Sams teach yourself Visual basic 2012 in 24 in hours, complete starter kit

Introduction 1 PART I: The Visual Basic 2012 Environment HOUR 1: Jumping in with Both Feet: A Visual Basic 2012 Programming Tour 5 Starting Visual Basic 2012 . . . . . . . . . 6 Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . 7 Understanding the Visual Studio 2012 Environment . . . . . 10 Changing the Characteristics of Objects . . . . . . . 11 Adding Controls to a Form. . . . . . . . . 16 Designing an Interface . . . . . . . . . 17 Writing the Code Behind an Interface . . . . . . . 21 Running a Project . . . . . . . . . . 25 HOUR 2: Navigating Visual Basic 2012 29 Using the Visual Basic 2012 Start Page . . . . . . . 30 Navigating and Customizing the Visual Basic Environment. . . 32 Working with Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . 37 Adding Controls to a Form Using the Toolbox . . . . . . 38 Setting Object Properties Using the Properties Window . . . . 39 Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . 45 A Quick-and-Dirty Programming Primer . . . . . . 51 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . 53 HOUR 3: Understanding Objects and Collections 57 Understanding Objects. . . . . . . . . . 58 Understanding Properties . . . . . . . . . 58     Understanding Methods. . . . . . . . . 65 Building a Simple Object Example Project. . . . . . 67 Understanding Collections . . . . . . . . . 72 Using the Object Browser . . . . . . . . . 75 HOUR 4: Understanding Events 79 Understanding Event-Driven Programming . . . . . . 79 Building an Event Example Project . . . . . . . 87 Keeping Event Names Current . . . . . . . . 92 PART II: Building a User Interface HOUR 5: Building Forms: The Basics 95 Changing a Form\'s Name . . . . . . . . . 96 Changing a Form\'s Appearance . . . . . . . . 97 Showing and Hiding Forms. . . . . . . . . 107 HOUR 6: Building Forms: Advanced Techniques 117 Working with Controls . . . . . . . . . 117 Creating Topmost Nonmodal Windows. . . . . . . 134 Creating Transparent Forms . . . . . . . . 135 Creating Scrollable Forms. . . . . . . . . 135 Creating MDI Forms . . . . . . . . . . 137 Setting the Startup Form. . . . . . . . . 140 HOUR 7: Working with Traditional Controls 145 Displaying Static Text with the Label Control . . . . . 145 Allowing Users to Enter Text Using a Text Box . . . . . 146 Creating Buttons. . . . . . . . . . 153 Creating Containers and Groups of Option Buttons . . . . 157 Displaying a List with the List Box . . . . . . . 161 Creating Drop-Down Lists Using the Combo Box . . . . . 168 HOUR 8: Using Advanced Controls 173 Creating Timers . . . . . . . . . . 174 Creating Tabbed Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . 177 Storing Pictures in an Image List Control. . . . . . 180 Building Enhanced Lists Using the List View Control . . . . 182 Creating Hierarchical Lists Using the Tree View Control. . . . . . . . . . 187 HOUR 9: Adding Menus and Toolbars to Forms 195 Building Menus . . . . . . . . . . 196 Using the Toolbar Control. . . . . . . . . 207 Creating a Status Bar. . . . . . . . . . 213 PART III: Making Things Happen-Programming HOUR 10: Creating and Calling Code Procedures 217 Creating Visual Basic Code Modules. . . . . . . 217 Writing Code Procedures . . . . . . . . . 219 Calling Code Procedures. . . . . . . . . 225 Exiting Procedures. . . . . . . . . . 231 Avoiding Infinite Recursion. . . . . . . . . 232 HOUR 11: Using Constants, Data Types, Variables, and Arrays 237 Understanding Data Types . . . . . . . . . 238 Defining and Using Constants. . . . . . . . 242 Declaring and Referencing Variables . . . . . . . 244 Working with Arrays . . . . . . . . . . 250 Determining Scope . . . . . . . . . . 254 Declaring Variables of Static Scope. . . . . . . 258 Naming Conventions. . . . . . . . . . 259 Using Variables in Your Picture Viewer Project . . . . . 261 HOUR 12: Performing Arithmetic, String Manipulation, and Date/Time Adjustments 269 Performing Basic Arithmetic Operations with Visual Basic . . . 270 Comparing Equalities . . . . . . . . . 274 Understanding Boolean Logic . . . . . . . . 274 Manipulating Strings . . . . . . . . . . 278 Working with Dates and Times . . . . . . . . 283 HOUR 13: Making Decisions in Visual Basic Code 293 Making Decisions Using If...Then . . . . . . . 293 Branching Within a Procedure Using GoTo . . . . . . 304 HOUR 14: Looping for Efficiency 309 Looping a Specific Number of Times Using For...Next . . . . 309 Using Do...Loop to Loop an Indeterminate Number of Times . . . 315 HOUR 15: Debugging Your Code 323 Adding Comments to Your Code . . . . . . . . 324 Identifying the Two Basic Types of Errors. . . . . . 326 Using Visual Basic\'s Debugging Tools . . . . . . . 328 Writing an Error Handler Using Try...Catch...Finally . . . 336 HOUR 16: Designing Objects Using Classes 347 Understanding Classes . . . . . . . . . 348 Instantiating Objects from Classes . . . . . . . 357 HOUR 17: Interacting with Users 367 Displaying Messages Using the MessageBox.Show() Function . . . 367 Creating Custom Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . 373 Using InputBox() to Get Information from a User . . . . . 377 Interacting with the Keyboard . . . . . . . . 379 Using the Common Mouse Events . . . . . . . 382 HOUR 18: Working with Graphics 389 Understanding the Graphics Object. . . . . . . 389 Working with Pens . . . . . . . . . . 392 Using System Colors . . . . . . . . . . 393 Working with Rectangles . . . . . . . . . 396 Drawing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . 397 Drawing Text . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Persisting Graphics on a Form. . . . . . . . 400 Building a Graphics Project Example . . . . . . . 400 PART IV: Working with Data HOUR 19: Performing File Operations 409 Using the OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog Controls . . . 409 Manipulating Files with the File Object. . . . . . 415 Manipulating Directories with the Directory Object . . . . 424 HOUR 20: Working with the Registry and Text Files 427 Working with the Registry . . . . . . . . . 427 Reading and Writing Text Files . . . . . . . . 439 HOUR 21: Working with a Database 451 Introducing ADO.NET . . . . . . . . . 452 Manipulating Data . . . . . . . . . . 456 HOUR 22: Controlling Other Applications Using Automation 469 Automating Microsoft Excel . . . . . . . . 470 Automating Microsoft Word . . . . . . . . 476 PART V: Deploying Solutions and Beyond HOUR 23: Deploying Applications 481 Understanding ClickOnce Technology. . . . . . . 481 Using the Publish Wizard to Create a ClickOnce Application . . . 482 Testing Your Picture Viewer ClickOnce Install Program . . . . 486 Uninstalling an Application You\'ve Distributed . . . . . 486 Setting Advanced Options for Creating ClickOnce Programs . . . 488 HOUR 24: The 10,000-Foot View 491 The .NET Framework . . . . . . . . . . 491 Common Language Runtime . . . . . . . . 492 Microsoft Intermediate Language . . . . . . . 493 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . 494 Common Type System . . . . . . . . . 496 Garbage Collection . . . . . . . . . . 496 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . 497 9780672336294, 9/17/2012