Visual Basic

Student Information program using vb6.0

Student Information program using vb6.0 which compose of the following functions.

1. Add or Append

2. Update

3. Delete

4. Seacrch

5. Displaying Data

6. Reports

7. Displaying record to MSFlexGrid.

8. Displaying record to Listview.

Download File

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Basic Data Manipulation using VB 6.0

Hello everyone! :D

This is a very simple program which i created for my students in DBMS (Database Management System), this application allows the user to add, search and display data using MS Access if you noticed that there's no delete and edit, well i never put a function yet, because i want that to be finished by my pretty and handsome students in DBMS. hehehehehe Enjoyed to download this application maybe later i'll just update this one if they are done working the edit and delete.

Oppsss i forgot, i mean including the report too.... :D

Heres the link below.

Download File

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Webcam using VB6.0

This program allows user to take a snapshot and able to save your image to "Folder Picture" inside in this folder, actually you can use this program to your own application or project that you will be created, you can download this program below.

You can post comments and suggestion below and you can also request by sending me via email or chat.

Thank you so much for the support.




Download File

Friday, February 20, 2009

Sample backup in Microsoft access using vb6.0..

I have here a simple program using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 that will crate a backup database of Microsoft Access and also it can restore Backup database if you want. A simple program but gives a lot of knowledge.. you can download this program below.. Thank you so much..























You can download my example below.


Download File

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Registration program using Visual Basic 6.0 with Database.

I created this program for 7th Mega Job Fair [April 28 and 29] at Limketkai Center Cagayan de oro Philippines. Using Visual Basic 6.0 this program allows users to add, edit ,delete, cancel, search and generate ID and General reports and it will automatically count number of JOB SEEKERS. I am using Microsoft Acces for the DATABASE of this program and ADODB for the recordset access and connection of database. You can download this program and you post comments and suggestions below. Thank You! have a nice day!

















You can download my example below.


Download File

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sample program using ADODC WITH DATABASE.

This VB6.0 program allows user to add, edit, delete, search by option and display record using ADODC RECORD and ADODC CONNECTION. Microsoft Access for the DATABASE of this Program.

















You can download my example below.


Download File

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Basic student record with adding of pictures using vb6.0

This vb6.0 program allows user to add with student picture, edit, delete , save and dynamic search. I am using Microsoft Access for my Database, ADODB connection and Record set. You post comment about this program. Thank you!
















You can download my example below.


Download File

How to create folder using vb6.0?

This program allows user to create folder and delete using visual basic 6.0..






















You can download my example below.


Download File

Monday, January 26, 2009

How to display date and time using vb6.0?

Getting the time and Date in your computer basically its easy.
First is to put two labels in your form label1 and label2 that is the name of the two labels and then after that put timer in your form too.
Timer1 is the default name of the timer and set timer interval into 10. And double click your form which is your form1 and after that i want you to put this code inside your form load() . label1.caption is equal to Date and lablel2.caption is equal to Time after that run your program. You can download my example below.. Thats all!
















Download File

How to display date and time using vb6.0?

You may set first the TIME and DATE of your system i mean you computer because there are some cases that the time and date in your computer is not set so may set first before doing some actions inyour visual basic 6.0.
Getting the time and Date in your computer basically its very easy.
First is to put two labels in your form label1 and label2 that is the name of the two labels and then after that i want you put 1 command button inside you form which is command1. And double click your command button put this code inside command1_click() label1.caption is equal to Date and lablel2.caption is equal to Time after that run your program and try to click your command button and it will automatically appear the time and date. You can download my example below.. Thats all!















You can download my example below.


Download File

How to create text file in vb6.0?

Creating and Writing text in Text file or Notepad in Visual Basic 6.0 here the following procedure. In this example i have 1 text box in my form and 1 command button in my form. After clicking your command button basically it will create notepad and write text depending the text that you inputted in you text box. You can download this example below.















You can download my example below.

Download File

How to create Factorial using vb6.0?

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim x As Integer
Dim ctr As Integer
ctr = 1

For x = 1 To Val(Text1.Text)

ctr = ctr * x

Next x

Label1.Caption = "Factorial of " & Text1.Text & " is" & ctr
End Sub

Download File

How to declare array in vb6.0?

Example:

Dim myArrayName(0 To 5) As String

'The range of this array is 0 to 4 only.
'Data type is String it means you can store only string value in your array.

myArrayName(0)="John"
myArrayName(1)="Mario"
myArrayName(2)="Mark"
myArrayName(3)="Ailey"
myArrayName(4)="Merbert"

What is a programming language ?!

A Computer cannot understand any persons spoken language. A spoken language such as English , French, is simply too general and ambiguous for computers to understand. Therefore, we must adapt to the machine and learn the computer language so that the computer can understand. This is where visual basic comes into it - when you type visual basic source code into the computer, the computer processes these statements into Visual Basic language. The statements in visual basic, however, do not have multiple meanings within the same context.

Lesson 1 Hopefully you will learn this during lesson 1. :

About the Development Environment The project explorer windows Running a form Making your first *.exe Understanding the tool bar Introducing Source code Command Button properties Explanations of global modules Opening an existing Visual Basic project. Explore the forms and the source code behind the an existing project in design mode Recognise and understand the function of the main component of the Visual Basic environment eg. toolbar's , toolboxes , project window, properties window and most importantly the source code window. Saving your project to a file. Button Properties. The Development Environment Learning the ins and outs of the Development Environment before you learn visual basic is somewhat like learning for a test you must know where all the functions belong and what their purpose is. First we will start with labelling the development environment. The above diagram shows the development environment with all the important points labelled. Many of Visual basic functions work similar to Microsoft word eg the Tool Bar and the tool box is similar to other products on the market which work off a single click then drag the width of the object required. The Tool Box contains the control you placed on the form window. All of the controls that appear on the Tool Box controls on the above picture never runs out of controls as soon as you place one on the form another awaits you on the Tool Box ready to be placed as needed. The project explorer window The Project explorer window gives you a tree-structured view of all the files inserted into the application. You can expand these and collapse branches of the views to get more or less detail (Project explorer). The project explorer window displays forms, modules or other separators which are supported by the visual basic like class'es and Advanced Modules. If you want to select a form on its own simply double click on the project explorer window for a more detailed look. And it will display it where the Default form is located. Properties Window Some programmers prefer the Categorisized view of the properties window. By defaulting, the properties window displays its properties alphabetically (with the exception of the name value) when you click on the categorized button the window changes to left picture. The Default Layout When we start Visual Basic, we are provided with a VB project.A VB project is a collection of the following modules and files. The global module( that contains declaration and procedures) The form module(that contains the graphic elements of the VB application along with the instruction ) The general module (that generally contains general-purpose instructions not pertaining to anything graphic on-screen) The class module(that contains the defining characteristics of a class, including its properties and methods) The resource files(that allows you to collect all of the texts and bitmaps for an application in one place) On start up, Visual Basic will displays the following windows : The Blank Form window The Project window The Properties window It also includes a Toolbox that consists of all the controls essential for developing a VB Application. Controls are tools such as boxes, buttons, labels and other objects draw on a form to get input or display output. They also add visual appeal. Understanding the tool box. You may have noticed that when you click on different controls the Properties Window changes slightly this is due to different controls having different functions. Therefore more options are needed for example if you had a picture then you want to show an image. But if you wanted to open a internet connection you would have to fill in the remote host and other such settings. When you use the command () you will find that a new set of properties come up the following will provide a description and a property. Opening an existing Visual Basic project. Microsoft have included some freebies with visual basic to show its capabilities and functions. Dismantling or modifying these sample projects is a good way to understand what is happening at runtime. These files can be located at your default directory /SAMPLES/To Open these projects choose 'Open Project' from the 'File' menu. Then Double click on the samples folder to open the directory then Double click on any project to load it. Opening a new visual basic file & Inserting Source code. From looking at the examples it time to make your own application. Choose 'New Project' from the 'File' menu. Use the blank form1 to design a simple interface for an estate agents database, have some textboxes for names and other details. Insert some controls and make it look professional. Textboxes can be used to store there name and other details, make sure you put a picture box in for a picture of the house. Now insert the following source code for your application. Private Sub Form_Load() Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture("C:\Program Files\VB\Graphics\Icons\Misc\MISC42.ICO") End Sub Running and viewing the project in detail. Once an application is loaded it can be run by click on the icon from the toolbar, to pause press and to terminate use . Once a project is loaded, the name of the form(s) that it contains is displayed in the project window. To view a form in design mode, select the form required by clicking with the mouse to highlight its name, then clicking on the view form button. In this example the project has been loaded and the maillist.frm has been selected for viewing. This Ms Mail example project useds 6 forms and 1 modules. In Design mode, when the form is viewed, the code attached to any screen object may be inspected by double clicking on that object. The screen shots below show the interface of the Ms Mail example (.../samples/Comtool/VBMail/MaiLLST.FRM) to view the code for this form select from the project window item. Private Sub SetupOptionForm(BasePic As Control) BasePic.Top = 0 BasePic.Left = 0 BasePic.Visible = True BasePic.enabled = True OKBt.Top = BasePic.Height + 120 Me.width = BasePic.Width + 120 Me.Heigh = OkBt.Top + OkBt.Height + 495 End Sub Making your first *.exe!? To make an excutable from a project choose 'MakeMake project.exe from the 'File' menu. Then click once on the Make project.exe choose a default location to store your executable, you can also change some advanced options by clicking on the Options.. tag before saving your exe The above image will be displayed in the comment's value type some comments company name name etc... The Title tag represents the caption you will see if you press Control + Alt + Del. And the icon is the icon that will be available on the execute icon. As you can see it is quite simple to understand. All the comments, data and name appear when you click on the compiled (execute) exe and click properties. Saving your visual basic project. Save your work to disk. Use the Windows Explorer or any desktop windows to check that all files have been saved. There should be one Visual Basic Project (.VBP) file and separate Form (.FRM) and Module (.BAS) files for each form and module used in the current project. Button Properties for reference ,Command Button & labels properties Property Description Name The name of the object so you can call it at runtime BackColor This specifies the command button's background color. Click the BackColor's palette down arrow to see a list of common Windows control colours, you must change this to the style property from 0 - standard to 1 - graphical Cancel Determines whether the command button gets a Click event if the user presses escape Caption Holds the text that appears on the command button. Default Determins if the command button responds to an enter keypress even if another control has the focus Enable Determines whether the command button is active. Often, you'll change the enable property at runtime with code to prevent the user pressing the button Font Produces a Font dialog box in which you can set the caption's font name , style and size. Height Positions the height of the object - can be used for down Left Positions the left control - can be used for right MousePointer If selected to an icon can change the picture of the mouse pointer over that object Picture Hold's the name of an icon graphic image so that it appears as a picture instead of a Button for this option to work the graphical tag must be set to 1 Style This determins if the Command Button appears as a standard windows dialog box or a graphical image Tab index Specifies the order of the command button in tab order Tab Stop Whether the object can be tabbed to ( this can be used in labels which have no other function ) Tool Tip Text If the mouse is held over the object a brief description can be displayed (for example hold your mouse over one of the above pictures to see this happening Visible If you want the user to see the button/label select true other wise just press false Width Show the width of the object

 Lesson 2 Hopefully you will learn this during lesson 2. :

Know what an Event is. Determine what Events a control can have Write code for one or more Events. Using optionbuttons to produce an event Using checkboxes to produce an event Grouping controls using a frame Make a simple alteration to the interface, such as changing background colour, at run time. Creating a listbox. Remove and Add listboxs functions. Creating Combo Boxes What the different types of combo boxes are. Understanding Events Hopefully you will learn this during lesson 2. : Know what an Event is. Determine what Events a control can have Write code for one or more Events. Using optionbuttons to produce an event Using checkboxes to produce an event Grouping controls using a frame Make a simple alteration to the interface, such as changing background colour, at run time. Creating a listbox. Remove and Add listboxs functions. Creating Combo Boxes What the different types of combo boxes are. What an event is The ‘look’ of a Visual Basic application is determined by what controls are used, but the ‘feel’ is determined by the events. An event is something which can happen to a control. For example, a user can click on a button, change a text box, or resize a form. As explained in Creating a Visual Basic Application, writing a program is made up of three events: 1) select suitable controls, 2) set the properties, and 3) write the code. It is at the code writing stage when it becomes important to choose appropriate events for each control. To do this double click on the control the event will be used for, or click on the icon in the project window (usually top right of screen). A code window should now be displayed similar to the one shown below. The left hand dropdown box provides a list of all controls used by the current form, the form itself, and a special section called General Declarations. The corresponding dropdown box on the right displays a list of all events applicable to the current control (as specified by the left hand dropdown box). Events displayed in bold signify that code has already been written for them, unbold events are unused. To demonstrate that different events can play a significant role in determining the feel of an application, a small example program will be written to add two numbers together and display the answer. The first solution to this problem will use the click event of a command button, while the second will the change event of two text boxes. Click Event Before any events can be coded it is necessary to design the interface from suitable controls. As shown in the screen shot below use: 2 text boxes to enter the numbers, a label for the ‘+’ sign, a command button for the ‘=’ sign, and another label for the answer. Making the click event is very simple just select the button with the mouse and double click visual basic will generate You can see on the top right there is a 'click' dropdown list this is known as a event handler. Writing your own even In the first example the user has to enter two numbers and then click on the equals button to produce an answer. However, the program can be changed so that the answer will be calculated every time either of the two numbers are changed without requiring an equals button. To do this first remove the equals command button and replace it with a label with the caption set to ‘=’. Now, bring up a code window and copy to the Windows clipboard the line lblAnswer = Str$(Val(txtNumber1.Text) + Val(txtNumber2.Text)). Using the left hand dropdown box select the first text box and then select the Change event from the right dropdown box. Then paste the code from the clipboard into the empty subroutine. Select the second text box and do the same. The same line is required twice because the two click events belong to two separate controls. The final code should look like: Private Sub txtNumber1_Change() label2.Caption = Str$(Val(text1.Text) + Val(text.Text)) End Sub Private Sub txtNumber2_Change() label2.Caption = Str$(Val(text1.Text) + Val(text2.Text)) End Sub Run the program again, enter the two numbers and observe what happens. Each time a digit changes the answer is recalculated. Note: There may be times when recalculating more advanced problems takes too long on each change and so requiring the user to enter all the data first and then click on an answer button might more appropriate. Using the event GotFocus event So far only one event has been used per control, however this does not have to be the case! Add a StatusBar control to the bottom of the form, bring up the code window using , select the first text box (txtNumber1) from the left hand dropdown box, and then select the GotFocus event from the right hand dropdown box. Now some basic instructions can be written in the status bar so that when the cursor is in the text box (the text box has focus) the status bar reads “Enter the first number”. After completing this change to the second text box and using the same GotFocus event change the statusbar text to “Enter a second number”. The code to set the status bar can be seen below. CheckBoxes Option bars are used quite often in the windows environment as they can only have two outputs 0 and 1 these get used to process the form. In this example it will be used to change the some text from normal to bold or to italic. Private Sub chkBold_Click() If chkBold.Value = 1 Then ' If checked. txtDisplay.FontBold = True Else ' If not checked. txtDisplay.FontBold = False End If End Sub Private Sub chkItalic_Click() If chkItalic.Value = 1 Then ' If checked. txtDisplay.FontItalic = True Else ' If not checked. txtDisplay.FontItalic = False End If End Sub This example can be found at "smaples/PGuide/controls/Controls.vbp" or downloaded free from the download page. The checkboxes can be turned on at runtime by simply typing name.value = 1 ' 1 On , 0 off Note: If you create the frame first and then add the option buttons by single clicking on the toolbox and dragging the cross hair cursor on the frame to create the controls, they will be attached to the frame and will move with it if you decide to re-position the frame. Notice, however, that if you create the frame first and double click the screen controls, then drag them from the centre of the form on to the frame, they will not be attached to it and will be left behind when you try to move the frame. Try this out. Notice that when you run your application the same icon is loaded first (probably the clipboard, if you created that option button first). You can alter the option that has the focus first, by selecting one of the other option buttons and setting its property tabindex to 1. Option Buttons Changing the background colour Changing the background colour gets used mostly by freeware, or the type of programs you generate for use with banners or adverts, anyway it might come in useful sometime. This example shows an ordinary picture of a smiley face then I put in some nice background colours to make it stand out more. Private Sub Form_Load() BackColor = QBColor(Rnd * 15) ForeColor = QBColor(Rnd * 10) Picture1.BackColor = QBColor(Rnd * 15) Picture1.ForeColor = QBColor(Rnd * 10) End Sub List boxes Note : List boxes and combo boxes are used to supply a list of options to the user. The toolbox icons representing these two controls are for list box and for combo box. A list box is used when the user is to be presented with a fixed set of selections (i.e. a choice must be made only from the items displayed, there is no possibility of the user typing in an alternative). Examples might be offering a list of the days in a week, the available modules in an elective catalogue, the holiday destinations available from a particular airport or the types of treatment offered by a beauty salon. To create a list box, double click on the toolbox icon . Drag the resulting box into place on the form and size it according to the data it will hold. The left hand picture below shows a list box that has been created and sized on Form1. In the middle is the code that is required to load a selection of cars into the list. The data has been included in the procedure Sub Form_Load so that it appears when Form1 is loaded. Finally, the picture on the right shows what appears on the form when the application is run. Notice that vertical scroll bars are added automatically if the list box is not deep enough to display all the choices. If you however add the following source code to this project Add to a Lisbox Private Sub Form_Load() List1.AddItem "Monday" List1.AddItem "Tuesday" List1.AddItem "Wedsday" List1.AddItem "Thursday" List1.AddItem "Friday" List1.AddItem "Saturday" List1.AddItem "Sunday" End Sub The source code should look somthing like this : Removing & Advanced Options Note: They appear in the order they were typed if you changed the properties window by changing sort order = true then they will go into alpaetical order. List items can be added and deleted all the list is counted as the order they are in so for exapmple if you wanted to delete "Tuesday" you would type list1.RemoveItem 1 And to add to the list in a paticular order just add list1.additem "My Day", 5 This will be added after saturday. And finally to clear the lisbox type List1.clear This will completly clear the contence of the listbox. Note: The property ListCount stores the number of items in a list, so list1.ListCount can be used to determine the number of items in list box list1. The property ListIndex gives the index of the currently selected list item. So the statement list1.RemoveItem List1.ListIndex removes the currently highlighted list item. Adding an item can be accomplished very neatly using an input dialog box. Try this: list1.AddItem InputBox("Enter a day", "Add a Day") This will open a message box and prompt you for a new day to enter this will then be added to the list index at the bottem unless you specify were it should go. Combo Boxes Combo boxes are of three types (0,1 and 2), setting their properties/styles determines the type. Combo boxes (style 0 and 2 ) are a good choice if space is limited, becaue the full list is displayed as a drop down list, it does not occupy screen space until the down arrow is clicked. Picture of combo box style 0 The user can either enter text in the edit field or select from the list of items by clicking on the (detached) down arrow to the right. The drop-down Combo box, list is viewed by clicking on the down arrow. This type of combo box does not have a down arrow because the list is displayed at all times. If there are more items than can be shown in the size of box you have drawn, vertical scroll bars are automatically added. As with previous type, users can enter text in the edit field. Drop-down List box (Style=2) It is slightly confusing to find this control under combo box. This control behaves like a regular list box except that the choices are not revealed until the down arrow is clicked. The user can select only from the choices given, there is no text entry facility. Note: Combo boxes of style 0 and 2 cannot respond to double click events.  Lesson 3 Hopefully you will learn this during lesson 3. : Displaying Message Boxes Opening Files Retreving Information from files Saving Information to files Printing text to the printer Control Arrays Msgboxes Message boxes are used when you want to ask the user a question or display an error message(s) and advise the user. There are six types of message boxes here are their functions and what they do. Here is the listing of all the possible msgbox events The Buttons displayed in a message here Button Layout Value Short Description vbOKonly 0 Displays the OK button. vbOKCancel 1 Displays the ok and cancel button. vbAbortRetryIgnore 2 Displays the Abort , Retry , Ignore vbYesNoCancel 3 Displays Yes , No and Cancel button vbYesNo 4 Displays the Yes / No button vbRetryCancel 5 Displays the retry and Cancel buttons. The Icons dispayed in the message box are here Icon on message Value Short Description vbCritical 16 Displays critical message icon vbQuestion 32 Displays question icon vbExclamation 48 Displays exclamation icon vbInformation 64 Displays information icon The Default button displayed in a message form Default Button Value Short Description vbDefaultButton1 0 Button 1 is default vbDefaultButton2 256 Button 2 is default vbDefaultButton3 512 Button 3 is default Msgbox Return Value Return Value Value Short Description vbOk 1 The User Clicked OK vbCancel 2 The User Clicked Cancel vbAbort 3 The User Clicked Abort vbRetry 4 The User Clicked Retry vbIgnore 5 The User Clicked Ignore VbYes 6 The User Clicked Yes VbNo 7 The User Clicked No The syntax for use of the message box in Mgsgbox "TEXT", VALUE, "TITLE" If you want to use two or more tables just add the values together. Therefore to print a message box to say "The Device was not Found!" OK & Explanation : Source code 1 Private Sub Form_Load() MsgBox "The Device was not Found!", 48, "Header" End Sub Source code 2 Private Sub Form_Load() MsgBox "The Device was not found!", vbExclamation, "Header" End Sub You should get the picture shown below whatever source code you used. This is a basic msgbox which in this case has not been processed in any way. The following Source code displays a msgbox that ask you for specific text. For example lets make a password program out of this message box. Private Sub Form_Load() lngBefore = Timer Do strAns = InputBox("What is the password Password is Example", "Password Required") Loop Until Val(strAns) = Example lngAfter = Timer msgbox "Correct Password", vbInformation End Sub Once you copy and paste the source code you should get prompted for a password in a different type of msgbox as it includes text. From looking at this example you should be able to see how the loop function works to generate and then check the value. All of the Return Values work in the same way to return an object input. Opening & Retriving information from files When applications are loaded they normal get some setting out of the registry or file this section will show you how to retrieve 1 string out of a file. Private Sub Form_Load() Dim F As Integer, password As String F = FreeFile Open App.Path & "\password.txt" For Input As F Input #F, password Close #F End Sub As you can see from this source code the password is previously declared as a string. After this is done be sure to close the file otherwise next time you want to store or read the file the computer will think it is being used by another application and windows will not let you do anything with it. So as you can see it is Very Important to close the file Storing Information to a file FTP programs often store information to a file such as a username and password or host information in the same way. This following example will put some information into the file. Private Sub Form_Load() Dim F As Integer, pass As String F = FreeFile save = txtNew Open App.Path & "\password.txt" For Output As F Write #F, Text1.text Close #F End Sub Although this is a bit obvious I think I should include it just incase I think differently to other people. Printing text to the printer. This is rather easy to do and it gets used in notepad etc... Private Sub Form_Load() Printer.Print " The printer will print this text " Printer.Print "" Printer.Print " It will leave a line here" Printer.Print " It should add the contence of text1.text here : " & Text1.Text & " As you can see it works" Printer.Print "" Printer.EndDoc 'This will tell the printer it has finished. End Sub Everything that apears in position (A) will get printed by the default printer printer.print " A ". The printer enddoc is used to tell the printer the job is finished if this is not added the printer can not estimate how near it will be until it has finish and when it has finished it will think it has'nt so be sure to include this to prevent confusion. Control Arrays A control array is a list of controls with the same name. Therefore, instead of using five command buttons with separate five names, you can place a command button control array on the form, and that control array holds five command buttons. The control array can have a single name, and you will distinguish the control from each other with a subscript. One of the best reasons to use control array from that first control, all the elements in the control array take on the same property values, You then can change those properties that need to be changed without having to set every property for each control individually. Control arrays have a lot in common with data arrays. A control array has one array, and you distinguish all the array's controls from each other with the zero-based subscript. ( The index property holds the controls subscript number ). All of the control elements must be the same data type. As soon as you place a control on a form that has the same name as an existing control, Visual Basic makes sure you that you want to begin a control array by issuing the warning message to show that the control is already in use. This is used as a built in safety so that you do not over right an existing control by putting it some where else on the same form. If you answer the warning box with a no button, Visual Basic uses a default control name for the placed control. Picture Not available at the moment! All event procedures that use control from a control array require a special argument value passed to them that the determines which control is being worked on. For example if your application contains a single control command button named cmdtotal the click () event begins and ends as follows Private sub cmdtotal_click() End Sub If however you create a control array named the same name as before ( cmdtotal ) it will end up like this Private sub cmdtotal_click (index as integer) End sub The procedure uses the index argument as the control index number ( the subscript ) that the user clicked, Therefore if you want to change the clicked command buttons caption property inside the cmdtotal_click () the procedures you would need are as follows Cmdtoal(index).caption = "A caption name" The index value holds the command button's index the user click to generate the event procedures so you will always respond to the proper control clicked if you use Index after the control array name.   Brief introduction to the usages of Access data bases What I think is the most compelling thing about Visual Basic is it's easy way of accessing and modifying databases. This is what I think you should learn next; you will find many applications for this knowledge. I almost never make a program without using a database for data storage. There are many ways to work with databases in Visual Basic, and I would think you have at least glanced at the Data control. I will not even mention the Data control further in this text, since it is so easy to use and too limited to be interesting for a professional developer. (Ok, there are some exceptions to this.) What I will teach you to use in this text is DAO (Data Access Objects). You will get familiar with opening a database and retrieving/adding/deleting/updating records from tables. I will only use an Access Database (*.mdb) in my examples, since this is the most used DBMS (DataBase Management System) for smaller applications made in Visual Basic. We will at the end of this lesson have made a simple, yet functional, phone book application. This text requires some knowledge of the Visual Basic programming language and you should be familiar with the Visual Basic IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Database Object The first thing you must do in your application is to open a database where your tables are stored. You need to declare a variable to hold your database in order to do this. This is done with: Dim dbMyDB As Database This gives you a variable/object that can hold a reference to your database. To open a simple Access database named "MyDatabase.mdb", do this: Set dbMyDB = OpenDatabase("MyDatabase.mdb") You should really specify the complete path to the db, but if your current directory is the directory where the database is situated, this will work. So, now you have opened a database. This won't give you any data. What you need to do is open a table in the database. You're not limited to open a single table; sometimes you have two or more tables that are related to each other and linked together w ith foreign keys, and there are ways to handle this to. But in this "Visual Basic - Database Primer" I will only show you how to open a single table. RecordSet Object Visual Basic uses an object called RecordSet to hold your table. To declare such an object and to open the table, do this: Dim rsMyRS As RecordSet Set rsMyRS = dbMyDB.OpenRecordSet("MyTable", dbOpenDynaset) What happened there? Well, I declared a RecordSet object and used the Database object's OpenRecordSet method to open a table of type Dynaset. You can open a RecordSet in several modes. VB's online help file explains the different modes and what they ar e for. The Dynaset mode is the mode I use mostly. It gives you a RecordSet that you can add, delete and modify records in. Accessing records Now that we have opened a table (referred to as RecordSet from now on) we want to access the records in it. The RecordSet object allows us to move in it by using the methods MoveFirst, MoveNext, MovePrevious, MoveLast (among others). I will use some of these to fill up a list box with the records of our RecordSet. To get this example to work, make a database (with Access) called "MyDatabase.mdb" with the table "MyTable" in it. This table should have the fields "ID" of type "Counter" that you set to be the primary key, the field "Name" of type Text and a field "P hone" of type Text. Add some records to it. Put a list box on a form and call it "lstRecords". Dim dbMyDB As Database Dim rsMyRS As RecordSet Private Sub Form_Load() Set dbMyDB = OpenDatabase("MyDatabase.mdb") Set rsMyRS = dbMyDB.OpenRecordSet("MyTable", dbOpenDynaset) If Not rsMyRS.EOF Then rsMyRS.MoveFirst Do While Not rsMyRS.EOF lstRecords.AddItem rsMyRS!Name lstRecords.ItemData(lstRecords.NewIndex) = rsMyRS!ID rsMyRS.MoveNext Loop End Sub This will make the list box fill up with your records when the form loads. I have introduced some new concepts with this example. We have all ready covered the first part where we open the table. The line that says If Not rsMyRS.EOF Then rsMyRS.M oveFirst tells the program to move to the first record in case there are any records at all. The EOF is a Boolean property that is true if the current record is the last. It is also true if there are no records in the RecordSet. Then we make the program add the "Name" field of all records to the list box by adding the current records field "Name" and moving to the next record. You ask for a field of a RecordSet by putting a ! between the name of the RecordSet object and the na me of the field. The while loop checks to see if there are more records to add. Searching the RecordSet You might have wondered why I put the value of the field "ID" in the list box's ItemData property. I did this so that we would know the primary key for all the records in order to search for a record. Put a text box somewhere on the form and call it "txtPhone". Then copy the following code to the project. Private Sub lstRecords_Click() rsMyRS.FindFirst "ID=" & Str(lstRecords.ItemData(lstRecords.ListIndex)) txtPhone.Text = rsMyRS!Phone End Sub This will display the phone number of the selected person when clicking in the list box. It uses the FindFirst method of the RecordSet object. This takes a string parameter that is like what is after WHERE in a SQL expression. You state the field that you want to search in (here "ID"), then the evaluation criteria (here "=") and last the value to search for (here the ItemData of the selected item in the list box). So what we did was to search for the record with the "ID" field value that was the same as the ItemData property of the selected item in the list box. Then we show the value of the "Phone" field in the text box. Updating the Database You will probably want to be able to update some value of some field when doing database programming. This is done with Edit and Update. We will try to change the value of the "Phone" field by editing the text in the text box and clicking a button. Put a command button on the form and name it "cmdUpdate". Then copy the following code to the project. Private Sub cmdUpdate_Click() rsMyRS.Edit rsMyRS!Phone = txtPhone.Text rsMyRS.Update End Sub Could it be that simple? Yes. This changes the phonenumber of our selected person. Or to put it technically: This changes the value of the "Phone" field of our current record. Imagine the current record being a set of boxes, with a field in each box. T he Edit method takes the lid off all of the boxes and Update puts them back on. When we write rsMyRS!Phone = txtPhone.Text we replace the content of the "Phone" box with the content in the text box. Deleting and Adding records Deleting Deleting records couldn't be simpler. To delete the current record you just invoke the Delete method of the RecordSet object. We will put this feature in our little project. Make one more command button named "cmdDelete" and the following code will do the work of deleting our currently selected person. Private Sub cmdDelete_Click() rsMyRS.Delete lstRecords.RemoveItem lstRecords.ListIndex End Sub I won't even bother to explain that in greater detail =). The first statement deletes the record and the second removes the list box entry. Adding Adding records is much like updateing, except you use AddNew instead of Edit. Let's add one more command button to our application. Let's call it...errh...let me see...yea! "cmdNew" =). Here is the code that adds a new record. Private Sub cmdNew_Click() rsMyRS.AddNew rsMyRS!Name = "A New Person" lstRecords.AddItem rsMyRS!Name lstRecords.ItemData(lstRecords.NewIndex) = rsMyRS!ID rsMyRS!Phone = "Person's Phone Number" rsMyRS.Update End Sub I will use the box analogy to explain this. The AddNew method takes a set of new boxes and adds them to our RecordSet. We then put some new values in them and close the lids with Update. As you can see we never stated any valu e for "ID", but as you remember, this is a field of type "Counter" wich automatically gets a unique value. The code also adds this new record to the list box so that we will be able to change the phone number of this person. I leave it up to you to add th e feature of changing the name. Visual Basic Exam Projects. Below are a selection of collage exam papers that you are lickly to take if you live in North America the following paper is taken from a years study on a cource so if you can do any of this before this time then you have notthing to worry about. If you deside to take the real thing. This paper is optional a groupe project but to be honest it is medium hard The Exam project 4 is loading please wait Goto Project 3 FILES REQUIRED Cust1.txt and States.txt GENERAL:Whenever a file is being read, sorted or written, change the Screen.MousePointer = vbHourglass so that the user will know that something is happening. Change it to Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault when the user can interact with the program again. Center all forms on the screen using a procedure in the module. (see "Centering Forms on the Screen in the virtual conference). Only read the customer file once at the beginning of the program and write it (only if any changes were made) once at the end of the program. All work on customers will be done in a customer array. Failure to use an array will result in a failing project grade. MODULE: Create a global variable for passing the customer number between forms, create a global variable to track whether or not nay changes were made to customer records, and create a global variable to track the current number of records in the customer array. Also, create a public two-dimensional dynamic array to store customer information. The array should have the data fields as rows and each customer as a column as shown below. You will re-dimension the array later. Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 ....etc... ..... Customer Number Lastname Address City State Credit Rating Main Form Develop a form like the one shown below: Form Activate: Load the customer array from the file. Re-dimension the array's columns to the actual number of customers in the file. Sort the array by customer number. Hint: To save coding, you could write one sorting routine in the module that is called by both forms and passes the sorting technique. The customer information frame should be invisible. Only the customer number textbox should be usable. Menu and ToolBar Design: The main menu should have two choices-Customer and Quit. Quit should terminate the application. The Customer menu should have a submenu including Add, Change, Delete, Separator Bar, and Lookup. The toolbar should have buttons for Add, Change, Delete, Lookup, and Quit. Select appropriate icons to place in an imagelist for use with the toolbar (remember to save all of your icons on you submission disk). The menu and toolbar function exactly the same way and should use the same code-not copied, but the same code. Use tool-tip-text to describe the function of each of the buttons on the toolbar. Customer Number Textbox: Only allow entry of five numbers. The user must enter a customer number before they can continue. Use a message box to display any errors. The user should be allowed to select a customer from the list instead of entering it in the textbox using the Lookup button or selecting Lookup from the menu. If the user selects a valid customer from the list, display the customer number selected and disable the textbox. Customer Information Frame: Place the indicated textboxes on the customer frame in a single control array. Place a slider control on the frame for the credit rating. If you are using the Professional or Enterprise Edition you will have a slider control. The CE Edition in the textbook does not have a slider control and will have to make alternative arrangements. Set both the large and small change for the slider equal to one. The label above the slider should indicate the customer's credit rating (1-Poor, 2-Weak, 3-Average, 4-Good, 5-Excellent). The two command buttons on the frame change depending on the action being taken. See Add, Change, and Delete below. The state combobox should work the same way it did in Project 3 (see Project 3 instructions and the virtual conference discussion). Do not allow the user to select anything from the menu or tool bar while they are adding, changing or deleting a record. Anytime you Add or Delete a record from the customer array, remember it may need to be re-dimensioned. Add: Customer numbers are assigned in sequential order starting at 100001. If the user selects Add, compute the next available customer number from the customer array and place it in the customer number textbox. Diasble the customer number textbox and display the blank textboxes in the customer information frame. Set the default credit rating to average. The first command button on the frame should say "Add." The second command button should say "Do Not Add". All controls in the customer information frame should be usable. Allow the user to add all information shown. When the user is done, they will press the Add command button. At this point, check that all fields are complete and update the array with the new customer's information and resort the array in customer number order. If the user selects the Do Not Add button, do not add the customer, make the customer frame invisible, clear out the customer number textbox and put the cursor on it. Change: The user must have a valid customer number before proceeding with this function. Disable the customer number textbox. Display the customer's information in the customer information frame. The first command button on the frame should say "Change." The second command button should say "Do Not Change". All controls in the customer information frame should be usable. Allow the user to update all information shown. When the user is done, they will press the Change command button. At this point, check that all fields are complete and update the customer's record in the customer array. If the user selects the Do Not Change button, do not change any customer information, make the customer frame invisible, clear out the customer number textbox and put the cursor on it. Delete: The user must have a valid customer number before proceeding with this function. Disable the customer number textbox. Display the customer's information in the customer information frame. The first command button on the frame should say "Delete." All controls in the customer information frame should be disabled, except the two command buttons. When the user is done, they will press the Delete command button. At this point, display a message box asking the user if they really want to delete the record. If the answer is yes, delete the customer's record in the customer array, resort by customer number, and re-dimension the array. Otherwise, make the customer frame invisible, clear out the customer number textbox and put the cursor on it. If the user selects the Do Not Delete button, do not delete the customer record, make the customer frame invisible, clear out the customer number textbox and put the cursor on it. List: Bring up the Customer List form and allow the user to select a customer from the listbox. See instructions below. Quit: If no changes were made to customers, then simply terminate the program. Otherwise, sort the customer array in customer number order using your sort routine. Check if there is already a previous version of Customer.Old. If so, get rid of it. Rename the customer file to Customer.Old. Write out the new customer file as Customer.Txt then terminate the application. CUSTOMER LIST FORM Develop a form like the one shown below: Listbox for Customer: Place a listbox on the form which will be used to display customer number, last name, first name, city, and state from the customer array. The list box style should be set to 0-Standard (only one item can be selected) and it should be unsorted. Set the font for the listbox to Courier New for better alignment. By default, the customer array and the listbox should be sorted by customer number. Sort By Buttons: Place a control array of command buttons for sorting the listbox. By default, the customers are sorted in the customer array by customer number. Display the customers in this order in form activate and disable the CustNo button. If the user presses the LastName button, sort the array into last name order and redisplay the array in the listbox, disable the LastName button, and enable the CustNo button. If the user presses the State button, sort the array into state order and redisplay the array in the listbox, disable the State button, and enable the CustNo and LastName buttons. See GENERAL for instructions on how to use Screen.MousePointer. Selecting a Customer: If the user highlights a customer using a single-click and presses the Select button, capture the appropriate customer information from the array and display it on the main form. The same actions will happen if the user double-clicks on a customer in the listbox. Only write the code once for both of these events by calling the other event. For example, you can simulate pressing a command button by calling the click event procedure for the command button. If the user selects a valid customer, place the information on that customer in the customer information frame as described above. Quit Button: The Quit button should take you back to the main form with no customer selected. The main form should look like it does when the program is first loaded. Download the VB sourcecode here project4.zip