Visual Basic. murach's TRAINING & REFERENCE

TRAINING & REFERENCE

murach's

Visual Basic

2008

Anne Boehm

lBm Mike Murach & Associates, ^Inc.

H| 1-800-221-5528

(559) ^440-9071

^Fax: (559) ^440-0963

[email protected]

www.murach.com

Contents

Introduction xiii

Section ¹ introduction to Visual Basic programming

Chapter ^{1 An} introduction to Visual Studio 3

Chapter ^{2 How to} design ^{a Windows Forms} application ³⁵ Chapter ^{3 How to code and test a} Windows Forms application ⁵⁷

Section 2 The Visual Basic language ^essentials

Chapter ^{4 How to} work with numeric and string ^{data 99}

Chapter ⁵ How to code control structures 141

Chapter ⁶ How to code procedures ^{and event handlers 167} Chapter ^{7 How to handle} exceptions ^{and validate data 189} Chapter ^{8 How to work with} arrays and collections 223

Chapter ^{9 How to} work with dates and strings ²⁶³ Chapter ^{10 More skills for} working with Windows forms and controls 293

Chapter ^{11 How to create and use classes 331}

Chapter ^{12 How to} debug ^an application ³⁶⁹

Section 3 Database programming

Chapter ¹³ An introduction to database programming ³⁹⁵ Chapter ^{14 How to work with data sources} and datasets 427

Chapter ^{15 How to} work with bound controls and parameterized queries ⁴⁶⁹ Chapter ^{16 How to use ADO.NET to write} your ^{own data access code 505}

Section ⁴ Object-oriented programming

Chapter ^{17 How to} work with default properties, ^{events, and} operators ⁵⁴⁵

Chapter ^{18 How to} work with inheritance 571

Chapter ^{19 How to} work with interfaces and generics ⁶⁰⁹ Chapter ^{20 How to} organize and document _your classes 637

Section 5 Other programming ^skills

Chapter ^{21 How to} work with files and data streams 657

Chapter ^{22 How to} work with XML files 681

Chapter ^{23 How to use} LINQ ⁷⁰³

Chapter ^{24 How to} enhance the user interface 729

Chapter ^{25 How to} deploy ^an application ⁷⁶³

Reference aids

Appendix ^{A How to} install and use the software and files for this book 789

Index 799

ExpelYid^cfl ^ootttottts

Section ¹ Introduction ^{to Visual} Basic programming

Chapter ¹ An introduction to Visual Studio

An introduction ^to .NET development ⁴

Windows Forms and Web Forms applications ⁴

Visual Studio and the .NET programming languages ⁶

The .NET Framework 8

The Visual Studio IDE 10

How

Visual ^Basic application ^is compiled ^and run 12 How Visual Basic differs from the other .NET languages ¹²

A tour of the Visual Studio IDE 14

How to start Visual Studio 14

How to open ^or close an existing project ¹⁶

Some possible

^{variations 16}

How to

the Form Designer ¹⁸

How to use the Code Editor 20

How to use the Solution Explorer ²²

How to work with Visual Studio's windows 24

How to test a project 26

How to build

project ²⁶

How to run

project ²⁶

How to upgrade projects ^and change .NET Framework versions 28 How to upgrade projects created in earlier versions ^of Visual Basic .NET 28 How to change the .NET Framework version used by

project ³⁰

Chapter ^{2 How to} design ^{a Windows Forms} application

How to set options ^{and create a new} project ³⁶

How to set the Visual Studio options ³⁶

How to change the import and export settings 36

How to create

project ³⁸

How to design ^{a form 40}

The design of the Invoice Total form 40

How to add controls to a form 42

How to set properties ⁴⁴

Common properties for forms and controls 46

How to add navigation ^{features 48}

The property settings for the Invoice Total form 50

How to use Document Outline view 50

How to name and save the files of a project 52

How to

the files of

project 52

How to save the files of

project ⁵²

Chapter 3 How ^to code and test a Windows Forms application

An introduction to coding ⁵⁸

Introduction to object-oriented programming ⁵⁸

How to refer to properties, methods, and events 60

How

application responds ^to events 62

How to add code to a form 64 How to create an event handler for the default event of a form or control 64 How IntelliSense helps you enter the code for

form 66

The event handlers for the Invoice Total form 68

How to code with

readable style ⁷⁰

How to code comments 72

How to detect and correct syntax ^errors 74

Other skills for working ^{with code 76}

How to use the toolbar buttons ⁷⁶

How to collapse ^{or expand code 76}

How to print the source code

⁷⁶

How to

code snippets ⁷⁸

How to

the Smart Compile Auto Correction feature 82

How to

the My ^{feature 84}

How to get help information 86

How to run, test, and debug ^{a project 88}

How to run a project ⁸⁸

How to test a project

⁹⁰

How to debug ^runtime errors 92

Section ² The Visual Basic language ^essentials

Chapter ⁴ How to work with numeric and string ^data

How to work with ^the built-in value types ¹⁰⁰

The built-in ^value types 10°

How to declare and initialize variables 102

How to declare and initialize constants

102

How to code arithmetic expressions ¹⁰⁴

How to code assignment ^{statements 106}

How to work with the order ^of precedence ¹⁰⁸

How to use casting ¹¹⁰

How to change ^the type ^{semantics 112}

How to

the Math class 114

How to work with strings ¹¹⁶

How to declare and initialize a string ¹¹⁶

How to join ^and append ^{strings 116}

How to convert data types ¹¹⁸

The .NET structures and classes ^that define data types ¹¹⁸ How to

Visual Basic functions to convert data types 120

How to

methods to convert data types 122

How to use three of the formatting functions ¹²⁴

How to use methods to convert numbers to formatted strings ¹²⁶

Three other skills for working ^{with data 128}

How to work with scope 128

How to declare and use enumerations 130

How to work with nullable types ^I32

Two versions ^of the Invoice Total application ¹³⁴

The basic Invoice ^Total application ¹³⁴

The enhanced ^Invoice Total application ¹³⁶

Chapter ⁵ How to code control structures

How to code Boolean expressions ¹⁴²

How to use the relational operators 142

How to use the logical ^{operators 144}

How to code conditional statements 146

How to code If statements 146

How ^to code Select Case statements 148

An enhanced version of the Invoice Total application ¹⁵⁰

How to code loops ¹⁵²

How to code For loops ¹⁵²

How to code Do loops ¹⁵⁴

How to use Exit and Continue statements 156

Debugging techniques for programs with loops ¹⁵⁸

The Future Value application ¹⁶⁰

The design ^and property settings ^{for the form 160}

The code for the form 162

Chapter ⁶ How to code procedures ^and event handlers

How to code and call procedures ¹⁶⁸

How to code Sub procedures ¹⁶⁸

How to call Sub procedures ¹⁷⁰

When and how to pass arguments by reference and by ^{value 172}

How to code and call Function procedures ¹⁷⁴

How to work with events 176

How to start

event handler for any ^event 176

How to handle multiple ^events with

^{event handler} 178 How to

the Code ^Editor to start

event handler 180

How to add and remove event wiring ¹⁸²

Another version of the Future Value application ¹⁸⁴

The Function procedure ¹⁸⁴

The event handlers 184

Chapter ⁷ How to handle exceptions ^and validate data

An introduction to data validation and exception handling ¹⁹⁰

How to

the IsNumeric function for data validation 190

How to display ^a dialog ^{box for error} messages 192

How exception handling ^{works 194}

How ^to use structured exception handling 196

How to catch an exception ¹⁹⁶

How to

the properties and methods of

exception ¹⁹⁸

How to catch specific types ^of exceptions ²⁰⁰

How to throw an exception ²⁰²

The Future Value application ^{with exception} handling ²⁰⁴

How to validate data 206

How to validate

single entry ²⁰⁶

How to

generic procedures ^{to validate}

entry ²⁰⁸

How to validate multiple ^{entries 210}

The Future Value application with data validation 212

The dialog boxes 212

The code 212

Two other ways ^to validate data 216

How to use the Validating ^event 216

How to use the masked text box 218

Chapter ^{8 How to work with} arrays and collections

How to ^{work with} one-dimensional arrays

²²⁴

How to create

array 224

How to assign ^{values to} the elements of an array 226

How ^to

^For loops ^{to work with arrays 228}

How to

For Each loops ^{to work with arrays 230}

How to work with rectangular ^{arrays 232}

How to create a rectangular ^{array 232}

How to assign values ^to

rectangular array ²³²

How to work ^with rectangular arrays ²³⁴

How to work with jagged arrays 236

How to create

jagged array 236

How to assign ^{values to a} jagged array 236

How to work with jagged ^{arrays 238}

More skills ^for working ^with arrays 240

How to use the Array class 240

How to refer to and copy arrays 242

How to code procedures ^{that work with arrays 244}

How to work with collections 246

Commonly used collection classes 246

Typed vs. untyped collections 248

How to work with

list ²⁵⁰

How to work with a sorted list 254

How to work with queues and stacks 256

How to work with an array list 258

Chapter ⁹ How to work with dates and strings

How to work with dates and times 264

How to create

DateTime value ²⁶⁴

How to get ^{the current} date and time ²⁶⁶

How to format DateTime values 266

How to get information about dates and times 268

How to perform ^operations

dates and times 270 How to

Visual Basic properties and functions to work with dates ^{and times 272}

How to work with strings ²⁷⁴

The properties and methods ^of the String ^{class 274}

Code examples ^{that work with strings 276}

More examples that work with strings ²⁷⁸

Two procedures ^for validating ^{user entries 280}

How to

the StringBuilder ^{class 282}

How to use Visual Basic functions to work with strings ²⁸⁴

How to format numbers, dates, and ^times 286

How to format numbers ²⁸⁶

How to format dates and times 288

Chapter ^{10 More skills for} working with Windows forms and controls

How to ^work with controls 294

Five

types of controls 294

How to work with combo boxes and list boxes 296

How to work with check boxes and radio buttons 300

How to work with group boxes 300

How to use Tab Order view ^{to set} the tab order 302

How to get the information you need for using

^{control 304}

How ^to work with multi-form projects ³⁰⁶

How to add

form to

project ³⁰⁶

How to rename a form 306

How to change ^the startup ^{form for a} project ³⁰⁸

How to display ^{a form as a} dialog ^{box 310}

How to pass data between ^a form and a custom dialog ^{box 312}

How to use the MessageBox ^{class 314}

How ^to display

dialog ^{box and} get ^the

response 314

How to

the FormClosing ^{event 316}

The Payment application ³¹⁸

The operation ³¹⁸

The property settings ³²⁰

The code for the Customer form ³²⁰

The code for the Payment form ³²⁴

Chapter ¹¹ How to create and use classes

An introduction to classes 332

How classes

^{be used} to structure

application ³³²

The members you

define within a class 334

The code for the Product class 336

How instantiation works 338

How to create a class ³⁴⁰

How to add a class file to

project ³⁴⁰

How to code fields 342

How to code properties ³⁴⁴

How to code methods 346

How to code constructors 348

How to code shared members ³⁵⁰

The Product Maintenance application ³⁵²

The operation of the Product Maintenance application ³⁵² The classes used by the Product Maintenance application ³⁵⁴ The code for the Product Maintenance application ³⁵⁶ How to use the Class View window and class diagrams ³⁶⁰

How to use the Class View window ³⁶⁰

How to use class diagrams and ^the Class Details ^{window 362}

How to work with structures 364

How to create

structure 364

How to use a structure 364

Chapter ^{12 How to} debug ^an application

Basic debugging techniques ³⁷⁰

How to set the debugging options ³⁷⁰

How to work in break mode ³⁷²

How to

the Edit and Continue feature 372

How to

breakpoints ³⁷⁴

How to control the execution of

application ³⁷⁶

How to use the debugging ^{windows 378}

How to use the Locals window to monitor variables 378 How to use the Autos window to monitor variables 378

How ^to

^Watch windows ^to monitor expressions ³⁸⁰

How to

the Immediate window to execute commands 382 How to

the Call Stack window to monitor called procedures ³⁸⁴ How to use the Output ^{or Immediate window to} get ^{build or}

debugging information 386

How use the Visualizer dialog ^{boxes to view} strings ³⁸⁸

Section 3 Database programming

Chapter ¹³ An introduction to database programming

An introduction to client/server systems ³⁹⁶

The hardware components of a client/server system 396 The software components ^{of a} client/server system 398 An introduction to relational databases.... 400

How

^table is organized ⁴⁰⁰

How the tables in

database

related 402

How the columns in

table are defined 404

The design of the MMABooks database 406

How ^to use SQL to work with a relational database 408

How to query

single table 408

How to join ^{data from two}

^more tables 410

How to add, update, and delete data in a table 412

An introduction to ADO.NET 414

The .NET data providers ⁴¹⁴

How the basic ADO.NET components ^{work 416}

Concurrency and the disconnected data architecture 418

How

dataset is organized 420

How to work with data without using

^data adapter ⁴²²

Two ways to create ADO.NET objects ⁴²⁴

Chapter ¹⁴ How to work with data sources and datasets

How to create a data source 428

How to

the Data Sources window 428

How to start the Data Source Configuration ^{Wizard 430}

How to choose

data source type 430

How to choose the connection for

data

432

How to create a connection to

database 434

How to save a connection string ^{in the} app.config ^file 436 How ^to choose database objects ^{for a data source 438}

The schema file created by ^{the Data} Source Configuration Wizard 440

How to use a data source 442

How to generate ^a DataGridView control from

data _source 442 A Product Maintenance application ^{that uses a} DataGridView control 444 How to change the controls associated with a data source 446 How to generate detail controls from a data source 448 A Customer Maintenance application that uses TexlBox. controls 450

How to handle data errors 452

How to handle data provider

452

How ^to handle ADO.NET errors 454

How to handle data _errors for a DataGridView control 456

How to use the Dataset Designer ⁴⁵⁸

How to view the schema for

dataset 458

How to use the Query ^Builder 460

How to preview the data for a query 462

How to interpret ^the generated ^{SQL statements 464} Chapter ¹⁵ How to work with bound controls and

parameterized queries

How to work ^with bound text boxes and combo boxes 470

How to format the data displayed in a text box 470

How to bind

combo box to

data source 472

How to use code to work with a binding source 474

How to work with parameterized ^{queries 476}

How to create a parameterized ^{query 476}

How to use code to work with

parameterized query 478

How to work with the ToolStrip ^{control 480}

How to use the Items ^Collection Editor 480

How to code

event handler for a ToolStrip item ⁴⁸²

An enhanced Customer Maintenance application ⁴⁸⁴

The

interface 484 J

The code 484

How to work with ^a DataGridView control 488

How to modify ^the properties ^of

DataGridView control 488 How ^to edit the columns of a DataGridView control 490 How to format the data in the columns of

DataGridView control 492 How to use a DataGridView control to create a Master/Detail form 494

A Customer Invoice Display application ⁴⁹⁶

The user interface ⁴⁹⁶

The dataset schema 496

The code for the Customer Invoice Display ^{form 496}

Chapter ^{16 How to use} ADO.NET to write your ^own data access code

How to work with connections and commands 506

How to create and work with connections 506

How to create and work with commands 508

How to create and work with parameters 510

How to use parameters ⁱⁿ SQL ^{statements 510}

How to create parameters 512

How to work with parameters 514

How to execute commands 516

How to create and work with

data reader 516

How to execute queries ^{that return a single value 518}

How to execute action queries ⁵¹⁸

A Customer Maintenance application ^{that uses commands 520}

The

interface ⁵²⁰

The class diagram ^{for the business} and database classes 522

The code for the CustomerDB class 524

The code for the StateDB class ⁵³⁰

The code for the MMABooksDB class 530

The code for the Customer Maintenance form 532

The code for the Add/Modify Customer form 536

Section 4 Object-oriented programming

Chapter ^{17 How to} work with default properties, events, and operators

An introduction to the ProductList class 546

The code for a simple ProductList class 546

The specifications ^for the enhanced ProductList class 548

How to work with default properties ⁵⁵⁰

How to create

default property ⁵⁵⁰

How to throw _an argument exception 552

How to work with events 554

How to define events 554

How to use events 554

How to overload operators 556

An introduction to operator overloading ⁵⁵⁶

How to overload arithmetic operators ⁵⁵⁸

How to overload relational operators 560

An enhanced version of the Product Maintenance application ⁵⁶²

The code for the ProductList class 562

The code for the Product Maintenance form 566

Chapter ¹⁸ How to work with inheritance

An introduction to inheritance 572

How inheritance works 572

How the ^.NET Framework uses inheritance 574

Methods inherited from the System.Object ^class 576

How to use inheritance _{in your} applications ⁵⁷⁸

Basic skills for working with inheritance 580

How to create a base class 580

How ^to create

derived class 582

How polymorphism ^works 584

An inheritance version of the Product Maintenance application ⁵⁸⁶

The operation of the Product Maintenance application ⁵⁸⁶ The code for the Product, Book, and Software ^{classes 588}

The ^{code for} the ProductList class 592

The code for the Product Maintenance form 594

The code for the New Product form 596

Object types ^and casting ⁵⁹⁸

How to use the Type ^{class to} get information about an object's type ⁵⁹⁸

How to use casting with inheritance 600

How to work with abstract and sealed classes 602

How to work with abstract classes 602

How to work with sealed classes 604

Chapter ^{19 How to} work with interfaces and generics

How to work with interfaces 610

An introduction to interfaces 610

Some of ^the interfaces defined by the .NET Framework 612

How to create

interface 614

How to implement

^{interface 616}

A Product class that implements the ICloneable interface 618

How to use an interface as a parameter ⁶²⁰

How to work with generics 622

How to code

^{class that} defines

generic collection 622 Some of ^the generic interfaces defined by the .NET Framework 626 How to implement ^the IComparablefJ ^interface 628

How to use constraints 630

How to code an interface that uses generics ⁶³²

Chapter ^{20 How to} organize and document your classes

How to organize your ^{classes 638}

How to code multiple ^{classes in a single file 638}

How ^to split a single class across multiple ^{files 640}

How to work with namespaces 642

How to document your ^classes 644

How to add XML documentation to a class 644

How to view the XML documentation 646

How to create and use class libraries 648

How class libraries work 648

How to create a class library project 650

How ^to add a reference to

class library ⁶⁵²

How to use the classes in a class library ⁶⁵²

Section 5 Other programming ^skills

Chapter ^{21 How to work with} files ^and data streams

An introduction to the System.lO ^{classes 658}

The classes for managing directories, files, and paths 658

How Fdes and streams work 660

How to

the FileStream class 662

How to

the exception classes ^for fde I/O 664

How to work with text files 666

How to write a text file 666

How to read a text file 668

A ^class that works with a text file 670

How to work with binary files 672

How to write

binary fde 672

How to read a binary ^{file 674}

A class that works with

binary ^file 676

Two other ways to work with files 678

Use the My.Computer.FileSystem object 678

Use the Visual Basic functions 678

Chapter ^{22 How} to work with XML files

An introduction to XML ₆₈₂

An XML document 682

XML tags, declarations, and comments 684

XML elements 684

XML attributes 686

How to ^work with the XML Editor 688

How to create a

XML file 688

How to open ^an existing XML file 688

How to edit an XML file 688

How to work with XML 690

How to use the XmlWriter class 690

Code that writes an XML document 692

How to use the XmlReader class 694

How the XmlReader class reads nodes 696

Code that reads

XML document 698

A class that works with

XML file 700

Chapter ^{23 How to} use LINQ

Basic concepts ^for working ^{with LINQ} 704

How LINQ is implemented ⁷⁰⁴

Advantages of using LINQ 704

The three stages of a query operation ⁷⁰⁶

How to code a LINQ query 708

How to identify ^{the data source for}

query ⁷⁰⁸

How to filter the results of

query 710

How to sort the results of

query 712

How to select fields from a query 714

How ^to join ^{data from two or more data sources 716}

A Customer Invoice application ^{that uses generic lists}

⁷¹⁸

The

interface 718

The code for the form 720

A Customer Invoice application ^{that uses a} typed dataset 722

The dataset schema 722

The code for the form 724

Chapter ^{24 How} to enhance the user interface

Two types ^of user interfaces ₇₃₀

A single-document ^interface (SDI) 730

A multiple-document ^interface (MDI) 730

How to develop SDI applications ⁷³²

How to

startup form 732

How to

Tab control 734

How to add menus to a form 736

How to create menus 736

How to set the properties that work with _menu items 738

How to write code that works with

items 738

How to develop MDI applications 740

How to create parent ^and child forms 740

How to write code that works with parent and child forms 742

How to add toolbars to a form 744

How ^to create a toolbar 744

How to write code that works with toolbars 746

How to create and use a status bar 748

How to create

simple ^status bar 748

How to create a status bar with multiple panels ⁷⁵⁰

How to work with modules 752

How to create and code a module 752

How to use

Main procedure 754

How to add help information 756

How to add tool tips ⁷⁵⁶

How to add context-sensitive help 756

Chapter ^{25 How to} deploy ^an application

An introduction to deploying ^Windows applications 764

How XCopy ^{works 764}

How ClickOnce works 764

How a Setup program works 764

How to use XCopy ⁷⁶⁶

How to create a release build 766

How to copy the ^release build ^{to the} client 766

How to use ClickOnce 768

How to publish ^an application ⁷⁶⁸

How to select the files that are published 770

How to select the prerequisites ⁷⁷⁰

How to set the update options 772

How to set the publish ^{options 772}

How to install _an application 774

How to update an application ⁷⁷⁴

How to create and ^{use a} Setup program 776

How to create

Setup project ⁷⁷⁶

How to add output ^{files to a} Setup project ⁷⁷⁸

How to complete a Setup project ⁷⁸⁰

How to use a Setup program ^to install an application 782

How to deploy ^database applications ⁷⁸⁴

Using ^ClickOnce deployment ⁷⁸⁴

Using

Setup program 786

Appendix ^{A How to} install and use the software and files for this book

How to use the downloadable files 790

How to install Visual Studio 2008 792

How to install and

SQL Server 2005 Express 794

How to attach the database for ^this book to the database server 796