Chapter 5 - VB.NET Language and Syntax - Part 2

Tutorial

Math and Programming

People who have never tried it often imagine that programming is similar to mathematics. I have often been asked, "Don't you have to take a lot of math classes to be a programmer?" A solid understanding of math concepts helps, of course, but programming isn't really the same as math at all and that's partly because the computer does all the hard stuff. The next section of the book introduces you to how write software to pursuade the computer to do your math for you.

A few of the basic math operators, such as remainder division or string concatenation might be unfamiliar to you. And some of you might wonder why string concatenation is even considered to be a math operator.

The main reason is that string concatenation can be used with numbers to create results that are numbers. As you work with math operators, you will probably discover that most of what you do with them is NOT complex calculation, but rather the manipulation of other elements of your programs that can be expressed as numbers.

1. How to use InputBox and MsgBox as the first examples of function statements
2. "Magic" Numbers in the Code
3. Trying Out Changes in the Book's Code
4. Windows Form Designer Generated Code
5. More on Numbers and VB.NET
6. Math and Programming
7. Examples of the Math Operators
8. What Should Have Been Included in the Book
9. Qualifying With System.Math
10. The Bottom Line!

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