Good VB LESSONS

rHistory of Visual Basic
Visual basic evolved from BASIC(Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The BASIC
language was created by Professors John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz of Dartmouth College in the mid
1960s(Deitel&Deitel, 1999) . It is a carefully constructed English-Like language basically used by the
programmers to write simple computer programs. It served the purpose of educating laymen like we all
the basic concepts of programming. From then on many versions of BASIC were developed to
accommodate different computer platforms. Some of the versions are Microsoft QBASIC,
QUICKBASIC, GWBASIC ,IBM BASICA, Apple BASIC and etc. Apple BASIC was developed by
Steve Wozniak, a former employee of Hewlett-Packard and a good friend of steve Jobs(the founded of
Apple Inc.). Steve Jobs had worked with Wozniak in the past (together they designed the arcade game
"Breakout" for Atari). They pooled their financial resources together to have PC boards made, and on
April 1st, 1976 they officially formed the Apple Computer Company.
The popularity and widespread use of BASIC with different types of computers brought further
enhancements of the language, and eventually led to the GUI-based Visual Basic in tandem with the
development of Microsoft Windows. Visual Basic made programming even easier for beginners and
season programmers alike as it save considerable programming time by providing many ready-made
components. Since then, Visual Basic has also evolved into many versions, until recently, Visual Basic
2008. However, Visual Basic 6 remains as one of the most popular version as it is easy to program and it
doesn't take up a lot of resources and memory of the computer.
The concept of computer programming

Before we begin programming, let us understand some basic concepts of programming. According to
Webopedia, a computer program is an organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes the
computer to behave in a predetermined manner. Without programs, computers are useless. Therefore,
programming means designing or creating a set of instructions to ask the computer to carry out certain
jobs which normally are very much faster than human beings can do.
A lot of people think that computer CPU is a very intelligent thing, which actual fact it is a dumb and
inanimate object that can do nothing without human assistant. The microchips of a CPU can only
understand two distinct electrical states, namely, the on and off states, or 0 and 1 codes in the binary
system. So, the CPU only understands a combinations of 0 and 1 codes, a language which we called
machine language. Machine language is extremely difficult to learn and it is not for us laymen to master
it easily. Fortunately , we have many smart programmers who wrote interpreters and compilers that can
translate human language-like programs such as BASIC into machine language so that the computer can
carry out the instructions entered by the users. Machine language is known as the primitive language
while Interpreters and compilers like Visual Basic are called high-level language. Some of the high level
computer languages beside Visual Basic are Fortran, Cobol, Java, C++, Turbo Pascal, and etc.
FORTRAN stands for FORmula TRANslator and it was developed by IBM Inc. between 1954 and 1957
which was used specifically for scientific ad engineering applications. It is still widely used today in the
engineering fields. COBOL stands for Common Business Oriented Language which was created by a
group of computer manufacturers and industrial computer users in 1959. It was designed for commercial
applications that required large amount of data processing. It is still being used today in the business
fields. C was developed by Dennis Richie at Bell Laboratories in 1972. It is a system implementation
language that was used to develop the UNIX operating system. C++ is an extension of C which was
created by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1980's. It added the OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) feature to C
and now it is the main systems implementation language (Deitel&Deitel, 1999) . PASCAL was created
by Professor Nicklaus Wirth for teaching the concepts of structured programming. Its use is primarily
confined to the academic world. JAVA is the latest but one of the hottest programming languages
developed by the Sun Microsystems in 1995. It was actually an extension of C++ but it has included
extensive libraries for doing multimedia, networking, multithreading , graphics, database access, GUI
programming. Microsoft also come out with its own version of Javawhich is known as Visual J++.
Other programming languages are Power Builder which was developed by Powersoft Corporation and
Delphi which was developed by Borland Inc.
1.1 What is computer programming?

Before we begin, let us understand some basic concepts of programming. According to Webopedia, a
computer program is an organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes the computer to
behave in a predetermined manner. Without programs, computers are useless. Therefore, programming
means designing or creating a set of instructions to ask the computer to carry out certain jobs which
normally are very much faster than human beings can do. In order to do programming, we need to use
certain computer language to communicate with the computer.There are many computer languages out
there, some of the examples are Visual Basic, Fortran, Cobol, Java, C++, Turbo Pascal, Assembly
language and etc.
Among them, I pick Visual Basic because it is the easiest to learn as it uses a language very similar to
human language. It involves using words such as If, Then, Else, Goto, Select and so on, so it is very fast
for any beginner to pick the language.
1.1 What is Visual Basic ?
VISUAL BASIC is a high level programming language which was evolved from the earlier DOS
version called BASIC. BASIC means Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It is a very
easy programming language to learn. The codes look a lot like English Language. Different software
companies produced different version of BASIC, such as Microsoft QBASIC, QUICKBASIC,
GWBASIC ,IBM BASICA and so on. However, it seems people only use Microsoft Visual Basic today,
as it is a well developed programming language and supporting resources are available everywhere.
With Visual Basic, you can program practically everything depending on your objective. For example,
you can program educational software to teach science , mathematics, language, history , geography and
so on. You can also program financial and accounting software to make you a more efficient accountant
or financial controller. For those of you who like games, you can program that as well. Indeed, there is
no limit to what you can program! There are many such program in this tutorial, so you must spend
more time on the tutorial in order to benefit the most.
VISUAL BASIC is a VISUAL and events driven Programming Language. These are the main
divergence from the old BASIC. In BASIC, programming is done in a text-only environment and the
program is executed sequentially. In VISUAL BASIC, programming is done in a graphical environment.
In the old BASIC, you have to write program codes for each graphical object you wish to display it on
screen, including its position and its color. However, In Visual Basic , you just need to drag and drop
any graphical object anywhere on the form, and you can change its color any time using the properties
windows.
On the other hand, because users may click on a certain object randomly, so each object has to be
programmed independently to be able to response to those actions (events). Therefore, a VISUAL
BASIC Program is made up of many subprograms, each has its own program codes, and each can be
executed independently and at the same time each can be linked together in one way or another.
1.2 The Visual Basic Environment

Before you can program in Visual Basic, you need to install VB6 in your computer. If you do not own
VB6 yet , you can purchase it from Amazon.com by clicking the link below:
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional

Basically any present computer systems should be able to run the program, be it a Intel Pentium II, Intel
Pentium III, Intel Pentium IV or even AMD machines, VB6 can run without any problem. It may not be
true for VB2005, older machines might not be able to run VB2005 as it take up much more resources,
therefore I still prefer using VB6 as it is light and easy to program. It is still very useful and powerful,
and I am happy to know that Microsoft Windows Vista can support VB6.
On start up, Visual Basic 6.0 will display the following dialog box as shown in figure 1.1. You can
choose to either start a new project, open an existing project or select a list of recently opened programs.
A project is a collection of files that make up your application. There are various types of applications
we could create, however, we shall concentrate on creating Standard EXE programs (EXE means
executable program). Now, click on the Standard EXE icon to go into the actual VB programming
environment.
LESSON TWO
1 Creating Your First Application
In this section, we are not going into the technical aspects of VB programming; just have a feel of it.
Now, you can try out the examples below:
Example 2.1.1 is a simple program. First of all, you have to launch Microsoft Visual Basic. Normally, a
default form Form1 will be available for you to start your new project. Now, double click on form1, the
source code window for form1 as shown in figure 2.1 will appear. The top of the source code window
consists of a list of objects and their associated events or procedures. In figure 2.1, the object displayed
is Form and the associated procedure is Load.
When you click on the object box, the drop-down list will display a list of objects you have inserted into
your form as shown in figure 2.2. Here, you can see a form, command button with the name Command1,
a Label with the name Label1 and a PictureBox with the name Picture1. Similarly, when you click on
the procedure box, a list of procedures associated with the object will be displayed as shown in figure
2.3. Some of the procedures associated with the object Form are Activate, Click, DblClick (which means
Double-Click) , DragDrop, keyPress and etc. Each object has its own set of procedures. You can always
select an object and write codes for any of its procedure in order to perform certain tasks.
You do not have to worry about the beginning and the end statements (i.e. Private Sub
Form_Load.......End Sub.); Just key in the lines in between the above two statements exactly as are
shown here. When you run the program, you will be surprise that nothing shown up .In order to display
the output of the program, you have to add the Form1.show statement like in Example 2.1.1 or you can
just use Form_Activate ( ) event procedure as shown in example 2.1.2. The command Print does not
mean printing using a printer but it means displaying the output on the computer screen. Now, press F5
or click on the run button to run the program and you will get the output as shown in figure 2.4.
You can also perform simple arithmetic calculations as shown in example 2.1.2. VB uses * to denote
the multiplication operator and / to denote the division operator. The output is shown in figure 2.3,
where the results are arranged vertically.
Figure 2.2: List of Objects
Figure 2.2: List of Procedures

Figure 2.4 : The output of example 2.1.1
Example 2.1.1
Private Sub Form_Load ( )

Form1.show
Print “Welcome to Visual Basic tutorial”
End Sub
Figure 2.5: The output of example 2.1.2

Example 2.1.2
Private Sub Form_Activate ( )
Print 20 + 10
Print 20 - 10
Print 20 * 10
Print 20 / 10
End Sub
You can also use the + or the & operator to join two or more texts (string) together like in example 2.1.4
(a) and (b)
Example 2.1.4(a)
Private Sub
A = Tom
B = “likes"
C = “to"
D = “eat"
E = “burger"
Print A + B + C + D + E
Example 2.1.4(b)
Private Sub
A = Tom
B = “likes"
C = “to"
D = “eat"
E = “burger"
Print A & B & C & D & E
The Output of Example 2.1.4(a) &(b) is as shown in Figure 2.7.
2.2 Steps in Building a Visual Basic Application
Generally, there are three basic steps in building a VB application. The steps are as follows:
Step 1 : Design the interface
Step 2 : Set Properties of the controls (Objects)
Step 3 : Write the events' procedures
LESSON 3
Lesson 3-Working With Controls
3.1 The Control Properties
Before writing an event procedure for the control to response to a user's input, you have to set certain
properties for the control to determine its appearance and how it will work with the event procedure.
You can set the properties of the controls in the properties window or at runtime.
Figure 3.1 on the right is a typical properties window for a form. You can rename the form
caption to any name that you like best. In the properties window, the item appears at the top part is the
object currently selected (in Figure 3.1, the object selected is Form1). At the bottom part, the items listed
in the left column represent the names of various properties associated with the selected object while the
items listed in the right column represent the states of the properties. Properties can be set by
highlighting the items in the right column then change them by typing or selecting the options available.
For example, in order to change the caption, just highlight Form1 under the name Caption and change it
to other names. You may also try to alter the appearance of the form by setting it to 3D or flat. Other
things you can do are to change its foreground and background color, change the font type and font size,
enable or disable minimize and maximize buttons and etc.
You can also change the properties at runtime to give special effects such as change of color, shape,
animation effect and so on. For example the following code will change the form color to red every time
the form is loaded. VB uses hexadecimal system to represent the color. You can check the color codes in
the properties windows which are showed up under ForeColor and BackColor .
Private Sub Form_Load()

Form1.Show
Form1.BackColor = &H000000FF&
End Sub
Another example is to change the control Shape to a particular shape at runtime by writing the following
code. This code will change the shape to a circle at runtime. Later you will learn how to change the
shapes randomly by using the RND function.

Shape1.Shape = 3
End Sub
Figure 3.1
I would like to stress that knowing how and when to set the objects' properties is very important as it can
help you to write a good program or you may fail to write a good program. So, I advice you to spend a
lot of time playing with the objects' properties.
I am not going into the details on how to set the properties. However, I would like to stress a few
important points about setting up the properties.
You should set the Caption Property of a control clearly so that a user knows what to do with
that command. For example, in the calculator program, all the captions of the command buttons such as
+, - , MC, MR are commonly found in an ordinary calculator, a user should have no problem in
manipulating the buttons.
A lot of programmers like to use a meaningful name for the Name Property may be because it is easier
for them to write and read the event procedure and easier to debug or modify the programs later.
However, it is not a must to do that as long as you label your objects clearly and use comments in the
program whenever you feel necessary. T
One more important property is whether the control is enabled or not.
Finally, you must also considering making the control visible or invisible at runtime, or when should it
become visible or invisible.
3.2 Handling some of the common controls
3.2.1 The Text Box

The text box is the standard control that is used to receive input from the user as well as to display the
output. It can handle string (text) and numeric data but not images or pictures. String in a text box can be
converted to a numeric data by using the function Val(text). The following example illustrates a simple
program that processes the inputs from the user.
Example 3.1
In this program, two text boxes are inserted into the form together with a few labels. The two text boxes
are used to accept inputs from the user and one of the labels will be used to display the sum of two
numbers that are entered into the two text boxes. Besides, a command button is also programmed to
calculate the sum of the two numbers using the plus operator. The program use creates a variable sum to
accept the summation of values from text box 1 and text box 2.The procedure to calculate and to display
the output on the label is shown below. The output is shown in Figure 3.2
Private Sub Command1_Click()

‘To add the values in text box 1 and text box 2
Sum = Val(Text1.Text) + Val(Text2.Text)
‘To display the answer on label 1
Label1.Caption = Sum
End Sub
Figure 3.2
3.2.2 The Label
The label is a very useful control for Visual Basic, as it is not only used to provide instructions and
guides to the users, it can also be used to display outputs. One of its most important properties is
Caption. Using the syntax label.Caption, it can display text and numeric data . You can change its
caption in the properties window and also at runtime. Please refer to Example 3.1 and Figure 3.1 for the
usage of label.
3.2.3 The Command Button
The command button is a very important control as it is used to execute commands. It displays an
illusion that the button is pressed when the user click on it. The most common event associated with the
command button is the Click event, and the syntax for the procedure is
Private Sub Command1_Click ()
Statements
End Sub
3.2.4 The Picture Box
The Picture Box is one of the controls that used to handle graphics. You can load a picture at design
phase by clicking on the picture item in the properties window and select the picture from the selected
folder. You can also load the picture at runtime using the LoadPicture method. For example, the
statement will load the picture grape.gif into the picture box.
Picture1.Picture=LoadPicture ("C:\VB program\Images\grape.gif")
You will learn more about the picture box in future lessons. The image in the picture box is not
resizable.
3.2.5 The Image Box
The Image Box is another control that handles images and pictures. It functions almost identically to the
picture box. However, there is one major difference, the image in an Image Box is stretchable, which
means it can be resized. This feature is not available in the Picture Box. Similar to the Picture Box, it
can also use the LoadPicture method to load the picture. For example, the statement loads the picture
grape.gif into the image box.
Image1.Picture=LoadPicture ("C:\VB program\Images\grape.gif")
3.2.6 The List Box

The function of the List Box is to present a list of items where the user can click and select the items
from the list. In order to add items to the list, we can use the AddItem method. For example, if you wish
to add a number of items to list box 1, you can key in the following statements
Example 3.2
List1.AddItem “Lesson1”
End Sub
The items in the list box can be identified by the ListIndex property, the value of the ListIndex for the
first item is 0, the second item has a ListIndex 1, and the second item has a ListIndex 2 and so on
3.2.7 The Combo Box

The function of the Combo Box is also to present a list of items where the user can click and select the
items from the list. However, the user needs to click on the small arrowhead on the right of the combo
box to see the items which are presented in a drop-down list. In order to add items to the list, you can
also use the AddItem method. For example, if you wish to add a number of items to Combo box 1, you
can key in the following statements
Example 3.3
Combo1.AddItem “Item1”
End Sub
3.2.8 The Check Box
The Check Box control lets the user to select or unselect an option. When the Check Box is checked, its
value is set to 1 and when it is unchecked, the value is set to 0. You can include the statements
Check1.Value=1 to mark the Check Box and Check1.Value=0 unmark the Check Box, and use them to
initiate certain actions. For example, the program will change the background color of the form to red
when the check box is unchecked and it will change to blue when the check box is checked. You will
learn about the conditional statement If….Then….Elesif in later lesson. VbRed and vbBlue are color
constants and BackColor is the background color property of the form.
3.2.9 The Option Box

The Option Box control also lets the user selects one of the choices. However, two or more Option
Boxes must work together because as one of the Option Boxes is selected, the other Option Boxes will
be unselected. In fact, only one Option Box can be selected at one time. When an option box is selected,
its value is set to “True” and when it is unselected; its value is set to “False”. In the following example,
the shape control is placed in the form together with six Option Boxes. When the user clicks on different
option boxes, different shapes will appear. The values of the shape control are 0, 1, and 2,3,4,5 which
will make it appear as a rectangle, a square, an oval shape, a rounded rectangle and a rounded square
respectively.
Example 3.4
Private Sub Option1_Click ( )
Shape1.Shape = 0
End Sub
Private Sub Option2_Click()
Shape1.Shape = 1
End Sub
Shape1.Shape = 2
End Sub
Shape1.Shape = 3
End Sub
Shape1.Shape = 4
End Sub
Shape1.Shape = 5
End Sub
3.2.10 The Drive List Box
The Drive ListBox is used to display a list of drives available in your computer. When you place this
control into the form and run the program, you will be able to select different drives from your computer
as shown in Figure 3.3
Figure 3.3 The Drive List Box

3.2.11 The Directory List Box
The Directory List Box is used to display the list of directories or folders in a selected drive. When you
place this control into the form and run the program, you will be able to select different directories from
a selected drive in your computer as shown in Figure 3.4
Figure 3.4 The Directory List Box
3.2.12 The File List Box

The File List Box is used to display the list of files in a selected directory or folder. When you place this
control into the form and run the program, you will be able to a list of files in a selected directory as
shown in Figure 3.5
You can coordinate the Drive List Box, the Directory List Box and the File List Box to search for the
files you want. The procedure will be discussed in later lessons.
LESSON 4
Lesson 4 Writing the Codes
In lesson 2, you have learned how to enter the program code and run the sample VB programs but
without much understanding about the logics of VB programming. Now, let’s get down learning a few
basic rules about writing the VB program code.
Each control or object in VB can usually run many kinds of events or procedures; these events are
listed in the dropdown list in the code window that is displayed when you double-click on an object and
click on the procedures’ box(refer to Figure 2.3). Among the events are loading a form, clicking of a
command button, pressing a key on the keyboard or dragging an object and etc. For each event, you
need to write an event procedure so that an action or a series of actions can be performed.
To start writing an event procedure, you need to double-click an object. For example, if you want to
write an event procedure when a user clicks a command button, you double-click on the command
button and an event procedure will appear as shown in Figure 2.1. It takes the following format:
Private Sub Command1_Click
(Key in your program code here)
End Sub
You then need to key-in the procedure in the space between Private Sub Command1_Click............. End
Sub. Sub actually stands for sub procedure that made up a part of all the procedures in a program. The
program code is made up of a number of statements that set certain properties or trigger some actions.
The syntax of Visual Basic’s program code is almost like the normal English language though not
exactly the same, so it is very easy to learn.
The syntax to set the property of an object or to pass certain value to it is :
Object.Property
where Object and Property is separated by a period (or dot). For example, the statement Form1.Show
means to show the form with the name Form1, Iabel1.Visible=true means label1 is set to be visible,
Text1.text=”VB” is to assign the text VB to the text box with the name Text1, Text2.text=100 is to pass
a value of 100 to the text box with the name text2, Timer1.Enabled=False is to disable the timer with the
name Timer1 and so on. Let’s examine a few examples below:
Example 4.1
Private Sub Command1_click
Label1.Visible=false
Label2.Visible=True
Text1.Text=”You are correct!”
End sub
Example 4.2
Label1.Caption=” Welcome”
Image1.visible=true
End sub
Example 4.3
Pictuire1.Show=true
Timer1.Enabled=True
Lable1.Caption=”Start Counting
End sub
In example 4.1, clicking on the command button will make label1 become invisible and label2 become
visible; and the text” You are correct” will appear in TextBox1. In example 4.2, clicking on the
command button will make the caption label1 change to “Welcome” and Image1 will become visible.
In example 4.3 , clicking on the command button will make Picture1 show up, timer starts running and
the caption of label1 change to “Start Counting”.
Syntaxes that do not involve setting of properties are also English-like, some of the commands are
Print, If…Then….Else….End If, For…Next, Select Case…..End Select , End and Exit Sub. For
example, Print “ Visual Basic” is to display the text Visual Basic on screen and End is to end the
program. Other commands will be explained in details in the coming lessons.
Program codes that involve calculations is very easy to write, you need to write them almost liket what
you do in mathematics. However, in order to write an event procedure that involves calculations, you
need to know the basic arithmetic operators in VB as they are not exactly the same as the normal
operators we use, except for + and - . For multiplication, we use *, for division we use /, for raising a
number x to the power of n, we use x ^n and for square root, we use Sqr(x). More advanced
mathematical functions such as Sin, Cos, Tan , Log and etc. There are also two important functions that
are related to arithmetic operations, i.e. the functions Val and Str$ where Val is to convert text entered
into a textbox to numerical value and Str$ is to display a numerical value in a textbox as a string (text).
While the function Str$ is as important as VB can display a numeric values as string implicitly, failure to
use Val will results in wrong calculation. Let’s examine example 4.4 and example 4.5. Example 4.4
Private Sub Form_Activate()

Text3.text=text1.text+text2.text
End Sub
Example 4.5
Text3.text=val(text1.text)+val(text2.text)
End Sub
When you run the program in example 4.4 and enter 12 in textbox1 and 3 in textbox2 will give you a
result of 123, which is wrong. It is because VB treat the numbers as string and so it just joins up the two
strings. On the other hand, running exampled 4.5 will give you the correct result, i.e., 15.
LESSON 5
Managing Visual Basic Data
here are many types of data that we come across in our daily life. For example, we need to handle data
such as names, addresses, money, date, stock quotes, statistics and etc everyday. Similarly in Visual
Basic, we have to deal with all sorts of of data. VB divides data into different types so that it is easier
for us to manage.
5.1 Types of Visual Basic Data

5.1.1 Numeric Data
Numeric data are data that consist of numbers, which can be computed mathematically with various
standard operators such as add, minus, multiply, divide and so on. In Visual Basic, numeric data are
divided into 7 types, they are summarized in Table 5.1
5.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types

Nonnumeric data types are data that cannot be manipulated mathematically using standard arithmetic
operators.
They are summarized in Table 5.2

Table 5.1: Numeric Data Types
Type
Storage
Range of Values
Byte
1 byte
0 to 255
Integer
2 bytes
-32,768 to 32,767
Long
4 bytes
-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,648
Single
4 bytes
-3.402823E+38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values
1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E+38 for positive values.
Double
8 bytes
-1.79769313486232e+308 to -4.94065645841247E-324 for negative values
4.94065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232e+308 for positive values.
Currency
8 bytes
-922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807
Decimal
12 bytes
+/- 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 if no decimal is use
+/- 7.9228162514264337593543950335 (28 decimal places).
Table 5.2: Nonnumeric Data Types

Data Type
Storage
Range
String(fixed length)
Length of string
1 to 65,400 characters
String(variable length)
Length + 10 bytes
0 to 2 billion characters
Date
8 bytes
January 1, 100 to December 31, 9999
Boolean
2 bytes
True or False
Object
4 bytes
Any embedded object
Variant(numeric)
16 bytes
Any value as large as Double
Variant(text)
Length+22 bytes
Same as variable-length string
5.1.3 Suffixes for Literals

Literals are values that you assign to a data. In some cases, we need to add a suffix behind a literal so
that VB can handle the calculation more accurately. For example, we can use num=1.3089# for a
Double type data. Some of the suffixes are displayed in Table 5.3.
Table 5.3
Suffix
Data Type
&
Long
!
Single
#
Double
@
Currency
In addition, we need to enclose string literals within two quotations and date and time literals within two
# sign. Strings can contain any characters, including numbers. The following are few examples:
memberName="Turban, John."
TelNumber="1800-900-888-777"
LastDay=#31-Dec-00#
ExpTime=#12:00 am#
5.2 Managing Variables

Variables are like mail boxes in the post office. The contents of the variables changes every now and
then, just like the mail boxes. In term of VB, variables are areas allocated by the computer memory to
hold data. Like the mail boxes, each variable must be given a name. To name a variable in Visual Basic,
you have to follow a set of rules.
5.2.1 Variable Names

The following are the rules when naming the variables in Visual Basic
It must be less than 255 characters
No spacing is allowed
It must not begin with a number
Period is not permitted
Examples of valid and invalid variable names are displayed in Table 5.4
Table 5.4
Valid Name
Invalid Name
My_Car
My.Car
ThisYear
1NewBoy
Long_Name_Can_beUSE
He&HisFather *& is not acceptable
5.2.2 Declaring Variables

In Visual Basic, one needs to declare the variables before using them by assigning names and data types.
They are normally declared in the general section of the codes' windows using the Dim statement.
The format is as follows:
Dim variableNmae as DataType
Example 5.1
Dim password As String
Dim yourName As String
Dim firstnum As Integer
Dim secondnum As Integer
Dim total As Integer
Dim doDate As Date
You may also combine them in one line , separating each variable with a comma, as follows:
Dim password As String, yourName As String, firstnum As Integer,.............
If data type is not specified, VB will automatically declare the variable as a Variant.
For string declaration, there are two possible formats, one for the variable-length string and another for
the fixed-length string. For the variable-length string, just use the same format as example 5.1 above.
However, for the fixed-length string, you have to use the format as shown below:
Dim VariableName as String * n, where n defines the number of characters the string can hold.
Example 5.2:
Dim yourName as String * 10
yourName can holds no more than 10 Characters.
LESSON 6
Lesson 6: Working with Variables
6.1 Assigning Values to Variables
After declaring various variables using the Dim statements, we can assign values to those variables. The
general format of an assignment is
Variable=Expression
The variable can be a declared variable or a control property value. The expression could be a
mathematical expression, a number, a string, a Boolean value (true or false) and etc. The following are
some examples:
firstNumber=100
secondNumber=firstNumber-99
userName="John Lyan"
userpass.Text = password
Label1.Visible = True
Command1.Visible = false
Label4.Caption = textbox1.Text
ThirdNumber = Val(usernum1.Text)
total = firstNumber + secondNumber+ThirdNumber
6.2 Operators in Visual Basic

In order to compute inputs from users and to generate results, we need to use various mathematical
operators. In Visual Basic, except for + and -, the symbols for the operators are different from normal
mathematical operators, as shown in Table 6.1.
Table 6.1: Arithmetic Operators
Operator
Mathematical function
Example
^
Exponential
2^4=16
*
Multiplication
4*3=12, (5*6))2=60
/
Division
12/4=3
Mod
Modulus(return the remainder from an integer division)
15 Mod 4=3 255 mod 10=5
\
Integer Division(discards the decimal places)
19\4=4
+ or &
String concatenation
"Visual"&"Basic"="Visual Basic"
Example 6.1
Dim firstName As String
Dim secondName As String
Dim yourName As String
firstName = Text1.Text
secondName = Text2.Text
yourName = secondName + " " + firstName
Label1.Caption = yourName
End Sub
In this example, three variables are declared as string. For variables firstName and secondName will
receive their data from the user’s input into textbox1 and textbox2, and the variable yourName will be
assigned the data by combining the first two variables. Finally, yourName is displayed on Label1.
Example 6.2
Dim number1, number2, number3 as Integer
Dim total, average as variant
Private sub Form_Click
number1=val(Text1.Text)
number2=val(Text2.Text)
number3= val(Text3.Text)
Total=number1+number2+number3
Average=Total/5
Label1.Caption=Total
Label2.Caption=Average
End Sub
In the example above, three variables are declared as integer and two variables are declared as variant.
Variant means the variable can hold any numeric data type. The program computes the total and average
of the three numbers that are entered into three text boxes.
LESSON 7
Lesson 7 : Controlling Program Flow
7.1 Conditional Operators
To control the VB program flow, we can use various conditional operators. Basically, they resemble
mathematical operators. Conditional operators are very powerful tools, they let the VB program
compare data values and then decide what action to take, whether to execute a program or terminate the
program and etc. These operators are shown in Table 7.1.
7.2 Logical Operators
In addition to conditional operators, there are a few logical operators which offer added power to the VB
programs. There are shown in Table 7.2. Table 7.1: Conditional OperatorsOperator
Meaning
=
Equal to
>
More than
<
Less Than
>=
More than and equal
<=
Less than and equal
<>
Not Equal to
Table 7.2
Operator
Meaning
And
Both sides must be true
or
One side or other must be true
Xor
One side or other must be true but not both
Not
Negates truth
* You can also compare strings with the above operators. However, there are certain rules to follows:
Upper case letters are less than lowercase letters, "A"<"B"<"C"<"D".......<"Z" and number are less than
letters.
7.3 Using If.....Then.....Else Statements with Operators

To effectively control the VB program flow, we shall use If...Then...Else statement together with the
conditional operators and logical operators.
The general format for the if...then...else statement is
If conditions Then
VB expressions
Else
VB expressions
End If
* any If..Then..Else statement must end with End If. Sometime it is not necessary to use Else.
Example:
Private Sub OK_Click()
firstnum = Val(usernum1.Text)
secondnum = Val(usernum2.Text)
total = Val(sum.Text)
If total = firstnum + secondnum And Val(sum.Text) <> 0 Then
correct.Visible = True
wrong.Visible = False
Else
correct.Visible = False
wrong.Visible = True
End If
End Sub
LESSON 8
Lesson 8 : More On Program Control
1 Select Case
If you have a lot of conditional statements, using If..Then..Else could be very messy. For multiple
conditional statements, it is better to use Select Case
The format is :
Select Case expression

Case value1
Block of one or more VB statements
Case value2
Block of one or more VB Statements
Case value3
Case value4
.
.
.
Case Else
Block of one or more VB Statements
End Select
• The data type specified in expression must match that of Case values.
• Example 8.1
•
• ' Examination Grades
• Dim grade As String
• Private Sub Compute_Click( )
• grade=txtgrade.Text
• Select Case grade
• Case "A"
• result.Caption="High Distinction"
• Case "A-"
• result.Caption="Distinction"
• Case "B"
• result.Caption="Credit"
• Case "C"
• result.Caption="Pass"
• Case Else
• result.Caption="Fail"
• End Select
Example 8.2
Dim mark As Single
Private Sub Compute_Click()
'Examination Marks
mark = mrk.Text
Select Case mark
Case Is >= 85
comment.Caption = "Excellence"
Case Is >= 70
comment.Caption = "Good"
Case Is >= 60
comment.Caption = "Above Average"
Case Is >= 50
comment.Caption = "Average"
Case Else
comment.Caption = "Need to work harder"
End Select
End Sub
Example 8.3
Example 8.2 could be rewritten as follows:
Dim mark As Single

Private Sub Compute_Click()
'Examination Marks
mark = mrk.Text
Select Case mark
Case 0 to 49
comment.Caption = "Need to work harder"
Case 50 to 59
comment.Caption = "Average"
Case 60 to 69
comment.Caption = "Above Average"
Case 70 to 84
comment.Caption = "Good"
Case Else
comment.Caption = "Excellence"
End Select
End Sub
LESSON 9
Looping
Visual Basic allows a procedure to be repeated as many times as long as the processor could support.
This is generally called looping .
9.1 Do Loop
The format are
a) Do While condition
Loop
b) Do
Loop While condition
c) Do Until condition
Loop
d) Do
Loop Until condition
9.2 Exiting the Loop

Sometime we need exit to exit a loop prematurely because of a certain condition is fulfilled. The syntax
to use is known as Exit Do. Lets examine the folowing example
9.3 For....Next Loop
The format is:
For counter=startNumber to endNumber (Step increment)
One or more VB statements
Next
Pease refer to example 9.3a,9.3b and 9.3 c
Sometimes the user might want to get out from the loop before the whole repetitive process is executed,
the command to use is Exit For. To exit a For….Next Loop, you can place the Exit For statement within
the loop; and it is normally used together with the If…..Then… statement. Let’s examine example 9.3 d.
example 9.1
Do while counter <=1000
num.Text=counter
counter =counter+1
Loop
* The above example will keep on adding until counter >1000.
The above example can be rewritten as
Do
num.Text=counter
counter=counter+1
Loop until counter>1000
example 9.2
Dim sum, n As Integer
List1.AddItem "n" & vbTab & "sum"
Do
n=n+1
Sum = Sum + n
List1.AddItem n & vbTab & Sum
If n = 100 Then
Exit Do
End If
Loop
End Sub
Explanation
In the above example, we find the summation of 1+2+3+4+……+100. In the design stage, you need to
insert a ListBox into the form for displaying the output, named List1. The program uses the AddItem
method to populate the ListBox. The statement List1.AddItem "n" & vbTab & "sum" will display the
headings in the ListBox, where it uses the vbTab function to create a space between the headings n and
sum.
Example 9.3 a
For counter=1 to 10
display.Text=counter
Next
Example 9.3 b
For counter=1 to 1000 step 10
counter=counter+1
Next
Example 9.3 c
For counter=1000 to 5 step -5
counter=counter-10
Next
*Notice that increment can be negative
Example 9.3 d
Private Sub Form_Activate( )
For n=1 to 10
If n>6 then
Exit For
End If
Else
Print n
End If
End Sub
LESSON 10
Introduction to VB Functions Part I-Built-in Functions
A function is similar to a normal procedure but the main purpose of the functios is to accept a certain
input and return a value which is passed on to the main program to finish the execution. There are two
types of functions, the built-in functions (or internal functions) and the functions created by the
programmers.
The general format of a function is

FunctionName (arguments)
The arguments are values that are passed on to the function.
In this lesson, we are going to learn two very basic but useful internal functions of Visual basic , i.e. the
MsgBox( ) and InputBox ( ) functions. You can also learn about mathematical functions, formatting
functions and string manipulation functions by clicking the links at the end of this page.
10.1 MsgBox ( ) Function

The objective of MsgBox is to produce a pop-up message box and prompt the user to click on a
command button before he /she can continues. This format is as follows:
yourMsg=MsgBox(Prompt, Style Value, Title)
The first argument, Prompt, will display the message in the message box. The Style Value will
determine what type of command buttons appear on the message box, please refer Table 10.1 for types
of command button displayed. The Title argument will display the title of the message board.
Table 10.1: Style Values
Style Value Named Constant Buttons Displayed
0 vbOkOnly Ok button
1 vbOkCancel Ok and Cancel buttons
2 vbAbortRetryIgnore Abort, Retry and Ignore buttons.
3 vbYesNoCancel Yes, No and Cancel buttons
4 vbYesNo Yes and No buttons
5 vbRetryCancelRetry and Cancel buttons
We can use named constant in place of integers for the second argument to make the programs more
readable. In fact, VB6 will automatically shows up a list of names constant where you can select one of
them.
example: yourMsg=MsgBox( "Click OK to Proceed", 1, "Startup Menu")
and yourMsg=Msg("Click OK to Proceed". vbOkCancel,"Startup Menu")

are the same.
yourMsg is a variable that holds values that are returned by the MsgBox ( ) function. The values are
determined by the type of buttons being clicked by the users. It has to be declared as Integer data type in
the procedure or in the general declaration section. Table 10.2 shows the values, the corresponding
named constant and buttons.
Table 10.2 : Return Values and Command Buttons Value Named Constant Button Clicked
1 vbOk Ok button
2 vbCancel Cancel button
3 vbAbort Abort button
4 vbRetry Retry button
5 vbIgnore Ignore button
6 vbYes Yes button
7 vbNo No button
Example 10.1
i. The Interface:
You draw three command buttons and a label as shown in Figure 10.1
Figure 10.1
ii. The procedure for the test button:

Private Sub Test_Click()
Dim testmsg As Integer
testmsg = MsgBox("Click to test", 1, "Test message")
If testmsg = 1 Then
Display.Caption = "Testing Successful"
Else
Display.Caption = "Testing fail"
End If
End Sub
When a user click on the test button, the image like the one shown in Figure 10.2 will appear. As the
user click on the OK button, the message "Testing successful" will be displayed and when he/she clicks
on the Cancel button, the message "Testing fail" will be displayed.
Figure 10.2
To make the message box looks more sophisticated, you can add an icon besides the message. There are
four types of icons available in VB as shown in Table 10.3
Table 10.3Value Named Constant

Icon
16 vbCritical
32 vbQuestion
48 vbExclamation
64 vbInformation
xample 10.2
You draw the same Interface as in example 10.1 but modify the codes as follows:
Private Sub test2_Click()
Dim testMsg2 As Integer
testMsg2 = MsgBox("Click to Test", vbYesNoCancel + vbExclamation, "Test Message")
If testMsg2 = 6 Then
display2.Caption = "Testing successful"
ElseIf testMsg2 = 7 Then
display2.Caption = "Are you sure?"
Else
display2.Caption = "Testing fail"
End If
End Sub
In this example, the following message box will be displayed:

Figure 10.3
10.2 The InputBox( ) FunctionAn InputBox( ) function will display a message box where the user can
enter a value or a message in the form of text. The format is
myMessage=InputBox(Prompt, Title, default_text, x-position, y-position)

myMessage is a variant data type but typically it is declared as string, which accept the message input by
the users. The arguments are explained as follows:
Prompt - The message displayed normally as a question asked.

Title - The title of the Input Box.
default-text - The default text that appears in the input field where users can use it as his intended input
or he may change to the message he wish to key in.
x-position and y-position - the position or the coordinate of the input box.
Example 10.3
i. The Interface
Figure 10.4
i. The procedure for the OK button

Private Sub OK_Click()
Dim userMsg As String
userMsg = InputBox("What is your message?", "Message Entry Form", "Enter your messge here", 500,
700)
If userMsg <> "" Then
message.Caption = userMsg
Else
message.Caption = "No Message"
End If
End Sub
When a user click the OK button, the input box as shown in Figure 10.5 will appear. After user entering
the message and click OK, the message will be displayed on the caption, if he click Cancel, "No
message" will be displayed.
LESSON 11 http://www.vbtutor.net/lesson11.html
Lesson 11: Introduction to VB Functions- Part II
11.1 Creating Your Own Functions
The general format of a function is as follows:
Public Function functionName (Arg As dataType,..........) As dataType
or
Private Function functionName (Arg As dataType,..........) As dataType
* Public indicates that the function is applicable to the whole program and
Private indicates that the function is only applicable to a certain module or procedure.
Example 11.1
In this example, a user can calculate future value of a certain amount of money he has today based on
the interest rate and the number of years from now supposing he will invest this amount of money
somewhere .The calculation is based on the compound interest rate.
Public Function FV(PV As Variant, i As Variant, n As Variant) As Variant

'Formula to calculate Future Value(FV)
'PV denotes Present Value
FV = PV * (1 + i / 100) ^ n
End Function
Private Sub compute_Click()

'This procedure will calculate Future Value
Dim FutureVal As Variant
Dim PresentVal As Variant
Dim interest As Variant
Dim period As Variant
PresentVal = PV.Text
interest = rate.Text
period = years.Text
FutureVal = FV(PresentVal, interest, period)

MsgBox ("The Future Value is " & FutureVal)
End Sub
Example 11.2
The following program will automatically compute examination grades based on the marks that a
student obtained.
Public Function grade(mark As Variant) As String
Select Case mark
Case Is >= 80
grade = "A"
Case Is >= 70
grade = "B"
Case Is >= 60
grade = "C"
Case Is >= 50
grade = "D"
Case Is >= 40
grade = "E"
Case Else
grade = "F"
End Select
End Function
Private Sub compute_Click()
grading.Caption = grade(mark)
LESSON 12
Lesson 12: Creating VB Functions For MS Excel
12.2 The Needs to Create User-Defined Functions in MS-Excel
You can create your own functions to supplement the built-in functions in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
which are quite limited. These functions could be very useful and powerful if you know how to program
them properly. One main reason we need to create user defined functions is to enable us to customize
our spreadsheet environment for individual needs. For example, we might need a function that could
calculate commissions payment based on the sales volume, which is quite difficult if not impossible by
using the built-in function alone. Lets look at the table below:
Table 12.1: Commissions Payment Table

Sales Volume($) Commissons
<500 3%
<1000 6%
<2000 9%
<5000 12%
>5000 15%
n table 12.1, when a saleman attain a sale volume of $6000, he will be paid $6000x12%=$720.00. A
visual basic function to calculate the commissions can be written as follows:
Function Comm(Sales_V As Variant) as Variant
If Sales_V <500 Then
Comm=Sales_V*0.03
Elseif Sales_V>=500 and Sales_V<1000 Then
Comm=Sales_V*0.06
Comm=Sales_V*0.09
Comm=Sales_V*0.12
Elseif Sales_V>=5000 Then
Comm=Sales_V*0.15
End If
End Function
Upon clicking the Visual Basic Editor, the VB Editor windows will appear as shown in figure 12.2. To
create a function, type in the function as illustrated in section 12.1 above After typing, save the file and
then return to the Excel windows.
Figure 12.2 : The VB Editor

Figure 12.3: MS Excel Windows- Sales Volume
lesson 13
Lesson 13: Arrays
13.1 Introduction to Arrays
By definition, an array is a list of variables, all with the same data type and name. When we work with a
single item, we only need to use one variable. However, if we have a list of items which are of similar
type to deal with, we need to declare an array of variables instead of using a variable for each item. For
example, if we need to enter one hundred names, we might have difficulty in declaring 100 different
names, this is a waste of time and efforts. So, instead of declaring one hundred different variables, we
need to declare only one array. We differentiate each item in the array by using subscript, the index
value of each item, for example name(1), name(2),name(3) .......etc. , which will make declaring
variables streamline and much systematic.
13.2 Dimension of an Array

An array can be one dimensional or multidimensional. One dimensional array is like a list of items or a
table that consists of one row of items or one column of items. A twodimensional array will be a table of
items that make up of rows and columns. While the format for a one dimensional array is
ArrayName(x), the format for a two dimensional array is ArrayName(x,y) while a three dimensional
array is ArrayName(x,y,z) . Normally it is sufficient to use one dimensional and two dimensional
array ,you only need to use higher dimensional arrays if you need with engineering problems or even
some accounting problems.Let me illustrates the the arrays with tables.
Table 13.1. One dimensional Array

Student Name Name(1) Name(2) Name(3) Name(4) Name(5) Name(6)
Table 13.2 Two Dimensional ArrayName(1,1) Name(1,2) Name(1,3) Name(1,4)

Name(2,1) Name(2,2) Name(2,3) Name(2,4)
Name(3,1) Name(3,2) Name(3,3) Name(3,4)
3.2 Declaring Arrays

We could use Public or Dim statement to declare an array just as the way we declare a single variable.
The Public statement declares an array that can be used throughout an application while the Dim
statement declare an array that could be used only in a local procedure.
The general format to declare a one dimensional array is as follow:
Dim arrayName(subs) as dataType
where subs indicates the last subscript in the array.
Example 13.1
Dim CusName(10) as String
will declare an array that consists of 10 elements if the statement Option Base 1 appear in the declaration
area, starting from CusName(1) to CusName(10). Otherwise, there will be 11 elements in the array
starting from CusName(0) through to CusName(10) CusName(1) CusName(2) CusName(3)
CusName(4) CusName(5) CusName(6) CusName(7) CusName(8) CusName(9)
CusName(10)
Example 13.2
Dim Count(100 to 500) as Integer
declares an array that consists of the first element starting from Count(100) and ends at Count(500)
The general format to declare a two dimensional array is as follow:

Dim ArrayName(Sub1,Sub2) as dataType
Example 13.3
Dim StudentName(10,10) will declare a 10x10 table make up of 100 students' Names, starting with
StudentName(1,1) and end with StudentName(10,10).
13.3 Sample Programs
(i) The codes
Dim studentName(10) As String
Dim num As Integer
Private Sub addName()
For num = 1 To 10
studentName(num) = InputBox("Enter the student name", "Enter Name", "", 1500, 4500)
If studentName(num) <> "" Then
Form1.Print studentName(num)
Else
End
End If
Next
End Sub
The above program accepts data entry through an input box and displays the entries in the form itself.
As you can see, this program will only allows a user to enter 10 names each time he click on the start
button.
(ii) The Codes

Dim studentName(10) As String
Dim num As Integer
Private Sub addName( )
For num = 1 To 10
studentName(num) = InputBox("Enter the student name")
List1.AddItem studentName(num)
Next
End Sub
Private Sub Start_Click()
addName
End Sub
The above program accepts data entries through an InputBox and displays the items in a list box.
LESSON 14
Lesson 14: Working with Files
4.1 Introduction
Up until lesson 13 we are only creating programs that could accept data at runtime, when the program is
terminated, the data also disappear. Is it possible to save data accepted by a VB program into a storage
device, such as a hard disk or diskette, or even CDRW? The answer is possible. In this chapter, we will
learn how to create files by writing them into a storage device and then retrieve the data by reading the
contents of the files using a customized VB program.
14.2 Creating files
To create a file , we use the following command
Open "fileName" For Output As #fileNumber
Each file created must have a file name and a file number for identification. As for the file name, you
must also specify the path where the file will reside.
Examples:
Open "c:\My Documents\sample.txt" For Output As #1
will create a text file by the name of sample.txt in My Document folder. The accompany file number is
1. If you wish to create and save the file in A drive, simply change the path, as follows"
Open "A:\sample.txt" For Output As #1
If you wish to create a HTML file , simply change the extension to .html
Open "c:\My Documents\sample.html" For Output As # 2
14.2.1 Sample Program : Creating a text file

Private Sub create_Click()
Dim intMsg As String
Dim StudentName As String
Open "c:\My Documents\sample.txt" For Output As #1
intMsg = MsgBox("File sample.txt opened")
StudentName = InputBox("Enter the student Name")
Print #1, StudentName
intMsg = MsgBox("Writing a" & StudentName & " to sample.txt ")
Close #1
intMsg = MsgBox("File sample.txt closed")
End Sub
• The above program will create a file sample.txt in the My Documents' folder and ready to
receive input from users. Any data input by users will be saved in this text file.
Example 14.3.2 Creating and Reading files using Common Dialog Box
This example uses the common dialog box to create and read the text file, which is
much easier than the previous examples as many operations are handled by the
common dialog box. The following is the program:
Dim linetext As String
Private Sub open_Click()
CommonDialog1.Filter = "Text files{*.txt)|*.txt"
CommonDialog1.ShowOpen
If CommonDialog1.FileName <> "" Then
Open CommonDialog1.FileName For Input As #1
Do
Input #1, linetext
Text1.Text = Text1.Text & linetext
Loop Until EOF(1)
End If
Close #1
End Sub
Private Sub save_Click()
CommonDialog1.Filter = "Text files{*.txt)|*.txt"
CommonDialog1.ShowSave
If CommonDialog1.FileName <> "" Then
Open CommonDialog1.FileName For Output As #1
Print #1, Text1.Text
Close #1
End If
End Sub
The syntax CommonDialog1.Filter = "Text files{*.txt)|*.txt" ensures that only the textfile is read or
saved .The statement CommonDialog1.ShowOpen is to display the
open file dialog box and the statement CommonDialog1.ShowSave is to display the
save file dialog box. Text1.Text = Text1.Text & linetext is to read the data and display
them in the Text1 textbox
The Output window is shown below:

LESSON 15
Lesson 15: Creating Multimedia Applications-Part I
You can create various multimedia applications in VB that could play audio CD, audiofiles, VCD ,
video files and etc.
To be able to play multimedia files or multimedia devices, you have to insert Microsoft Multimedia
Control into your VB applications
that you are going to create. However, Microsoft Multimedia Control is not normally included in the
startup toolbox, therefore you need
to add the MM control by pressing Ctrl+T and select it from the components dialog box that is
displayed.
15.1 Creating a CD player

a) The Interface.

'To position the page at the center
Left = (Screen.Width - Width) \ 2
Top = (Screen.Height - Height) \ 2
'Initialize the CD
myCD.Command = "Open"
End Sub
Private Sub myCD_StatusUpdate()
'Update the track number
trackNum.Caption = myCD.Track
End Sub
Private Sub Next_Click()
myCD.Command = "Next"
End Sub
Private Sub Play_Click()
myCD.Command = "Play"
End Sub
Private Sub Previous_Click()
myCD.Command = "Prev"
End Sub
Private Sub Stop_Click()
myCD.Command = "Stop"
End Sub
LESSON 16
Lesson 16: Creating Multimedia Applications-Part II
In previous lesson, we have programmed a CD player. Now, with some modifications, we will transform
the CD player into an audio file player. This player will be created in such a way that it could search for
wave and midi files in your drives and play them.
In this project, you need to insert a ComboBox, a DriveListBox, a DirListBox, a TextBox and a
FileListBox into your form.I Shall briefly discuss the function of each of the above controls. Besides,
you must also insert Microsoft Multimedia Control(MMControl) in your form , you may make it visible
or invisible. In my program, I choose to make it invisible so that I can use the command buttons created
to control the player.
ComboBox- to display and enable selection of different type of files.
DriveListBox- to allow selection selection of different drives available on your PC.
DirListBox - To display directories
TextBox - To display selected files
FileListBox- To display files that are available
Relevant code must be written to coordinate all the above controls so that the application can work
properly. The program should follow in the following logical way:
Step 1: User choose the type of files he wants to play.
Step2:User selects the drive that might contains the relevant audio files.
Step 3:User looks into directories and subdirectories for the files specified in step1. The files should be
displayed in the FileListBox.
Step 4: User selects the files from the FileListBox and click the Play button.
Step 5: User click on the Stop to stop playing and Exit button to end the application.
The Code
Private Sub Combo1_Change()
' to determine file type
If ListIndex = 0 Then
File1.Pattern = ("*.wav")
ElseIf ListIndex = 1 Then
File1.Pattern = ("*.mid")
Else
Fiel1.Pattern = ("*.*")
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Dir1_Change()
'To change directories and subdirectories(or folders and subfolders)
File1.Path = Dir1.Path
If Combo1.ListIndex = 0 Then
ElseIf Combo1.ListIndex = 1 Then
Else
File1.Pattern = ("*.*")
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Drive1_Change()

'To change drives
Dir1.Path = Drive1.Drive
End Sub
Private Sub File1_Click()
Else
End If
If Right(File1.Path, 1) <> "\" Then
filenam = File1.Path + "\" + File1.FileName
Else
filenam = File1.Path + File1.FileName
End If
Text1.Text = filenam
End Sub
'To center the Audioplayer startup page
Combo1.Text = "*.wav"
Combo1.AddItem "*.wav"
Combo1.AddItem "*.mid"
Combo1.AddItem "All files"
End Sub
Private Sub play_Click()
'To play WaveAudio file or Midi File
Command2_Click
AudioPlayer.DeviceType = "WaveAudio"
AudioPlayer.DeviceType = "Sequencer"
End If
AudioPlayer.FileName = Text1.Text
AudioPlayer.Command = "Open"
AudioPlayer.Command = "Play"
End Sub
Private Sub stop_Click()
If AudioPlayer.Mode = 524 Then Exit Sub
If AudioPlayer.Mode <> 525 Then
AudioPlayer.Wait = True
AudioPlayer.Command = "Stop"
End If
AudioPlayer.Wait = True
AudioPlayer.Command = "Close"
End Sub
　
LESSON 17
Lesson 17: Creating Multimedia Applications-Part
In lesson 16, we have created an audio player. Now, with some modifications, we will transform the
audio player into a picture viewer. This viewer will be created in such a way that it could search for all
types of graphics your drives and displays them.
Similar to the previous project, in this project, you need to insert a ComboBox, a DriveListBox, a
DirListBox, a TextBox and a FileListBox into your form. I Shall briefly explain again the function of
each of the above controls.
Relevant codes must be written to coordinate all the above controls so that the application can work
properly. The program should flow in the following logical way:
Step2:User selects the drive that might contains the relevant graphic files.
Step 4: User selects the files from the FileListBox and click the Show button.
Step 5: User click on Exit button to end the application.
The Interface
The Code
Combo1.Text = "All graphic files"

Combo1.AddItem "All graphic files"
End Sub
　Private Sub Combo1_Change()
File1.Pattern = ("*.bmp;*.wmf;*.jpg;*.gif")
Else
End If
End Sub
End Sub
End Sub
Else
End If

Else
End If
End Sub
Private Sub show_Click()
Else
End If
picture1.Picture = LoadPicture(filenam)
End Sub
　
LESSON 18
Lesson 18: Creating Multimedia Applications-Part IV: A Multimedia Player
n lesson 16, we have created an audio player. Now, with some modifications, we will transform the
audio player into a multimedia player that could play all kinds of movie files besides audio files. This
player will be created in such a way that it could search for all types of graphics your drives and play
them.
In this project, you need to insert a ComboBox, a DriveListBox, a DirListBox, a TextBox ,a FileListBox
and a picture box (for playing movie) into your form. I Shall briefly discuss the function of each of the
above controls. Besides, you must also insert Microsoft Multimedia Control(MMControl) in your form ,
you may make it visible or invisible. In my program, I choose to make it invisible so that I could use the
command buttons created to control the player.
Relevant codes must be written to coordinate all the above controls so that the application can work
properly. The program should flow in the following logical way:
Step2:User selects the drive that might contains the relevant audio files.
Step 4: User selects the files from the FileListBox and click the Play button.
Step 5: User click on the Stop to stop playing and Exit button to end the application.
The Interface
the Codes
Combo1.Text = "*.wav"
Combo1.AddItem "*.wav"
Combo1.AddItem "*.mid"
Combo1.AddItem "*.avi;*.mpg"
End Sub
Private Sub Combo1_Change()

File1.Pattern = ("*.avi;*.mpg")
Else
End If
End Sub

Else
End If
End Sub

End Sub

Else
End If

Else
End If
End Sub
Private Sub play_Click()

MMPlayer.FileName = Text1.Text
MMPlayer.Command = "Open"
MMPlayer.Command = "Play"
MMPlayer.hWndDisplay = videoscreen.hWnd
End Sub
Private Sub stop_Click()

If MMPlayer.Mode = 524 Then Exit Sub
If MMPlayer.Mode <> 525 Then
MMPlayer.Wait = True
MMPlayer.Command = "Stop"
End If
MMPlayer.Wait = True
MMPlayer.Command = "Close"
End Sub
LESSON 19
Lesson 19: Creating database applications in VB-Part I
Visual basic allows us to manage databases created with different database programs such as MS
Access, Dbase, Paradox and etc. In this lesson, we are not dealing with how to create database files but
we will see how we can access database files in the VB environment.
In the following example, we will create a simple database application which enable one to browse
customers' names. To create this application, insert the data control into the new form. Place the data
control somewhere at the bottom of the form. Name the data control as data_navigator. To be able to use
the data control, we need to connect it to any database. We can create a database file using any database
application but I suggest we use the database files that come with VB6. Let select NWIND.MDB as our
database file. To connect the data control to this database, double-click the DatabaseName property in
the properties window and select the above file, i.e NWIND.MDB. Next, double-click on the
RecordSource property to select the customers table from the database. You can also change the caption
of the data control to anything but I use "Click to browse Customers" here. After that, we will place a
label and change its caption to Customer Name. Last but not least, insert another label and name it as
cus_name and leave the label empty as customers' names will appear here when we click the arrows on
the data control. We need to bind this label to the data control for the application to work. To do this,
open the label's DataSource and select data_navigator that will appear automatically. One more thing
that we need to do is to bind the label to the correct field so that data in this field will appear on this
label. To do this, open the DataField property and select ContactName. Now, press F5 and run the
program. You should be able to browse all the customers' names by clicking the arrows on the data
control.
The Design Interface.
The Runtime Interface

ou can also add other fields using exactly the same method. For example, you can add adress, City and
telephone number to the database browser.
LESSON 20
Lesson 20: Creating database applications in VB-Part II
In Lesson 19, you have learned how to create a simple database application using data control. In this
lesson, you will work on the same application but use some slightly more advance commands. The data
control support some methods that are useful in manipulating the database, for example, to move the
pointer to a certain location. The following are some of the commands that you can use to move the
pointer around:
data_navigator.RecordSet.MoveFirst ' Move to the first record
data_navigator.RecordSet.MoveLast ' Move to the last record
data_navigator.RecordSet.MoveNext ' Move to the next record
data_navigator.RecordSet.Previous ' Move to the first record
You can also add, save and delete records using the following commands:
data_navigator.RecordSet.AddNew ' Adds a new record
data_navigator.RecordSet.Update ' Updates and saves the new record
data_navigator.RecordSet.Delete ' Deletes a current record
*note: data_navigator is the name of data control
In the following example, you shall insert four commands and label them as First Record, Next Record,
Previous Record and Last Record . They will be used to navigator around the database without using the
data control. You still need to retain the same data control (from example in lesson 19) but set the
property Visible to no so that users will not see the data control but use the button to browse through the
database instead. Now, double-click on the command button and key in the codes according to the
labels.

dtaBooks.Recordset.MoveFirst
End Sub

dtaBooks.Recordset.MoveNext
End Sub

dtaBooks.Recordset.MovePrevious
End Sub

dtaBooks.Recordset.MoveLast
End Sub
Run the application and you shall obtain the interface below and you will be able to browse the database
using the four command buttons.
LESON 21
Lesson 21: Creating VB database applications using ADO control
Lesson 19 and Lesson 20, we have learned to build VB database applications using data control.
However, data control is not a very flexible tool as it could work only with limited kinds of data and
must work strictly in the Visual Basic environment. To overcome these limitations, we can use a much
more powerful data control in VB known as ADO control. ADO stands for ActiveX data objects. As
ADO is ActiveX-based, it could work in different platforms (different computer systems) and different
programming languages. Besides, it could access many different kinds of data such as data displayed in
the Internet browsers, email text and even graphics other than the usual relational and non relational
database information.
To be able to use ADO data control, you need to insert it into the toolbox. To do this, simply press
Ctrl+T to open the components dialog box and select Microsoft ActiveX Data Control 6. After this, you
can proceed to build your ADO-based VB database applications.
The following example will illustrate how to build a relatively powerful database application using ADO
data control. First of all, name the new form as frmBookTitle and change its caption to Book Titles-
ADO Application. Secondly, insert the ADO data control and name it as adoBooks and change its
caption to book. Next, insert the necessary labels, text boxes and command buttons. The runtime
interface of this program is shown in the diagram below, it allows adding and deletion as well as
updating and browsing of data.
The properties of all the controls are listed as follow:Form Name frmBookTitle
Form Caption Book Titles -ADOApplication
ADO Name adoBooks
Label1 Name lblApp
Label1 Caption Book Titles
Label 2 Name lblTitle
Label2 Caption Title :
Label3 Name lblYear
Label3 Caption Year Published:
Label4 Name lblISBN
Label4 Caption ISBN:
Labe5 Name lblPubID
Label5 Caption Publisher's ID:
Label6 Name lblSubject
Label6 Caption Subject :
TextBox1 Name txtitle
TextBox1 DataField Title
TextBox1 DataSourceadoBooks
TextBox2 Name txtPub
TextBox2 DataField Year Published
TextBox3 Name txtISBN
TextBox3 DataField ISBN
TextBox4 Name txtPubID
TextBox4 DataField PubID
TextBox5 Name txtSubject
TextBox5 DataField Subject
Command Button1 Name cmdSave
Command Button1 Caption &Save
Command Button2 Name cmdAdd
Command Button2 Caption &Add
Command Button3 Name cmdDelete
Command Button3 Caption &Delete
Command Button4 Name cmdCancel
Command Button4 Caption &Cancel
Command Button5 Name cmdPrev
Command Button5 Caption &<
Command Button6 Name cmdNext
Command Button6 Caption &>
Command Button7 Name cmdExit
Command Button7 Caption E&xit
To be able to access and manage a database, you need to connect the ADO data control to a database
file. We are going to use BIBLIO.MDB that comes with VB6. To connect ADO to this database file ,
follow the steps below:
a) Click on the ADO control on the form and open up the properties window.
b) Click on the ConnectionString property, the following dialog box will appear.
when the dialog box appear, select the Use Connection String's Option. Next, click build and at the Data
Link dialog box, double-Click the option labeled Microsoft Jet 3.51 OLE DB provider.
After that, click the Next button to select the file BIBLO.MDB. You can click on Text Connection to
ensure proper connection of the database file. Click OK to finish the connection.
Finally, click on the RecordSource property and set the command type to adCmd Table and Table name
to Titles. Now you are ready to use the database file.
Now, you need to write code for all the command buttons. After which, you can make the ADO control
invisible.
For the Save button, the program codes are as follow:

Private Sub cmdSave_Click()
adoBooks.Recordset.Fields("Title") = txtTitle.Text
adoBooks.Recordset.Fields("Year Published") = txtPub.Text
adoBooks.Recordset.Fields("ISBN") = txtISBN.Text
adoBooks.Recordset.Fields("PubID") = txtPubID.Text
adoBooks.Recordset.Fields("Subject") = txtSubject.Text
adoBooks.Recordset.Update
End Sub
For the Add button, the program codes are as follow:

Private Sub cmdAdd_Click()
adoBooks.Recordset.AddNew
End Sub
For the Delete button, the program codes are as follow:

Private Sub cmdDelete_Click()
Confirm = MsgBox("Are you sure you want to delete this record?", vbYesNo, "Deletion Confirmation")
If Confirm = vbYes Then
adoBooks.Recordset.Delete
MsgBox "Record Deleted!", , "Message"
Else
MsgBox "Record Not Deleted!", , "Message"
End If
End Sub
　
For the Cancel button, the program codes are as follow:
Private Sub cmdCancel_Click()
txtTitle.Text = ""
txtPub.Text = ""
txtPubID.Text = ""
txtISBN.Text = ""
txtSubject.Text = ""
End Sub
For the Previous (<) button, the program codes are

Private Sub cmdPrev_Click()
If Not adoBooks.Recordset.BOF Then
adoBooks.Recordset.MovePrevious
If adoBooks.Recordset.BOF Then
adoBooks.Recordset.MoveNext
End If
End If
End Sub
For the Next(>) button, the program codes are

Private Sub cmdNext_Click()
If Not adoBooks.Recordset.EOF Then
adoBooks.Recordset.MoveNext
If adoBooks.Recordset.EOF Then
adoBooks.Recordset.MovePrevious
End If
End If
End Sub
LESSON22
Lesson 22: Creating an Advanced VB database application using ADO control
In previous lessons, you have learned how to design database applications using data control and ADO
control. However, those applications are very simple and plain . In this lesson, you will learn to create a
more advanced database application using ADO control. The application you are going to create is
known as an electronic library. This electronic library will be able to accept users' registration as well as
handling login command that require the user's password, thus enhancing the security aspect of the
database. Basically, the application will constitute a welcome menu, a registration menu, a Login menu
and the main database menu. The sequence of the menus are illustrated as follow:
First of all, you need to design the Welcome menu. You can follow the example as follow:
n this form, you need to insert three command buttons and set their properties as follow:
　Form name main_menu

command button 1 Name cmdRegister
command button 1 Caption Register
command button 2 Name cmdLogin
command button 2 Caption Login
command button 3 Name cmdCancel
command button 3 Caption Cancel
The codes are as follow:
End
End Sub
Private Sub cmdLogin_Click()

main_menu.Hide
Login_form.Show
End Sub
Private Sub cmdRegister_Click()

main_menu.Hide
Register.Show
End Sub
If a new user click the Register button, the registration form will appear. An example is illustrated as
follow:
This registration forms consist of two text boxes , three command buttons and an ADO control. Their
properties are set as follow:Form name Register
textbox 1 name txtName
textbox 2 name txtpassword
textbox 2 PasswordChar *
command button 1 name cmdConfirm
command button 1 Caption Confirm
command button 2 name cmdClear
command button 2 Caption Clear
command button 3 name cmdCancel
command button 3 Caption Cancel
ADO control name UserInfo note that the PasswordChar of textbox 2 is set as * which means users
will not be able to see the actual characters they enter, they will only see the * symbol.
Private Sub cancel_Click( )
End
End Sub
Private Sub cmdClear_Click( )

txtName.Text = ""
txtpassword.Text = ""
End Sub
Private Sub cmdConfirm_Click()
UserInfo.Recordset.Fields("username") = txtName.Text
UserInfo.Recordset.Fields("password") = txtpassword.Text
UserInfo.Recordset.Update
Register.Hide
Login_form.Show
End Sub
UserInfo.Recordset.AddNew
End Sub
The Login menu is illustrated as follow:
There are two text boxes and a command button, their properties are set as follow:Textbox 1 name
txtName
Textbox 2 name txtpassword
Command button 1 name cmdLogin
Command button 1 Caption Login
Form name Login_form

Private Sub cmdLogin_Click()
Dim usrname As String
Dim psword As String
Dim usernam As String
Dim pssword As String
Dim Msg As String
Register.UserInfo.Refresh
usrname = txtName.Text
psword = txtpassword.Text
Do Until Register.UserInfo.Recordset.EOF
If Register.UserInfo.Recordset.Fields("username").Value = usrname And
Register.UserInfo.Recordset.Fields("password").Value = psword Then
Login_form.Hide
frmLibrary.Show
Exit Sub
Else
Register.UserInfo.Recordset.MoveNext
End If
Loop
Msg = MsgBox("Invalid password, try again!", vbOKCancel)
If (Msg = 1) Then
Login_form.Show
txtName.Text = ""
txtpassword = ""
Else
End
End If
End Sub
　The main database menu is illustrated as follow:
The properties of all controls are listed in the table below:
　Form name frmLibrary

ADO control name adoLibrary
ADO visible False
TextBox 1 name txtTitleA
TextBox 2 name txtAuthor
TextBox 3name txtPublisher
TextBox 4 name txtYear
TextBox 5 name txtCategory
Command button 1 name cmdSave
Command button 1 caption &Save
Command button 2 name cmdNew
Command button 2 caption &New
Command button 3 name cmdDelete
Command button 3 caption &Delete
Command button 4 name cmdCancel
Command button 4 caption &Cancel
Command button 5 name cmdNext
Command button 5 caption N&ext
Command button 6 name cmdPrevious
Command button 6 caption &Previous
Command button 7 name cmdExit
Command button 7 caption E&xit

txtTitle.Text = ""
txtAuthor.Text = ""
txtPublisher.Text = ""
txtYear.Text = ""
txtCategory.Text = ""
End Sub
Private Sub cmdDelete_Click()

Confirm = MsgBox("Are you sure you want to delete this record?", vbYesNo, "Deletion Confirmation")
If Confirm = vbYes Then
adoLibrary.Recordset.Delete
MsgBox "Record Deleted!", , "Message"
Else
MsgBox "Record Not Deleted!", , "Message"
End If
End Sub
Private Sub cmdExit_Click()

End
End Sub
Private Sub cmdNew_Click()

adoLibrary.Recordset.AddNew
End Sub
Private Sub cmdNext_Click()

If Not adoLibrary.Recordset.EOF Then
adoLibrary.Recordset.MoveNext
If adoLibrary.Recordset.EOF Then
adoLibrary.Recordset.MovePrevious
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub cmdPrevious_Click()
If Not adoLibrary.Recordset.BOF Then
adoLibrary.Recordset.MovePrevious
If adoLibrary.Recordset.BOF Then
adoLibrary.Recordset.MoveNext
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub cmdSave_Click()

adoLibrary.Recordset.Fields("Title").Value = txtTitle.Text
adoLibrary.Recordset.Fields("Author").Value = txtAuthor.Text
adoLibrary.Recordset.Update
End Sub
LESSON 23
Lesson 23 : Animation-Part I
Animation is always an interesting and exciting part of programming. Although visual basic is not
designed to handle advance animations, you can still create some interesting animated effects if you put
in some hard thinking. There are many ways to create animated effects in VB6, but for a start we will
focus on some easy methods.
The simplest way to create animation is to set the VISIBLE property of a group of images or pictures or
even texts and labels to true or false by triggering a set of events such as clicking a button. Let's examine
the following example:
This is a program that create the illusion of moving the jet plane in four directions, North, South ,East,
West. In order to do this, insert five images of the same picture into the form. Set the visible property of
the image in the center to be true while the rest set to false. On start-up, a user will only be able to see
the image in the center. Next, insert four command buttons into the form and change the labels to Move
North, Move East, Move West and Move South respectively. Double click on the move north button and
key in the following procedure:
Sub Command1_click( )
Image1.Visible = False
Image3.Visible = True
End Sub
By clicking on the move north button, image1 and other images except image 3 displayed. This will give
an illusion that the jet plane has moved north. Key in similar procedures by double clicking other
command buttons. You can also insert an addition command button and label it as Reset and key in the
following codes:
Clicking on the reset button will make the image in the center visible again while other images become
invisible, this will give the false impression that the jet plane has move back to the original position.
You can also issue the commands using a textbox, this idea actually came from my son Liew Xun (10
years old). His program is shown below:

If Text1.Text = "n" Then
ElseIf Text1.Text = "e" Then

ElseIf Text1.Text = "w" Then

ElseIf Text1.Text = "s" Then

End If
End Sub
Another simple way to simulate animation in VB6 is by using the Left and Top properties of an object.
Image.Left give the distance of the image in twips from the left border of the screen, and Image.Top
give the distance of the image in twips from the top border of the screen, where 1 twip is equivalent to
1/1440 inch. Using a statement such as Image.Left-100 will move the image 100 twips to the left,
Image.Left+100 will move the image 100 twip away from the left(or 100 twips to the right), Image.Top-
100 will move the image 100 twips to the top and Image.Top+100 will move the image 100 twips away
from the top border (or 100 twips down).Below is a program that can move an object up, down. left, and
right every time you click on a relevant command button.
The Codes
Image1.Top = Image1.Top + 100
End Sub

Image1.Top = Image1.Top - 100
End Sub

Image1.Left = Image1.Left + 100
End Sub

Image1.Left = Image1.Left - 100
End Sub
The fourth example let user magnify and diminish an object by changing the height and width properties
of an object. It is quite similar to the previous example. The statements Image1.Height = Image1.Height
+ 100 and Image1.Width = Image1.Width + 100 will increase the height and the width of an object by
100 twips each time a user click on the relevant command button. On the other hand, The statements
Image1.Height = Image1.Height - 100 and Image1.Width = Image1.Width -100 will decrease the height
and the width of an object by 100 twips each time a user click on the relevant command button
The Codes
Image1.Height = Image1.Height + 100
Image1.Width = Image1.Width + 100
End Sub

Image1.Height = Image1.Height - 100
Image1.Width = Image1.Width - 100
End Sub
You can try to combine both programs above and make an object move and increase or decrease in size
each time a user click a command button.
LESSON 24
Lesson 24: Animation - Part II
4.1 Animation using a drag_drop procedure.
Drag and drop is a common windows application where you can drag and drop an object such as a file
into a folder or into a recycle bin. This capability can be easily programmed in visual basic. In the
following example, I am creating a simulation of dragging the objects into a recycle bin, then drop a fire
and burn them.
In this program, I put 6 images on the form, one of them is a recycle bin, another is a burning recycle bin
, one more is the fire, and three more images are to be dragged into the recycle bin. In addition, set the
property dragmode of all the images( including the fire) to be dragged to 1(Automatic) so that dragging
is enabled, and set the visible property of burning recycle bin to false at start-up. Besides, label the tag
of fire as fire in its properties windows. If you want to have better dragging effects, you need to load an
appropriate icon under the dragIcon properties for those images to be dragged, preferably the icon
should be the same as the image so that when you drag the image, it is like you are dragging the image
along.
The essential event procedure in this program is as follows:

Private Sub Image4_DragDrop(Source As Control, X As Single, Y As Single)
Source.Visible = False
If Source.Tag = "Fire" Then
Image4.Picture = Image5.Picture
End If
End Sub
ource refer to the image to be dragged. Using the code Source.Visible=False means it will disappear
after being dragged into the recycle bin(Image4).If the source is Fire, then the recycle bin will changed
into a burning recycle bin , which is accomplished by using the code Image4.Picture = Image5.Picture,
where Image 5 is the burning recycle bin.
For details of this program, please refer to my game and fun programming page or click this link,
Recycle Bin.
24.2 Animation for a complete motion.

So far those examples of animation shown in lesson 23 only involve movement of static images. In this
lesson, you will be able to create true animation where an action finish in a complete cycle, for example,
a butterfly flapping its wings. In the following example, I used eight picture frames of a butterfly which
display a butterfly flapping its wing at different stages.
You can actually copy the above images and use them in your program. You need to put all the above
images overlapping one another, make image1 visible while all other images invisible at start-up. Next,
insert a command button and label it as Animate. Click on the command button and key in the
statements that make the images appear and disappear successively by using the properties
image.visible=true and image.visible=false. I use If..... Then and Elseif to control the program flow.
When you run the program, you should be able to get the following animation.
The Interface
The Codes
If Image1.Visible = True Then
ElseIf Image2.Visible = True Then
End If
End Sub
If you wish to create the effect of the butterfly flapping its wing and flying at the same time, then you
could use the Left and Top properties of an object, such as the one used in the examples of lesson 23.
Below is an example of a subroutine where the butterfly will flap its wing and move up at the same time.
You can also write subroutines that move the butterfly to the left, to the right and to the bottom.
Sub move_up( )
If Image1.Visible = True Then




End If
End Sub
LESSON 25
LESSON 26
Lesson 26: Internet and Web Applications Part1-The web Browser
n order to create the web browser, you have to press Ctrl+T to open up the components window and
select Microsoft Internet Control. After you have selected the control, you will see the control appear in
the toolbox as a small globe. To insert the Microsoft Internet Control into the form, just drag the globe
into the form and a white rectangle will appears in the form. You can resize this control as you wish.
This control is given the default name WebBrowser1.
To design the interface, you need to insert one combo box which will be used to display the URLs. In
addition, you need to insert a few images which will function as command buttons for the user to
navigate the Internet; they are the Go command, the Back command, the Forward command, the Refresh
command and the Home command. You can actually put in the command buttons instead of the images,
but using images will definitely improve the look of the browser.
The procedures for all the commands are relatively easy to write. There are many methods, events, and
properties associated with the web browser but you need to know just a few of them to come up with a
functional Internet browse
The method navigate is to go the website specified by its Uniform Resource Locator(URL). The syntax
is WebBrowser1.Navigate (“URL”). In this program, I want to load the www.vbtutor.net web page at
start-up, so I type in its URL.
WebBrowser1.Navigate ("http://www.vbtutor.net")
End Sub
In order to show the URL in the combo box and also to display the page title at the form caption after
the page is completely downloaded, I use the following statements:
Private Sub WebBrowser1_DocumentComplete (ByVal pDisp As Object, URL As Variant)

Combo1.Text = URL
Form1.Caption = WebBrowser1.LocationName
Combo1.AddItem URL
End Sub
The following procedure will tell the user to wait while the page is loading.
Private Sub WebBrowser1_DownloadBegin ()
Combo1.Text = "Page loading, please wait"
End Sub
LESSON 27
Lesson 27: Internet and Web Applications Part 2-The FTP Program
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol .The File Transfer Protocol is a system for transferring files
between two computers connected by the Internet where one of the computers is normally known as
server and the other one as the client. The FTP program is very useful for website management as the
webmaster can update the web pages by uploading the local files to the web server easily and normally
at a much faster speed than the web browser. For normal PC users, the FTP program can also be used to
download files from many FTP sites that offer a lot of useful stuffs such as free software, free games,
product information, applications, tools, utilities, drivers, fixes and etc.
The FTP program usually comprises an interface that shows the directories of the local computer and the
remote server. Files can normally be transferred just by clicking the relevant arrows. To log into the FTP
site, we normally have to key in the user name and the password; however, for public domains, we just
need to type the word anonymous as the user name and you can leave out the password. The FTP host
name takes the form ftp.servername.com, for example, the Microsoft FTP site’s host name is
ftp.microsoft.com .If you need to use a FTP program, you can purchase one or you can download a
couple of the programs that are available free of charge from the Internet. However, you can also create
your very own FTP program with Visual Basic. Visual Basic allows you to build a fully functionally
FTP program which may be just as good as the commercial FTP programs. The engine behind it is the
Microsoft Internet Transfer Control 6.0 in which you need to insert your form before you can create the
FTP program. The name of the Microsoft Internet Transfer Control 6.0.is Inet and if you only put in one
control, its name will be Inet1.
Inet1 comprises three important properties namely Inet1.URL that is used to identify the FTP hostname,
inet1.UserName that is used to accept the username and the Inet1.Password that is used to accept the
user’s passwords. The statements for the program to read the hostname of the server, the username and
the password entered into Textbox1, Textbox2 and Textbox3 by the user are shown below:
net1.URL=Text1.Text
Inet1.UserName=Text2.Text
Inet1.Passoword=Text3.Text
After the user entered the above information, the program will attempt to connect to the server using the
following command, where Execute is the method and DIR is the FTP command that will read the list of
files from the specified directory of the remote computer and you need to use the getChunk method to
actually retrieve the directory’s information.
Inet1.Execute, "DIR
After connecting to the server, you can choose the file from the remote computer to download by using
the statement below:
Inet1.Execute, , "get" & remotefile & localfile
where remotefile is the file of the remote site and localfile is the file of the local system. However, very
often you need to provide the full path of the local file, which you can do that by modifying the above
syntax to the following syntax:
Inet1.Execute , , "get" & remotefile & localpath & remotefile

The above statements will ensure that the remote file will be downloaded to the location specified by the
localpath and the file downloaded will assume the same name as the remote file. For example, the
remote file is readme.txt and the localpath is C:\temp , so the downloaded file will be saved in
C:\temp\readme.txt.
In order to monitor the status of the connection, you can use the StateChanged event that is associated
with Inet1 together with a set of the state constants that are listed in the following table.
Constant
Value
Description
icHostResolvingHost
1The control is looking up the IP address of the specified host computer.
icHostResolved
2The control successfully found the IP address of the specified host computer.
icConnecting
3The control is connecting to the host computer.
icConnected
4The control successfully connected to the host computer.
icRequesting
5The control is sending a request to the host computer.
icRequestSent
6The control successfully sent the request.
icReceivingResponse
7The control is receiving a response from the host computer.
icResponseReceived
8The control successfully received a response from the host computer.
icDisconnecting
9The control is disconnecting from the host computer.
icDisconnected
10The control successfully disconnected from the host computer.
icError
11An error occurred in communicating with the host computer.
icResponseCompleted
12The request has been completed and all data has been received.
Under the StateChanged event, you use the Select Case…End Select statements to notify the users
regarding the various states of the connection. The procedure is shown below:
Private Sub Inet1_StateChanged(ByVal State As Integer)

Select Case State
Case icError
MsgBox Inet1.ResponseInfo, , "File failed to transfer"
Case icResolvingHost
Label6.Caption = "Resolving Host"
Case icHostResolved
Label6.Caption = "Host Resolved"
Case icConnecting
Label6.Caption = "Connecting Host"
Case icConnected
Label6.Caption = "Host connected"
Case icReceivingResponse
Label6.Caption = "Receiving Response"
Case icResponseReceived
Label6.Caption = "Got Response"
Case icResponseCompleted
Dim data1 As String
Dim data2 As String
MsgBox "Download Completed"
End Select
End Sub
The FTP program that I have created contains a form and a dialog box. The dialog box can be added by
clicking on the Project item on the menu bar and then selecting the Add Form item on the drop-down
list. You can either choose a normal dialog box or a login dialog box. The function of the dialog box is
to accept the FTP address, the username and the password and then to connect to the server. After
successful login, the dialog box will be hidden and the main form will be presented for the user to
browse the remote directory and to choose certain files to download.
The interface of the login dialog is shown on the right.
the program for the login dialog is,
Option Explicit
Private Sub OKButton_Click()
Inet1.URL = Text1.Text
Inet1.UserName = Text2.Text
Inet1.Password = Text3.Text
Inet1.Execute , "DIR"
Form1.Show
Dialog.Hide
End Sub
Private Sub Inet1_StateChanged(ByVal State As Integer)

Select Case State
Case icError
MsgBox Inet1.ResponseInfo, , "File failed to transfer"
Case icResolvingHost
Label6.Caption = "Resolving Host"
Case icHostResolved
Label6.Caption = "Host Resolved"
Case icConnecting
Label6.Caption = "Connecting Host"
Case icConnected
Label6.Caption = "Host connected"
Case icReceivingResponse
Label6.Caption = "Receiving Response"
Case icResponseReceived
Label6.Caption = "Got Response"
Case icResponseCompleted
Dim data As String
Dim data1 As String
MsgBox "Transfer Completed"
Do
data1 = Inet1.GetChunk(1024, icString)
data = data & data1
Loop While Len(data1) <> 0

Form1.Text6.Text = data
End Select
End Sub
Private Sub CancelButton_Click()

Text1.Text = ""
Text2.Text = ""
Text3.Text = ""
End Sub
retrieve
The statement data1 = Inet1.GetChunk (1024, icString) is to use the getChunk method to grab
information of the remote directory and then display the files of the directory in Textbox6.
After logging in, the main form will be presented as shown in Figure 30.3

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rHistory of Visual Basic

The concept of computer programming

1.1 What is computer programming?

1.1 What is Visual Basic ?

1.2 The Visual Basic Environment

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional

Figure 2.2: List of Procedures

Private Sub Form_Load ( )

Figure 2.5: The output of example 2.1.2

Private Sub Form_Load()

Private Sub Form_Load()

3.2.1 The Text Box

Private Sub Command1_Click()

3.2.2 The Label

3.2.3 The Command Button

3.2.6 The List Box

3.2.7 The Combo Box

3.2.9 The Option Box

3.2.10 The Drive List Box

Figure 3.3 The Drive List Box

Figure 3.4 The Directory List Box

3.2.12 The File List Box

The syntax to set the property of an object or to pass certain value to it is :

Private Sub Form_Activate()

5.1 Types of Visual Basic Data

5.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types

They are summarized in Table 5.2

Table 5.2: Nonnumeric Data Types

5.1.3 Suffixes for Literals

5.2 Managing Variables

5.2.1 Variable Names

5.2.2 Declaring Variables

6.2 Operators in Visual Basic

7.3 Using If.....Then.....Else Statements with Operators

Select Case expression

Dim mark As Single

9.2 Exiting the Loop

Loop until counter>1000

The general format of a function is

10.1 MsgBox ( ) Function

example: yourMsg=MsgBox( "Click OK to Proceed", 1, "Startup Menu")

and yourMsg=Msg("Click OK to Proceed". vbOkCancel,"Startup Menu")

ii. The procedure for the test button:

Table 10.3Value Named Constant

In this example, the following message box will be displayed:

myMessage=InputBox(Prompt, Title, default_text, x-position, y-position)

Prompt - The message displayed normally as a question asked.

i. The procedure for the OK button

Public Function FV(PV As Variant, i As Variant, n As Variant) As Variant

Private Sub compute_Click()

FutureVal = FV(PresentVal, interest, period)

Table 12.1: Commissions Payment Table

Figure 12.2 : The VB Editor

13.2 Dimension of an Array

Table 13.1. One dimensional Array

Table 13.2 Two Dimensional ArrayName(1,1) Name(1,2) Name(1,3) Name(1,4)

3.2 Declaring Arrays

The general format to declare a two dimensional array is as follow:

(ii) The Codes

　Form name main_menu

　Form name frmLibrary