn(10)AsInteger'nisanarrayof11integers'
Dimi,jAsInteger
'initializeelementsofarrayn'
Fori=0To10
n(i)=i+100'setelementatlocationitoi+100
Nexti
'outputeacharrayelement'svalue'
Forj=0To10
Console.WriteLine("Element({0})={1}",j,n(j))
Nextj
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Element(0)=100
Element(1)=101
Element(2)=102
Element(3)=103
Element(4)=104
Element(5)=105
Element(6)=106
Element(7)=107
Element(8)=108
Element(9)=109
Element(10)=110
DynamicArrays
Dynamicarraysarearraysthatcanbedimensionedandredimensionedaspartheneedof
theprogram.YoucandeclareadynamicarrayusingtheReDimstatement.
SyntaxforReDimstatement:
ReDim[Preserve]arrayname(subscripts)
Where,
The Preserve keyword helps to preserve the data in an existing array, when you
resizeit.
arraynameisthenameofthearraytoredimension.
subscriptsspecifiesthenewdimension.
ModulearrayApl
SubMain()
Dimmarks()AsInteger
ReDimmarks(2)
marks(0)=85
marks(1)=75
marks(2)=90
ReDimPreservemarks(10)
marks(3)=80
marks(4)=76
marks(5)=92
marks(6)=99
marks(7)=79
marks(8)=75
Fori=0To10
Console.WriteLine(i&vbTab&marks(i))
Nexti
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
0 85
1 75
2 90
3 80
4 76
5 92
6 99
7 79
8 75
9 0
10 0
MultiDimensionalArrays
VB.Net allows multidimensional arrays. Multidimensional arrays are also called rectangular
arrays.
Youcandeclarea2dimensionalarrayofstringsas:
DimtwoDStringArray(10,20)AsString
or,a3dimensionalarrayofIntegervariables:
DimthreeDIntArray(10,10,10)AsInteger
Thefollowingprogramdemonstratescreatingandusinga2dimensionalarray:
ModulearrayApl
SubMain()
'anarraywith5rowsand2columns
Dima(,)AsInteger={{0,0},{1,2},{2,4},{3,6},{4,8}}
Dimi,jAsInteger
'outputeacharrayelement'svalue'
Fori=0To4
Forj=0To1
Console.WriteLine("a[{0},{1}]={2}",i,j,a(i,j))
Nextj
Nexti
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
a[0,0]:0
a[0,1]:0
a[1,0]:1
a[1,1]:2
a[2,0]:2
a[2,1]:4
a[3,0]:3
a[3,1]:6
a[4,0]:4
a[4,1]:8
JaggedArray
A Jagged array is an array of arrays. The follwoing code shows declaring a jagged array
namedscoresofIntegers:
DimscoresAsInteger()()=NewInteger(5)(){}
Thefollowingexampleillustratesusingajaggedarray:
ModulearrayApl
SubMain()
'ajaggedarrayof5arrayofintegers
DimaAsInteger()()=NewInteger(4)(){}
a(0)=NewInteger(){0,0}
Dimi,jAsInteger
'outputeacharrayelement'svalue
Fori=0To4
Forj=0To1
Console.WriteLine("a[{0},{1}]={2}",i,j,a(i)(j))
Nextj
Nexti
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
a[0][0]:0
a[0][1]:0
a[1][0]:1
a[1][1]:2
a[2][0]:2
a[2][1]:4
a[3][0]:3
a[3][1]:6
a[4][0]:4
a[4][1]:8
TheArrayClass
The Array class is the base class for all the arrays in VB.Net. It is defined in the System
namespace.TheArrayclassprovidesvariouspropertiesandmethodstoworkwitharrays.
PropertiesoftheArrayClass
The following table provides some of the most commonly used properties of the Array
class:
S.N PropertyName&Description
1 IsFixedSize
GetsavalueindicatingwhethertheArrayhasafixedsize.
2 IsReadOnly
GetsavalueindicatingwhethertheArrayisreadonly.
3 Length
Gets a 32bit integer that represents the total number of elements in all the
dimensionsoftheArray.
4 LongLength
Gets a 64bit integer that represents the total number of elements in all the
dimensionsoftheArray.
5 Rank
Getstherank(numberofdimensions)oftheArray.
MethodsoftheArrayClass
ThefollowingtableprovidessomeofthemostcommonlyusedmethodsoftheArrayclass:
1 Public Shared Sub Clear (array As Array, index As Integer, length As

Integer)
SetsarangeofelementsintheArraytozero,tofalse,ortonull,dependingonthe
elementtype.
2 PublicSharedSubCopy(sourceArrayAsArray,destinationArrayAsArray,
lengthAsInteger)
Copies a range of elements from an Array starting at the first element and pastes
themintoanotherArraystartingatthefirstelement.Thelengthisspecifiedasa32
bitinteger.
3 PublicSubCopyTo(arrayAsArray,indexAsInteger)
Copies all the elements of the current onedimensional Array to the specified one
dimensional Array starting at the specified destination Array index. The index is
specifiedasa32bitinteger.
4 PublicFunctionGetLength(dimensionAsInteger)AsInteger
Gets a 32bit integer that represents the number of elements in the specified
dimensionoftheArray.
5 PublicFunctionGetLongLength(dimensionAsInteger)AsLong
Gets a 64bit integer that represents the number of elements in the specified
dimensionoftheArray.
6 PublicFunctionGetLowerBound(dimensionAsInteger)AsInteger
GetsthelowerboundofthespecifieddimensionintheArray.
7 PublicFunctionGetTypeAsType
GetstheTypeofthecurrentinstance(InheritedfromObject).
8 PublicFunctionGetUpperBound(dimensionAsInteger)AsInteger
GetstheupperboundofthespecifieddimensionintheArray.
9 PublicFunctionGetValue(indexAsInteger)AsObject
GetsthevalueatthespecifiedpositionintheonedimensionalArray.Theindexis
specifiedasa32bitinteger.
10 Public Shared Function IndexOf (array As Array,value As Object) As

Integer
Searchesforthespecifiedobjectandreturnstheindexofthefirstoccurrencewithin
theentireonedimensionalArray.
11 PublicSharedSubReverse(arrayAsArray)
ReversesthesequenceoftheelementsintheentireonedimensionalArray.
12 PublicSubSetValue(valueAsObject,indexAsInteger)
SetsavaluetotheelementatthespecifiedpositionintheonedimensionalArray.
Theindexisspecifiedasa32bitinteger.
13 PublicSharedSubSort(arrayAsArray)
Sorts the elements in an entire onedimensional Array using the IComparable

implementationofeachelementoftheArray.
14 PublicOverridableFunctionToStringAsString
Returnsastringthatrepresentsthecurrentobject(InheritedfromObject).
For complete list of Array class properties and methods, please consult Microsoft
documentation.
Example
ThefollowingprogramdemonstratesuseofsomeofthemethodsoftheArrayclass:
ModulearrayApl
SubMain()
DimlistAsInteger()={34,72,13,44,25,30,10}
DimtempAsInteger()=list
DimiAsInteger
Console.Write("OriginalArray:")
ForEachiInlist
Console.Write("{0}",i)
Nexti
Console.WriteLine()
'reversethearray
Array.Reverse(temp)
Console.Write("ReversedArray:")
ForEachiIntemp
Nexti
Console.WriteLine()
'sortthearray
Array.Sort(list)
Console.Write("SortedArray:")
ForEachiInlist
Nexti
Console.WriteLine()
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
OriginalArray:34721344253010
ReversedArray:10302544137234
SortedArray:10132530344472
VB.NetCollections
VB.NetCollections
Collection classes are specialized classes for data storage and retrieval. These classes
providesupportforstacks,queues,lists,andhashtables.Mostcollectionclassesimplement
thesameinterfaces.
Collection classes serve various purposes, such as allocating memory dynamically to

elements and accessing a list of items on the basis of an index, etc. These classes create
collectionsofobjectsoftheObjectclass,whichisthebaseclassforalldatatypesinVB.Net.
VariousCollectionClassesandTheirUsage
ThefollowingarethevariouscommonlyusedclassesoftheSystem.Collectionnamespace.
Clickthefollowinglinkstochecktheirdetails.
Class DescriptionandUseage
ArrayList It represents ordered collection of an object that can be indexed

individually.
Itisbasicallyanalternativetoanarray.However,unlikearray,youcan
addandremoveitemsfromalistataspecifiedpositionusinganindex
and the array resizes itself automatically. It also allows dynamic
memoryallocation,add,searchandsortitemsinthelist.
Hashtable Itusesakeytoaccesstheelementsinthecollection.
Ahashtableisusedwhenyouneedtoaccesselementsbyusingkey,
andyoucanidentifyausefulkeyvalue.Eachiteminthehashtablehas
akey/valuepair.Thekeyisusedtoaccesstheitemsinthecollection.
SortedList Itusesakeyaswellasanindextoaccesstheitemsinalist.
Asortedlistisacombinationofanarrayandahashtable.Itcontainsa
listofitemsthatcanbeaccessedusingakeyoranindex.Ifyouaccess
itemsusinganindex,itisanArrayList,andifyouaccessitemsusinga
key, it is a Hashtable. The collection of items is always sorted by the
keyvalue.
Stack Itrepresentsalastin,firstoutcollectionofobject.
Itisusedwhenyouneedalastin,firstoutaccessofitems.Whenyouadd
aniteminthelist,itiscalledpushingtheitem,andwhenyouremoveit,it
iscalledpoppingtheitem.
Queue Itrepresentsafirstin,firstoutcollectionofobject.
Itisusedwhenyouneedafirstin,firstoutaccessofitems.Whenyou
addaniteminthelist,itiscalledenqueue,andwhenyouremovean
item,itiscalleddeque.
BitArray Itrepresentsanarrayofthebinaryrepresentationusingthevalues
1and0.
Itisusedwhenyouneedtostorethebitsbutdonotknowthenumber
ofbitsinadvance.YoucanaccessitemsfromtheBitArraycollectionby
usinganintegerindex,whichstartsfromzero.
VB.NetFunctions
A procedure is a group of statements that together perform a task when called. After the
procedureisexecuted,thecontrolreturnstothestatementcallingtheprocedure.VB.Nethas
twotypesofprocedures:
Functions
SubproceduresorSubs
Functionsreturnavalue,whereasSubsdonotreturnavalue.
DefiningaFunction
TheFunctionstatementisusedtodeclarethename,parameterandthebodyofafunction.
ThesyntaxfortheFunctionstatementis:
[Modifiers]FunctionFunctionName[(ParameterList)]AsReturnType
[Statements]
EndFunction
Where,
Modifiers: specify the access level of the function possible values are: Public,
Private, Protected, Friend, Protected Friend and information regarding overloading,
overriding,sharing,andshadowing.
FunctionName:indicatesthenameofthefunction
ParameterList:specifiesthelistoftheparameters
ReturnType:specifiesthedatatypeofthevariablethefunctionreturns
Example
FollowingcodesnippetshowsafunctionFindMaxthattakestwointegervaluesandreturns
thelargerofthetwo.
FunctionFindMax(ByValnum1AsInteger,ByValnum2AsInteger)AsInteger
'localvariabledeclaration*/
DimresultAsInteger
If(num1>num2)Then
result=num1
Else
result=num2
EndIf
FindMax=result
EndFunction
FunctionReturningaValue
InVB.Net,afunctioncanreturnavaluetothecallingcodeintwoways:
Byusingthereturnstatement
Byassigningthevaluetothefunctionname
ThefollowingexampledemonstratesusingtheFindMaxfunction:
Modulemyfunctions
FunctionFindMax(ByValnum1AsInteger,ByValnum2AsInteger)AsInteger
DimresultAsInteger
If(num1>num2)Then
result=num1
Else
result=num2
EndIf
FindMax=result
EndFunction
SubMain()
DimaAsInteger=100
DimbAsInteger=200
DimresAsInteger
res=FindMax(a,b)
Console.WriteLine("Maxvalueis:{0}",res)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Maxvalueis:200
RecursiveFunction
Afunctioncancallitself.Thisisknownasrecursion.Followingisanexamplethatcalculates
factorialforagivennumberusingarecursivefunction:
Modulemyfunctions
Functionfactorial(ByValnumAsInteger)AsInteger
DimresultAsInteger
If(num=1)Then
Return1
Else
result=factorial(num1)*num
Returnresult
EndIf
EndFunction
SubMain()
'callingthefactorialmethod
Console.WriteLine("Factorialof6is:{0}",factorial(6))
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Factorialof6is:720
Factorialof7is:5040
Factorialof8is:40320
ParamArrays
At times, while declaring a function or sub procedure, you are not sure of the number of
arguments passed as a parameter. VB.Net param arrays (or parameter arrays) come into
helpatthesetimes.
Modulemyparamfunc
FunctionAddElements(ParamArrayarrAsInteger())AsInteger
DimsumAsInteger=0
DimiAsInteger=0
ForEachiInarr
sum+=i
Nexti
Returnsum
EndFunction
SubMain()
DimsumAsInteger
sum=AddElements(512,720,250,567,889)
Console.WriteLine("Thesumis:{0}",sum)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Thesumis:2938
PassingArraysasFunctionArguments
You can pass an array as a function argument in VB.Net. The following example
demonstratesthis:
ModulearrayParameter
FunctiongetAverage(ByValarrAsInteger(),ByValsizeAsInteger)AsDouble
'localvariables
DimiAsInteger
DimavgAsDouble
DimsumAsInteger=0
Fori=0Tosize1
sum+=arr(i)
Nexti
avg=sum/size
Returnavg
EndFunction
SubMain()
'anintarraywith5elements'
DimbalanceAsInteger()={1000,2,3,17,50}
DimavgAsDouble
'passpointertothearrayasanargument
avg=getAverage(balance,5)
'outputthereturnedvalue'
Console.WriteLine("Averagevalueis:{0}",avg)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Averagevalueis:214.4
VB.NetSubProcedures
Aswementionedinthepreviouschapter,Subproceduresareproceduresthatdonotreturn
anyvalue.WehavebeenusingtheSubprocedureMaininallourexamples.Wehavebeen
writing console applications so far in these tutorials. When these applications start, the
control goes to the Main Sub procedure, and it in turn, runs any other statements
constitutingthebodyoftheprogram.
DefiningSubProcedures
The Sub statement is used to declare the name, parameter and the body of a sub
procedure.ThesyntaxfortheSubstatementis:
[Modifiers]SubSubName[(ParameterList)]
[Statements]
EndSub
Where,
Modifiers: specify the access level of the procedure possible values are: Public,
Private, Protected, Friend, Protected Friend and information regarding overloading,
overriding,sharing,andshadowing.
SubName:indicatesthenameoftheSub
ParameterList:specifiesthelistoftheparameters
Example
The following example demonstrates a Sub procedure CalculatePay that takes two
parametershoursandwagesanddisplaysthetotalpayofanemployee:
Modulemysub
SubCalculatePay(ByRefhoursAsDouble,ByRefwageAsDecimal)
'localvariabledeclaration
DimpayAsDouble
pay=hours*wage
Console.WriteLine("TotalPay:{0:C}",pay)
EndSub
SubMain()
'callingtheCalculatePaySubProcedure
CalculatePay(25,10)
CalculatePay(40,20)
CalculatePay(30,27.5)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
TotalPay:$250.00
TotalPay:$800.00
TotalPay:$825.00
PassingParametersbyValue
Thisisthedefaultmechanismforpassingparameterstoamethod.Inthismechanism,when
amethodiscalled,anewstoragelocationiscreatedforeachvalueparameter.Thevaluesof
theactualparametersarecopiedintothem.So,thechangesmadetotheparameterinside
themethodhavenoeffectontheargument.
In VB.Net, you declare the reference parameters using the ByVal keyword. The following
exampledemonstratestheconcept:
ModuleparamByval
Subswap(ByValxAsInteger,ByValyAsInteger)
DimtempAsInteger
temp=x'savethevalueofx
x=y'putyintox
y=temp'puttempintoy
EndSub
SubMain()
'localvariabledefinition
DimaAsInteger=100
DimbAsInteger=200
Console.WriteLine("Beforeswap,valueofa:{0}",a)
Console.WriteLine("Beforeswap,valueofb:{0}",b)
'callingafunctiontoswapthevalues'
swap(a,b)
Console.WriteLine("Afterswap,valueofa:{0}",a)
Console.WriteLine("Afterswap,valueofb:{0}",b)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Beforeswap,valueofa:100
Beforeswap,valueofb:200
Afterswap,valueofa:100
Afterswap,valueofb:200
It shows that there is no change in the values though they had been changed inside the
function.
PassingParametersbyReference
A reference parameter is a reference to a memory location of a variable. When you pass
parametersbyreference,unlikevalueparameters,anewstoragelocationisnotcreatedfor
these parameters. The reference parameters represent the same memory location as the
actualparametersthataresuppliedtothemethod.
In VB.Net, you declare the reference parameters using the ByRef keyword. The following
exampledemonstratesthis:
ModuleparamByref
Subswap(ByRefxAsInteger,ByRefyAsInteger)
DimtempAsInteger
temp=x'savethevalueofx
x=y'putyintox
y=temp'puttempintoy
EndSub
SubMain()
'localvariabledefinition
DimaAsInteger=100
DimbAsInteger=200
Console.WriteLine("Beforeswap,valueofa:{0}",a)
Console.WriteLine("Beforeswap,valueofb:{0}",b)
'callingafunctiontoswapthevalues'
swap(a,b)
Console.WriteLine("Afterswap,valueofa:{0}",a)
Console.WriteLine("Afterswap,valueofb:{0}",b)
Console.ReadLine()
EndSub
EndModule
Beforeswap,valueofa:100
Beforeswap,valueofb:200
Afterswap,valueofa:200
Afterswap,valueofb:100
VB.NetClasses&Objects
Whenyoudefineaclass,youdefineablueprintforadatatype.Thisdoesn'tactuallydefine
anydata,butitdoesdefinewhattheclassnamemeans,thatis,whatanobjectoftheclass
willconsistofandwhatoperationscanbeperformedonsuchanobject.
Objectsareinstancesofaclass.Themethodsandvariablesthatconstituteaclassarecalled
membersoftheclass.
ClassDefinition
AclassdefinitionstartswiththekeywordClassfollowedbytheclassnameandtheclass
body,endedbytheEndClassstatement.Followingisthegeneralformofaclassdefinition:
[<attributelist>][accessmodifier][Shadows][MustInherit|NotInheritable][Partial]_
Classname[(Oftypelist)]
[Inheritsclassname]
[Implementsinterfacenames]
[statements]
EndClass
Where,
attributelistisalistofattributesthatapplytotheclass.Optional.
accessmodifier defines the access levels of the class, it has values as Public,
Protected,Friend,ProtectedFriendandPrivate.Optional.
Shadows indicate that the variable redeclares and hides an identically named
element,orsetofoverloadedelements,inabaseclass.Optional.
MustInheritspecifiesthattheclasscanbeusedonlyasabaseclassandthatyou
cannotcreateanobjectdirectlyfromit,i.e.,anabstractclass.Optional.
NotInheritablespecifiesthattheclasscannotbeusedasabaseclass.
Partialindicatesapartialdefinitionoftheclass.
Inheritsspecifiesthebaseclassitisinheritingfrom.
Implementsspecifiestheinterfacestheclassisinheritingfrom.
ThefollowingexampledemonstratesaBoxclass,withthreedatamembers,length,breadth
andheight:
Modulemybox
ClassBox
PubliclengthAsDouble'Lengthofabox
PublicbreadthAsDouble'Breadthofabox
PublicheightAsDouble'Heightofabox
EndClass
SubMain()
DimBox1AsBox=NewBox()'DeclareBox1oftypeBox
DimvolumeAsDouble=0.0'Storethevolumeofaboxhere
'box1specification
Box1.height=5.0
Box1.length=6.0
Box1.breadth=7.0
'box2specification
Box2.height=10.0
Box2.length=12.0
Box2.breadth=13.0
'volumeofbox1
volume=Box1.height*Box1.length*Box1.breadth
Console.WriteLine("VolumeofBox1:{0}",volume)
'volumeofbox2
volume=Box2.height*Box2.length*Box2.breadth
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
VolumeofBox1:210
VolumeofBox2:1560
MemberFunctionsandEncapsulation
Amemberfunctionofaclassisafunctionthathasitsdefinitionoritsprototypewithinthe
classdefinitionlikeanyothervariable.Itoperatesonanyobjectoftheclassofwhichitisa
memberandhasaccesstoallthemembersofaclassforthatobject.
Member variables are attributes of an object (from design perspective) and they are kept
privatetoimplementencapsulation.Thesevariablescanonlybeaccessedusingthepublic
memberfunctions.
Letusputaboveconceptstosetandgetthevalueofdifferentclassmembersinaclass:
Modulemybox
ClassBox
PubliclengthAsDouble'Lengthofabox
PublicbreadthAsDouble'Breadthofabox
PublicheightAsDouble'Heightofabox
PublicSubsetLength(ByVallenAsDouble)
length=len
EndSub
PublicSubsetBreadth(ByValbreAsDouble)
breadth=bre
EndSub
PublicSubsetHeight(ByValheiAsDouble)
height=hei
EndSub
PublicFunctiongetVolume()AsDouble
Returnlength*breadth*height
EndFunction
EndClass
SubMain()
DimvolumeAsDouble=0.0'Storethevolumeofaboxhere
'box1specification
Box1.setLength(6.0)
Box1.setBreadth(7.0)
Box1.setHeight(5.0)

'box2specification
Box2.setLength(12.0)
Box2.setBreadth(13.0)
Box2.setHeight(10.0)

'volumeofbox1
volume=Box1.getVolume()
'volumeofbox2
volume=Box2.getVolume()
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
VolumeofBox1:210
VolumeofBox2:1560
ConstructorsandDestructors
A class constructor is a special member Sub of a class that is executed whenever we
createnewobjectsofthatclass.AconstructorhasthenameNewanditdoesnothaveany
returntype.
Followingprogramexplainstheconceptofconstructor:
ClassLine
PrivatelengthAsDouble'Lengthofaline
PublicSubNew()'constructor
Console.WriteLine("Objectisbeingcreated")
EndSub
length=len
EndSub

PublicFunctiongetLength()AsDouble
Returnlength
EndFunction
SharedSubMain()
DimlineAsLine=NewLine()
'setlinelength
line.setLength(6.0)
Console.WriteLine("Lengthofline:{0}",line.getLength())
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Objectisbeingcreated
Lengthofline:6
Adefaultconstructordoesnothaveanyparameter,butifyouneed,aconstructorcanhave
parameters. Such constructors are called parameterized constructors. This technique
helps you to assign initial value to an object at the time of its creation as shown in the
followingexample:
ClassLine
PublicSubNew(ByVallenAsDouble)'parameterisedconstructor
Console.WriteLine("Objectisbeingcreated,length={0}",len)
length=len
EndSub
length=len
EndSub

Returnlength
EndFunction
SharedSubMain()
DimlineAsLine=NewLine(10.0)
Console.WriteLine("Lengthoflinesetbyconstructor:{0}",line.getLength())
'setlinelength
line.setLength(6.0)
Console.WriteLine("LengthoflinesetbysetLength:{0}",line.getLength())
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Objectisbeingcreated,length=10
Lengthoflinesetbyconstructor:10
LengthoflinesetbysetLength:6
AdestructorisaspecialmemberSubofaclassthatisexecutedwheneveranobjectofits
classgoesoutofscope.
AdestructorhasthenameFinalizeanditcanneitherreturnavaluenorcanittakeany
parameters.Destructorcanbeveryusefulforreleasingresourcesbeforecomingoutofthe
programlikeclosingfiles,releasingmemories,etc.
Destructorscannotbeinheritedoroverloaded.
Followingexampleexplainstheconceptofdestructor:
ClassLine
PublicSubNew()'parameterisedconstructor
Console.WriteLine("Objectisbeingcreated")
EndSub
ProtectedOverridesSubFinalize()'destructor
Console.WriteLine("Objectisbeingdeleted")
EndSub
length=len
EndSub
Returnlength
EndFunction
SharedSubMain()
DimlineAsLine=NewLine()
'setlinelength
line.setLength(6.0)
Console.WriteLine("Lengthofline:{0}",line.getLength())
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Objectisbeingcreated
Lengthofline:6
Objectisbeingdeleted
SharedMembersofaVB.NetClass
We can define class members as static using the Shared keyword. When we declare a
member of a class as Shared, it means no matter how many objects of the class are
created,thereisonlyonecopyofthemember.
ThekeywordSharedimpliesthatonlyoneinstanceofthememberexistsforaclass.Shared
variablesareusedfordefiningconstantsbecausetheirvaluescanberetrievedbyinvoking
theclasswithoutcreatinganinstanceofit.
Sharedvariablescanbeinitializedoutsidethememberfunctionorclassdefinition.Youcan
alsoinitializeSharedvariablesinsidetheclassdefinition.
YoucanalsodeclareamemberfunctionasShared.SuchfunctionscanaccessonlyShared
variables.TheSharedfunctionsexistevenbeforetheobjectiscreated.
Thefollowingexampledemonstratestheuseofsharedmembers:
ClassStaticVar
PublicSharednumAsInteger
PublicSubcount()
num=num+1
EndSub
PublicSharedFunctiongetNum()AsInteger
Returnnum
EndFunction
SharedSubMain()
DimsAsStaticVar=NewStaticVar()
s.count()
s.count()
s.count()
Console.WriteLine("Valueofvariablenum:{0}",StaticVar.getNum())
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Valueofvariablenum:3
Inheritance
Oneofthemostimportantconceptsinobjectorientedprogrammingisthatofinheritance.
Inheritance allows us to define a class in terms of another class which makes it easier to
create and maintain an application. This also provides an opportunity to reuse the code
functionalityandfastimplementationtime.
When creating a class, instead of writing completely new data members and member
functions,theprogrammercandesignatethatthenewclassshouldinheritthemembersof
anexistingclass.Thisexistingclassiscalledthebaseclass,andthenewclassisreferredto
asthederivedclass.
Base&DerivedClasses:
Aclasscanbederivedfrommorethanoneclassorinterface,whichmeansthatitcaninherit
dataandfunctionsfrommultiplebaseclassesorinterfaces.
ThesyntaxusedinVB.Netforcreatingderivedclassesisasfollows:
<accessspecifier>Class<base_class>
...
EndClass
Class<derived_class>:Inherits<base_class>
...
EndClass
ConsiderabaseclassShapeanditsderivedclassRectangle:
'Baseclass
ClassShape
ProtectedwidthAsInteger
ProtectedheightAsInteger
PublicSubsetWidth(ByValwAsInteger)
width=w
EndSub
PublicSubsetHeight(ByValhAsInteger)
height=h
EndSub
EndClass
'Derivedclass
ClassRectangle:InheritsShape
PublicFunctiongetArea()AsInteger
Return(width*height)
EndFunction
EndClass
ClassRectangleTester
SharedSubMain()
DimrectAsRectangle=NewRectangle()
rect.setWidth(5)
rect.setHeight(7)
'Printtheareaoftheobject.
Console.WriteLine("Totalarea:{0}",rect.getArea())
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Totalarea:35
BaseClassInitialization
The derived class inherits the base class member variables and member methods.
Therefore,thesuperclassobjectshouldbecreatedbeforethesubclassiscreated.Thesuper
classorthebaseclassisimplicitlyknownasMyBaseinVB.Net
Thefollowingprogramdemonstratesthis:
'Baseclass
ClassRectangle
ProtectedwidthAsDouble
ProtectedlengthAsDouble
PublicSubNew(ByVallAsDouble,ByValwAsDouble)
length=l
width=w
EndSub
PublicFunctionGetArea()AsDouble
Return(width*length)
EndFunction
PublicOverridableSubDisplay()
Console.WriteLine("Length:{0}",length)
Console.WriteLine("Width:{0}",width)
Console.WriteLine("Area:{0}",GetArea())
EndSub
'endclassRectangle
EndClass
'Derivedclass
ClassTabletop:InheritsRectangle
PrivatecostAsDouble
PublicSubNew(ByVallAsDouble,ByValwAsDouble)
MyBase.New(l,w)
EndSub
PublicFunctionGetCost()AsDouble
DimcostAsDouble
cost=GetArea()*70
Returncost
EndFunction
PublicOverridesSubDisplay()
MyBase.Display()
Console.WriteLine("Cost:{0}",GetCost())
EndSub
'endclassTabletop
EndClass
ClassRectangleTester
SharedSubMain()
DimtAsTabletop=NewTabletop(4.5,7.5)
t.Display()
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndClass
Length:4.5
Width:7.5
Area:33.75
Cost:2362.5
VB.Netsupportsmultipleinheritance.
VB.NetExceptionHandling
Anexceptionisaproblemthatarisesduringtheexecutionofaprogram.Anexceptionisa
responsetoanexceptionalcircumstancethatariseswhileaprogramisrunning,suchasan
attempttodividebyzero.
Exceptionsprovideawaytotransfercontrolfromonepartofaprogramtoanother.VB.Net
exceptionhandlingisbuiltuponfourkeywords:Try,Catch,FinallyandThrow.
Try: A Try block identifies a block of code for which particular exceptions will be
activated.It'sfollowedbyoneormoreCatchblocks.
Catch:Aprogramcatchesanexceptionwithanexceptionhandlerattheplaceina
program where you want to handle the problem. The Catch keyword indicates the
catchingofanexception.
Finally:TheFinallyblockisusedtoexecuteagivensetofstatements,whetheran
exceptionisthrownornotthrown.Forexample,ifyouopenafile,itmustbeclosed
whetheranexceptionisraisedornot.
Throw: A program throws an exception when a problem shows up. This is done
usingaThrowkeyword.
Syntax
Assuming a block will raise an exception, a method catches an exception using a
combinationoftheTryandCatchkeywords.ATry/Catchblockisplacedaroundthecodethat
mightgenerateanexception.CodewithinaTry/Catchblockisreferredtoasprotectedcode,
andthesyntaxforusingTry/Catchlookslikethefollowing:
Try
[tryStatements]
[ExitTry]
[Catch[exception[Astype]][Whenexpression]
[catchStatements]
[ExitTry]]
[Catch...]
[Finally
[finallyStatements]]
EndTry
You can list down multiple catch statements to catch different type of exceptions in case
yourtryblockraisesmorethanoneexceptionindifferentsituations.
ExceptionClassesin.NetFramework
Inthe.NetFramework,exceptionsarerepresentedbyclasses.Theexceptionclassesin.Net
Framework are mainly directly or indirectly derived from the System.Exception class.
Some of the exception classes derived from the System.Exception class are the
System.ApplicationExceptionandSystem.SystemExceptionclasses.
The System.ApplicationException class supports exceptions generated by application

programs.Sotheexceptionsdefinedbytheprogrammersshouldderivefromthisclass.
TheSystem.SystemExceptionclassisthebaseclassforallpredefinedsystemexception.
The following table provides some of the predefined exception classes derived from the
Sytem.SystemExceptionclass:
ExceptionClass Description
System.IO.IOException HandlesI/Oerrors.
System.IndexOutOfRangeException Handleserrorsgeneratedwhenamethodreferstoan
arrayindexoutofrange.
System.ArrayTypeMismatchException Handleserrorsgeneratedwhentypeismismatchedwith
thearraytype.
System.NullReferenceException Handleserrorsgeneratedfromdeferencinganullobject.
System.DivideByZeroException Handleserrorsgeneratedfromdividingadividendwith
zero.
System.InvalidCastException Handleserrorsgeneratedduringtypecasting.
System.OutOfMemoryException Handleserrorsgeneratedfrominsufficientfreememory.
System.StackOverflowException Handleserrorsgeneratedfromstackoverflow.
HandlingExceptions
VB.Netprovidesastructuredsolutiontotheexceptionhandlingproblemsintheformoftry
andcatchblocks.Usingtheseblocksthecoreprogramstatementsareseparatedfromthe
errorhandlingstatements.
TheseerrorhandlingblocksareimplementedusingtheTry, Catch and Finally keywords.

Followingisanexampleofthrowinganexceptionwhendividingbyzeroconditionoccurs:
ModuleexceptionProg
Subdivision(ByValnum1AsInteger,ByValnum2AsInteger)
DimresultAsInteger
Try
result=num1\num2
CatcheAsDivideByZeroException
Console.WriteLine("Exceptioncaught:{0}",e)
Finally
Console.WriteLine("Result:{0}",result)
EndTry
EndSub
SubMain()
division(25,0)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Exceptioncaught:System.DivideByZeroException:Attemptedtodividebyzero.
at...
Result:0
CreatingUserDefinedExceptions
Youcanalsodefineyourownexception.Userdefinedexceptionclassesarederivedfromthe
ApplicationExceptionclass.Thefollowingexampledemonstratesthis:
ModuleexceptionProg
PublicClassTempIsZeroException:InheritsApplicationException
PublicSubNew(ByValmessageAsString)
MyBase.New(message)
EndSub
EndClass
PublicClassTemperature
DimtemperatureAsInteger=0
SubshowTemp()
If(temperature=0)Then
Throw(NewTempIsZeroException("ZeroTemperaturefound"))
Else
Console.WriteLine("Temperature:{0}",temperature)
EndIf
EndSub
EndClass
SubMain()
DimtempAsTemperature=NewTemperature()
Try
temp.showTemp()
CatcheAsTempIsZeroException
Console.WriteLine("TempIsZeroException:{0}",e.Message)
EndTry
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
TempIsZeroException:ZeroTemperaturefound
ThrowingObjects
YoucanthrowanobjectifitiseitherdirectlyorindirectlyderivedfromtheSystem.Exception
class.
Youcanuseathrowstatementinthecatchblocktothrowthepresentobjectas:
Throw[expression]
Thefollowingprogramdemonstratesthis:
ModuleexceptionProg
SubMain()
Try
ThrowNewApplicationException("Acustomexception_
isbeingthrownhere...")
CatcheAsException
Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
Finally
Console.WriteLine("NowinsidetheFinallyBlock")
EndTry
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Acustomexceptionisbeingthrownhere...
NowinsidetheFinallyBlock
VB.NetFileHandling
Afileisacollectionofdatastoredinadiskwithaspecificnameandadirectorypath.When
afileisopenedforreadingorwriting,itbecomesastream.
The stream is basically the sequence of bytes passing through the communication path.
There are two main streams: the input stream and the output stream. The input
streamisusedforreadingdatafromfile(readoperation)andtheoutputstreamisused
forwritingintothefile(writeoperation).
VB.NetI/OClasses
The System.IO namespace has various classes that are used for performing various
operationswithfiles,likecreatinganddeletingfiles,readingfromorwritingtoafile,closing
afile,etc.
The following table shows some commonly used nonabstract classes in the System.IO
namespace:
I/OClass Description
BinaryReader Readsprimitivedatafromabinarystream.
BinaryWriter Writesprimitivedatainbinaryformat.
BufferedStream Atemporarystorageforastreamofbytes.
Directory Helpsinmanipulatingadirectorystructure.
DirectoryInfo Usedforperformingoperationsondirectories.
DriveInfo Providesinformationforthedrives.
File Helpsinmanipulatingfiles.
FileInfo Usedforperformingoperationsonfiles.
FileStream Usedtoreadfromandwritetoanylocationinafile.
MemoryStream Usedforrandomaccessofstreameddatastoredinmemory.
Path Performsoperationsonpathinformation.
StreamReader Usedforreadingcharactersfromabytestream.
StreamWriter Isusedforwritingcharacterstoastream.
StringReader Isusedforreadingfromastringbuffer.
StringWriter Isusedforwritingintoastringbuffer.
TheFileStreamClass
The FileStream class in the System.IO namespace helps in reading from, writing to and
closingfiles.ThisclassderivesfromtheabstractclassStream.
You need to create a FileStream object to create a new file or open an existing file. The
syntaxforcreatingaFileStreamobjectisasfollows:
Dim<object_name>AsFileStream=NewFileStream(<file_name>,<FileModeEnumerator>,<FileAccessEnumerato
Forexample,forcreatingaFileStreamobjectFforreadingafilenamedsample.txt:
Dimf1AsFileStream=NewFileStream("sample.txt",FileMode.OpenOrCreate,FileAccess.ReadWrite)
Parameter Description
FileMode
The FileMode enumerator defines various methods for opening files.

ThemembersoftheFileModeenumeratorare:
Append:Itopensanexistingfileandputscursorattheendof
file,orcreatesthefile,ifthefiledoesnotexist.
Create:Itcreatesanewfile.
CreateNew:Itspecifiestotheoperatingsystemthatitshould
createanewfile.
Open:Itopensanexistingfile.
OpenOrCreate: It specifies to the operating system that it

shouldopenafileifitexists,otherwiseitshouldcreateanew
file.
Truncate: It opens an existing file and truncates its size to

zerobytes.
FileAccess FileAccess enumerators have members: Read, ReadWrite and

Write.
FileShare FileShareenumeratorshavethefollowingmembers:
Inheritable: It allows a file handle to pass inheritance to the

childprocesses
None:Itdeclinessharingofthecurrentfile
Read:Itallowsopeningthefileforreading
ReadWrite:Itallowsopeningthefileforreadingandwriting
Write:Itallowsopeningthefileforwriting
Example:
ThefollowingprogramdemonstratesuseoftheFileStreamclass:
ImportsSystem.IO
ModulefileProg
SubMain()
Dimf1AsFileStream=NewFileStream("sample.txt",_
FileMode.OpenOrCreate,FileAccess.ReadWrite)
DimiAsInteger
Fori=0To20
f1.WriteByte(CByte(i))
Nexti
f1.Position=0
Fori=0To20
Console.Write("{0}",f1.ReadByte())
Nexti
f1.Close()
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
12345678910111213141516171819201
AdvancedFileOperationsinVB.Net
The preceding example provides simple file operations in VB.Net. However, to utilize the
immense powers of System.IO classes, you need to know the commonly used properties
andmethodsoftheseclasses.
We will discuss these classes and the operations they perform in the following sections.
Pleaseclickthelinksprovidedtogettotheindividualsections:
TopicandDescription
ReadingfromandWritingintoTextfiles
It involves reading from and writing into text files. The StreamReader and
StreamWriterclasseshelptoaccomplishit.
ReadingfromandWritingintoBinaryfiles
It involves reading from and writing into binary files. The BinaryReader and
BinaryWriterclasseshelptoaccomplishthis.
ManipulatingtheWindowsfilesystem
It gives a VB.Net programmer the ability to browse and locate Windows files and
directories.
VB.NetBasicControls
AnobjectisatypeofuserinterfaceelementyoucreateonaVisualBasicformbyusinga
toolboxcontrol.Infact,inVisualBasic,theformitselfisanobject.EveryVisualBasiccontrol
consistsofthreeimportantelements:
Propertieswhichdescribetheobject,
Methodscauseanobjecttodosomethingand
Eventsarewhathappenswhenanobjectdoessomething.
ControlProperties
AlltheVisualBasicObjectscanbemoved,resizedorcustomizedbysettingtheirproperties.
ApropertyisavalueorcharacteristicheldbyaVisualBasicobject,suchasCaptionorFore
Color.
PropertiescanbesetatdesigntimebyusingthePropertieswindoworatruntimebyusing
statementsintheprogramcode.
Object.Property=Value
Where
Objectisthenameoftheobjectyou'recustomizing.
Propertyisthecharacteristicyouwanttochange.
Valueisthenewpropertysetting.
Forexample,
Form1.Caption="Hello"
YoucansetanyoftheformpropertiesusingPropertiesWindow.Mostofthepropertiescan
besetorreadduringapplicationexecution.YoucanrefertoMicrosoftdocumentationfora
completelistofpropertiesassociatedwithdifferentcontrolsandrestrictionsappliedtothem.
ControlMethods
A method is a procedure created as a member of a class and they cause an object to do
something.Methodsareusedtoaccessormanipulatethecharacteristicsofanobjectora
variable.Therearemainlytwocategoriesofmethodsyouwilluseinyourclasses:
IfyouareusingacontrolsuchasoneofthoseprovidedbytheToolbox,youcancall
anyofitspublicmethods.Therequirementsofsuchamethoddependontheclass
beingused.
If none of the existing methods can perform your desired task, you can add a
methodtoaclass.
Forexample,theMessageBoxcontrolhasamethodnamedShow,whichiscalledinthecode
snippetbelow:
PublicClassForm1
PrivateSubButton1_Click(ByValsenderAsSystem.Object,ByValeAsSystem.EventArgs)
HandlesButton1.Click
MessageBox.Show("Hello,World")
EndSub
EndClass
ControlEvents
Aneventisasignalthatinformsanapplicationthatsomethingimportanthasoccurred.For
example,whenauserclicksacontrolonaform,theformcanraiseaClickeventandcalla
procedurethathandlestheevent.TherearevarioustypesofeventsassociatedwithaForm
likeclick,doubleclick,close,load,resize,etc.
FollowingisthedefaultstructureofaformLoadeventhandlersubroutine.Youcanseethis
code by double clicking the code which will give you a complete list of the all events
associatedwithFormcontrol:
PrivateSubForm1_Load(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)HandlesMyBase.Load
'eventhandlercodegoeshere
EndSub
Here, Handles MyBase.Load indicates that Form1_Load() subroutine handles Load

event.Similarway,youcancheckstubcodeforclick,doubleclick.Ifyouwanttoinitialize
some variables like properties, etc., then you will keep such code inside Form1_Load()
subroutine. Here, important point to note is the name of the event handler, which is by
defaultForm1_Load,butyoucanchangethisnamebasedonyournamingconventionyou
useinyourapplicationprogramming.
BasicControls
VB.Net provides a huge variety of controls that help you to create rich user interface.
Functionalitiesofallthesecontrolsaredefinedintherespectivecontrolclasses.Thecontrol
classesaredefinedintheSystem.Windows.Formsnamespace.
Thefollowingtablelistssomeofthecommonlyusedcontrols:
S.N. Widget&Description
1 Forms
Thecontainerforallthecontrolsthatmakeuptheuserinterface.
2 TextBox
ItrepresentsaWindowstextboxcontrol.
3 Label
ItrepresentsastandardWindowslabel.
4 Button
ItrepresentsaWindowsbuttoncontrol.
5 ListBox
ItrepresentsaWindowscontroltodisplayalistofitems.
6 ComboBox
ItrepresentsaWindowscomboboxcontrol.
7 RadioButton
It enables the user to select a single option from a group of choices when paired
withotherRadioButtoncontrols.
8 CheckBox
ItrepresentsaWindowsCheckBox.
9 PictureBox
ItrepresentsaWindowspictureboxcontrolfordisplayinganimage.
10 ProgressBar
ItrepresentsaWindowsprogressbarcontrol.
11 ScrollBar
ItImplementsthebasicfunctionalityofascrollbarcontrol.
12 DateTimePicker
ItrepresentsaWindowscontrolthatallowstheusertoselectadateandatimeand
todisplaythedateandtimewithaspecifiedformat.
13 TreeView
It displays a hierarchical collection of labeled items, each represented by a
TreeNode.
14 ListView
ItrepresentsaWindowslistviewcontrol,whichdisplaysacollectionofitemsthat
canbedisplayedusingoneoffourdifferentviews.
VB.NetDialogBoxes
There are many builtin dialog boxes to be used in Windows forms for various tasks like
openingandsavingfiles,printingapage,providingchoicesforcolors,fonts,pagesetup,etc.,
to the user of an application. These builtin dialog boxes reduce the developer's time and
workload.
All of these dialog box control classes inherit from the CommonDialog class and override
theRunDialog()functionofthebaseclasstocreatethespecificdialogbox.
The RunDialog() function is automatically invoked when a user of a dialog box calls its
ShowDialog()function.
TheShowDialogmethodisusedtodisplayallthedialogboxcontrolsatruntime.Itreturns
avalueofthetypeofDialogResultenumeration.ThevaluesofDialogResultenumeration
are:
AbortreturnsDialogResult.Abortvalue,whenuserclicksanAbortbutton.
CancelreturnsDialogResult.Cancel,whenuserclicksaCancelbutton.
IgnorereturnsDialogResult.Ignore,whenuserclicksanIgnorebutton.
NoreturnsDialogResult.No,whenuserclicksaNobutton.
Nonereturnsnothingandthedialogboxcontinuesrunning.
OKreturnsDialogResult.OK,whenuserclicksanOKbutton
RetryreturnsDialogResult.Retry,whenuserclicksanRetrybutton
YesreturnsDialogResult.Yes,whenuserclicksanYesbutton
Thefollowingdiagramshowsthecommondialogclassinheritance:
Alltheseabovementionedclasseshavecorrespondingcontrolsthatcouldbeaddedfromthe
Toolbox during design time. You can include relevant functionality of these classes to your
application,eitherbyinstantiatingtheclassprogrammaticallyorbyusingrelevantcontrols.
Whenyoudoubleclickanyofthedialogcontrolsinthetoolboxordragthecontrolontothe
form,itappearsintheComponenttrayatthebottomoftheWindowsFormsDesigner,they
donotdirectlyshowupontheform.
Thefollowingtableliststhecommonlyuseddialogboxcontrols.Clickthefollowinglinksto
checktheirdetail:
S.N. Control&Description
1 ColorDialog
Itrepresentsacommondialogboxthatdisplaysavailablecolorsalongwithcontrols
thatenabletheusertodefinecustomcolors.
2 FontDialog
It prompts the user to choose a font from among those installed on the local
computerandletstheuserselectthefont,fontsize,andcolor.
3 OpenFileDialog
Itpromptstheusertoopenafileandallowstheusertoselectafiletoopen.
4 SaveFileDialog
It prompts the user to select a location for saving a file and allows the user to
specifythenameofthefiletosavedata.
5 PrintDialog
It lets the user to print documents by selecting a printer and choosing which
sectionsofthedocumenttoprintfromaWindowsFormsapplication.
VB.NetAdvancedForm
Inthischapter,letusstudythefollowingconcepts:
Addingmenusandsubmenusinanapplication
Addingthecut,copyandpastefunctionalitiesinaform
Anchoringanddockingcontrolsinaform
Modalforms
AddingMenusandSubMenusinanApplication
Traditionally, the Menu, MainMenu, ContextMenu, and MenuItem classes were used for
addingmenus,submenusandcontextmenusinaWindowsapplication.
Now, the MenuStrip, the ToolStripMenuItem, ToolStripDropDown and

ToolStripDropDownMenu controls replace and add functionality to the Menurelated
controls of previous versions. However, the old control classes are retained for both
backwardcompatibilityandfutureuse.
Letuscreateatypicalwindowsmainmenubarandsubmenususingtheoldversioncontrols
firstsincethesecontrolsarestillmuchusedinoldapplications.
Followingisanexample,whichshowshowwecreateamenubarwithmenuitems:File,Edit,
ViewandProject.TheFilemenuhasthesubmenusNew,OpenandSave.
Let'sdoubleclickontheFormandputthefollowingcodeintheopenedwindow.
PublicClassForm1
'definingthemainmenubar
DimmnuBarAsNewMainMenu()
'definingthemenuitemsforthemainmenubar
DimmyMenuItemFileAsNewMenuItem("&File")
DimmyMenuItemEditAsNewMenuItem("&Edit")
DimmyMenuItemViewAsNewMenuItem("&View")
DimmyMenuItemProjectAsNewMenuItem("&Project")
'addingthemenuitemstothemainmenubar
mnuBar.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemFile)
mnuBar.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemEdit)
mnuBar.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemView)
mnuBar.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemProject)
'definingsomesubmenus
DimmyMenuItemNewAsNewMenuItem("&New")
DimmyMenuItemOpenAsNewMenuItem("&Open")
DimmyMenuItemSaveAsNewMenuItem("&Save")
'addsubmenustotheFilemenu
myMenuItemFile.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemNew)
myMenuItemFile.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemOpen)
myMenuItemFile.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItemSave)
'addthemainmenutotheform
Me.Menu=mnuBar

'Setthecaptionbartextoftheform.
Me.Text="tutorialspoint.com"
EndSub
EndClass
WhentheabovecodeisexecutedandrunusingStartbuttonavailableattheMicrosoftVisual
Studiotoolbar,itwillshowthefollowingwindow:
Windows Forms contain a rich set of classes for creating your own custom menus with
modern appearance, look and feel. The MenuStrip, ToolStripMenuItem,
ContextMenuStripcontrolsareusedtocreatemenubarsandcontextmenusefficiently.
Clickthefollowinglinkstochecktheirdetails:
S.N. Control&Description
1 MenuStrip
Itprovidesamenusystemforaform.
2 ToolStripMenuItem
ItrepresentsaselectableoptiondisplayedonaMenuStriporContextMenuStrip.
The ToolStripMenuItem control replaces and adds functionality to the MenuItem
controlofpreviousversions.
2 ContextMenuStrip
Itrepresentsashortcutmenu.
AddingtheCut,CopyandPasteFunctionalitiesinaForm
ThemethodsexposedbytheClipBoardclassareusedforaddingthecut,copyandpaste
functionalitiesinanapplication.TheClipBoardclassprovidesmethodstoplacedataonand
retrievedatafromthesystemClipboard.
Ithasthefollowingcommonlyusedmethods:
1 Clear
RemovesalldatafromtheClipboard.
2 ContainsData
IndicateswhetherthereisdataontheClipboardthatisinthespecifiedformatorcan
beconvertedtothatformat.
3 ContainsImage
IndicateswhetherthereisdataontheClipboardthatisintheBitmapformatorcan
beconvertedtothatformat.
4 ContainsText
IndicateswhetherthereisdataontheClipboardintheTextorUnicodeTextformat,
dependingontheoperatingsystem.
5 GetData
RetrievesdatafromtheClipboardinthespecifiedformat.
6 GetDataObject
RetrievesthedatathatiscurrentlyonthesystemClipboard.
7 GetImage
RetrievesanimagefromtheClipboard.
8 GetText
RetrievestextdatafromtheClipboardintheTextorUnicodeTextformat,depending
ontheoperatingsystem.
9 GetText(TextDataFormat)
Retrieves text data from the Clipboard in the format indicated by the specified
TextDataFormatvalue.
10 SetData
ClearstheClipboardandthenaddsdatainthespecifiedformat.
11 SetText(String)
Clears the Clipboard and then adds text data in the Text or UnicodeText format,
dependingontheoperatingsystem.
Followingisanexample,whichshowshowwecut,copyandpastedatausingmethodsofthe
Clipboardclass.Takethefollowingsteps:
Addarichtextboxcontrolandthreebuttoncontrolsontheform.
ChangethetextpropertyofthebuttonstoCut,CopyandPaste,respectively.
Doubleclickonthebuttonstoaddthefollowingcodeinthecodeeditor:
PublicClassForm1
PrivateSubForm1_Load(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlesMyBase.Load
EndSub
PrivateSubButton1_Click(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
Clipboard.SetDataObject(RichTextBox1.SelectedText)
RichTextBox1.SelectedText=""
EndSub
Clipboard.SetDataObject(RichTextBox1.SelectedText)
EndSub
DimiDataAsIDataObject
iData=Clipboard.GetDataObject()
If(iData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text))Then
RichTextBox1.SelectedText=iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text)
Else
RichTextBox1.SelectedText=""
EndIf
EndSub
EndClass
When the above code is executed and run using Start button available at the Microsoft
VisualStudiotoolbar,itwillshowthefollowingwindow:
Entersometextandcheckhowthebuttonswork.
AnchoringandDockingControlsinaForm
Anchoringallowsyoutosetananchorpositionforacontroltotheedgesofitscontainer
control,forexample,theform.TheAnchorpropertyoftheControlclassallowsyoutoset
valuesofthisproperty.TheAnchorpropertygetsorsetstheedgesofthecontainertowhich
acontrolisboundanddetermineshowacontrolisresizedwithitsparent.
Whenyouanchoracontroltoaform,thecontrolmaintainsitsdistancefromtheedgesof
theformanditsanchoredposition,whentheformisresized.
YoucansettheAnchorpropertyvaluesofacontrolfromthePropertieswindow:
Forexample,letusaddaButtoncontrolonaformandsetitsanchorpropertytoBottom,
Right. Run this form to see the original position of the Button control with respect to the
form.
Now, when you stretch the form, the distance between the Button and the bottom right
corneroftheformremainssame.
Dockingofacontrolmeansdockingittooneoftheedgesofitscontainer.Indocking,the
controlfillscertainareaofthecontainercompletely.
The Dock property of the Control class does this. The Dock property gets or sets which
controlbordersaredockedtoitsparentcontrolanddetermineshowacontrolisresizedwith
itsparent.
YoucansettheDockpropertyvaluesofacontrolfromthePropertieswindow:
Forexample,letusaddaButtoncontrolonaformandsetitsDockpropertytoBottom.Run
thisformtoseetheoriginalpositionoftheButtoncontrolwithrespecttotheform.
Now,whenyoustretchtheform,theButtonresizesitselfwiththeform.
ModalForms
Modal Forms are those forms that need to be closed or hidden before you can continue
workingwiththerestoftheapplication.Alldialogboxesaremodalforms.AMessageBoxis
alsoamodalform.
Youcancallamodalformbytwoways:
CallingtheShowDialogmethod
CallingtheShowmethod
Let us take up an example in which we will create a modal form, a dialog box. Take the
followingsteps:
Add a form, Form1 to your application, and add two labels and a button control to
Form1
Changethetextpropertiesofthefirstlabelandthebuttonto'WelcometoTutorials
Point' and 'Enter your Name', respectively. Keep the text properties of the second
labelasblank.
AddanewWindowsForm,Form2,andaddtwobuttons,onelabel,andatextboxto
Form2.
ChangethetextpropertiesofthebuttonstoOKandCancel,respectively.Changethe
textpropertiesofthelabelto'Enteryourname:'.
SettheFormBorderStylepropertyofForm2toFixedDialog,forgivingitadialogbox
border.
SettheControlBoxpropertyofForm2toFalse.
SettheShowInTaskbarpropertyofForm2toFalse.
Set the DialogResult property of the OK button to OK and the Cancel button to
Cancel.
AddthefollowingcodesnippetsintheForm2_LoadmethodofForm2:
HandlesMyBase.Load
AcceptButton=Button1
CancelButton=Button2
EndSub
AddthefollowingcodesnippetsintheButton1_ClickmethodofForm1:
DimfrmSecondAsForm2=NewForm2()
IffrmSecond.ShowDialog()=DialogResult.OKThen
Label2.Text=frmSecond.TextBox1.Text
EndIf
EndSub
Clickingonthe'EnteryourName'buttondisplaysthesecondform:
ClickingontheOKbuttontakesthecontrolandinformationbackfromthemodalformtothe
previousform:
VB.NetEventHandling
Eventsarebasicallyauseractionlikekeypress,clicks,mousemovements,etc.,orsome
occurrencelikesystemgeneratednotifications.Applicationsneedtorespondtoeventswhen
theyoccur.
Clickingonabutton,orenteringsometextinatextbox,orclickingonamenuitem,allare
examplesofevents.Aneventisanactionthatcallsafunctionormaycauseanotherevent.
Eventhandlersarefunctionsthattellhowtorespondtoanevent.
VB.Netisaneventdrivenlanguage.Therearemainlytwotypesofevents:
Mouseevents
Keyboardevents
HandlingMouseEvents
Mouseeventsoccurwithmousemovementsinformsandcontrols.Followingarethevarious
mouseeventsrelatedwithaControlclass:
MouseDownitoccurswhenamousebuttonispressed
MouseEnteritoccurswhenthemousepointerentersthecontrol
MouseHoveritoccurswhenthemousepointerhoversoverthecontrol
MouseLeaveitoccurswhenthemousepointerleavesthecontrol
MouseMoveitoccurswhenthemousepointermovesoverthecontrol
MouseUp it occurs when the mouse pointer is over the control and the mouse
buttonisreleased
MouseWheelitoccurswhenthemousewheelmovesandthecontrolhasfocus
The event handlers of the mouse events get an argument of type MouseEventArgs. The
MouseEventArgsobjectisusedforhandlingmouseevents.Ithasthefollowingproperties:
Buttonsindicatesthemousebuttonpressed
Clicksindicatesthenumberofclicks
Deltaindicatesthenumberofdetentsthemousewheelrotated
Xindicatesthexcoordinateofmouseclick
Yindicatestheycoordinateofmouseclick
Example
Following is an example, which shows how to handle mouse events. Take the following
steps:
Addthreelabels,threetextboxesandabuttoncontrolintheform.
Change the text properties of the labels to Customer ID, Name and Address,
respectively.
Change the name properties of the text boxes to txtID, txtName and txtAddress,
respectively.
Changethetextpropertyofthebuttonto'Submit'.
Addthefollowingcodeinthecodeeditorwindow:
PublicClassForm1
Me.Text="tutorialspont.com"
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtID_MouseEnter(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtID.MouseEnter
'codeforhandlingmouseenteronIDtextbox
txtID.BackColor=Color.CornflowerBlue
txtID.ForeColor=Color.White
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtID_MouseLeave(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtID.MouseLeave
'codeforhandlingmouseleaveonIDtextbox
txtID.BackColor=Color.White
txtID.ForeColor=Color.Blue
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtName_MouseEnter(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtName.MouseEnter
'codeforhandlingmouseenteronNametextbox
txtName.BackColor=Color.CornflowerBlue
txtName.ForeColor=Color.White
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtName_MouseLeave(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtName.MouseLeave
'codeforhandlingmouseleaveonNametextbox
txtName.BackColor=Color.White
txtName.ForeColor=Color.Blue
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtAddress_MouseEnter(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtAddress.MouseEnter
'codeforhandlingmouseenteronAddresstextbox
txtAddress.BackColor=Color.CornflowerBlue
txtAddress.ForeColor=Color.White
EndSub
PrivateSubtxtAddress_MouseLeave(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
HandlestxtAddress.MouseLeave
'codeforhandlingmouseleaveonAddresstextbox
txtAddress.BackColor=Color.White
txtAddress.ForeColor=Color.Blue
EndSub
MsgBox("Thankyou"&txtName.Text&",foryourkindcooperation")
EndSub
EndClass
Trytoentertextinthetextboxesandcheckthemouseevents:
HandlingKeyboardEvents
FollowingarethevariouskeyboardeventsrelatedwithaControlclass:
KeyDownoccurswhenakeyispresseddownandthecontrolhasfocus
KeyPressoccurswhenakeyispressedandthecontrolhasfocus
KeyUpoccurswhenakeyisreleasedwhilethecontrolhasfocus
The event handlers of the KeyDown and KeyUp events get an argument of type
KeyEventArgs.Thisobjecthasthefollowingproperties:
AltitindicateswhethertheALTkeyispressed/p>
ControlitindicateswhethertheCTRLkeyispressed
Handleditindicateswhethertheeventishandled
KeyCodestoresthekeyboardcodefortheevent
KeyDatastoresthekeyboarddatafortheevent
KeyValuestoresthekeyboardvaluefortheevent
Modifiersitindicateswhichmodifierkeys(Ctrl,Shift,and/orAlt)arepressed
ShiftitindicatesiftheShiftkeyispressed
The event handlers of the KeyDown and KeyUp events get an argument of type
KeyEventArgs.Thisobjecthasthefollowingproperties:
HandledindicatesiftheKeyPresseventishandled
KeyCharstoresthecharactercorrespondingtothekeypressed
Example
Letuscontinuewiththepreviousexampletoshowhowtohandlekeyboardevents.Thecode
willverifythattheuserenterssomenumbersforhiscustomerIDandage.
Add a label with text Property as 'Age' and add a corresponding text box named
txtAge.
AddthefollowingcodesforhandlingtheKeyUPeventsofthetextboxtxtID.
PrivateSubtxtID_KeyUP(senderAsObject,eAsKeyEventArgs)_
HandlestxtID.KeyUp
If(NotChar.IsNumber(ChrW(e.KeyCode)))Then
MessageBox.Show("EnternumbersforyourCustomerID")
txtID.Text=""
EndIf
EndSub
AddthefollowingcodesforhandlingtheKeyUPeventsofthetextboxtxtID.
PrivateSubtxtAge_KeyUP(senderAsObject,eAsKeyEventArgs)_
HandlestxtAge.KeyUp
If(NotChar.IsNumber(ChrW(e.keyCode)))Then
MessageBox.Show("Enternumbersforage")
txtAge.Text=""
EndIf
EndSub
If you leave the text for age or ID as blank or enter some nonnumeric data, it gives a
warningmessageboxandclearstherespectivetext:
VB.NetRegularExpressions
A regular expression is a pattern that could be matched against an input text. The .Net
framework provides a regular expression engine that allows such matching. A pattern
consistsofoneormorecharacterliterals,operators,orconstructs.
ConstructsforDefiningRegularExpressions
Therearevariouscategoriesofcharacters,operators,andconstructsthatletsyoutodefine
regularexpressions.Clickthefollwoinglinkstofindtheseconstructs.
Characterescapes
Characterclasses
Anchors
Groupingconstructs
Quantifiers
Backreferenceconstructs
Alternationconstructs
Substitutions
Miscellaneousconstructs
TheRegexClass
TheRegexclassisusedforrepresentingaregularexpression.
TheRegexclasshasthefollowingcommonlyusedmethods:
S.N Methods&Description
1 PublicFunctionIsMatch(inputAsString)AsBoolean
IndicateswhethertheregularexpressionspecifiedintheRegexconstructorfindsa
matchinaspecifiedinputstring.
2 PublicFunctionIsMatch(inputAsString,startatAsInteger)AsBoolean
IndicateswhethertheregularexpressionspecifiedintheRegexconstructorfindsa
matchinthespecifiedinputstring,beginningatthespecifiedstartingpositioninthe
string.
Public Shared Function IsMatch (input As String, pattern As String ) As

Boolean
Indicates whether the specified regular expression finds a match in the specified
inputstring.
4 PublicFunctionMatches(inputAsString)AsMatchCollection
Searchesthespecifiedinputstringforalloccurrencesofaregularexpression.
5 PublicFunctionReplace(inputAsString,replacementAsString)AsString
In a specified input string, replaces all strings that match a regular expression
patternwithaspecifiedreplacementstring.
6 PublicFunctionSplit(inputAsString)AsString()
Splitsaninputstringintoanarrayofsubstringsatthepositionsdefinedbyaregular
expressionpatternspecifiedintheRegexconstructor.
Forthecompletelistofmethodsandproperties,pleaseconsultMicrosoftdocumentation.
Example1
Thefollowingexamplematcheswordsthatstartwith'S':
ImportsSystem.Text.RegularExpressions
ModuleregexProg
SubshowMatch(ByValtextAsString,ByValexprAsString)
Console.WriteLine("TheExpression:"+expr)
DimmcAsMatchCollection=Regex.Matches(text,expr)
DimmAsMatch
ForEachmInmc
Console.WriteLine(m)
Nextm
EndSub
SubMain()
DimstrAsString="AThousandSplendidSuns"
Console.WriteLine("Matchingwordsthatstartwith'S':")
showMatch(str,"\bS\S*")
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Matchingwordsthatstartwith'S':
TheExpression:\bS\S*
Splendid
Suns
Example2
Thefollowingexamplematcheswordsthatstartwith'm'andendswith'e':
ModuleregexProg
SubshowMatch(ByValtextAsString,ByValexprAsString)
Console.WriteLine("TheExpression:"+expr)
DimmcAsMatchCollection=Regex.Matches(text,expr)
DimmAsMatch
ForEachmInmc
Console.WriteLine(m)
Nextm
EndSub
SubMain()
DimstrAsString="makeamazeandmanagetomeasureit"
Console.WriteLine("Matchingwordsthatstartwith'm'andendswith'e':")
showMatch(str,"\bm\S*e\b")
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
Matchingwordsstartwith'm'andendswith'e':
TheExpression:\bm\S*e\b
make
maze
manage
measure
Example3
Thisexamplereplacesextrawhitespace:
ModuleregexProg
SubMain()
DiminputAsString="HelloWorld"
DimpatternAsString="\\s+"
DimreplacementAsString=""
DimrgxAsRegex=NewRegex(pattern)
DimresultAsString=rgx.Replace(input,replacement)
Console.WriteLine("OriginalString:{0}",input)
Console.WriteLine("ReplacementString:{0}",result)
Console.ReadKey()
EndSub
EndModule
OriginalString:HelloWorld
ReplacementString:HelloWorld
VB.NetDatabaseAccess
Applications communicate with a database, firstly, to retrieve the data stored there and
present it in a userfriendly way, and secondly, to update the database by inserting,
modifyinganddeletingdata.
MicrosoftActiveXDataObjects.Net(ADO.Net)isamodel,apartofthe.Netframeworkthat
isusedbythe.Netapplicationsforretrieving,accessingandupdatingdata.
ADO.NetObjectModel
ADO.Net object model is nothing but the structured process flow through various
components.Theobjectmodelcanbepictoriallydescribedas:
Thedataresidinginadatastoreordatabaseisretrievedthroughthedataprovider.Various
componentsofthedataproviderretrievedatafortheapplicationandupdatedata.
Anapplicationaccessesdataeitherthroughadatasetoradatareader.
Datasetsstoredatainadisconnectedcacheandtheapplicationretrievesdatafrom
it.
Datareadersprovidedatatotheapplicationinareadonlyandforwardonlymode.
DataProvider
A data provider is used for connecting to a database, executing commands and retrieving
data,storingitinadataset,readingtheretrieveddataandupdatingthedatabase.
ThedataproviderinADO.Netconsistsofthefollowingfourobjects:
S.N Objects&Description
1 Connection
Thiscomponentisusedtosetupaconnectionwithadatasource.
2 Command
AcommandisaSQLstatementorastoredprocedureusedtoretrieve,insert,delete
ormodifydatainadatasource.
3 DataReader
Datareaderisusedtoretrievedatafromadatasourceinareadonlyandforward
onlymode.
4 DataAdapter
This is integral to the working of ADO.Net since data is transferred to and from a
databasethroughadataadapter.Itretrievesdatafromadatabaseintoadataset
andupdatesthedatabase.Whenchangesaremadetothedataset,thechangesin
thedatabaseareactuallydonebythedataadapter.
TherearefollowingdifferenttypesofdataprovidersincludedinADO.Net
The.NetFrameworkdataproviderforSQLServerprovidesaccesstoMicrosoftSQL
Server.
The .Net Framework data provider for OLE DB provides access to data sources
exposedbyusingOLEDB.
The .Net Framework data provider for ODBC provides access to data sources
exposedbyODBC.
The .Net Framework data provider for Oracle provides access to Oracle data
source.
TheEntityClientproviderenablesaccessingdatathroughEntityDataModel(EDM)
applications.
DataSet
DataSetisaninmemoryrepresentationofdata.Itisadisconnected,cachedsetofrecords
thatareretrievedfromadatabase.Whenaconnectionisestablishedwiththedatabase,the
dataadaptercreatesadatasetandstoresdatainit.Afterthedataisretrievedandstoredin
a dataset, the connection with the database is closed. This is called the 'disconnected
architecture'.Thedatasetworksasavirtualdatabasecontainingtables,rows,andcolumns.
Thefollowingdiagramshowsthedatasetobjectmodel:
TheDataSetclassispresentintheSystem.Datanamespace.Thefollowingtabledescribes
allthecomponentsofDataSet:
S.N Components&Description
1 DataTableCollection
Itcontainsallthetablesretrievedfromthedatasource.
2 DataRelationCollection
Itcontainsrelationshipsandthelinksbetweentablesinadataset.
3 ExtendedProperties
Itcontainsadditionalinformation,liketheSQLstatementforretrievingdata,timeof
retrieval,etc.
4 DataTable
It represents a table in the DataTableCollection of a dataset. It consists of the

DataRowandDataColumnobjects.TheDataTableobjectsarecasesensitive.
5 DataRelation
It represents a relationship in the DataRelationshipCollection of the dataset. It is

usedtorelatetwoDataTableobjectstoeachotherthroughtheDataColumnobjects.
6 DataRowCollection
ItcontainsalltherowsinaDataTable.
7 DataView
ItrepresentsafixedcustomizedviewofaDataTableforsorting,filtering,searching,
editingandnavigation.
8 PrimaryKey
ItrepresentsthecolumnthatuniquelyidentifiesarowinaDataTable.
9 DataRow
It represents a row in the DataTable. The DataRow object and its properties and
methods are used to retrieve, evaluate, insert, delete, and update values in the
DataTable.TheNewRowmethodisusedtocreateanewrowandtheAddmethod
addsarowtothetable.
10 DataColumnCollection
ItrepresentsallthecolumnsinaDataTable.
11 DataColumn
ItconsistsofthenumberofcolumnsthatcompriseaDataTable.
ConnectingtoaDatabase
The.NetFrameworkprovidestwotypesofConnectionclasses:
SqlConnectiondesignedforconnectingtoMicrosoftSQLServer.
OleDbConnection designed for connecting to a wide range of databases, like

MicrosoftAccessandOracle.
Example1
We have a table stored in Microsoft SQL Server, named Customers, in a database named
testDB. Please consult 'SQL Server' tutorial for creating databases and database tables in
SQLServer.
Letusconnecttothisdatabase.Takethefollowingsteps:
SelectTOOLS>ConnecttoDatabase
SelectaservernameandthedatabasenameintheAddConnectiondialogbox.
ClickontheTestConnectionbuttontocheckiftheconnectionsucceeded.
AddaDataGridViewontheform.
ClickontheChooseDataSourcecombobox.
ClickontheAddProjectDataSourcelink.
ThisopenstheDataSourceConfigurationWizard.
SelectDatabaseasthedatasourcetype
ChooseDataSetasthedatabasemodel.
Choosetheconnectionalreadysetup.
Savetheconnectionstring.
Choose the database object, Customers table in our example, and click the Finish
button.
SelectthePreviewDatalinktoseethedataintheResultsgrid:
WhentheapplicationisrunusingStartbuttonavailableattheMicrosoftVisualStudiotool
bar,itwillshowthefollowingwindow:
Example2
Inthisexample,letusaccessdatainaDataGridViewcontrolusingcode.Takethefollowing
steps:
AddaDataGridViewcontrolandabuttonintheform.
Changethetextofthebuttoncontrolto'Fill'.
Double click the button control to add the required code for the Click event of the
button,asshownbelow:
ImportsSystem.Data.SqlClient
PublicClassForm1
HandlesMyBase.Load
'TODO:Thislineofcodeloadsdataintothe'TestDBDataSet.CUSTOMERS'table.Youcanmove,orr
Me.CUSTOMERSTableAdapter.Fill(Me.TestDBDataSet.CUSTOMERS)
EndSub
PrivateSubButton1_Click(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)HandlesButton1.Click
DimconnectionAsSqlConnection=Newsqlconnection()
connection.ConnectionString="DataSource=KABIRDESKTOP;_
InitialCatalog=testDB;IntegratedSecurity=True"
connection.Open()
DimadpAsSqlDataAdapter=NewSqlDataAdapter_
("select*fromCustomers",connection)
DimdsAsDataSet=NewDataSet()
adp.Fill(ds)
DataGridView1.DataSource=ds.Tables(0)
EndSub
EndClass
ClickingtheFillbuttondisplaysthetableonthedatagridviewcontrol:
CreatingTable,ColumnsandRows
WehavediscussedthattheDataSetcomponentslikeDataTable,DataColumnandDataRow
allowustocreatetables,columnsandrows,respectively.
Thefollowingexampledemonstratestheconcept:
Example3
So far, we have used tables and databases already existing in our computer. In this
example, we will create a table, add columns, rows and data into it and display the table
usingaDataGridViewobject.
Takethefollowingsteps:
AddaDataGridViewcontrolandabuttonintheform.
Changethetextofthebuttoncontrolto'Fill'.
Addthefollowingcodeinthecodeeditor.
PublicClassForm1
Me.Text="tutorialspont.com"
EndSub
PrivateFunctionCreateDataSet()AsDataSet
'creatingaDataSetobjectfortables
DimdatasetAsDataSet=NewDataSet()
'creatingthestudenttable
DimStudentsAsDataTable=CreateStudentTable()
dataset.Tables.Add(Students)
Returndataset
EndFunction
PrivateFunctionCreateStudentTable()AsDataTable
DimStudentsAsDataTable
Students=NewDataTable("Student")
'addingcolumns
AddNewColumn(Students,"System.Int32","StudentID")
AddNewColumn(Students,"System.String","StudentName")
AddNewColumn(Students,"System.String","StudentCity")
'addingrows
AddNewRow(Students,1,"ZaraAli","Kolkata")
AddNewRow(Students,2,"ShreyaSharma","Delhi")
AddNewRow(Students,3,"RiniMukherjee","Hyderabad")
AddNewRow(Students,4,"SunilDubey","Bikaner")
AddNewRow(Students,5,"RajatMishra","Patna")
ReturnStudents
EndFunction
PrivateSubAddNewColumn(ByReftableAsDataTable,_
ByValcolumnTypeAsString,ByValcolumnNameAsString)
DimcolumnAsDataColumn=_
table.Columns.Add(columnName,Type.GetType(columnType))
EndSub
'addingdataintothetable
PrivateSubAddNewRow(ByReftableAsDataTable,ByRefidAsInteger,_
ByRefnameAsString,ByRefcityAsString)
DimnewrowAsDataRow=table.NewRow()
newrow("StudentID")=id
newrow("StudentName")=name
newrow("StudentCity")=city
table.Rows.Add(newrow)
EndSub
DimdsAsNewDataSet
ds=CreateDataSet()
DataGridView1.DataSource=ds.Tables("Student")
EndSub
EndClass
ClickingtheFillbuttondisplaysthetableonthedatagridviewcontrol:
VB.NetExcelSheet
VB.Net provides support for interoperability between the COM object model of Microsoft
Excel2010andyourapplication.
To avail this interoperability in your application, you need to import the namespace
Microsoft.Office.Interop.ExcelinyourWindowsFormApplication.
CreatinganExcelApplicationfromVB.Net
Let's start with creating a Window Forms Application by following the following steps in
MicrosoftVisualStudio:File>NewProject>WindowsFormsApplications
Finally,selectOK,MicrosoftVisualStudiocreatesyourprojectanddisplaysfollowingForm1.
InsertaButtoncontrolButton1intheform.
AddareferencetoMicrosoftExcelObjectLibrarytoyourproject.Todothis:
SelectAddReferencefromtheProjectMenu.
OntheCOMtab,locateMicrosoftExcelObjectLibraryandthenclickSelect.
ClickOK.
DoubleclickthecodewindowandpopulatetheClickeventofButton1,asshownbelow.
'AddthefollowingcodesnippetontopofForm1.vb
ImportsExcel=Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
PublicClassForm1
DimappXLAsExcel.Application
DimwbXlAsExcel.Workbook
DimshXLAsExcel.Worksheet
DimraXLAsExcel.Range
'StartExcelandgetApplicationobject.
appXL=CreateObject("Excel.Application")
appXL.Visible=True
'Addanewworkbook.
wbXl=appXL.Workbooks.Add
shXL=wbXl.ActiveSheet
'Addtableheadersgoingcellbycell.
shXL.Cells(1,1).Value="FirstName"
shXL.Cells(1,2).Value="LastName"
shXL.Cells(1,3).Value="FullName"
shXL.Cells(1,4).Value="Specialization"
'FormatA1:D1asbold,verticalalignment=center.
WithshXL.Range("A1","D1")
.Font.Bold=True
.VerticalAlignment=Excel.XlVAlign.xlVAlignCenter
EndWith
'Createanarraytosetmultiplevaluesatonce.
Dimstudents(5,2)AsString
students(0,0)="Zara"
students(0,1)="Ali"
students(1,0)="Nuha"
students(1,1)="Ali"
students(2,0)="Arilia"
students(2,1)="RamKumar"
students(3,0)="Rita"
students(3,1)="Jones"
students(4,0)="Umme"
students(4,1)="Ayman"
'FillA2:B6withanarrayofvalues(FirstandLastNames).
shXL.Range("A2","B6").Value=students
'FillC2:C6witharelativeformula(=A2&""&B2).
raXL=shXL.Range("C2","C6")
raXL.Formula="=A2&""""&B2"
'FillD2:D6values.
WithshXL
.Cells(2,4).Value="Biology"
.Cells(3,4).Value="Mathmematics"
.Cells(4,4).Value="Physics"
.Cells(5,4).Value="Mathmematics"
.Cells(6,4).Value="Arabic"
EndWith
'AutoFitcolumnsA:D.
raXL=shXL.Range("A1","D1")
raXL.EntireColumn.AutoFit()
'MakesureExcelisvisibleandgivetheusercontrol
'ofExcel'slifetime.
appXL.Visible=True
appXL.UserControl=True
'Releaseobjectreferences.
raXL=Nothing
shXL=Nothing
wbXl=Nothing
appXL.Quit()
appXL=Nothing
ExitSub
Err_Handler:
MsgBox(Err.Description,vbCritical,"Error:"&Err.Number)
EndSub
EndClass
ClickingontheButtonwoulddisplaythefollowingexcelsheet.Youwillbeaskedtosavethe
workbook.
VB.NetSendEmail
VB.Net allows sending emails from your application. The System.Net.Mail namespace
containsclassesusedforsendingemailstoaSimpleMailTransferProtocol(SMTP)server
fordelivery.
Thefollowingtablelistssomeofthesecommonlyusedclasses:
S.N Class Description
1 Attachment Representsanattachmenttoanemail.
2 AttachmentCollection Storesattachmentstobesentaspartofanemailmessage.
3 MailAddress Representstheaddressofanelectronicmailsenderor
recipient.
4 MailAddressCollection Storesemailaddressesthatareassociatedwithanemail
message.
5 MailMessage Representsanemailmessagethatcanbesentusingthe
SmtpClientclass.
6 SmtpClient AllowsapplicationstosendemailbyusingtheSimpleMail
TransferProtocol(SMTP).
7 SmtpException RepresentstheexceptionthatisthrownwhentheSmtpClient
isnotabletocompleteaSendorSendAsyncoperation.
TheSmtpClientClass
The SmtpClient class allows applications to send email by using the Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol(SMTP).
FollowingaresomecommonlyusedpropertiesoftheSmtpClientclass:
1 ClientCertificates Specifieswhichcertificatesshouldbeusedtoestablishthe
SecureSocketsLayer(SSL)connection.
2 Credentials Getsorsetsthecredentialsusedtoauthenticatethesender.
3 EnableSsl SpecifieswhethertheSmtpClientusesSecureSocketsLayer
(SSL)toencrypttheconnection.
4 Host GetsorsetsthenameorIPaddressofthehostusedforSMTP
transactions.
5 Port GetsorsetstheportusedforSMTPtransactions.
6 Timeout Getsorsetsavaluethatspecifiestheamountoftimeafter
whichasynchronousSendcalltimesout.
7 UseDefaultCredentials GetsorsetsaBooleanvaluethatcontrolswhetherthe
DefaultCredentialsaresentwithrequests.
FollowingaresomecommonlyusedmethodsoftheSmtpClientclass:
S.N Method&Description
1 Dispose
SendsaQUITmessagetotheSMTPserver,gracefullyendstheTCPconnection,and
releasesallresourcesusedbythecurrentinstanceoftheSmtpClientclass.
2 Dispose(Boolean)
Sends a QUIT message to the SMTP server, gracefully ends the TCP connection,
releases all resources used by the current instance of the SmtpClient class, and
optionallydisposesofthemanagedresources.
3 OnSendCompleted
RaisestheSendCompletedevent.
4 Send(MailMessage)
SendsthespecifiedmessagetoanSMTPserverfordelivery.
5 Send(String,String,String,String)
Sends the specified email message to an SMTP server for delivery. The message
sender,recipients,subject,andmessagebodyarespecifiedusingStringobjects.
6 SendAsync(MailMessage,Object)
Sends the specified email message to an SMTP server for delivery. This method
does not block the calling thread and allows the caller to pass an object to the
methodthatisinvokedwhentheoperationcompletes.
7 SendAsync(String,String,String,String,Object)
Sends an email message to an SMTP server for delivery. The message sender,
recipients, subject, and message body are specified using String objects. This
methoddoesnotblockthecallingthreadandallowsthecallertopassanobjectto
themethodthatisinvokedwhentheoperationcompletes.
8 SendAsyncCancel
Cancelsanasynchronousoperationtosendanemailmessage.
9 SendMailAsync(MailMessage)
Sends the specified message to an SMTP server for delivery as an asynchronous

operation.
10 SendMailAsync(String,String,String,String)
Sends the specified message to an SMTP server for delivery as an asynchronous

operation. . The message sender, recipients, subject, and message body are
specifiedusingStringobjects.
11 ToString
Returnsastringthatrepresentsthecurrentobject.
ThefollowingexampledemonstrateshowtosendmailusingtheSmtpClientclass.Following
pointsaretobenotedinthisrespect:
YoumustspecifytheSMTPhostserverthatyouusetosendemail.TheHost and
Port properties will be different for different host server. We will be using gmail
server.
YouneedtogivetheCredentialsforauthentication,ifrequiredbytheSMTPserver.
Youshouldalsoprovidetheemailaddressofthesenderandtheemailaddressor
addresses of the recipients using the MailMessage.From and MailMessage.To
properties,respectively.
You should also specify the message content using the MailMessage.Body
property.
Example
In this example, let us create a simple application that would send an email. Take the
followingsteps:
Addthreelabels,threetextboxesandabuttoncontrolintheform.
Change the text properties of the labels to 'From', 'To:' and 'Message:'
respectively.
Change the name properties of the texts to txtFrom, txtTo and txtMessage
respectively.
Changethetextpropertyofthebuttoncontrolto'Send'
ImportsSystem.Net.Mail
PublicClassForm1
EndSub
Try
DimSmtp_ServerAsNewSmtpClient
Dime_mailAsNewMailMessage()
Smtp_Server.UseDefaultCredentials=False
Smtp_Server.Credentials=NewNet.NetworkCredential("username@gmail.com","password")
Smtp_Server.Port=587
Smtp_Server.EnableSsl=True
Smtp_Server.Host="smtp.gmail.com"
e_mail=NewMailMessage()
e_mail.From=NewMailAddress(txtFrom.Text)
e_mail.To.Add(txtTo.Text)
e_mail.Subject="EmailSending"
e_mail.IsBodyHtml=False
e_mail.Body=txtMessage.Text
Smtp_Server.Send(e_mail)
MsgBox("MailSent")
Catcherror_tAsException
MsgBox(error_t.ToString)
EndTry
EndSub
Youmustprovideyourgmailaddressandrealpasswordforcredentials.
VisualStudiotoolbar,itwillshowthefollowingwindow,whichyouwillusetosendyoure
mails,tryityourself.
VB.NetXMLProcessing
TheExtensibleMarkupLanguage(XML)isamarkuplanguagemuchlikeHTMLorSGML.This
isrecommendedbytheWorldWideWebConsortiumandavailableasanopenstandard.
The System.Xml namespace in the .Net Framework contains classes for processing XML
documents. Following are some of the commonly used classes in the System.Xml
namespace.
<td>XmlUrlResolver
S.N Class Description
1 XmlAttribute Representsanattribute.Validanddefaultvaluesforthe
attributearedefinedinadocumenttypedefinition(DTD)
orschema.
2 XmlCDataSection RepresentsaCDATAsection.
3 XmlCharacterData Providestextmanipulationmethodsthatareusedby
severalclasses.
4 XmlComment RepresentsthecontentofanXMLcomment.
5 XmlConvert EncodesanddecodesXMLnamesandprovidesmethods
forconvertingbetweencommonlanguageruntimetypes
andXMLSchemadefinitionlanguage(XSD)types.When
convertingdatatypes,thevaluesreturnedarelocale
independent.
6 XmlDeclaration RepresentstheXMLdeclarationnode<?xml
version='1.0'...?>.
7 XmlDictionary ImplementsadictionaryusedtooptimizeWindows
CommunicationFoundation(WCF)'sXMLreader/writer
implementations.
8 XmlDictionaryReader AnabstractclassthattheWindowsCommunication
Foundation(WCF)derivesfromXmlReadertodo
serializationanddeserialization.
9 XmlDictionaryWriter RepresentsanabstractclassthatWindowsCommunication
Foundation(WCF)derivesfromXmlWritertodo
serializationanddeserialization.
10 XmlDocument RepresentsanXMLdocument.
11 XmlDocumentFragment Representsalightweightobjectthatisusefulfortree
insertoperations.
12 XmlDocumentType Representsthedocumenttypedeclaration.
13 XmlElement Representsanelement.
14 XmlEntity Representsanentitydeclaration,suchas<!ENTITY...>.
15 XmlEntityReference Representsanentityreferencenode.
16 XmlException Returnsdetailedinformationaboutthelastexception.
17 XmlImplementation DefinesthecontextforasetofXmlDocumentobjects.
18 XmlLinkedNode Getsthenodeimmediatelyprecedingorfollowingthis
node.
19 XmlNode RepresentsasinglenodeintheXMLdocument.
20 XmlNodeList Representsanorderedcollectionofnodes.
21 XmlNodeReader Representsareaderthatprovidesfast,noncached
forwardonlyaccesstoXMLdatainanXmlNode.
22 XmlNotation Representsanotationdeclaration,suchas<!NOTATION...
>.
23 XmlParserContext Providesallthecontextinformationrequiredbythe
XmlReadertoparseanXMLfragment.
24 XmlProcessingInstruction Representsaprocessinginstruction,whichXMLdefinesto
keepprocessorspecificinformationinthetextofthe
document.
25 XmlQualifiedName RepresentsanXMLqualifiedname.
26 XmlReader Representsareaderthatprovidesfast,noncached,
forwardonlyaccesstoXMLdata.
27 XmlReaderSettings SpecifiesasetoffeaturestosupportontheXmlReader
objectcreatedbytheCreatemethod.
28 XmlResolver ResolvesexternalXMLresourcesnamedbyaUniform
ResourceIdentifier(URI).
29 XmlSecureResolver HelpstosecureanotherimplementationofXmlResolverby
wrappingtheXmlResolverobjectandrestrictingthe
resourcesthattheunderlyingXmlResolverhasaccessto.
30 XmlSignificantWhitespace Representswhitespacebetweenmarkupinamixed
contentnodeorwhitespacewithinanxml:space=
'preserve'scope.Thisisalsoreferredtoassignificant
whitespace.
31 XmlText Representsthetextcontentofanelementorattribute.
32 XmlTextReader Representsareaderthatprovidesfast,noncached,
forwardonlyaccesstoXMLdata.
33 XmlTextWriter Representsawriterthatprovidesafast,noncached,
forwardonlywayofgeneratingstreamsorfilescontaining
XMLdatathatconformstotheW3CExtensibleMarkup
Language(XML)1.0andtheNamespacesinXML
recommendations.
34 ResolvesexternalXML
resourcesnamedbya
UniformResourceIdentifier
(URI).
35 XmlWhitespace Representswhitespaceinelementcontent.
36 XmlWriter Representsawriterthatprovidesafast,noncached,
forwardonlymeansofgeneratingstreamsorfiles
containingXMLdata.
37 XmlWriterSettings SpecifiesasetoffeaturestosupportontheXmlWriter
objectcreatedbytheXmlWriter.Createmethod.
XMLParserAPIs
ThetwomostbasicandbroadlyusedAPIstoXMLdataaretheSAXandDOMinterfaces.
SimpleAPIforXML(SAX):Here,youregistercallbacksforeventsofinterestand
then let the parser proceed through the document. This is useful when your
documentsarelargeoryouhavememorylimitations,itparsesthefileasitreadsit
fromdisk,andtheentirefileisneverstoredinmemory.
Document Object Model (DOM) API : This is World Wide Web Consortium
recommendation wherein the entire file is read into memory and stored in a
hierarchical(treebased)formtorepresentallthefeaturesofanXMLdocument.
SAXobviouslycan'tprocessinformationasfastasDOMcanwhenworkingwithlargefiles.
Ontheotherhand,usingDOMexclusivelycanreallykillyourresources,especiallyifusedon
alotofsmallfiles.
SAXisreadonly,whileDOMallowschangestotheXMLfile.SincethesetwodifferentAPIs
literally complement each other there is no reason why you can't use them both for large
projects.
ForallourXMLcodeexamples,let'suseasimpleXMLfilemovies.xmlasaninput:
<?xmlversion="1.0"?>
<collectionshelf="NewArrivals">
<movietitle="EnemyBehind">
<type>War,Thriller</type>
<format>DVD</format>
<year>2003</year>
<rating>PG</rating>
<stars>10</stars>
<description>TalkaboutaUSJapanwar</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Transformers">
<type>Anime,ScienceFiction</type>
<year>1989</year>
<rating>R</rating>
<stars>8</stars>
<description>Aschientificfiction</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Trigun">
<type>Anime,Action</type>
<episodes>4</episodes>
<rating>PG</rating>
<stars>10</stars>
<description>VashtheStampede!</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Ishtar">
<type>Comedy</type>
<format>VHS</format>
<rating>PG</rating>
<stars>2</stars>
<description>Viewableboredom</description>
</movie>
</collection>
ParsingXMLwithSAXAPI
InSAXmodel,youusetheXmlReaderandXmlWriterclassestoworkwiththeXMLdata.
The XmlReader class is used to read XML data in a fast, forwardonly and noncached
manner.ItreadsanXMLdocumentorastream.
Example1
ThisexampledemonstratesreadingXMLdatafromthefilemovies.xml.
Addthemovies.xmlfileinthebin\Debugfolderofyourapplication.
ImporttheSystem.XmlnamespaceinForm1.vbfile.
Addalabelintheformandchangeitstextto'MoviesGalore'.
Add three list boxes and three buttons to show the title, type and description of a
moviefromthexmlfile.
Addthefollowingcodeusingthecodeeditorwindow.
ImportsSystem.Xml
PublicClassForm1
EndSub
ListBox1().Items.Clear()
DimxrAsXmlReader=XmlReader.Create("movies.xml")
DoWhilexr.Read()
Ifxr.NodeType=XmlNodeType.ElementAndAlsoxr.Name="movie"Then
ListBox1.Items.Add(xr.GetAttribute(0))
EndIf
Loop
EndSub
DoWhilexr.Read()
Ifxr.NodeType=XmlNodeType.ElementAndAlsoxr.Name="type"Then
ListBox2.Items.Add(xr.ReadElementString)
Else
xr.Read()
EndIf
Loop
EndSub
DoWhilexr.Read()
Ifxr.NodeType=XmlNodeType.ElementAndAlsoxr.Name="description"Then
ListBox3.Items.Add(xr.ReadElementString)
Else
xr.Read()
EndIf
Loop
EndSub
EndClass
ExecuteandruntheabovecodeusingStartbuttonavailableattheMicrosoftVisualStudio
toolbar.Clickingonthebuttonswoulddisplay,title,typeanddescriptionofthemoviesfrom
thefile.
TheXmlWriterclassisusedtowriteXMLdataintoastream,afileoraTextWriterobject.It
alsoworksinaforwardonly,noncachedmanner.
Example2
LetuscreateanXMLfilebyaddingsomedataatruntime.Takethefollowingsteps:
AddaWebBrowsercontrolandabuttoncontrolintheform.
ChangetheTextpropertyofthebuttontoShowAuthorsFile.
ImportsSystem.Xml
PublicClassForm1
EndSub
DimxwsAsXmlWriterSettings=NewXmlWriterSettings()
xws.Indent=True
xws.NewLineOnAttributes=True
DimxwAsXmlWriter=XmlWriter.Create("authors.xml",xws)
xw.WriteStartDocument()
xw.WriteStartElement("Authors")
xw.WriteStartElement("author")
xw.WriteAttributeString("code","1")
xw.WriteElementString("fname","Zara")
xw.WriteElementString("lname","Ali")
xw.WriteEndElement()
xw.WriteElementString("fname","Priya")
xw.WriteElementString("lname","Sharma")
xw.WriteElementString("fname","Anshuman")
xw.WriteElementString("lname","Mohan")
xw.WriteElementString("fname","Bibhuti")
xw.WriteElementString("lname","Banerjee")
xw.WriteElementString("fname","Riyan")
xw.WriteElementString("lname","Sengupta")
xw.WriteEndDocument()
xw.Flush()
xw.Close()
WebBrowser1.Url=NewUri(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory+"authors.xml")
EndSub
EndClass
toolbar.ClickingontheShowAuthorFilewoulddisplaythenewlycreatedauthors.xmlfileon
thewebbrowser.
ParsingXMLwithDOMAPI
According to the Document Object Model (DOM), an XML document consists of nodes and
attributesofthenodes.TheXmlDocumentclassisusedtoimplementtheXMLDOMparser
ofthe.NetFramework.ItalsoallowsyoutomodifyanexistingXMLdocumentbyinserting,
deletingorupdatingdatainthedocument.
FollowingaresomeofthecommonlyusedmethodsoftheXmlDocumentclass:
1 AppendChild
Addsthespecifiednodetotheendofthelistofchildnodes,ofthisnode.
2 CreateAttribute(String)
CreatesanXmlAttributewiththespecifiedName.
3 CreateComment
CreatesanXmlCommentcontainingthespecifieddata.
4 CreateDefaultAttribute
Createsadefaultattributewiththespecifiedprefix,localnameandnamespaceURI.
5 CreateElement(String)
Createsanelementwiththespecifiedname.
6 CreateNode(String,String,String)
CreatesanXmlNodewiththespecifiednodetype,Name,andNamespaceURI.
7 CreateNode(XmlNodeType,String,String)
CreatesanXmlNodewiththespecifiedXmlNodeType,Name,andNamespaceURI.
8 CreateNode(XmlNodeType,String,String,String)
Creates a XmlNode with the specified XmlNodeType, Prefix, Name, and

NamespaceURI.
9 CreateProcessingInstruction
CreatesanXmlProcessingInstructionwiththespecifiednameanddata.
10 CreateSignificantWhitespace
CreatesanXmlSignificantWhitespacenode.
11 CreateTextNode
CreatesanXmlTextwiththespecifiedtext.
12 CreateWhitespace
CreatesanXmlWhitespacenode.
13 CreateXmlDeclaration
CreatesanXmlDeclarationnodewiththespecifiedvalues.
14 GetElementById
GetstheXmlElementwiththespecifiedID.
15 GetElementsByTagName(String)
ReturnsanXmlNodeListcontainingalistofalldescendantelementsthatmatchthe
specifiedName.
16 GetElementsByTagName(String,String)
ReturnsanXmlNodeListcontainingalistofalldescendantelementsthatmatchthe
specifiedLocalNameandNamespaceURI.
17 InsertAfter
Insertsthespecifiednodeimmediatelyafterthespecifiedreferencenode.
18 InsertBefore
Insertsthespecifiednodeimmediatelybeforethespecifiedreferencenode.
19 Load(Stream)
LoadstheXMLdocumentfromthespecifiedstream.
20 Load(String)
LoadstheXMLdocumentfromthespecifiedURL.
21 Load(TextReader)
LoadstheXMLdocumentfromthespecifiedTextReader.
22 Load(XmlReader)
LoadstheXMLdocumentfromthespecifiedXmlReader.
23 LoadXml
LoadstheXMLdocumentfromthespecifiedstring.
24
PrependChild
Addsthespecifiednodetothebeginningofthelistofchildnodesforthisnode.
25 ReadNode
CreatesanXmlNodeobjectbasedontheinformationintheXmlReader.Thereader
mustbepositionedonanodeorattribute.
26 RemoveAll
Removesallthechildnodesand/orattributesofthecurrentnode.
27 RemoveChild
Removesspecifiedchildnode.
28 ReplaceChild
ReplacesthechildnodeoldChildwithnewChildnode.
29 Save(Stream)
SavestheXMLdocumenttothespecifiedstream.
30 Save(String)
SavestheXMLdocumenttothespecifiedfile.
31 Save(TextWriter)
SavestheXMLdocumenttothespecifiedTextWriter.
32 Save(XmlWriter)
SavestheXMLdocumenttothespecifiedXmlWriter.
Example3
In this example, let us insert some new nodes in the xml document authors.xml and then
showalltheauthors'firstnamesinalistbox.
Add the authors.xml file in the bin/Debug folder of your application( it should be
thereifyouhavetriedthelastexample)
ImporttheSystem.Xmlnamespace
Addalistboxandabuttoncontrolintheformandsetthetextpropertyofthebutton
controltoShowAuthors.
Addthefollowingcodeusingthecodeeditor.
ImportsSystem.Xml
PublicClassForm1
EndSub
ListBox1.Items.Clear()
DimxdAsXmlDocument=NewXmlDocument()
xd.Load("authors.xml")
DimnewAuthorAsXmlElement=xd.CreateElement("author")
newAuthor.SetAttribute("code","6")
DimfnAsXmlElement=xd.CreateElement("fname")
fn.InnerText="Bikram"
newAuthor.AppendChild(fn)
DimlnAsXmlElement=xd.CreateElement("lname")
ln.InnerText="Seth"
newAuthor.AppendChild(ln)
xd.DocumentElement.AppendChild(newAuthor)
DimtrAsXmlTextWriter=NewXmlTextWriter("movies.xml",Nothing)
tr.Formatting=Formatting.Indented
xd.WriteContentTo(tr)
tr.Close()
DimnlAsXmlNodeList=xd.GetElementsByTagName("fname")
ForEachnodeAsXmlNodeInnl
ListBox1.Items.Add(node.InnerText)
Nextnode
EndSub
EndClass
toolbar.ClickingontheShowAuthorbuttonwoulddisplaythefirstnamesofalltheauthors
includingtheonewehaveaddedatruntime.
VB.NetWebProgramming
Adynamicwebapplicationconsistsofeitherorbothofthefollowingtwotypesofprograms:
Serverside scripting these are programs executed on a web server, written

using serverside scripting languages like ASP (Active Server Pages) or JSP (Java
ServerPages).
Clientsidescriptingtheseareprogramsexecutedonthebrowser,writtenusing
scriptinglanguageslikeJavaScript,VBScript,etc.
ASP.Netisthe.NetversionofASP,introducedbyMicrosoft,forcreatingdynamicwebpages
by using serverside scripts. ASP.Net applications are compiled codes written using the
extensibleandreusablecomponentsorobjectspresentin.Netframework.Thesecodescan
usetheentirehierarchyofclassesin.Netframework.
TheASP.Netapplicationcodescouldbewrittenineitherofthefollowinglanguages:
VisualBasic.Net
C#
Jscript
J#
In this chapter, we will give a very brief introduction to writing ASP.Net applications using
VB.Net.Fordetaileddiscussion,pleaseconsulttheASP.NetTutorial.
ASP.NetBuiltinObjects
ASP.Net has some builtin objects that run on a web server. These objects have methods,
propertiesandcollectionsthatareusedinapplicationdevelopment.
ThefollowingtableliststheASP.Netbuiltinobjectswithabriefdescription:
Object Description
Application Describes the methods, properties, and collections of the object that
stores information related to the entire Web application, including
variablesandobjectsthatexistforthelifetimeoftheapplication.
You use this object to store and retrieve information to be shared

among all users of an application. For example, you can use an
Applicationobjecttocreateanecommercepage.
Request Describes the methods, properties, and collections of the object that
stores information related to the HTTP request. This includes forms,
cookies,servervariables,andcertificatedata.
Youusethisobjecttoaccesstheinformationsentinarequestfroma
browser to the server. For example, you can use a Request object to
accessinformationenteredbyauserinanHTMLform.
Response Describes the methods, properties, and collections of the object that
stores information related to the server's response. This includes
displaying content, manipulating headers, setting locales, and
redirectingrequests.
You use this object to send information to the browser. For example,
you use a Response object to send output from your scripts to a
browser.
Server Describes the methods and properties of the object that provides
methodsforvariousservertasks.Withthesemethodsyoucanexecute
code, get error conditions, encode text strings, create objects for use
bytheWebpage,andmapphysicalpaths.
Youusethisobjecttoaccessvariousutilityfunctionsontheserver.For
example,youmayusetheServerobjecttosetatimeoutforascript.
Session
Describes the methods, properties, and collections of the object that

storesinformationrelatedtotheuser'ssession,includingvariablesand
objectsthatexistforthelifetimeofthesession.
You use this object to store and retrieve information about particular
user sessions. For example, you can use Session object to keep
information about the user and his preference and keep track of
pendingoperations.
ASP.NetProgrammingModel
ASP.Netprovidestwotypesofprogrammingmodels:
WebFormsthisenablesyoutocreatetheuserinterfaceandtheapplicationlogic
thatwouldbeappliedtovariouscomponentsoftheuserinterface.
WCFServicesthisenablesyoutoremoteaccesssomeserversidefunctionalities.
For this chapter, you need to use Visual Studio Web Developer, which is free. The IDE is
almostsameasyouhavealreadyusedforcreatingtheWindowsApplications.
WebForms
Webformsconsistsof:
Userinterface
Applicationlogic
UserinterfaceconsistsofstaticHTMLorXMLelementsandASP.Netservercontrols.When
youcreateawebapplication,HTMLorXMLelementsandservercontrolsarestoredinafile
with.aspxextension.Thisfileisalsocalledthepagefile.
Theapplicationlogicconsistsofcodeappliedtotheuserinterfaceelementsinthepage.You
writethiscodeinanyof.Netlanguagelike,VB.Net,orC#.
ThefollowingfigureshowsaWebForminDesignview:
Example
Let us create a new web site with a web form, which will show the current date and time,
whenauserclicksabutton.Takethefollowingsteps:
SelectFile>New>WebSite.TheNewWebSiteDialogBoxappears.
Select the ASP.Net Empty Web Site templates. Type a name for the web site and
selectalocationforsavingthefiles.
You need to add a Default page to the site. Right click the web site name in the
SolutionExplorerandselectAddNewItemoptionfromthecontextmenu.TheAdd
NewItemdialogboxisdisplayed:
SelectWebFormoptionandprovideanameforthedefaultpage.Wehavekeptitas
Default.aspx.ClicktheAddbutton.
TheDefaultpageisshowninSourceview
SetthetitlefortheDefaultwebpagebyaddingavaluetothe
Toaddcontrolsonthewebpage,gotothedesignview.Addthreelabels,atextbox
andabuttonontheform.
DoubleclickthebuttonandaddthefollowingcodetotheClickeventofthebutton:
ProtectedSubButton1_Click(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
Label2.Visible=True
Label2.Text="WelcometoTutorialsPoint:"+TextBox1.Text
Label3.Text="Youvisitedusat:"+DateTime.Now.ToString()
EndSub
Studiotoolbar,thefollowingpageopensinthebrowser:
EnteryournameandclickontheSubmitbutton:
WebServices
Awebserviceisawebapplication,whichisbasicallyaclassconsistingofmethodsthatcould
beusedbyotherapplications.ItalsofollowsacodebehindarchitectureliketheASP.Netweb
pages,althoughitdoesnothaveanuserinterface.
Thepreviousversionsof.NetFrameworkusedthisconceptofASP.NetWebService,which
had .asmx file extension. However, from .Net Framework 4.0 onwards, the Windows
Communication Foundation (WCF) technology has evolved as the new successor of Web
Services,.NetRemotingandsomeotherrelatedtechnologies.Ithasratherclubbedallthese
technologies together. In the next section, we will provide a brief introduction to Windows
CommunicationFoundation(WCF).
If you are using previous versions of .Net Framework, you can still create traditional web
services.PleaseconsultASP.NetWebServices tutorialfordetaileddescription.
WindowsCommunicationFoundation
WindowsCommunicationFoundationorWCFprovidesanAPIforcreatingdistributedservice
orientedapplications,knownasWCFServices.
LikeWebservices,WCFservicesalsoenablecommunicationbetweenapplications.However,
unlike web services, the communication here is not limited to HTTP only. WCF can be
configured to be used over HTTP, TCP, IPC, and Message Queues. Another strong point in
favourofWCFis,itprovidessupportforduplexcommunication,whereaswithwebservices
wecouldachievesimplexcommunicationonly.
From beginners' point of view, writing a WCF service is not altogether so different from
writingaWebService.Tokeepthethingssimple,wewillseehowto:
CreateaWCFService
CreateaServiceContractanddefinetheoperations
Implementthecontract
TesttheService
UtilizetheService
Example
To understand the concept let us create a simplistic service that will provide stock price
information.Theclientscanqueryaboutthenameandpriceofastockbasedonthestock
symbol.Tokeepthisexamplesimple,thevaluesarehardcodedinatwodimensionalarray.
Thisservicewillhavetwomethods:
GetPriceMethoditwillreturnthepriceofastock,basedonthesymbolprovided.
GetName Method it will return the name of the stock, based on the symbol
provided.
CreatingaWCFService
OpenVSExpressforWeb2012
SelectNewWebSitetoopentheNewWebSitedialogbox.
SelectWCFServicetemplatefromlistoftemplates:
SelectFileSystemfromtheWeblocationdropdownlist.
ProvideanameandlocationfortheWCFServiceandclickOK.
AnewWCFServiceiscreated.
CreatingaServiceContractandDefiningtheOperations
A service contract defines the operation that a service performs. In the WCF Service
application, you will find two files automatically created in the App_Code folder in the
SolutionExplorer
IService.vb this will have the service contract in simpler words, it will have the
interface for the service, with the definitions of methods the service will provide,
whichyouwillimplementinyourservice.
Service.vbthiswillimplementtheservicecontract.
ReplacethecodeoftheIService.vbfilewiththegivencode:
PublicInterfaceIService
<OperationContract()>
FunctionGetPrice(ByValsymbolAsString)AsDouble
<OperationContract()>
FunctionGetName(ByValsymbolAsString)AsString
EndInterface
ImplementingtheContract
IntheService.vbfile,youwillfindaclassnamedServicewhichwillimplementtheService
ContractdefinedintheIServiceinterface.
ReplacethecodeofIService.vbwiththefollowingcode:
'NOTE:Youcanusethe"Rename"commandonthecontextmenutochangetheclassname"Service"incode,s
PublicClassService
ImplementsIService
PublicSubNew()
EndSub
DimstocksAsString(,)=
{
{"RELIND","RelianceIndustries","1060.15"},
{"ICICI","ICICIBank","911.55"},
{"JSW","JSWSteel","1201.25"},
{"WIPRO","WiproLimited","1194.65"},
{"SATYAM","SatyamComputers","91.10"}
}
PublicFunctionGetPrice(ByValsymbolAsString)AsDouble_
ImplementsIService.GetPrice
DimiAsInteger
'ittakesthesymbolasparameterandreturnsprice
Fori=0Toi=stocks.GetLength(0)1
If(String.Compare(symbol,stocks(i,0))=0)Then
ReturnConvert.ToDouble(stocks(i,2))
EndIf
Nexti
Return0
EndFunction
PublicFunctionGetName(ByValsymbolAsString)AsString_
ImplementsIService.GetName
'Ittakesthesymbolasparameterand
'returnsnameofthestock
DimiAsInteger
Fori=0Toi=stocks.GetLength(0)1
If(String.Compare(symbol,stocks(i,0))=0)Then
Returnstocks(i,1)
EndIf
Nexti
Return"StockNotFound"
EndFunction
EndClass
TestingtheService
To run the WCF Service, so created, select the Debug>Start Debugging option from the
menubar.Theoutputwouldbe:
Fortestingtheserviceoperations,doubleclickthenameoftheoperationfromthetreeon
theleftpane.Anewtabwillappearontherightpane.
Enter the value of parameters in the Request area of the right pane and click the 'Invoke'
button.
ThefollowingdiagramdisplaystheresultoftestingtheGetPriceoperation:
ThefollowingdiagramdisplaystheresultoftestingtheGetNameoperation:
UtilizingtheService
Letusaddadefaultpage,aASP.NETwebforminthesamesolutionfromwhichwewillbe
usingtheWCFServicewehavejustcreated.
RightclickonthesolutionnameintheSolutionExplorerandaddanewwebformto
thesolution.ItwillbenamedDefault.aspx.
Addtwolabels,atextboxandabuttonontheform.
WeneedtoaddaservicereferencetotheWCFservicewejustcreated.Rightclick
the website in the Solution Explorer and select Add Service Reference option. This
openstheAddServiceReferenceDialogbox.
Enter the URL(location) of the Service in the Address text box and click the Go
button. It creates a service reference with the default name ServiceReference1.
ClicktheOKbutton.
Addingthereferencedoestwojobsforyourproject:
CreatestheAddressandBindingfortheserviceintheweb.configfile.
Createsaproxyclasstoaccesstheservice.
DoubleclicktheGetPricebuttonintheform,toenterthefollowingcodesnippeton
itsClickevent:
PartialClass_Default
InheritsSystem.Web.UI.Page
ProtectedSubButton1_Click(senderAsObject,eAsEventArgs)_
DimserAsServiceReference1.ServiceClient=_
NewServiceReference1.ServiceClient
Label2.Text=ser.GetPrice(TextBox1.Text).ToString()
EndSub
EndClass
Studiotoolbar,thefollowingpageopensinthebrowser:
EnterasymbolandclicktheGetPricebuttontogetthehardcodedprice:
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23/09/2016 VB.

When we consider a VB.Net program, it can be defined as a collection of objects that

Class A class can be defined as a template/blueprint that describes the

AddHandler AddressOf Alias And AndAlso As Boolean

ByRef Byte ByVal Call Case Catch CBool

CByte CChar CDate CDec CDbl Char CInt

Class CLng CObj Const Continue CSByte CShort

CSng CStr CType CUInt CULng CUShort Date

Decimal Declare Default Delegate Dim DirectCast Do

Double Each Else ElseIf End EndIf Enum

Erase Error Event Exit False Finally For

Friend Function Get GetType GetXML Global GoTo

Handles If Implements Imports In Inherits Integer

Interface Is IsNot Let Lib Like Long

Loop Me Mod Module MustInherit MustOverride MyBase

MyClass Namespace Narrowing New Next Not Nothing

Not Not Object Of On Operator Option

Optional Or OrElse Overloads Overridable Overrides ParamArray

Partial Private Property Protected Public RaiseEvent ReadOnly

ReDim REM Remove Resume Return SByte Select

Set Shadows Shared Short Single Static Step

Stop String Structure Sub SyncLock Then Throw

To True Try TryCast TypeOf UInteger While

Widening With WithEvents WriteOnly Xor

DataType Storage ValueRange

Boolean Dependson TrueorFalse

Byte 1byte 0through255(unsigned)

Char 2bytes 0through65535(unsigned)

Date 8bytes 0:00:00(midnight)onJanuary1,0001through11:59:59PM

Decimal 16bytes 0through+/79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335

Double 8bytes 1.79769313486231570E+308 through

Integer 4bytes 2,147,483,648through2,147,483,647(signed)

Long 8bytes 9,223,372,036,854,775,808through

Object 4 bytes on 32 AnytypecanbestoredinavariableoftypeObject

SByte 1byte 128through127(signed)

Short 2bytes 32,768through32,767(signed)

Single 4bytes 3.4028235E+38 through 1.401298E45 for negative

1.401298E45 through 3.4028235E+38 for positive

String Dependson 0toapproximately2billionUnicodecharacters

UInteger 4bytes 0through4,294,967,295(unsigned)

ULong 8bytes 0through18,446,744,073,709,551,615(unsigned)

User Dependson Eachmemberofthestructurehasarangedeterminedbyits

UShort 2bytes 0through65,535(unsigned)

boundslist: optional. It provides list of bounds of each dimension of an array

initializer: Optional if New is not specified. Expression that is evaluated and

asscessmodifier: specifies which code can access these enumerations. Optional.

Shadows: this makes the enumeration hide a programming element of identical

memberlist: specifies the list of member constants being declared in this

S.N Modifier Description

8 Friend Specifies that one or more declared programming elements

Declarationstatements these are the statements where you name a variable,

Executablestatements these are the statements, which initiate actions. These

S.N StatementsandDescription Example

Declares the name, parameters, and code EndSub

expression: it is either a literal, or other conditional compiler constant, or a

Operator Description Example

MOD ModulusOperatorandremainderofafteraninteger BMODAwillgive1

Operator Description Example

<> Checksifthevaluesoftwooperandsareequalor (A<>B)istrue.