VB.

NET

Professor Corinne Hoisington

Central Virginia Community College
Programming Curricular Changes
• Why should we implement
this new software
developer’s tool?
• What language will be
“THE” most used
language?
• Is this simply another
upgrade?
• What classes could
incorporate the content
of .NET?
Visual Basic.NET
• Easier to Use
• Streamlined and Modernized
• More Powerful than VB 6.0
• Higher level of access to system
resources that in the past required
the use of languages like C++
• True Object Inheritance
• Garbage Collection for better
memory management
Visual Studio .NET 2003

• Released April 27, 2003

• J#
• Mobile Web Applications: using the
integrated ASP.NET Web Forms and the
Visual Studio .NET Web Forms Designer,
Visual Basic and C# developers can
easily build thin-client Web-based
applications that render intelligently on
more than 200 devices, including
wireless application protocol (WAP)
phones, wireless personal digital
assistants (PDAs), and pagers.
New Web Development
• Programming for the Web vs.
Windows
• New set of controls
• Web page layout
• ASP.NET
• ADO.NET
• Mobile Applications
• Convert Projects
Just an Upgrade???
• NO!
• VB.NET omits quite a few forms of
syntax
• VB.NET requires a total rewrite rather
than a simple port of code
• VB.NET is not dependent on older
libraries such as VBA runtime and
ADO (ActiveX Database Object)
A new Forms Engine
• The forms engine has been replaced
by the forms engine built into .NET
• This new forms engine is called
Windows Forms (or Win Forms for
short)
• Win Forms add such features as
docking and opacity
Forms are now Classes
• In VB6, forms were
classes, but you rarely
treated them that way
• VB .NET shows the
code that instantiates
the form
• To show additional
forms, you must first
instantiate them
Form Changes

• Forms have undergone a number

of changes. These include:
• The Forms engine is now
WinForms
• Forms are classes
• A Component Tray holds non-
visual controls at design-time
VB.NET or C#.NET
• C# is a new language that
was designed to be
friendly to programmers
who are already
proficient in C or C++
• Either language can be
used to write software
that takes full advantage
of the CLR and .NET
framework
NEW IDE
New Tools

• Calendar Tool
• Date Picker Calendar
• Opacity Control
• Timer does not lay on form
• Command Buttons are now called
Buttons
• Use “btn” for prefix
Great New Menu Tool
More Changes

• The Editor window (formerly the Code

window)
• Lots more IntelliSense help;

can be confusing
• Declarations section replaces

General Declarations
• Collapsible Regions in code

(Plus signs)
 Collapsed Regions
Tabs
Method List

Class
List

Collapsed
Region

Collapsed
Procedure
General Changes
• There have been a number of changes in
VB .NET. General changes include:
• Form changes
• Option Strict
• Event Handler changes
• Default Properties
• Calling Subs and Functions
• Boolean operators
• Using CTRL + Space to finish variables
The Component Tray

• In VB6, controls that were only

visible at design-time still appeared
on the form in the IDE
• Such as the Timer control
• VS .NET places controls that are
invisible at runtime in a small area
below the form
• This area is the Component Tray
A new Forms Engine

• The forms engine has been replaced

by the forms engine built into .NET
• This new forms engine is called
Windows Forms (or Win Forms for
short)
• Win Forms add such features as
docking and opacity
Forms are now Classes

• In VB6, forms were classes, but you

rarely treated them that way
• VB .NET shows the code that
instantiates the form
• To show additional forms, you must
first instantiate them
The Component Tray

• In VB6, controls that were only

visible at design-time still appeared
on the form in the IDE
• Such as the Timer control
• VS .NET places controls that are
invisible at runtime in a small area
below the form
• This area is the Component Tray
Calls to Subs and Functions
Require Parentheses
• In VB6, you called a Sub without
parentheses
AddOrder OrderNum, OrderDate
• You could use the Call statement, which
required parenthese
Call AddOrder(OrderNum, OrderDate)
• .NET always requires parentheses for a
Sub, as well as with Functions
New Boolean Operators

• The And and Or keywords do not short-

circuit in VB and VB .NET
• Both sides of an operator are evaluated, even
if the first option invalidates the statement
• VB .NET adds two short-circuiting Boolean
operators:
• AndAlso
• OrElse
Boolean Operators Example

Dim x As Integer
x = 0
If x>2 And 5\x > 1 Then ...
• This If statement is already false on
the x>2 part, but 5\x is still checked
because And does not short-circuit
• In this case, 5\x causes a “divide by
zero” error
Boolean Operators Example cont.

Dim x As Integer
x = 0
If x>2 AndAlso 5\x > 1 Then ...
• This If statement is already false on
the x>2 part, so the AndAlso does
not check the 5\x portion
• The key result: No Error!
The Value of True

• The value of True has not changed

• Originally, the value of True was going
to change, but it did not
• The value of True in VB .NET is still
negative one (-1)
• Your code should not check for -1,
but for True
Common Language Runtime

• VB.NET has undergone a significant

overhaul to accommodate the CLR
• New object oriented design features
• Much higher levels of type safety
• Universal type system allows for greater
inoperability
Changes in Properties

• The Alignment property becomes

TextAlign
• The maximum length of identifiers is
16,383
• All new Help — MSDN
• OptionButton becomes RadioButton
• Frame becomes GroupBox
• New component tray holds non-visible
controls
More Property Changes
• Text boxes have a Clear method
txtName.Clear()
txtName.Text = “”
• Focus method replaces SetFocus
txtName.Focus()
• Many colors available through the Color
class
• lblMessage.ForeColor = Color.Blue
Color.Aquamarine
Color.Bisque
Color.Chocolate
Color.Cadetblue
Tab Order
This is neat! Click on View and Tab
Order
Caption / Text Property
• VB 6.0 - Some controls, such as
Label, have a Caption property that
determines the text displayed in or
next to the control. Other controls,
such as TextBox, have a Text
property that determines the text
contained in the control
• VB.NET - In Windows Forms, the
property that displays text in a
control is consistently called Text on
all controls. This simplifies the use of
controls.
Data Types

byte 1 byte Range Unsigned

0 to 255 byte
sbyte 1 byte Range Signed
-128 to 127 byte
Short 2 Range Signed
(sho) bytes -32768 to 32767 short
ushort 2 Range Unsigned
bytes 0 to 65535 short
More Integer Data Types
int 4 bytes Range Signed
-2,147,483,647 to
(int) 2,147,483,647 integer
uint 4 bytes Range Unsigned
0 to 4,294,967,295
integer
long 8 bytes Greater than Signed
(lng) ±900,000 trillion long int
ulong 8 bytes Greater than 18 Unsigned
million trillion long int
 Other Data Types
single 4 Range Float
(sng) bytes A number 6 digits past number
the decimal
double 8 Range Double
(dbl) bytes A number 14 digits past precision
the decimal
decimal 8 Range Fixed
bytes A number 28 zeros long precision

string (str) N/A Range N/A Unicode

char 2 Range Unicode
bytes 0x0000 to 0xFFFF character

Bool (bln) True or False Boolean

Block-Level Scope

• VB .NET introduces variables that

only exist within blocks of code
• Blocks are items such as For…Next,
Do…Loop, and If Then…End If
• Variables are only visible within the
block, but their lifetime is that of the
whole procedure
Changes in Syntax
• Firstly the ‘Currency’ data type is no
longer used in VB 6.0
• Currency has been replaced with Decimal
in VB.NET
• The Currency data type (64 bit) does not
provide sufficient accuracy to avoid
rounding errors, so Decimal (96 bit) was
created as its own data type.
• Dim x As Currency
is upgraded to:
Dim x As Decimal
Long and Integer Data Types

• VB 6.0 - Long variables were stored

as 32-bit numbers and Integer
variables as 16-bit numbers
• VB.NET - Long variables are stored
as 64-bit numbers, Integer variables
are stored as 32-bit numbers, and
Short variables are stored as 16-bit
numbers.
No More Variant Data Type
• Variant data types are changed to Object due
to keeping all the languages more similar. This
is no longer the same as a pointer to an object.

• Dim x As Variant

is upgraded to:

Dim x As Object
Option Explicit

• In VB.BET the option is turned on by

default for all new projects.
• When Option Explicit Off is used (not
a good programming style), you can
use any variable without first
declaring it.
Option Strict On
• New Option in VB.NET
• When Option Strict is turned on, the
compiler/editor does not allow implicit
conversions from a wider data type to a
narrower one, or between String and
numeric data types
• CInt and CDec convert
• Limits erroneous numbers or run-time
errors
• Place the line Option Strict On before the
first line of code
Converting Data Types
• Initialize a variable at declaration
Dim intMax As Integer = 100I
Dim decRate As Decimal = 0.08D
• Declare multiple variables at once
Dim intCount, intNum As Integer
• Convert all input to correct data type
(Do not use Val function)
decSale = CDec(txtSale.Text)
• CInt (still rounds to even #)

• CDec

• CStr

** CInt and CDec parse some characters

like $, commas,()
Format

• VB 6.0 –
Format(variable, “Currency”)
• VB.NET – FormatCurrency(variable)
FormatPercent(variable)
FormatNumber(variable)
FormatNumber(variable,3)
FormatDateTime(variable)
New Compound Operators

• New assignment Operators

• += –= *= /= \= &=
• decTotal += decSale same as
decTotal=decTotal + decSale
Case Conversions

• String ToUpper and ToLower methods

• Replace UCase and LCase functions
• If txtInput.Text.ToUpper = “YES”
Arrays
• VB 6.0 - Arrays can be defined with lower
and upper bounds of any whole number.
The Option Base statement is used to
determine the default lower bound if a
range is not specified in the declaration.
• VB.NET- To enable interoperability with
other languages, all arrays must have a
lower bound of zero. This makes the
Option Base statement no longer
necessary.
• Dim a(1 To 10) As String
is upgraded to:
Dim a(10) As String
Array Size

• This is one area that was going to

change, but did not
• When you declare an array, it starts at
zero, and the element number you use
is the Upper Bound of the array
• This means that arrays will always be
one larger than the size declared
• Dim x(2) As Integer has three
elements
Arrays Continued

• Arrays in VB.NET are classes

supporting properties and methods,
making them quite flexible.
• .Sort
• .Reverse
• You can sort an array in one line of
code!
Garbage Collection
• The garbage collector
periodically checks for
unreferenced objects and
releases all memory and system
resources used by the objects
• VB’s garbage collection reclaims
object space automatically
behind the scenes
• For efficiency, VB only runs the
garbage collection feature when:
• There are objects to recycle
• There is a need to recycle them
While Loops
• VB 6.0 - While statements are ended with
a WEND statement.
• VB.NET - WEND statements are changed
to End While. This improves language
consistency and readability.
• While
End While
Parameter Passing
• VB 6.0 - Parameters that do not
specify either ByVal or ByRef default
to ByRef
• VB.NET - Parameters that do not
specify either ByVal or ByRef default
to ByVal. Defaulting to ByVal rather
than ByRef eliminates the problem of
having a procedure mistakenly
modify a variable passed in by the
caller.
GoSub, On Goto

• VB 6.0 - The GoSub line ... Return

statement branches to and returns
from a subroutine within a procedure.
• VB.NET - GoSub...Return is a
nonstructured programming construct.
Its use makes programs harder to read
and understand. Creating separate
procedures that you can call may
provide a more structured alternative
or use case statements.
Structures Replace UDTs

• User Defined Types (UDTs) have

been replaced with Structures
• Structures are far more powerful
than UDTs
• They support the equivalent of
properties and methods
• They are not as powerful as classes
File I/O Changes

• VB .NET supports such built-in

functions as FileOpen and Write
• These functions are found in the
Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace
• VB6 code that is upgraded to VB
.NET will use these functions
• The Framework includes a rich
namespace called System.IO
The System.IO Namespace

• System.IO contains a large number

of classes for handling all types of
I/O
• There are a variety of major
categories of objects in System.IO
• These include objects to manage files
and directories, read and write text files,
and read and write binary streams
Working with Files

• FileInfo and DirectoryInfo

classes are for such operations as
creating, moving, and deleting files
and directories
• If you use the Open method of
FileInfo to open a file, the returned
object is a FileStream
Reading and Writing Files

• The StreamReader and

StreamWriter classes are common
ways to perform file I/O
• This can read binary and text data
• The StringReader and StringWriter
are designed to read text data
Structured Error Handling

• VB .NET now supports Structured

Exception Handling (SEH)
• On Error Goto is still supported
• SEH uses the Try…Catch…Finally
syntax
• Should help reduce spaghetti code
Overloading

• Overloading is the ability to have the

same method, but with different
arguments
• You could fake this in VB6 using
ParamArrays
• For example, a FindCustomer
method could accept a customer ID,
a customer name, or a contact name
Constructors and Destructors
• Constructors are blocks of code that
run when a class is instantiated
• Destructors are blocks of code that run
when a class drops out of memory
• Constructors can be overloaded to
make them more powerful
• Due to garbage collection, you cannot
be assured of when destructors will
execute
Dispose and Finalize

• Finalize will run when the object is

cleaned up by the GC
• You might want to release resources
explicitly, since you cannot determine
when Finalize will be called
• Use the Dispose design pattern to
explicitly free resources
Multithreading

• VB .NET allows you to create truly

multithreaded (or free threaded)
applications
• The Framework includes a
System.Threading namespace to
make working with threads easier
• You will learn more in Chapter 11,
“Multithreaded Applications”
Windows VB.NET Example