Programming in Visual Basic 6.0

Visual Basic is easy to learn, which makes it an excellent tool for understanding elementary programming concepts. In addition, it bas evolved into such a powerful and popular product that skilled Visual Basic programmers are in Demand In the Job market.

This textbook is intended for use in an introductory programming course, which assumes no prior knowledge of computer programming. However, many of the later chapters are appropriate for an advanced-level course. The later chapters are also appropriate for professional programmers who are learning a new language to upgrade their skills.
This text assumes that the student is familiar with the Windows operating environment.

Approach

This text incorporates the basic concepts of programming, problem solving, and programming logic, as well as the design techniques of an event-driven language.
Chapter topics are presented in a sequence that allows the programmer to learn how to deal with a visual interface while acquiring important programming skills such as creating projects with loops, decisions, and data management.
The later chapters may be used in various sequences to accommodate the needs of beginning and advanced-level courses, as well as a shorter quarter system or a semester-long course. For a shorter course, the professor may choose to skip the chapter on data files and cover only the first of the two database chapters.

Chapter Organization

Each chapter begins with identifiable objectives and a brief overview. Numerous coding examples as well as hands-on projects with guidance for the coding appear throughout. Thought-provoking feedback questions give students time to reflect on the current topic and to evaluate their understanding of the details. The end-of-chapter items include a chapter review, que9tions, programming exercises, and two case studies. The case studies provide a continuing-theme exercise that may be used throughout the course.
Chapter 1 walks the student through the creation of a first Visual Basic project, incorporating command buttons and labels. The programming environment is introduced along with the concepts of objects and their related properties, methods, and events. Students are taught to create a new diskette folder and store their project inside the folder.

New in This Edition of the Text

This edition is a major revision of the text. The biggest change is the inclusion of object-oriented programming, which is introduced in Chapter 9 and applied in the later chapters.
The text is updated to Windows 98 and Visual Basic 6. It now conforms to Microsoft?s newly published coding conventions, which define a three character prefix for variable names to indicate data type.
The new formatting functions (FormatNumber, FormatCurrency, FormatPercent, and FormatDateTime) simplify the formatting of output. And the new Validate event and CausesValidation properties simplify the validation of input data.
In response to many helpful suggestions from students and reviewers, several sections of the text have been reorganized and expanded. The material on creating functions and sub procedures has been expanded, the data file handling has been greatly modified to incorporate object-oriented programming, and the database updating bas been simplified through the use of the Validate event.
The advanced techniques chapter (Chapter 15) now includes sections on creating an MDI project with parent and child forms, as well as creating shortcut menus.
This edition places emphasis on the planning steps of project design to encourage students to develop good programming habits from the start.
Students and instructors will appreciate the appendix "Tips and Shortcuts for Mastering the VB Environment." This reference brings together many helpful tips that can save programmers a significant amount of time.
The instructor materials are also updated and expanded. New materials include suggested coding standards and masters of forms for project planning that can be reproduced and distributed to students.