VB .Net: For Experienced Programmers

The experienced programmer's Deitel Live-Code guide to Visual Basic .NET and the powerful Microsoft .NET Framework

Written for programmers with backgrounds in C++, Visual Basic , Java or other high-level languages, this book applies the Deitels' signature Live-Code approach to teaching programming and explores Microsoft's Visual Basic .NET language in depth. Visual Basic .NET concepts are presented in the context of fully-tested programs, complete with syntax highlighting, detailed line-by-line descriptions and program outputs. The book features 192 Live-Code programs that contain 20,337 lines of proven Visual Basic .NET program code. In addition, the book includes 319 programming tips that help you build applications that are portable, reusable and optimized for performance.

Start with condensed discussions of the Visual Studio .NET IDE, control structures, procedures and arrays. Then move rapidly to more advanced topics, including Windows Forms, ADO .NET, ASP .NET, ASP .NET Web services, network programming and XML processing. Along the way you will enjoy the Deitels' classic treatment of object-based and object-oriented programming. When you are finished, you will have everything you need to build next-generation Windows applications, Web applications and XML Web services.

Dr. Harvey M. Deitel and Paul J. Deitel are the founders of Deitel & Associates, Inc., the internationally recognized IT content-creation and corporate-training organization. Together with their colleagues at Deitel & Associates, Inc., they have written the successful How to Program Series college textbooks that hundreds of thousands of students throughout the world have used to master Visual Basic .NET, C#, C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, XML and other languages.The Deitel Developer Series is designed for practicing programmers. The series presents focused treatments of emerging technologies, including .NET, J2EE, Web services and more. Each book in the series contains the same Live-Code teaching methodology used so successfully in the Deitels' How to Program Series college textbooks. The series includes a broad selection of books suitable for three types of readers: A Technical Introduction: Broad overviews of new technologies for programmers, technical managers and other technical professionals
A Programmer's Introduction: Focused treatments of programming fundamentals for practicing programmers and for novices
For Experienced Programmers: Detailed treatments of language topics for experienced programmers

Contents

1. This book.

Illustrations.
Preface.
1. Introduction to .NET and Visual Basic .NET.
Introduction. History of the Internet and World Wide Web. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Extensible Markup Language (XML). Key Software Trend: Object Technology. Introduction to Microsoft .NET. Visual Basic .NET. C, C++, Java(tm) and C#. .NET Framework and the Common Language Runtime. Tour of the Book. Summary. Internet and World Wide Web Resources.
2. Introduction to the Visual Studio IDE and VB .NET Programming.
Introduction. Visual Studio .NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Overview. Menu Bar and Toolbar. Visual Studio .NET Windows. Using Help. Simple Program: Displaying Text and an Image. Simple Program: Printing a Line of Text. Arithmetic. Decision Making: Equality and Relational Operators. Summary.
3. Control Structures.
Introduction. Control Structures. If/Then Selection Structure. If/Then/Else Selection Structure. While Repetition Structure. Do While/Loop Repetition Structure. Do Until/Loop Repetition Structure. Do/Loop While Repetition Structure. Do/Loop Until Repetition Structure. Assignment Operators. For/Next Repetition Structure. Example: Using the For/Next Structure to Compute Compound Interest. Select Case Multiple-Selection Structure. Using the Exit Keyword in a Repetition Structure. Logical Operators. Introduction to Windows Application Programming. Summary.
4. Procedures and Arrays.
Introduction. Modules, Classes and Procedures. Sub Procedures. Function Procedures. Methods. Argument Promotion. Option Strict and Data-Type Conversions. Value Types and Reference Types. Passing Arguments: Pass-by-Value vs. Pass-by-Reference. Duration of Identifiers. Scope Rules. Recursion. Procedure Overloading and Optional Arguments. Modules. Arrays. Passing Arrays to Procedures. Passing Arrays: ByVal vs. ByRef. Multidimensional Rectangular and Jagged Arrays. For Each/Next Repetition Structure. Summary.
5. Object-Based Programming.
Introduction. Implementing a Time Abstract Data Type with a Class. Class Scope. Controlling Access to Members. Initializing Class Objects: Constructors. Using Overloaded Constructors. Properties. Composition: Objects as Instance Variables of Other Classes. Using the Me Reference. Garbage Collection. Shared Class Members. Const and ReadOnly Members. Data Abstraction and Information Hiding. Software Reusability. Namespaces and Assemblies. Class View and Object Browser. Summary.
6. Object-Oriented Programming: Inheritance.
Introduction. Base Classes and Derived Classes. Protected and Friend Members. Relationship Between Base Classes and Derived Classes. Case Study: Three-Level Inheritance Hierarchy. Constructors and Finalizers in Derived Classes. Software Engineering with Inheritance. Summary.
7. Object-Oriented Programming: Polymorphism.
Introduction. Drived-Class-Object to Base-Class-Object Conversion. Type Fields and Select Case Statements. Polymorphism Examples. Abstract Classes and Methods. Case Study: Inheriting Interface and Implementation. NotInheritable Classes and NotOverridable Methods. Case Study: Payroll System Using Polymorphism. Case Study: Creating and Using Interfaces. Delegates. Summary.
8. Exception Handling.
Introduction. Exception Handling Overview. Example: DivideByZeroException. .NET Exception Hierarchy. Finally Block. Exception Properties. Programmer-Defined Exception Classes. Handling Overflows. Summary.
9. Graphical User Interface Concepts: Part 1.
Introduction. Windows Forms. Event-Handling Model. Control Properties and Layout. Labels, TextBoxes and Buttons. GoupBoxes and Panels. CheckBoxes and RadioButtons. PictureBoxes. Mouse-Event Handling. Keyboard-Event Handling. Summary.
10. Graphical User Interface Concepts: Part 2.
Introduction. Menus. LinkLabels. ListBoxes and CheckedListBoxes. ComboBoxes. TreeViews. ListViews. Tab Control. Multiple-Document-Interface (MDI) Windows. Visual Inheritance. User-Defined Controls. Summary.
11. Multithreading.
Introduction. Thread States: Life Cycle of a Thread. Thread Priorities and Thread Scheduling. Thread Synchronization and Class Monitor. Producer/Consumer Relationship without Thread Synchronization. Producer/Consumer Relationship with Thread Synchronization. Producer/Consumer Relationship: Circular Buffer. Summary.
12. Strings, Characters and Regular Expressions.
Introduction. Fundamentals of Characters and Strings. String Constructors. String Length and Chars Properties, and CopyTo Method. Comparing Strings. String Method GetHashCode. Locating Characters and Substrings in Strings. Extracting Substrings from Strings. Concatenating Strings. Miscellaneous String Methods. Class StringBuilder. StringBuilder Indexer, Length and Capacity Properties, and EnsureCapacity Method. StringBuilder Append and AppendFormat Methods. StringBuilder Insert, Remove and Replace Methods. Char Methods. Card Shuffling and Dealing Simulation. Regular Expressions and Class Regex. Summary.
13. Graphics and Multimedia.
Introduction. Graphics Contexts and Graphics Objects. Color Control. Font Control. Drawing Lines, Rectangles and Ovals. Drawing Arcs. Drawing Polygons and Polylines. Advanced Graphics Capabilities. Introduction to Multimedia. Loading, Displaying and Scaling Images. Animating a Series of Images. Windows Media Player. Microsoft Agent. Summary.
14. Files and Streams.
Introduction. Data Hierarchy. Files and Streams. Classes File and Directory. Creating a Sequential-Access File. Reading Data from a Sequential-Access File. Random-Access Files. Creating a Random-Access File. Writing Data Randomly to a Random-Access File. Reading Data Sequentially from a Random-Access File. Case Study: A Transaction-Processing Program. Summary.
15. Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Introduction. XML Documents. XML Namespaces. Document Object Model (DOM). Document Type Definitions (DTDs), Schemas and Validation. Extensible Stylesheet Language and XslTransform. Microsoft BizTalk(tm). Summary. Internet and World Wide Web Resources.
16. Database, SQL and ADO .NET.
Introduction. Relational Database Model. Relational Database Overview: Books Database. Structured Query Language (SQL). ADO .NET Object Model. Programming with ADO .NET: Extracting Information from a Database. Programming with ADO .NET: Modifying a Database. Reading and Writing XML Files. Summary.
17. ASP .NET, Web Forms and Web Controls.
Introduction. Simple HTTP Transaction. System Architecture. Creating and Running a Simple Web-Form Example. Web Controls. Session Tracking. Case Study: Online Guest book. Case Study: Connecting to a Database in ASP .NET. Tracing. Summary. Internet and Web Resources.
18. ASP .NET and Web Services.
Introduction. Web Services. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services. Publishing and Consuming Web Services. Session Tracking in Web Services. Using Web Forms and Web Services. Case Study: Temperature Information Application. User-Defined Types in Web Services. Summary. Internet and Web Resources.
19. Networking: Streams-Based Sockets and Datagrams.
Introduction. Establishing a Simple Server (Using Stream Sockets). Establishing a Simple Client (Using Stream Sockets). Client/Server Interaction via Stream-Socket Connections. Connectionless Client/Server Interaction via Datagrams. Client/Server Tic-Tac-Toe Using a Multithreaded Server. Summary.
20. Data Structures and Collections.
Introduction. Self-Referential Classes. Linked Lists. Stacks. Queues. Trees. Collection Classes. Summary.
21. Mobile Internet Toolkit.
Introduction. Mobile Internet Toolkit Client Devices. Introduction to the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit and Microsoft Mobile Web Forms. Advanced Mobile Web Forms Controls. Example: Deitel Wireless Portal. Device-Independent Web Design Using Stylesheets and Templates. Consuming a Web Service from a Mobile Application. Summary. Internet and Web Resources.
A. Operator Precedence Chart.
B. Visual Studio .NET Debugger.
Introduction. Breakpoints. Examining Data. Program Control. Additional Procedure Debugging Capabilities. Additional Class Debugging Capabilities. Summary.
C. ASCII Character Set.
D. Unicode(r).
Introduction. Unicode Transformation Formats. Characters and Glyphs. Advantages/Disadvantages of Unicode. Unicode Consortium's Web Site. Using Unicode. Character Ranges. Summary.
Bibliography.
Index.