Visual Basic

PreRequisite: Windows Basics. Students should have a good understanding of how to use Windows, and a computer in general. No prior programming experience is necessary, however familiarity with another programming language, especially BASIC, would be very helpful.

Class 1. What is Visual Basic, understanding Windows programming, understanding event-driven programming, Windows v. DOS programs, VB project components, the VB interface, building a project, what is a form, adding controls to a form, adding a button, adding code to your buttons, running a program, control properties, understanding subroutines, adding a text box, comments, string concatenation, color palette, form properties, labels, End, building a simple calculator, Val(), combo boxes, If/Then, compiling an EXE, creating your own subroutines, variables.

Class 2. Making a Celsius to Fahrenheit converstion utility, converting currency, format currency, enhancing our calculator, Form_Load event, visible property, InStr, PictureViewer, Loan Calculator, PMT function, creating an on-screen cash register, scroll bars, option groups.

Class 3. Database connectivity, creating a database table in Microsoft Access, linking text boxes to data fields, adding, editing, deleting records from your table, navigating records, output to text files, shelling out to external programs, running notepad.

Class 4. Advanced VB programming concepts, Advanced File IO, reading/writing/appending, FreeFile, implicit v. explicit variable declarations, using variable types, constants, public v. global variables, static variables, variable arrays, using a loop to access an array, multidimensional arrays, LBound, UBound, ReDim, working with Collections, defining a collection, add/remove an object to/from a collection, count items in a collection, receive a variable in a sub or function, pass variable data, select case statements, for loops, do loops, while loops, nesting loops, exit for, ByRef v. ByVal, control arrays.

Class 5. VB's options and settings, creating a splash screen, using the InputBox function, using the Enable property, hiding forms with Me.Hide, setting focus on a field with Field.SetFocus, SendKeys, handling runtime errors, using the Menu Editor, adding toolbars to your application, adding an About form, MouseMove event, MouseDown, MouseUp, creating right-click popup menus using MouseDown, KeyPress event.

Class 6. More standard controls, Timer, graphics controls (lines, circles, etc.), more with image controls, status bar control, ActiveX Controls, adding components to your toolbox, using the Microsoft Windows Common Controls, common dialog control, using the ImageList control, the calendar control, the progress bar control,  Listbox control, ComboBox control, UpDown and Slider controls, debugging your applications, On Error Goto, On Error Resume Next, using breakpoints, immediate window, watch expressions, stepping through your code line by line.

Optional Topics (time permitting): FileListBox control, Folder Control, displaying drive information, DateTimePicker, MonthView control, working with Tabs, RichTextBox control, animation control (AVI player), WebBrowser control, the MSMail control, using DataGrids, ODBC, data reports, package and deployment wizard, VBA for Microsoft Office.