Visual Basic 101

Getting Started

Explains the steps, dedication and potential of VB.NET. I also take a moment to motivate the absolute beginner to pursue software development as a profession.

VB.NET Hello World and Creating Console Apps

Demonstrates how to create a basic application using the Windows Console. Explains what the Console is, and shows the steps to creating your first VB.NET application.

Beginning Variables and Data Types

Explains what are variables and the concept of data types.

Operators, Expressions and Statements

Explains and demonstrates the concepts of operators, expressions and statements in VB.NET

What Just Went Wrong?

Explains the different types of errors, and how to detect and resolve them in your applications.

More About Console Applications

This video shows how to accept values that are typed at the end of the line in the console window when executing a program you build.

If, Then, Else

The If ... Then ... Else statement allows conditional branching in your applications.

Select Case

The Select Case allows conditional branching in your applications.

While Statement

The While statement is the least complex (and least flexible) way of itterating through a section of code.

Do ... Loop Statements

The Do ... Loop is a more flexible way to itterate through code than the While statement. It also is used in conjuction with the WHILE and the UNTIL statement, and can check first or last the condition that keeps (or prevents) the itteration to continue.

For ... Next Statements

The For ... Next is used when you want to control the number of times the itteration is executed, and is therefore unique from the DO and WHILE looping statements.

Structured Exception Handling in VB.NET

Explains and demonstrates Exception Handling in VB.NET using the Try/Catch/Finally statements.

Coding Exception Handling into your Application

Describes how to find which exception objects to use when developing your applications

Introduction to Collections in VB.NET

Thorough Powerpoint explanation of the ICollection, IList and IDictionary interfaces, and the collections that support them. Sorting, Ranges, etc.

Array Collection

Demonstrates using the Array collection, single and multi-dimension arrays, and a thorough explanation of all properties and methods.

ArrayList Collection

Demonstrates the properties and methods of the ArrayList class, its strengths over the Array Collection, and more.

Queue Collection

Demonstrates and explains the use of the Queue collection (another IList collection) and shows how to use its unique FIFO method of accessing collection elements.

Sorting IList Collections

Demonstrates how to implement the IComparable interface in your objects to allow the items in your collections to be sorted.

Working with Multiple Elements of IList Collections

Demonstrates how to use the various xxxxxRange methods to add, insert, get, set, remove and sort multiple items in a collection at a time.

ListDictionary Collection

Demonstrates the use of the ListDictionary (the first in this series about collections supporting the IDictionary interface), explaining WHEN to use it.

HashTable Collection

Demonstrates the use of the HashTable, which is the most optimized of the IDictionary collections for large collections of data.

HybridDictionary Collection

Demonstrates how to use the HybridDictionary, which starts out as a ListDictionary, then metamophasizes into a HashTable once the collection has more than 10 elements.

SortedList Collection

Demonstrates how to use the SortedList collection, which is a marraige between the IDictionary and the IList collection interfaces, allowing you to access collection members by index or key.

Enumerating Through IDictionary Collections

Demonstrates what goes on behind the scenes when you use the For Each ... Next loop for a collection. Shows how to use GetEnumerator to control the Reset, MoveNext and Current properties of the enumerator for a collection.

Implementing IEnumerable and IEnumerator in Collections

Demonstrates how to use the IEnumerable and IEnumerator interfaces to control how and when data is loaded into a collection to conserve system resources.

VB.NET 2003 Loop Variable Declaration

VB.NET 2003 Loop Variable Declaration

Creating a Windows Service

Creating a Windows Service

Conditional Compilation

Conditional Compilation

Setting Option Strict

Setting Option Strict