book

Learning Visual Basic .NET

Name: Learning Visual Basic .NET
Author: Jesse Liberty
ISBN: 9780596003869

by Jesse Liberty

October 2002

Beginner

320 pages

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
Preface
About This BookWho This Book Is ForHow the Book Is OrganizedConventions Used in This BookSupportWe’d Like to Hear from YouAcknowledgments
1. Visual Basic .NET and .NET Programming
1.1. Visual Basic and .NET1.1.1. Stepchild No Longer1.2. The .NET Platform1.3. The .NET Framework1.4. The VB.NET Language1.5. The Structure of VB.NET Applications1.6. The Development Environment
2. Getting Started with VB.NET
2.1. What’s in a Program?2.2. Your First Program: Hello World2.2.1. The Compiler2.3. Examining Your First Program2.3.1. Line-by-Line Analysis
3. Object-Oriented Programming
3.1. Creating Models3.2. Classes and Objects3.3. Defining a Class3.4. Class Relationships3.5. The Three Pillars of Object-Oriented Programming3.6. Encapsulation3.7. Specialization3.8. Polymorphism3.9. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
4. Visual Studio .NET
4.1. Start Page4.1.1. Projects and Solutions4.1.2. Templates4.2. Inside the Integrated Development Environment (IDE)4.2.1. Layout4.3. IntelliSense4.4. Building and Running4.5. For More Information
5. VB.NET Language Fundamentals
5.1. Types5.1.1. Numeric Types5.1.2. Non-Numeric Types: Boolean, Char, Date, and String5.1.3. Types and Compiler Errors5.2. Variables5.2.1. Specifying Type with a Character5.2.2. Initializing Variables5.2.3. Default Values5.3. Constants5.3.1. Literal Constants5.3.2. Symbolic Constants5.3.3. Enumerations5.3.4. About Casting5.4. Strings5.5. Statements5.6. Whitespace
6. Branching
6.1. Unconditional Branching Statements6.2. Conditional Branching Statements6.2.1. If Statements6.2.2. If . . . Else Statements6.2.3. Nested If Statements6.2.4. ElseIf6.2.5. Select Case Statements6.3. Iteration (Looping) Statements6.3.1. Creating Loops with Goto6.3.2. The Do Loop6.3.3. Breaking out of a Do Loop6.3.4. The For Loop6.3.5. Controlling a For Loop Using Next
7. Operators
7.1. The Assignment Operator (=)7.2. Mathematical Operators7.2.1. Simple Arithmetical Operators (+, -, *, /, \)7.2.2. The modulus Operator (Mod) to Return Remainders7.2.3. The Exponentiation Operator (^)7.3. Relational Operators7.4. Logical Operators Within Conditionals7.5. Operator Precedence
8. Classes and Objects
8.1. Defining Classes8.1.1. Instantiating Objects8.1.2. Modules Are Classes8.1.3. Memory Allocation: The Stack Versus the Heap8.1.4. Creating a Time Class8.1.5. Access Modifiers8.2. Method Arguments8.3. Constructors8.4. Initializers8.5. Copy Constructors8.6. The Me Keyword8.7. Using Shared Members8.8. Destroying Objects

9. Inside Methods
9.1. Overloading Methods9.2. Encapsulating Data with Properties9.2.1. The Get Accessor9.2.2. The Set Accessor9.2.3. ReadOnly and WriteOnly Properties9.3. Passing by Value and by Reference9.3.1. Passing Arguments by Value9.3.2. Passing Arguments by Reference9.3.3. Passing Reference Types by Value
10. Basic Debugging
10.1. Setting a Breakpoint10.1.1. Using the Debug Menu to Set Your Breakpoint10.1.2. Examining Values: The Autos and Locals Windows10.1.3. Set Your Watch10.2. The Call Stack
11. Inheritance and Polymorphism
11.1. Specialization and Generalization11.2. Inheritance11.2.1. Implementing Inheritance11.2.2. Calling Base Class Constructors11.2.3. Shadowing Base Methods11.2.4. Controlling Access11.3. Polymorphism11.3.1. Creating Polymorphic Types11.3.2. Creating Polymorphic Methods11.3.3. Versioning with Overridable and Overrides11.4. Abstract Classes11.5. NotInheritable Classes11.6. The Root of All Classes: Object11.7. Boxing and Unboxing Types11.7.1. Boxing Is Implicit11.7.2. Unboxing Must Be Explicit
12. Structures
12.1. Defining a Structure12.1.1. No Inheritance12.1.2. No Initialization12.1.3. Public Member Data?
13. Interfaces
13.1. Defining an Interface13.2. Implementing an Interface13.3. Implementing More Than One Interface13.4. Casting to an Interface13.4.1. The Is Operator13.5. Extending Interfaces13.6. Combining Interfaces13.7. Overriding Interface Implementations
14. Arrays
14.1. Arrays14.1.1. Declaring Arrays14.1.2. The Size of the Array14.1.3. The ReDim Keyword14.1.4. Understanding Default Values14.1.5. Accessing Array Elements14.1.6. The For Each Statement14.1.7. Initializing Array Elements14.1.8. The ParamArray Keyword14.2. Multidimensional Arrays14.2.1. Rectangular Arrays14.2.2. Jagged Arrays14.3. System.Array14.4. Indexers and the Default Property14.4.1. Default Properties and Assignment14.4.2. Indexing on Other Values
15. Collection Interfaces and Types
15.1. The Collection Interfaces15.1.1. The IEnumerable Interface15.1.2. Walking Through the For Each Loop in a Debugger15.2. Array Lists15.3. The Collection Class15.4. Queues15.5. Stacks15.6. Copying from a Collection Type to an Array
16. Strings
16.1. Creating Strings16.1.1. String Literals16.1.2. The ToString( ) Method16.1.3. Strings Are Immutable16.2. Manipulating Strings16.2.1. Comparing Strings16.2.2. Concatenating Strings16.2.3. Copying Strings16.2.4. Testing for Equality16.2.5. Other Useful String Methods16.2.6. Finding Substrings16.2.7. Splitting Strings16.2.8. The StringBuilder Class16.3. Regular Expressions16.4. The Regex Class
17. Throwing and Catching Exceptions
17.1. Throwing Exceptions17.2. Searching for an Exception Handler17.3. The Throw Statement17.4. The Try and Catch Statements17.5. How the Call Stack Works17.6. Creating Dedicated Catch Statements17.7. The Finally Statement17.8. Exception Class Methods and Properties17.9. Custom Exceptions
18. Applications and Events
18.1. Creating a Windows Application18.2. Events18.2.1. Web Applications18.3. Server-Side Code
19. Afterword
19.1. Where to Go from Here19.2. Advanced Topics in VB.NET19.3. Web (ASP.NET) Programming19.4. Windows Forms Programming19.5. Other Resources
Index
About the Author
Colophon
Copyright

Content preview from Learning Visual Basic .NET

Chapter 19. Afterword

Congratulations! If you’ve worked your way to this point in the book, you are now a VB.NET programmer. You should be very proud. Of course, no primer can cover everything there is to know about .NET programming, and you are not at the end, but rather at the beginning of your education. Nonetheless, you’ve made a very good start.

Where to Go from Here

I intentionally kept this book short to provide you with the fundamentals and not let more difficult topics distract you from the core elements of the language. Now that you’ve completed the book, however, you may be wondering where to go from here in your pursuit of .NET.

A wealth of information is available, both in books and online. The first task is to decide what you are interested in. Potential topics include:

Advanced topics in VB.NET programming
Web (ASP.NET) programming
Windows (Windows Forms) programming

Sooner or later you’ll probably decide to read extensively on all three topics; the only question is which you tackle first. In the next sections, I’ll recommend some more advanced books to help you find your way through these topics.

Advanced Topics in VB.NET

If you decide that you want to understand all the nooks and crannies of VB.NET before going on to creating applications, you might consider reading a more advanced guide or a reference work on the language.

O’Reilly offers a few choices: Programming Visual Basic .NET is a more advanced book I am writing for release in early 2003, and VB.NET in a Nutshell ...

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