Articles Index
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
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. This is lesson 4 of a series.
Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 3
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. This is lesson 3 of a series.
Visual Basic .NET for Beginners Lesson 2
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.
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.
An Introduction to Programming a VB.NET Control With Inheritance
You can build a VB.NET control that has many of the advantages of a toolbox component without much effort. This article is a great "getting started" project that will teach you a lot about how classes and inheritance in the VB.NET works.
Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express - About Programming
Part 2 of the About Visual Basic .NET 2005 Express tutorial helps beginners and students of Visual Basic understand "the big picture" - how software systems are created in the real world using the Systems Development Life Cycle. If your goal is to become a professional developer, then a thorough knowledge of systems development is essential and this lesson instroduces it. Part 2 also contains an example program designed to introduce the ideas explained in the "programming" phase of a project.
Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express - A "From the Ground Up" Tutorial
Microsoft is making it as easy as they can for you to learn Visual Studio by giving away a really great development system absolutely free: Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express Edition. This is part 1 of a introductory tutorial using VB.NET Express. In this segment, you learn what it is, how to get it, and how to get started using it by writing a program.
Disposing Objects
Disposing an object is something that you won't have to worry about in VB.NET very often. .NET includes a technology called Garbage Collection that usually takes care of everything silently and efficiently. But occasionally, usually when using file streams, sql objects or graphics (GDI+) objects, you may need to take control of disposing objects in your own code. Or, you might write your own class that implements the IDisposable interface. This article gives you some useful advice.
.NET - COM Interoperability in Visual Basic
There are still plenty of reasons to use COM, the Component Object Model architecture that was the heart of Microsoft's technology back in VB6 days. This is the second article in a series. The first walks through a program that updates an Excel 2007 spreadsheet using Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express. This article shows how to go the other way and access a .NET Linq object from a VB6 program.
COM - .NET Interoperability in Visual Basic
There are still plenty of reasons to use COM, Microsoft's Component Object Model architecture, in .NET. This article walks through a program that updates an Excel 2007 spreadsheet using Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express.
About Visual Basic and About This Site
If you're new to Visual Basic or new to the About Visual Basic site, this article explains both. Visual Basic is defined and introduced and the article explains what the About Visual Basic site is too.
Nullable Types Gives Visual Basic the Ability to Say Nothing
In .NET 2.0, value types, such as Integer or Boolean, gained the ability to be "nullable". That is, you could give them a value of nothing. Reference types have always had this capability. This article explains what a nullable type is, and how to use it.
Getting Started With Lamda Expressions in VB.NET 2008
Lambda expressions are new in VB.NET 2008 (VB9) and they have a reputation as being really difficult, partly because of the name. In fact, getting started with lamda expressions is really easy. This article shows you what they are.
The Useful Generic List in VB.NET
The most useful "generics" objects in VB.NET are in the System.Collections.Generic namespace. And the most useful class in that namespace is the List class. This article extends a previous article about Generics and has examples and explanations of the ForEach, FindAll, and Sort methods in Visual Basic .NET.
Generics!
Generics! Cleaner Data - Faster Code! An introduction to Framework 2.0 and the use of generic data types using Visual Basic.
Using Delegates in Visual Basic .NET for Runtime Flexibility
Delegates are used in VB.NET to "allow a function to be invoked indirectly by way of a reference to the function." They're a key part of the way events are triggered in VB.NET and give you runtime flexibilty. This article explains more about what they are and how to use them.
A Glossary of VSLive Buzzwords
The VSLive conference agenda has many fascinating and educational sessions. But it's difficult to be sure because the whole thing is chock full of buzzwords and marketing names that may not be familiar to many people. Since they're not explained in any of the VSLive information, this article defines every term that might be unfamiliar in the VSLive conference agenda.
How To Reference Field Codes in Word VBA Macros
A quick answer to an About Visual Basic reader showing how to code a Word VBA program to score a test using the results of FORMDROPDOWN field codes embedded in the document.
Write VB6 Code for the Java Platform Using the New Jabaco Compiler
When Microsoft threw VB6 developers to the wolves, one developer decided to do something about it. Manuel Siekmann, a developer in Germany, decided to give other developers a way of compiling VB6 'style' code into Java. That way, you can run on any platform that supports Java such as Linux, you can code in a language that is very much like VB6, and you don't have to play Microsoft's .NET game. That last factor may be the best of all for some developers.
VB.NET Resource Files
VB.NET resource files allow you to make objects like graphic files, strings, and icons available to your code and be included as part of the project. A resource file is integrated directly into your Visual Basic project for maximum execution speed and minimum hassle packaging and deploying your application. This article tells just how to use them in VB.NET.
Using TableLayoutPanel and FlowLayoutPanel in VB.NET Windows Programming
The ability to design your application interface was given a huge boost when Microsoft intoduced the two new controls TableLayoutPanel and FlowLayoutPanel in Framework 2.0. Using these controls, you can create forms where the other controls, like Textbox and Listbox, stay right where you want them to be. And you can even get autosizing effects that were previously only available with third party purchased controls. This article shows you how to get the most from these controls.
Use a database instead of a sequential file
A lot of programmers still use a sequential file when they need to save and retrieve data in a Visual Basic program. There are a lot of better alternatives, however. Free programming tools from Microsoft make it easy to use a database rather than a sequential file. And the new SQL Server Compact 3.5 database files make it even easier. This article shows you how it's done.