VB Module 1 - Introduction.pub - Lincoln

Mr. Giansante 

Visual Basic 

Module 1 

Introduction to Programming 

August 2009

Table of Contents 

Learning Outcomes.................................................. 3 

NETS Standards for Students.................................. 4 

Introduction to Programming.................................... 5 

Introduction to Visual Basic...................................... 6 

Proper Programming Style....................................... 7 

Errors and Bugs ....................................................... 8 

Flowcharts................................................................ 9 

Flowchart Examples............................................... 10 

Creating a Visual Basic Program ........................... 12 

Using Visual Basic 2008 ........................................ 12 

Important Concepts................................................ 13 

Variables and Constants........................................ 14 

Visual Basic 2008 Reference Sheet ...................... 15 

Fill in the Blanks 

Fundamentals of Programming.............................. 16 

Introduction to Visual Basic.................................... 17 

Flowcharts.............................................................. 18 

Variables ................................................................ 19 

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Mr. Giansante Visual Basic Programming - Table of Contents

Learning Outcomes 

The student will ... 

General 

� Demonstrate proper care of all computer equipment 

� Demonstrate positive attitudes and work habits 

� Demonstrate interpersonal and organizational skills 

� Demonstrate Problem Solving Skills 

� Make Productive Use of Time 

� Demonstrate independence skills and only seek help when necessary 

The Programming Environment 

� Identify the components of the Visual Basic interface 

� Customize the Visual Basic environment 

� Use Help Resourses Effectively (online Help, MSDN site, web sites, newsgroups) 

� Compile and run an application 

Programming Concepts 

� The basic philosophy of programming with Visual Basic 

� Effective Graphical User Interface (GUI) Design 

� Describe the three error types (syntax, run-time, logic) 

� Test and Debug Applications 

Variables and Constants 

� Differentiate between variables and constants 

� Define the scope of code and variables 

� Declare variables and constants 

� Use built-in constants 

Mr. Giansante Visual Basic Programming - Page 3

NETS Standards for Students 

National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S) 

and Performance Indicators for Students 

"What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively 

and live productively in an increasingly digital world ..." 

1. Creativity and Innovation 

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop 

innovative products and processes using technology. Students: 

a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. 

b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. 

c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. 

d. identify trends and forecast possibilities. 

2. Communication and Collaboration 

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, 

to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: 

a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. 

b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. 

c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. 

d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. 

3. Research and Information Fluency 

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students: 

a. plan strategies to guide inquiry. 

b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. 

c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. 

d. process data and report results. 

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making 

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed 

decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students: 

a. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. 

b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project. 

c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions. 

d. use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. 

5. Digital Citizenship 

Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students: 

a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology. 

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity. 

c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. 

d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. 

6. Technology Operations and Concepts 

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students: 

a. understand and use technology systems. 

b. select and use applications effectively and productively. 

c. troubleshoot systems and applications. 

d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies. 

© 2007 International Society for Technology in Education. 

ISTE® is a registered trademark of the 

International Society for Technology in Education. 


Introduction to Programming 

The computer is no better 

than its program. 

Men, Machines and Modern Times (1966) 

Elting E. Morison 

I think that's a shame. There's a lot of 

reasoning skills that you learn by knowing 

how to program. But more than that, you get 

to see what you can do when you're the 

master. You have an idea, you type in a 

program, and it does what you want it to. 

Nowadays, we're taught to go and buy such 

and such a program to use it their way, the 

way they designed it. ...You're a slave to the 

way someone else does it for you. 

Steve Wozniak 

Co-founder of Apple Computer 

Palais des Congres in Montreal, Canada 

Thursday, February 15, 2007 

Commenting on the fact that school children aren't 

taught computer programming language like BASIC 

anymore. 

Introduction 

Although computers appear to be amazingly intelligent 

machines, they cannot yet think on their own. 

Computers still rely on human beings to give them 

detailed instructions on how to carry out even the most 

basic tasks. These instructions are called programs and 

are written using computer programming languages. 

Computer programming (often shortened to 

programming or coding) is the process of writing, 

testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the 

source code of computer programs. The code may be a 

modification of an existing source or something 

completely new. The purpose of programming is to 

create a program that exhibits a certain desired 

behaviour. The process of writing source code often 

requires expertise in many different subjects, including 

knowledge of the application domain, specialized 

algorithms and formal logic. 

There is an ongoing debate on the extent to which the 

writing of programs is an art, a craft or an engineering 

discipline. Good programming is generally considered to 

be the measured application of all three, with the goal of 

producing an efficient and evolvable software solution. 

Within software engineering, programming (the 

implementation) is regarded as one phase in a software 

development lifecycle. 

Software Development Lifecycle 

Quality Requirements 

Whatever the approach to software development may 

be, the final program must satisfy some fundamental 

properties. The following five properties are among the 

most relevant: 

Efficiency / Performance: the amount of system 

resources a program consumes (processor time, 

memory space, slow devices, network bandwidth and to 

some extent even user interaction), the less the better. 

Reliability: how often the results of a program are 

correct. This depends on various methods of 

prevention of errors. 

Robustness: how well a program anticipates situations 

of incompatibilities that result in run time errors and 

program halts. 

Usability: the clarity and intuitiveness of a programs 

output can make or break its success. This involves a 

wide range of textual and graphical elements that 

makes a program easy and comfortable to use. 

Portability: the range of computer hardware and 

operating system platforms on which the source code of 

a program can be compiled/interpreted and run. This 

depends mainly on the range of platform specific 

compilers for the language of the source code rather 

than anything having to do with the program directly. 

Source: wikipedia.org 


Introduction to Visual Basic 

By any measure, Microsoft Visual 

Basic is the most successful - and 

most popular - programming language 

in the history of computers. 

PC-Computing Magazine 

September 1998 

By 1998, Visual Basic was the primary 

language used by more than half the 

developers in the United States. 

Visual Basic Bible 

Eric A. Smith, Valor Whisler, Hank Marquis 

Microsoft's Visual Basic is both an Object-Oriented and 

an Event-Driven programming platform. 

It derives its syntax from BASIC (Beginners All-purpose 

Symbolic Instruction Code), the most widely-used 

programming language in the history of computers. 

Visual Basic allows you to create programs which work 

within the Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) 

Environment. 

Visual Basic is often referred to as a RAD 

(Rapid Application Development) tool. 

IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. 

DOWNLOAD 

Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition 

is available as a free download from 

Microsoft.com 

History of Visual Basic 

The original BASIC was designed by John Kemeny and 

Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1964. In the 

1970s and 1980s, numerous software vendors, 

especially Microsoft, added features to BASIC to 

support structured programming. 

In 1988, Alan Cooper, the "father" of Visual Basic, 

showed a drag-and-drop shell prototype called Tripod to 

Bill Gates. Microsoft immediately bought the concept. 

Microsoft first released Visual Basic in 1987. It was the 

first visual development tool from Microsoft, and it was 

to compete with C, C++, Pascal and other well-known 

programming languages. 

From the start, Visual Basic wasn't a hit. It wasn't until 

release 2.0 (1992) that people really discovered the 

potential of the language, and with release 3.0 it had 

become the fastest-growing programming language on 

the market. 

Source: startvbdotnet.com 

In 2002, Microsoft released Visual Basic.NET 

This proved to be very controversial and divisive in the 

programming world, since VB.NET was a radically 

different language than previous versions of Visual 

Basic and therefore programmers had to completely 

relearn how to write computer programs. 

VIDEO 

Watch the following videos: 

Introduction to Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition 

(37 minutes) 

Creating Your First Program 

(9 minutes) 


Proper Programming Style 

Programs that are not easy to understand are bad 

programs even though they may give correct answers. 

Frequently, programs must be modified at a later date. If 

the person who is to modify the program cannot 

understand it, then they must start over and waste all 

the original programmer's effort. There are a number of 

ways to make computer programs more 

understandable. 

Why Have Code Conventions? 

Code conventions are important to programmers for a 

number of reasons: 

80% of the lifetime cost of a piece of software goes to 

maintenance. 

Hardly any software is maintained for its whole life by 

the original author. 

Code conventions improve the readability of the 

software, allowing engineers to understand new code 

more quickly and thoroughly. 

If you ship your source code as a product, you need to 

make sure it is as well packaged and clean as any other 

product you create. 

Coding Conventions for this Class 

Choose names for variables that describe the value they 

will be storing. For example: if you wish to have a 

variable store a person's total income, call the variable 

Total_Income rather than simply x. 

Always declare variables, even when using a language 

that does not require you to do so. 

Prompt input and output so that it is user friendly. 

Use blank lines to separate chunks of codes in a logical 

manner. 

Break up large sections of code into Procedures or 

Functions whenever practical. 

Follow standard guidelines and conventions for windows 

applications. This is especially important in the design of 

the graphical user interface of your application. 

Indent code to show structures such as loops and 

decision statements. Indenting is used to visually 

improve the layout of a program. Indenting shows which 

lines are subordinate to other lines. For example, all the 

lines which make up the body of a loop should be 

indented as shown below ... 

Example 1 - Indenting in a loop 

For i = 1 to 10 

ans = i * i 

Print ans 

Next i 

Example 2 - Indenting in IF-THEN-ELSE 

Always include a File menu. 

If (x < 10) Then 

Print "That number is too big." 

Else 

Print "Thank you. 

End If 

Always include an About command in the File menu (or 

Help) which contains information about the program 

(brief description, date of creation, etc.) and the author 

(name, school, class, teacher's name, etc.) 

Include shortcut keys as you would see in a professional 

application. 

Include ToolTip text where necessary. 

Commenting Your Code 

Comments are English statements that provide valuable 

information about your code. 

In Visual Basic, comments are preceded by a single 

quote. 

Comments are not processed by the Visual Basic 

compiler, so they will not make the compiled version of 

your program bigger. 

Source: Problem Solving (First Ed.) J. Hume, (c)1993 


Errors and Bugs 

A 2002 study funded by the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology 

estimated software errors cost the U.S. 

economy about $59.5 billion a year. 

"When Good Software Goes Bad" 

from CNN.com (August 8, 2003) 

by Jeordan Legon 

A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault 

in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as 

intended (ex. producing an incorrect or unexpected 

result). Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made 

by people in either a program's source code or its 

design. 

Souce: wikipedia.org 

When writing computer programs, three types of errors 

can occur: 

� Syntax errors 

� Run-time errors 

� Logic errors 

Syntax errors 

These are grammatical errors in the formulation of 

statements. Syntax errors include such things as 

misspelled commands and missing "." 

Run-time errors 

These are errors that cannot be detected until the 

program is running. The syntax of the statements is 

correct, but on execution they cause a situation to arise 

that results in a crash or an undefined value. Error 

handlers can be used to trap such errors and deal with 

them. Examples of run-time errors are attempted 

division by zero or trying to access a non-existent 

object. 

Logic errors 

These are errors that cause the program to behave 

incorrectly. They generally arise through failure on the 

part of the programmer to arrive at a correct algorithm 

for the task. Typical problems might be incorrect 

ordering of statements, failure to initialise or re-initialise 

a variable, assignment to an incorrect variable, use of 

‘

Flowcharts 

A flowchart is a planning and 

analysis tool. 

It is a graphical representation of 

the steps in a work process. 

In computer programming, 

flowcharts are used to describe 

each processing path in a 

program (the main program and 

various subroutines that could be 

branched to). 

Common Flowchart Symbols 

Flowchart symbols are defined by the International 

Organization for Standards (ISO) International Standard 

1028 - "Information Processing - Flowchart Symbols" 

There are dozens of flowchart symbols, the most 

common of which are shown below ... 

Note: Dotted lines are used for comments. 

Creating Flowcharts 

When creating flowcharts using pen and paper, there 

are templates available to trace the symbols. 

There are numerous computer programs which allow 

users to create flowcharts. 

A program that you can use to easily create flowcharts 

is Inspiration. 

In addition, almost all word processing program support 

some form of flowchart creation. In Microsoft Word, 

show the "Drawing" toolbar. Select "AutoShapes" and 

then "Flowchart". 


Flowchart Examples 

Volume Program 

The following flowchart describes a program that 

calculates the Volume and Surface Area of a cylinder, 

given the radius and height. 

Thermostat Program 

The following flowchart describes a program that 

controls a heater. If the tempertature falls below 20°C, 

then the heater is turned on. If the temperature rises 

above 23°C, then the heater is turned off. 


Flowchart Examples 

Calculating Factorial 

Concentration Game 

Bubble Sort 


Creating a Visual Basic Program 

There are three steps to creating a Visual Basic 

application: 

1. Create the Graphical User Interface (GUI) 

by placing Controls on a Form. 

2. Set Object Properties. 

3. Write Code. 

The design of your user-interface, more than anything 

else, affects how your users feel about your application. 

Users want applications that are easy to learn and help 

them become productive quickly. Spend some time 

designing your forms and work with the user to 

determine the best design. 

Using Visual Basic 2008 

When you start Visual Basic 2008, 

the following window will appear: 

Recent projects 

appear here 

When you choose to start a new project, 

the following window will appear: 

Type the name of 

your program here 

before clicking "OK" 

All the programs we 

create in this class 

will be "Windows 

Forms Applications" 


Important Concepts 

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of a Visual Basic 

program is created by placing Objects (also called 

"Controls") on a Form. 

Objects, or Controls, include such things as: 

Buttons, Labels, TextBoxes, PictureBoxes and 

ComboBoxes. 

Each Control has Properties, Methods and Events 

it can respond to. 

A Control's Properties can include such things as: 

Font, Text, BackColor, etc. 

The "Solution Explorer" window helps you keep track 

of all the Forms in your project. For the purposes of this 

class, almost all your projects will only have one Form. 

Mr. Giansante 

Visual Basic Programming - Page 13

Variables and Constants 

Variables 

Variables are used to store information. 

Visual Basic provides several different variable types. 

The type that you use depends on the kind of data you 

want to store. 

Listed below are the most common variable types: 

Integer 

An integer variable is used for storing whole number 

values (values with no decimal component). 

Can store values between -32,768 and 32,767 

Long 

Same as integer, but can store bigger numbers. The 

trade-off is that they use more memory. 

Can store values between -2,147,483,648 and 

2,147,483,647 

Single 

Stores numbers that contain a decimal part. 

Can store values between 

-3.402823E+38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values, 

1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E+38 for positive values 

Double 

Same as single, but can store bigger numbers. The 

trade-off is that they use more memory. 

String 

A String variable is used for storing character, rather 

than numeric, data. 

Boolean 

A Boolean variable can only contain one of two values: 

True or False. 

Constants 

Constants are different from variables in the sense that 

their values do not change during the running of the 

program. 

Naming Variables and Constants 

� Variable names must begin with a letter. 

� Variable names may contain letters, numbers 

and the underscore character. 

� Variable names may not contain spaces 

or punctuation. 

� Variable names my not exceed 255 characters. 

� You may not use a Visual Basic reserve word 

(ie. caption) as a variable name. 

Declaring Variables and Constants 

Variables are declared in using the Dim statement. 

Contants are declared in using the Const statement. 

This can be done within a method (for variables used 

only in that method) or in Form1 | Declarations 

for variables that can be accessed from any method. 

Examples: 

Dim cost As Single 

Dim customer_name As String 

Dim application_processed as Boolean 

Const Pi As Single = 3.14159 


Visual Basic 2008 Reference Sheet 


Lincoln High School 

Mr. Giansante 

List the three steps in creating a Visual Basic application: 

1. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 

2. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 

3. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 

The User Interface (UI) of a Visual Basic program is created by placing Objects on a ______________________. 

List the three types of errors you can encounter while programming. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

List five things you can do to make your code more readable. (Refer to: Language Syntax | Proper Programming Style) 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

List the six steps of the Software Development Cycle. 

Fundamentals of Programming 

_____________________________________________ 

Name 

_____________________________________________ 

Date 

List five Quality Requirements of computer programs. 

� Computer Science 

_________ � Computer Applications 

Block 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________


Mr. Giansante 

What do the following acronyms stand for … 

GUI ___________________________________________________________________________________ 

BASIC ___________________________________________________________________________________ 

RAD ___________________________________________________________________________________ 

IDE ___________________________________________________________________________________ 

Microsoft's Visual Basic is both an __________________________ -oriented and an 

_______________________ - driven programming platform. 

The original BASIC was designed by ______________________________ and ______________________________ 

at __________________________ College in 19_______. 

Visual Basic is a ________________________ (company) product. 

In 1988, _________________________________, showed a drag-and-drop shell prototype called 

_________________________ to Bill Gates. 

Introduction to Visual Basic 

_____________________________________________ 

Name 

_____________________________________________ 

Date 



Block 

The version of Visual Basic that we will be using in this class is called Visual Basic _________.


Mr. Giansante 

Flowcharts 

_____________________________________________ 

Name 

_____________________________________________ 

Date 

Indicate what each of the five basic flowchart symbols below represent. 



Block 

Draw a flowchart for a program that asks a user to guess a number between 1 and 10 until the user guesses correctly.


Mr. Giansante 

Variables 

_____________________________________________ 

Name 

_____________________________________________ 

Date 

Variables are declared in the _________________________ | _________________________ section. 

State four rules for naming variables (and constants) 

__________________________________________________________________________________________ 

__________________________________________________________________________________________ 

__________________________________________________________________________________________ 

__________________________________________________________________________________________ 

State the type of variable type used to store ... 

Note: Whole numbers means the number has no decimal component 

… whole number values between -32,768 and 32,767 ___________________________ 

… whole number values between -2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647. ___________________________ 

… decimal number values ___________________________ or ___________________________ 

… character data ___________________________ 

… the values True or False ___________________________ 

What type of variable is required to store the following … 



Block 

… the number of pages the user wants to print Dim numpages As ____________________________ 

… a customer's age Dim age As ____________________________ 

… a customer's name Dim customername As ____________________________ 

… the year the user was born in Dim year_of_birth As ____________________________ 

… the balance in a bank account Dim balance As ____________________________ 

… whether or not the customer has a driver's license Dim license As ____________________________ 

… the weight of a train container (max. 45000 kg) Dim freight As ____________________________

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