Contents 
                 Chapter 1  Ideas of Programming ........................................................................................ 4 
                      1.1     What is a program? ............................................................................................ 4 
                      1.2     What is programming?....................................................................................... 4 
                      1.3     What is a programming language? ..................................................................... 5 
                      1.4     Compilers........................................................................................................... 5 
                      1.5     Names of some programming languages ........................................................... 6 
                 Chapter 2  Visual Basic 2010 Express ................................................................................... 8 
                      2.1     Download Visual Basic 2010 Express .................................................................. 8 
                      2.2     Register Visual Basic 2010 Express within 30 days .............................................. 8 
                      2.3     Your first project ................................................................................................ 9 
                            2.3.1     Create and save a new project ............................................................... 9 
                            2.3.2     Introduction to Visual Basic 2010 IDE ................................................... 11 
                            2.3.3     Adding controls and code ..................................................................... 12 
                            2.3.4     Open an existing project ....................................................................... 13 
                      2.4     Structure of a Visual Basic 2010 project ........................................................... 14 
                      2.5     Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN)............................................................. 14 
                 Chapter 3  Working with Controls ..................................................................................... 15 
                      3.1     Introduction to GUI programming in Visual Basic ............................................. 15 
                      3.2     Controls ........................................................................................................... 15 
                      3.3     Properties window ........................................................................................... 16 
                      3.4     Changing properties at runtime ....................................................................... 17 
                      3.5     Assigning values to properties ......................................................................... 18 
                      3.6     Add a comment to your source code ............................................................... 19 
                      Exercise 3 .................................................................................................................... 19 
                 Chapter 4  Events and Methods ........................................................................................ 20 
                      4.1     Introduction to events and methods ................................................................ 20 
                      4.2     Events .............................................................................................................. 20 
                            4.2.1     Introduction to event procedures ......................................................... 20 
                            4.2.2     Adding an event procedure in Visual Basic ........................................... 21 
                            4.2.3     Names and types of events .................................................................. 22 
                            4.2.4     The structure of an event procedure .................................................... 23 
                            4.2.5     TextChanged events ............................................................................. 23 
                  
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                      4.3     Methods .......................................................................................................... 24 
                      Exercise 4 .................................................................................................................... 26 
                 Chapter 5  Variables, Input and Output ............................................................................. 27 
                      5.1     Variables .......................................................................................................... 27 
                            5.1.1     Declaring variables with Dim statement ............................................... 27 
                            5.1.2     Keywords and names of variables......................................................... 28 
                            5.1.3     Giving values to variables in the Dim statement ................................... 28 
                            5.1.4     Declaring several variables in a single line ............................................ 28 
                            5.1.5     Using variables to store values ............................................................. 29 
                            5.1.6     Scope of variables ................................................................................ 30 
                      5.2     Introduction to InputBox and MsgBox.............................................................. 32 
                            5.2.1     InputBox ............................................................................................... 32 
                            5.2.2     MsgBox ................................................................................................ 33 
                            5.2.3     Miscellaneous examples ....................................................................... 34 
                      Exercise 5 .................................................................................................................... 34 
                 Chapter 6  Operators and Expressions............................................................................... 35 
                      6.1     Arithmetic Operators ....................................................................................... 35 
                      6.2     Parentheses (singular: parenthesis) ................................................................. 36 
                      6.3     Concatenation Operators ................................................................................. 36 
                      6.4     Operator Precedence ....................................................................................... 37 
                      6.5     Increment and Decrement ............................................................................... 38 
                      6.6     Val function ..................................................................................................... 38 
                      6.7     Mathematical Constants and Functions ........................................................... 39 
                      6.8     Miscellaneous Examples .................................................................................. 40 
                      Exercise 6 .................................................................................................................... 41 
                 Chapter 7  Flow Control (1) ............................................................................................... 42 
                      7.1     Decision Making............................................................................................... 42 
                      7.2     Relational Operators ........................................................................................ 42 
                      7.3     If...Then...Else Statement ................................................................................. 43 
                      7.4     Multiple conditions with keyword ElseIf .......................................................... 44 
                      7.5     Official Syntax of If...Then...Else Statement ...................................................... 46 
                      Exercise 7 .................................................................................................................... 47 
                 Alphabetical Index............................................................................................................... 48 
                  
                  
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               Introduction to Visual Basic 
               Chapter 1              Ideas of Programming 
               1.1      What is a program? 
               A program is a set of instructions that tells a computer how to do a task. With programs, 
                                             automatically                 repeatedly 
               computers can perform tasks __________________ and ___________________. 
               1.2      What is programming? 
               Programming is the process of designing, writing, testing and debugging (remove mistakes) 
               a program. To write a program, you need to know and solve the problem first. After 
               solving the problem, you tell the computer how to solve the problem using a programming 
               language. 
               For example, if you need to write a program that calculates percentage changes, you 
               should first solve the problem by obtaining the formula of percentage change. After that, 
               you will write a program to do the task. In this course, Visual Basic.net the programming 
               language you use. 
               To get the idea of how to 
               create a computer                                      Define the 
               program, you may refer to                               Problem 
               the diagram at the right. 
               (Note: after having a                                                       Solve the 
               finished program, you can         Evaluation                                Problem 
               do an evaluation to look 
               for possible 
               improvements.) 
                
                                                        Testing and                 Write a 
                                                         Debugging                 Program 
                
                 4