Articles Index

Generics!

Generics! Cleaner Data - Faster Code! An introduction to Framework 2.0 and the use of generic data types using Visual Basic.

Shared and Instance Members in VB.NET

A method or property can either be shared, so that the code in the actual Class definition is executed, or it can called through an instance of the Class. This article describes what these two things mean and why they're both useful in Visual Basic .NET.

Word Application Automation / Date and Time Calculation Using Bookmarks in VB

This program uses VB.NET and Word to complete a Word document with date calculations. In my "other" life, I'm a writer. I was recently thinking about books such as 1984 and 2001: A Space Odyssey that have been bypassed by the march of time. The idea of using Visual Basic to write an "eternal" story that would always be current came to me, so I wrtote the story and a program to update dates and times in it using bookmarks. The program uses WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation - as the GUI.

Application Settings in VB.NET

VB.NET gives you a great new way to save application settings like connection strings or size and color by application or by user. The methods used in VB.NET are different than the ones in VB.NET 1.1 and other .NET languages such as C#. But technical articles I have read and even on Microsoft's own pages make mistakes. The goal of this article is to clear up as much confusion as possible, but some remaining problems are documented in it as well.

LINQ Queries - An Example Driven Introduction

LINQ - Language Integrated Query - is the reason a whole host of new technolgies were introduced in VB.NET 2008. For example, Lamda expressions and partial methods. Another technology that was introduced with LINQ is the LINQ query ... a faster and more direct way to write LINQ query expressions. This article explains it.

Partial Methods

Partial Methods are one of the techniques introduced with .NET Framework 3.0. They're used in LINQ to SQL, but you can use them anywhere they work for you. This article shows you how.

Using VBA in Office 2007

Microsoft decided to change just about everything in Office 2007 and VBA - Visual Basic for Applications - wasn't spared. This article covers how to get started programming VBA macros using the Office application Word 2007.

Using Extension Methods in VB.NET

A normal class has to be instantiated as an object before the methods in it can be used. But if a method is shared, then the class it's in doesn't have to be instantiated. The method can be used directly. What if you need both? Then you need a feature introduced in VB.NET 2008 called extension methods. This Quick Tip tells you how that works.

Formatting Strings, Numbers, and Other Objects

The concept of formatting strings, numbers, and objects like dates has changed a lot in the move up to .NET. This article starts with the Format function in VB6 and moves on to a more complex Format method in VB.NET. Along the way, we also discuss what a Shared method is all about. The net result shows how it used to be and how it's done now.

Part 5: A First Introduction to WPF and XAML for Visual Basic Programmers

An introduction for VB programmers to WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation - and XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language - can be found in part 1 of this series. The XAML code is hooked up to a VB.NET a code file using the new WPF routed events model in this tutorial.

Part 4: A First Introduction to WPF and XAML for Visual Basic Programmers

An introduction for VB programmers to WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation - and XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language - can be found in part 1 of this series. Data binding is a new capability in WPF and XAML. This article shows how to do it.

Part 3: A First Introduction to WPF and XAML for Visual Basic Programmers

An introduction for VB programmers to WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation - and XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language - can be found in part I of this series. A WPF application coded entirely in XAML is developed in this part of the series.

Using Dialogs in VB.NET

Dialogs in VB.NET use object oriented properties and methods to tell the calling program what happened in the dialog. In VB6, the dialog only returned a value. Like everything else in .NET, this requires an adjustment in your thinking to use them correctly but it gives you a lot more power. This article tells you how VB.NET dialogs work.

A First Introduction to WPF and XAML for Visual Basic Programmers

WPF and XAML - Windows Presentation Foundation - and XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language - are an entirely new way to create application interfaces that were introduced with Windows Vista and Framework 3.0. Most references approach the subject from the XAML and WPF point of view. Here's one written for the Visual Basic programmer that starts at the beginning.

Using VB.NET To Code The VB6 ItemData Property

ItemData is one of the many features of VB6 that was dropped in the move to VB.NET. It wasn't as popular as the VB6 Control Array feature, but a lot of people liked it. Peter wrote in to ask how to do the same thing in VB.NET. The answer has a lot more to do with Classes, Structures, and Object Oriented Programming than ItemData. This article explains what that means.

Hashtable and Performance

Are you curious about what the Capacity and Loadfactor parameters will actually do for Hashtable performance in a Visual Basic .NET program? This article explains all of the parameters you can pass to Hashtable and benchmarks the result. It's a good example showing how to use Stopwatch and VB.NET XML as well.

VB 2010 and Beyond

If you're interested in what the next version of VB.NET will look like, this article that summarizes a presentation given by two people at Microsoft who know best, Anders Hejlsberg and VB Program Manager Jonathan Aneja, will give you a good idea.

Small Basic - A New Language for New Programmers from Microsoft

If you've tried Visual Basic .NET Express and you're still confused, Microsoft now has a new version of Visual Basic that's even easier than that to get started with. It's called Small Basic and it only has 15 keywords in the current version. About Visual Basic reviews the 0.5 version and tells you how to get started using it.

Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 1

This course is about programming using Visual Studio and the Visual Basic .NET language. It's written for complete beginners so if you're an experienced programmer, you may want to try one of the other tutorials at the site. But if you're completely new to programming, this course is what you're looking for.

Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 4

Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 3

Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 2

AutoTest - A LINQ to XML Example Program

Microsoft's LINQ technology combined with XML can revolutionize the way you program, but it's difficult to make the transition from more traditional ways of programming to LINQ. Moving to XML can be a challenge too. A reader asked for help programming a system to generate random test questions. Since it seemed like an ideal way to showcase LINQ, I wrote most of the code as a programming example.

Partial Classes in VB.NET

Partial Classes were introduced with VB.NET 2005 (Framework 2.0) and are used in a lot of different ways in VB.NET, including ASP.NET and Windows Forms. This article explains what they are and why they're useful, including how to hide them in Visual Studio Solution Explorer. Tested in both VB 2005 and VB 2008.

MustInherit and NotInheritable in VB.NET

You can create an object in Visual Basic .NET that can't be directly instantiated and you can create an object that can only be instantiated. These two restrictions are called MustInherit and NotInheritable. This article explains how they work and why you should use them.

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