Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION xxvii
PART I: IDE


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE IDE 3


Introducing the IDE 3


Different IDE Appearances 4


IDE Configurations 5


Projects and Solutions 6


Starting the IDE 6


Creating a Project 8


Saving a Project 11


Summary 13


CHAPTER 2: MENUS, TOOLBARS, AND WINDOWS 15


IDE Tools 15


Menus 16


File 16


Edit 18


View 19


Project 20


Build 24


Debug 24


Data 24


Format 25


Tools 25


Test 28


Window 28


Help 29


Toolbars 30


Secondary Windows 30


Toolbox 32


Properties Window 33


Summary 33


CHAPTER 3: WINDOWS FORMS DESIGNER 35


Introducing Windows Forms Designer 35


Setting Designer Options 35


Adding Controls 37


Selecting Controls 38


Copying Controls 39


Moving and Sizing Controls 40


Arranging Controls 40


Setting Properties 40


Setting Group Properties 41


Using Smart Tags 41


Adding Code to Controls 42


Summary 43


CHAPTER 4: WPF DESIGNER 45


Introducing WPF Designer 45


Editor Weaknesses 46


Recognizing Designer Windows 47


Adding Controls 48


Selecting Controls 49


Moving and Sizing Controls 50


Setting Properties 51


Setting Group Properties 51


Adding Code to Controls 52


Summary 53


CHAPTER 5: VISUAL BASIC CODE EDITOR 55


Editing Code 55


Margin Icons 56


Outlining 58


Tooltips 59


IntelliSense 60


Code Coloring and Highlighting 61


Code Snippets 63


Architectural Tools 64


Rename 64


Go To Definition 64


Go To Type Definition 64


Highlight References 65


Find All References 65


Generate From Usage 65


The Code Editor at Run Time 66


Summary 68


CHAPTER 6: DEBUGGING 69


Debugging and Testing 69


The Debug Menu 70


The Debug ? Windows Submenu 72


The Breakpoints Window 74


The Command and Immediate Windows 75


Summary 77


PART II: GETTING STARTED


CHAPTER 7: SELECTING WINDOWS FORMS CONTROLS 81


Controls 81


Controls Overview 82


Choosing Controls 86


Containing and Arranging Controls 87


Making Selections 89


Entering Data 90


Displaying Data 90


Providing Feedback 91


Initiating Action 92


Displaying Graphics 94


Displaying Dialog Boxes 94


Third-Party Controls 95


Summary 96


CHAPTER 8: USING WINDOWS FORMS CONTROLS 97


Using Controls and Components 97


Controls and Components 98


Creating Controls 99


Properties 101


Properties at Design Time 101


Properties at Run Time 104


Useful Control Properties 106


Position and Size Properties 109


Methods 110


Events 110


Creating Event Handlers at Design Time 111


Validation Events 112


Summary 114


CHAPTER 9: WINDOWS FORMS 115


Using Forms 115


Transparency 116


About, Splash, and Login Forms 117


Mouse Cursors 118


Icons 120


Application Icons 121


Notification Icons 121


Properties Adopted by Child Controls 122


Property Reset Methods 123


Overriding WndProc 123


MRU Lists 125


Dialog Boxes 126


Wizards 128


Summary 129


CHAPTER 10: SELECTING WPF CONTROLS 131


WPF Controls and Code 131


Controls Overview 132


Containing and Arranging Controls 133


Making Selections 136


Entering Data 137


Displaying Data 137


Providing Feedback 138


Initiating Action 138


Presenting Graphics and Media 139


Providing Navigation 140


Managing Documents 140


Digital Ink 141


Summary 142


CHAPTER 11: USING WPF CONTROLS 143


WPF Controls 143


WPF Concepts 144


Separation of User Interface and Code 144


WPF Control Hierarchies 145


WPF in the IDE 145


Editing XAML 146


Editing Visual Basic Code 147


XAML Features 148


Objects 148


Resources 151


Styles 152


Templates 153


Transformations 156


Animations 156


Drawing Objects 159


Procedural WPF 162


Documents 166


Flow Documents 166


Fixed Documents 168


XPS Documents 169


Summary 169


CHAPTER 12: WPF WINDOWS 171


Using WPF Windows 171


Window Applications 172


Page Applications 174


Browser Applications 174


Frame Applications 176


Summary 177


CHAPTER 13: PROGRAM AND MODULE STRUCTURE 179


Solutions and Projects 179


Hidden Files 180


Code File Structure 184


Code Regions 185


Conditional Compilation 186


Namespaces 193


Typographic Code Elements 195


Comments 195


XML Comments 195


Line Continuation 198


Implicit Line Continuation 199


Line Joining 200


Summary 200


CHAPTER 14: DATA TYPES, VARIABLES, AND CONSTANTS 203


Variables 203


Data Types 204


Type Characters 207


Data Type Conversion 210


Narrowing Conversions 210


Data Type Parsing Methods 212


Widening Conversions 213


The Convert Class 213


ToString 213


Variable Declarations 214


Attribute_List 214


Accessibility 215


Shared 216


Shadows 216


ReadOnly 219


Dim 219


WithEvents 220


Name 221


Bounds_List 222


New 223


As Type and Inferred Types 224


Initialization_Expression 225


Initializing Collections 228


Multiple Variable Declarations 229


Option Explicit and Option Strict 230


Scope 233


Block Scope 233


Procedure Scope 234


Module Scope 234


Namespace Scope 235


Restricting Scope 235


Parameter Declarations 236


Property Procedures 238


Enumerated Data Types 240


Anonymous Types 243


Nullable Types 244


Constants 244


Accessibility 245


As Type 245


Initialization_Expression 246


Delegates 246


Naming Conventions 248


Summary 249


CHAPTER 15: OPERATORS 251


Understanding Operators 251


Arithmetic Operators 252


Concatenation Operators 253


Comparison Operators 253


Logical Operators 255


Bitwise Operators 257


Operator Precedence 257


Assignment Operators 259


The StringBuilder Class 260


Date and TimeSpan Operations 261


Operator Overloading 262


Summary 266


CHAPTER 16: SUBROUTINES AND FUNCTIONS 267


Managing Code 267


Subroutines 268


Attribute_List 268


Inheritance_Mode 272


Accessibility 273


Subroutine_Name 274


Parameters 274


Implements interface.subroutine 279


Statements 281


Functions 281


Property Procedures 283


Extension Methods 284


Lambda Functions 285


Relaxed Delegates 287


Asynchronous Methods 290


Calling EndInvoke Directly 291


Handling a Callback 293


Using Async and Await 295


Summary 297


CHAPTER 17: PROGRAM CONTROL STATEMENTS 299


Controlling Programs 299


Decision Statements 299


Single-Line If Then 300


Multiline If Then 300


Select Case 301


Enumerated Values 304


IIf 304


If 306


Choose 306


Looping Statements 308


For Next 308


Non-Integer For Next Loops 311


For Each 311


Enumerators 314


Iterators 316


Do Loop Statements 316


While End 318


Summary 318


CHAPTER 18: ERROR HANDLING 321


The Struggle for Perfection 321


Bugs versus Unplanned Conditions 322


Catching Bugs 323


Catching Unplanned Conditions 324


Global Exception Handling 326


Structured Error Handling 328


Exception Objects 330


Throwing Exceptions 331


Re-throwing Exceptions 333


Custom Exceptions 334


Debugging 335


Summary 336


CHAPTER 19: DATABASE CONTROLS AND OBJECTS 337


Data Sources 337


Automatically Connecting to Data 338


Connecting to the Data Source 338


Adding Data Controls to the Form 341


Automatically Created Objects 344


Other Data Objects 345


Data Overview 346


Connection Objects 347


Transaction Objects 350


Data Adapters 352


Command Objects 356


DataSet 358


DataTable 360


DataRow 363


DataColumn 365


DataRelation 366


Constraints 368


DataView 370


DataRowView 373


Simple Data Binding 373


CurrencyManager 374


Complex Data Binding 377


Summary 379


CHAPTER 20: LINQ 381


The Many Faces of LINQ 381


Introduction to LINQ 383


Basic LINQ Query Syntax 384


From 385


Where 386


Order By 386


Select 387


Using LINQ Results 389


Advanced LINQ Query Syntax 390


Join 390


Group By 391


Aggregate Functions 393


Set Operations 394


Limiting Results 394


LINQ Functions 395


LINQ Extension Methods 397


Method-Based Queries 397


Method-Based Queries with Lambda Functions 399


Extending LINQ 401


LINQ to Objects 403


LINQ to XML 404


XML Literals 404


LINQ into XML 405


LINQ out of XML 406


LINQ to ADO.NET 409


LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities 409


LINQ to DataSet 410


PLINQ 413


Summary 414


CHAPTER 21: METRO-STYLE APPLICATIONS 417


Building Metro-Style Applications 417


Starting a New Project 418


Special Image Files 419


Building MetroBones 420


Control Layout 421


XAML Code 421


Zooming in on the Controls 424


Visual Basic Code 424


Testing 428


Summary 429


PART III: OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING


CHAPTER 22: OOP CONCEPTS 433


Introducing OOP 433


Classes 434


Encapsulation 436


Inheritance 437


Inheritance Hierarchies 438


Refi nement and Abstraction 438


“Has-a” and “Is-a” Relationships 441


Adding and Modifying Class Features 441


Interface Inheritance 443


Polymorphism 444


Method Overloading 445


Extension Methods 446


Summary 447


CHAPTER 23: CLASSES AND STRUCTURES 449


Packaging Data 449


Classes 450


Attribute_list 450


Partial 451


Accessibility 452


Shadows 453


Inheritance 454


Implements interface 456


Structures 456


Structures Cannot Inherit 457


Structures Are Value Types 457


Memory Required 457


Heap and Stack Performance 459


Object Assignment 459


Parameter Passing 460


Boxing and Unboxing 461


Class Instantiation Details 461


Structure Instantiation Details 464


Garbage Collection 466


Finalize 467


Dispose 469


Constants, Properties, and Methods 471


Events 473


Declaring Events 473


Raising Events 474


Catching Events 475


Shared Variables 477


Shared Methods 477


Summary 479


CHAPTER 24: NAMESPACES 481


Handling Name Confl icts 481


The Imports Statement 482


Automatic Imports 484


Namespace Aliases 486


Namespace Elements 486


The Root Namespace 487


Making Namespaces 487


Classes, Structures, and Modules 488


Resolving Namespaces 489


Summary 492


CHAPTER 25: COLLECTION CLASSES 493


Grouping Data 493


What Is a Collection? 494


Arrays 494


Array Dimensions 496


Lower Bounds 497


Resizing 497


Speed 498


Other Array Class Features 498


Collections 499


ArrayList 499


StringCollection 501


NameValueCollection 501


Dictionaries 503


ListDictionary 503


Hashtable 504


HybridDictionary 505


StringDictionary 505


SortedList 505


CollectionsUtil 505


Stacks and Queues 506


Stack 506


Queue 508


Generics 509


Collection Initializers 511


Iterators 512


Summary 513


CHAPTER 26: GENERICS 515


Class Creators 515


Advantages of Generics 516


Defining Generics 516


Generic Constructors 517


Multiple Types 518


Constrained Types 520


Instantiating Generic Classes 521


Imports Aliases 522


Derived Classes 523


Generic Collection Classes 523


Generic Methods 524


Generics and Extension Methods 524


Summary 526


PART IV: INTERACTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT


CHAPTER 27: PRINTING 529


Printing Concepts 529


Basic Printing 530


Drawing Basics 534


Graphics Objects 534


Pens 536


Brushes 538


A Booklet Example 540


Summary 545


CHAPTER 28: CONFIGURATION AND RESOURCES 547


The Need for Configuration 547


My 548


Me and My 549


My Sections 549


Environment 550


Setting Environment Variables 550


Using Environ 551


Using System.Environment 551


Registry 553


Native Visual Basic Registry Methods 554


My.Computer.Registry 556


Configuration Files 559


Resource Files 562


Application Resources 562


Using Application Resources 563


Embedded Resources 564


Localization Resources 564


Application 566


Application Properties 566


Application Methods 567


Application Events 568


Summary 569


CHAPTER 29: STREAMS 571


Stream Concepts 571


Stream 572


FileStream 574


MemoryStream 575


BinaryReader and BinaryWriter 576


TextReader and TextWriter 578


StringReader and StringWriter 579


StreamReader and StreamWriter 580


OpenText, CreateText, and AppendText 581


Custom Stream Classes 582


Summary 583


CHAPTER 30: FILESYSTEM OBJECTS 585


Programming Approaches 585


Permissions 586


Visual Basic Methods 586


File Methods 586


File System Methods 588


Sequential-File Access 589


Random-File Access 589


Binary-File Access 592


.NET Framework Classes 592


Directory 592


File 594


DriveInfo 595


DirectoryInfo 596


FileInfo 598


FileSystemWatcher 600


Path 602


My.Computer.FileSystem 604


My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories 606


Summary 606


PART V: APPENDICES


APPENDIX A: USEFUL CONTROL PROPERTIES, METHODS, AND EVENTS 611


APPENDIX B: VARIABLE DECLARATIONS AND DATA TYPES 619


APPENDIX C: OPERATORS 629


APPENDIX D: SUBROUTINE AND FUNCTION DECLARATIONS 637


APPENDIX E: CONTROL STATEMENTS 641


APPENDIX F: ERROR HANDLING 647


APPENDIX G: WINDOWS FORMS CONTROLS AND COMPONENTS 649


APPENDIX H: WPF CONTROLS 657


APPENDIX I: VISUAL BASIC POWER PACKS 665


APPENDIX J: FORM OBJECTS 669


APPENDIX K: CLASSES AND STRUCTURES 681


APPENDIX L: LINQ 685


APPENDIX M: GENERICS 695


APPENDIX N: GRAPHICS 699


APPENDIX O: USEFUL EXCEPTION CLASSES 711


APPENDIX P: DATE AND TIME FORMAT SPECIFIERS 715


APPENDIX Q: OTHER FORMAT SPECIFIERS 719


APPENDIX R: THE APPLICATION CLASS 725


APPENDIX S: THE MY NAMESPACE 729


APPENDIX T: STREAMS 747


APPENDIX U: FILESYSTEM CLASSES 755


APPENDIX V: VISUAL STUDIO VERSIONS 771


INDEX 773

About the Author

Rod Stephens is a VB programming guru and the author ofmore than two dozen programming books, including Stephens'Visual Basic Programming 24-Hour Trainer. He also writesfrequently for such magazines as Visual Basic Developer, VisualBasic Programmer's Journal, and Dr. Dobb's Journal.Rod's VB Helper website (vb-helper.com) provides thousands of pagesof tips, tricks, and code examples for VB programmers.