Programmer's Reference

844 Pages·2012·23.77 MB·English

by  Rod Stephens

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VISUAL BASIC® 2012
PROGRAMMER’S REFERENCE
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvii
(cid:2) PART I IDE
CHAPTER 1 Introduction to the IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
CHAPTER 2 Menus, Toolbars, and Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
CHAPTER 3 Windows Forms Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CHAPTER 4 WPF Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
CHAPTER 5 Visual Basic Code Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
CHAPTER 6 Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
(cid:2) PART II GETTING STARTED
CHAPTER 7 Selecting Windows Forms Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
CHAPTER 8 Using Windows Forms Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER 9 Windows Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
CHAPTER 10 Selecting WPF Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
CHAPTER 11 Using WPF Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
CHAPTER 12 WPF Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
CHAPTER 13 Program and Module Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
CHAPTER 14 Data Types, Variables, and Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
CHAPTER 15 Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
CHAPTER 16 Subroutines and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
CHAPTER 17 Program Control Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299
CHAPTER 18 Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
CHAPTER 19 Database Controls and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
CHAPTER 20 LINQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
CHAPTER 21 Metro-Style Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .417
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(cid:2) PART III OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
CHAPTER 22 OOP Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .433
CHAPTER 23 Classes and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .449
CHAPTER 24 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
CHAPTER 25 Collection Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .493
CHAPTER 26 G enerics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
(cid:2) PART IV INTERACTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER 27 Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .529
CHAPTER 28 Confi guration and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
CHAPTER 29 Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
CHAPTER 30 Filesystem Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .585
(cid:2) PART V APPENDICES
APPENDIX A Useful Control Properties, Methods, and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .611
APPENDIX B Variable Declarations and Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
APPENDIX C Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .629
APPENDIX D Subroutine and Function Declarations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .637
APPENDIX E Control Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
APPENDIX F Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .647
APPENDIX G Windows Forms Controls and Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .649
APPENDIX H WPF Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .657
APPENDIX I Visual Basic Power Packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .665
APPENDIX J Form Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .669
APPENDIX K Classes and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
APPENDIX L LINQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .685
APPENDIX M Generics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .695
APPENDIX N Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .699
APPENDIX O Useful Exception Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .711
APPENDIX P Date and Time Format Specifi ers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
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APPENDIX Q Other Format Specifi ers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
APPENDIX R The Application Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .725
APPENDIX S The My Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .729
APPENDIX T Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
APPENDIX U Filesystem Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .755
APPENDIX V Visual Studio Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .771
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
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Visual Basic® 2012
PROGRAMMER’S REFERENCE
Rod Stephens
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Visual Basic® 2012 Programmer’s Reference
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROD STEPHENS started out as a mathematician, but while studying at MIT, he
discovered how much fun programming is and has been programming profes-
sionally ever since. During his career, he has worked on an eclectic assortment of
applications in such fi elds as telephone switching, billing, repair dispatching, tax
processing, wastewater treatment, concert ticket sales, cartography, and training
for professional football players.
Rod is a Microsoft Visual Basic Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and has taught
introductory programming at ITT Technical Institute. He has written more than
two dozen books that have been translated into languages from all over the world, and more than
250 magazine articles covering Visual Basic, C#, Visual Basic for Applications, Delphi, and Java.
Rod’s popular VB Helper website (www.vb-helper.com) receives several million hits per month and
contains thousands of pages of tips, tricks, and example programs for Visual Basic programmers,
as well as example code for this book. His C# Helper website (www.csharphelper.com) contains
similar material for C# programmers.
You can contact Rod at [email protected] or [email protected].
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR
BRIAN HOCHGURTEL has been doing .NET development for over ten years, and actually started his
.NET experience with Rod Stephens when they wrote the Wiley book Visual Basic .NET and XML
together in 2002. Currently Brian works as a SharePoint Developer and Administrator for a large
defense contractor in Colorado.
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