TEAM LinG Beginning Visual Basic ® 2005 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page i Beginning Visual Basic ® 2005 Thearon Willis and Bryan Newsome 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page iii 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page ii Beginning Visual Basic®2005 Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN-10: 0-7645-7401-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7401-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10987654321 1MA/QV/RQ/QV/IN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Willis, Thearon. Beginning Visual Basic 2005 / Thearon Willis and Bryan Newsome. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7401-6 (paper/website) ISBN-10: 0-7645-7401-9 (paper/website) 1. Microsoft Visual BASIC. 2. BASIC (Computer program language) I. Newsome, Bryan, 1971- II. Title. 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Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trade- marks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.Visual Basic is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page iv About the Authors Thearon Willis is a Senior Consultant with over 20 years of programming experience. He started writing applications using the BASIC language in 1980 and later moved on to Visual Basic and finally to Visual Basic .NET. Thearon began working with databases in 1987 and has been hooked on writing database applications every since. He has experience with SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2 but works with SQL Server on a daily basis. Thearon has programmed in several other languages, some of which include C++, assembly lan- guage, Pascal, and COBOL. However, he enjoys Visual Basic .NET the best because it provides the fea- tures needed to quickly build Windows and Web applications, as well as components and Web Services. Thearon currently develops intranet applications, Web Services, and server-side and client-side utilities using Visual Basic .NET. Most of these applications and utilities are database-driven and make use of XML and XSL. Thearon lives with his wife Margie and daughter Stephanie in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. Bryan Newsome works in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a custom software project manager specializing in Microsoft solutions. He leads a team of developers focused on meeting the needs of each client and project using the latest technologies. Each day, he helps provide clients with solutions and mentoring on leading-edge Microsoft technologies. Bryan is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer for .NET. 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page v 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page vi Credits Acquisitions Editor Katie Mohr Development Editor Sydney Jones Technical Editor Todd Meister Production Editor William A. Barton Copy Editor Publication Services, Inc. Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Vice President & Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Project Coordinator Ryan Steffen Graphics and Production Specialists Andrea Dahl Lauren Goddard Lynsey Osborn Alicia South Julie Trippetti Quality Control Technicians Leeann Harney Carl William Pierce Media Development Specialists Angela Denny Kit Malone Travis Silvers Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page vii 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page viii As always, I want to thank my wife Margie and my daughter Stephanie for the patience they have shown while I write another book. Without their love and support, none of this would be possible. —Thearon Willis To all of the friends and family that make my life special in the past, present, and future: Jennifer (love you, honey), Katelyn, Mom (I miss you), Dad, Ashley and Leslie, Judy and Tony, Jennifer S. and Steven. All my love and happiness to each of you. —Bryan Newsome 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page ix [...]... Run Visual Basic 2005? Apart from a willingness to learn, all you’ll need for the first 14 chapters are a PC running Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home or Professional Edition), or Windows Server 2003; Internet Explorer; and of course: ❑ Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition ❑ Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Standard Edition ❑ Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Professional Edition ❑ Microsoft Visual Basic 2005. .. Need to Run Visual Basic 2005? Conventions Customer Support How to Download the Sample Code for the Book Errata p2p.wrox.com Why This System Offers the Best Support Chapter 1: Welcome to Visual Basic 2005 Windows Versus DOS Programming Installing Visual Basic 2005 The Visual Basic 2005 IDE The Profile Setup Page The Menu The Toolbars Creating a Simple Application Windows in the Visual Studio 2005 IDE... Introduction Visual Basic 2005 is Microsoft’s latest version of the highly popular Visual Basic NET programming language, one of the many languages supported in Visual Studio 2005 Visual Basic 2005 s strength lies in its ease of use and the speed at which you can create Windows applications, Web applications, mobile device applications, and Web Services In this book, we will introduce you to programming with Visual. .. Visual Basic 6, you’ll find that this book quickly gets you up to speed on what you need to know to get the most from Visual Basic 2005 What Does This Book Cover? Visual Basic 2005 offers a great deal of functionality in both tools and language No one book could ever cover Visual Basic 2005 in its entirety—you would need a library of books What this book aims to do is to get you started as quickly and... programming languages in Visual Studio 2005, which provides you with the same ability to create object-oriented programs as a programmer using C# or C++ This book will give you a thorough grounding in the basics of programming using Visual Basic 2005; from there the world is your oyster Who Is This Book For? This book is designed to teach you how to write useful programs in Visual Basic 2005 as quickly and... familiar with the various aspects of the Visual Basic 2005 language, as well as its foundation in Microsoft’s NET Framework You will find that it is not nearly as difficult as you have been imagining Before you know it, you will be feeling quite comfortable creating a variety of different types of programs with Visual Basic 2005 Also (as the name NET implies) Visual Basic 2005 can be used to create applications... You’re a beginner to programming and you’ve chosen Visual Basic 2005 as the place to start That’s a great choice! Visual Basic 2005 is not only easy to learn; it’s also fun to use and very powerful ❑ You can program in another language but you’re a beginner to NET programming Again, you’ve made a great choice! Whether you’ve come from Fortran or Visual Basic 6, you’ll find that this book quickly gets... system Queries about joining or leaving lists, and any other general queries about lists, should be sent to listsupport@p2p.wrox.com xxxiii 1 Welcome to Visual Basic 2005 The goal of this book is to help you come up to speed with the Visual Basic 2005 language even if you have never programmed before You will start slowly and build on what you learn So take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tell... way of giving the instructions, not much gets accomplished Visual Basic 2005 is a language in which you can tell your computer how to do things But, like a child, the computer will understand only if you explain things very clearly If you have never programmed before, this sounds like an arduous task, and sometimes it is However, Visual Basic 2005 gives you a simple language to explain some complex things... some complex things Although it never hurts to have an understanding of what is happening at the lowest levels, Visual Basic 2005 frees the programmer from having to deal with the mundane complexities of writing Windows programs You are free to concentrate on solving problems Visual Basic 2005 helps you create solutions that run on the Microsoft Windows operating system If you are looking at this book, . the Best Support xxxiii Chapter 1: Welcome to Visual Basic 2005 1 Windows Versus DOS Programming 2 Installing Visual Basic 2005 3 The Visual Basic 2005 IDE 6 The Profile Setup Page 7 The Menu. TEAM LinG Beginning Visual Basic ® 2005 01_574019 ffirs.qxd 9/16/05 9:31 PM Page i Beginning Visual Basic ® 2005 Thearon Willis and Bryan Newsome 01_574019. programming experience. He started writing applications using the BASIC language in 1980 and later moved on to Visual Basic and finally to Visual Basic .NET. Thearon began working with databases in 1987