visual basic cheat sheet

7/27/2019 visual basic cheat sheet

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VBCHEAT

SHEET

&NOTES

March 20

2013 2013

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CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................................................... 1

ABOUT ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

LICENSE ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

VB SYNTAX....................................................................................................................................................... 4

COMMENTS..................................................................................................................................................... 4

VARIABLES ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

VARIABLE NAMING............................................................................................................................................ 5VARIABLE SYNTAX ............................................................................................................................................. 5

VARIABLE DATA TYPES ....................................................................................................................................... 5

STRINGS ........................................................................................................................................................... 6

Example ................................................................................................................................................... 6

STRING FUNCTIONS ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Example ................................................................................................................................................... 7

Exceptions................................................................................................................................................ 7

OPERATORS ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

EQUALITY /COMPARISON ................................................................................................................................... 8

LOGICAL ......................................................................................................................................................... 8

ARRAYS ............................................................................................................................................................ 9

ARRAYSYNTAX .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Example ................................................................................................................................................... 9

METHODS ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

IF STATEMENTS .............................................................................................................................................. 10

SYNTAX ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

SYNTAXIF ELSE ............................................................................................................................................ 11

SELECT CASE................................................................................................................................................... 11

Example ................................................................................................................................................. 12

WHILE STATEMENT ........................................................................................................................................ 13

Example ................................................................................................................................................. 13

FOR ITERATIONS ............................................................................................................................................ 14

Example ................................................................................................................................................. 14

MANAGING ERRORS ...................................................................................................................................... 15

Example ................................................................................................................................................. 15


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CREATING CLASSES ........................................................................................................................................ 16

Example ................................................................................................................................................. 16


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This document is not a full tutorial just small cheat sheet and has the

basics of Visual Basic. For a full tutorial and updates go to:

http://www.thecodingguys.net/tutorials/visualbasic/vb-tutorial

http://www.thecodingguys.net/downloads

This work is licensed under the creative commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported

You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work
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Visual Basic has a simple syntax and much of the language is like

English, lines dont end with semi-colons and the language is not

case-sensitive so something like A and a are the same thing.

Comments Single Line Comments XML Comments

#region end region Specifies a region (groups of

code)

There are no block comments in Visual Basic.

Variables are a storage location, each variable you create uses some

memory in the computer (RAM).


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Variable Naming Variables start with uppoer or lower-case characters

Variable Syntax

Variables start with the Dim keyword.

Dim as

e.g.

Dim asim as string

Variable Data TypesData Type Description

Int Whole Numbers (Integers)Strings Set of characters

Double Numbers with decimals

Boolean True or False

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Strings are sequence of characters. Strings are wrapped up in double quotes. New Line starts with & vbCrLf & Concatenation is the and sign & (or add +) The escape character is 4 double quotes like:Dim text AsStringtext = "Asim Said: ""Hello World"" "

String.Format Options

Format Description

{0:C} Currency Symbol{0:N} Dot or Comma (for separating large

numbers}

{0:P} Percentage Symbol

Example

Dim strFormat AsString

strFormat = String.Format("{0:C}", 5)


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Console.WriteLine(strFormat)

Console.ReadLine()

This would print out 5, however this depends on your computer

settings so if youre in USA the symbol is $, or in Frances its the euro

sign .

String Functions

There are many functions available so you can format strings, for

example make uppercase, split, substring, or convert a number to a

string.

ExampleDim subStr AsString

subStr = "Welcome to thecodingguys!"

Console.WriteLine(subStr.Substring(0, 5))Console.ReadLine()

This uses the substring function which simply gets the first 5characters from our string subStr, it starts from 0 and stops at the 5

th

character, so the output is Welco.

Exceptions

ArgumentOutOfRangeException

Functions DescriptionToString Converts an integer (or double)


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to a string

Toupper Formats a string so it is upper-

case

ToLower Formats a string so it is lower-case

Equality / Comparison

Logical

Operator Description

AND AND

Or Or

Operator Description

= Is equal to

Not equal to

< Less than

> Greater than

= Greater than or equal to


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An array can hold more than one value.

Array

Syntax

Dim array-name (size) As

Example

Dim games (5) As string

Arrays are accessed by their index number.

Games(0) = "GTA 4"

Games(1) = "Battlefield 3"

Games(2) = "SWAT 4" ' I LOVE THIS GAME!

Games(3) = "Arma 2"

Games(4) = "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3" ' Games(5) = "GRID

Arrays are access by the index value, arrays start at 0 so to print out

Arma 2 you would write

Console.WriteLine(games(3))

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Methods (or procedures) are very good for reusing code and making

code more understandable. A method is just a block of code which

you can call.

PrivateSub hello()Console.WriteLine("Hello There!")Console.ReadLine()

EndSub

To call this we just type hello() like this:

Sub Main()

hello()

EndSub

The if statement is a condition statement and is used to make a decision based

on some condition which is true.


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Syntax

If condition Then

EndIf

Syntax If Else

If condition Then

code to execute

Else

code to execute

End If

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The Visual Basic Select Case is similar to a switch statement.

SyntaxSelectCase VariableName

Case1code

Case2
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Case Elsecode

EndSelect

Example

Dim game AsStringConsole.WriteLine("Your favourite game?")game = Console.ReadLine()Dim message AsStringmessage = game & " is your favourite game!"

SelectCase gameCase"GTA 4"

Console.WriteLine(message)Case"Battlefield 3"

Console.WriteLine(message)Case"GRID"

Console.WriteLine(message)Case"Infamous"

Case ElseConsole.WriteLine("Looks like your

game is not on my list")EndSelect

Console.ReadLine()

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The while statement runs a piece of code, while its condition is true.

SYNTAXWhile variable True

Code to executeExit While

EndWhile

ExampleThis example reads a text file.

Dim path = "U:\users\admin\desktop\note.txt"Dim sr AsNewStreamReader(path)

Dim line = sr.ReadToEnd()

While line IsNotNothingConsole.WriteLine(line)Exit While

EndWhile

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The For Next Loop will iterate through data, commonly used to print out a list

of numbers or anything similar!

SYNTAXFor index = 1 To 50

codeNext

Console.ReadLine()

Example

For i = 1 To 50

Console.WriteLine(i)Next

Console.ReadLine()

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Every computer program has some kind of bug in it, and you need to

be able to catch any exceptions occur, to do this you use a try catch

block.

SYNTAXTry

Catch ex AsException

EndTry

Example

Try

Console.WriteLine("Pick a number")x = Console.ReadLine()Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToInt32(x) + a)

Catch fEx AsFormatExceptionConsole.WriteLine(fEx.Message)

EndTry

Console.ReadLine()

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Classes contains methods and other events. You create a class by

using the public keyword (you can use private but the class is not

accessible from the outside.)

SYNTAXPublicclass

End Class

You initialize classes like this;

Dim myCar As New Car()

Passing Arguments (Parameters)

With classes you pass arguments or parameters. You dont have to

but majority of classes will to get some input.

Example

Here is a class called car, with some methods:

PublicClassCar

PublicFunction manufacturer(vmanufacturer AsString)


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Return vmanufacturerEndFunction

PublicFunction model(vModel AsString)Return vModel

EndFunction

PublicFunction colour(vcolour AsString)

Return vcolourEndFunction

EndClass

You would then use this class and call it from another one like this;

Dim myCar AsNewCar()

Console.WriteLine("Please enter your carmanufacturer: ")Dim m AsString =

myCar.manufacturer(Console.ReadLine())

Console.WriteLine("Please enter car model:")

Dim mo AsString =

myCar.model(Console.ReadLine())

Console.WriteLine("Please enter carcolour")

Dim c AsString =myCar.colour(Console.ReadLine())


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Console.WriteLine("You car details: " &vbLf & " " & m & " " & vbLf & " " & mo & vbLf & " "& c)

Console.ReadLine()

To learn more about classes see:

http://www.thecodingguys.net/tutorials/visualbasic/vb-creating-

and-managing-classes

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visual basic cheat sheet