Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I: Creating a Visual Basic .NET Program 7

Chapter 1: How Visual Basic .NET Works 9

Chapter 2: Using the Visual Basic .NET User Interface 15

Chapter 3: Designing Your First User Interface 25

Chapter 4: Writing BASIC Code 35

Part II: Creating User Interfaces 49

Chapter 5: User Interface Design 101 51

Chapter 6: Designing Forms 73

Chapter 7: Boxes and Buttons for Making Choices 87

Chapter 8: Text Boxes and Labels for Typing and Showing Words 95

Chapter 9: Showing Choices with List and Combo Boxes 105

Chapter 10: Fine-Tuning the Appearance of Your User Interface 115

Part III: Making Menus 121

Chapter 11: Creating and Editing Pull-Down Menus 123

Chapter 12: Submenus, Growing Menus, and Pop-Up Menus 137

Chapter 13: Showing Dialog Boxes 147

Part IV: The Basics of Writing Code 165

Chapter 14: Writing Event-Handling Procedures 167

Chapter 15: Using Variables 181

Chapter 16: Getting Data from the User 195

Chapter 17: Math 101: Arithmetic, Logical, and Comparison Operators 203

Chapter 18: Strings and Things 219

Chapter 19: Defining Constants and Using Comments 233

Chapter 20: Storing Stuff in Data Structures 245

Chapter 21: Killing Bugs 257

Part V: Making Decisions and Getting Loopy 269

Chapter 22: Making Decisions with If-Then Statements 271

Chapter 23: The Select Case Statement 281

Chapter 24: Repeating Yourself with Loops 287

Chapter 25: For-Next Loops That Can Count 295

Chapter 26: Nested Loops and Quick Exits 301

Part VI: Writing Subprograms (So You Don’t Go Crazy All at Once) 305

Chapter 27: General Procedures (Subprograms That Everyone Can Share) 307

Chapter 28: Passing Arguments 317

Chapter 29: Function, a Unique Type of Subprogram 325

Part VII: Understanding Object-Oriented Programming 335

Chapter 30: What the Heck Is Object-Oriented Programming? 337

Chapter 31: Getting Some Class with Object-Oriented Programming 345

Chapter 32: Using Inheritance and Overloading 355

Part VIII: The Part of Tens 365

Chapter 33: Ten Visual Basic .NET Topics That Didn’t Fit Anywhere Else 367

Chapter 34: (Almost) Ten Tips for Using the Visual Basic .NET User Interface 375

Index 379

About the Author

Wallace Wang is the bestselling author of Beginning Programming For Dummies, 2nd Edition, Steal This Computer Book 2, and many other books. In addition to writing computer books, he also performs stand-up comedy in Las Vegas and has appeared on the TV show A&E's "Evening at the Improv."