The Visual Basic Book Programmers Count On If you want to learn how to use Visual Basic 2010, you’ve come to the right place. New users, you’ll build a simple VB application in the very fi rst chapter, getting you quickly up to speed on the VB user interface and simple coding. Intermediate and advanced users, you can bypass the basics and jump straight to building data-driven applications, working with .NET 4.0 framework, creating rich client and web applications, programming with web services, and much more. Packed with step-by-step instruction and real-world scenarios for users of all levels, this book is what you need to build top-level skills in Visual Basic 2010. COVERAGE INCLUDES: • Getting started with Visual Basic 2010 • Mastering VB programming essentials, including GUI design, event-driven programming, basic Windows controls, and more • Working with custom classes, controls, and objects • Understanding the .NET framework, including XML, LINQ, and storing data in collections • Programming with ADO.NET, using the data entity model, and understanding DataSets • Building web applications and programming with web services • Getting the most out of advanced Windows controls such as ListView and TreeView controls Master Visual Basic 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Understand the Core Language and User Interface Find a Wealth of Content for All Users Create Custom, Practical, Data-Driven Applications and Web Apps Reinforce Your Skills with Real-World Examples ABOUT THE AUTHOR Evangelos Petroutsos is a computer engineer who has worked for the California Institute of Technology and MCI. Currently, he writes computer books and articles, teaches networking and programming courses, and works as a computer communications consultant. He is the author of the Sybex titles Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 and Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, among other books. CATEGORY COMPUTERS/Programming Languages/Visual Basic $59.99 US $71.99 CAN SERIOUS SKILLS. Visual Basic ® 2010 MASTERING Build Rich Client and Web Applications with Visual Basic Work with the .NET Framework 4.0 ISBN 978-0-470-53287-4 www.sybex.com/go/masteringvb2010 www.sybex.com MASTERING Visual Basic ® 2010 Petroutsos spine=2.11” Microsoft ® Microsoft ® Evangelos Petroutsos Mastering Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® 2010 Mastering Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® 2010 Evangelos Petroutsos Wiley Publishing, Inc. Acquisitions Editor: Agatha Kim Development Editor: Mary Ellen Schutz Technical Editor: Kirstin Juhl Production Editor: Rachel McConlogue Copy Editors: Judy Flynn and Kim Wimpsett Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Book Designers: Maureen Forys and Judy Fung Proofreader: Rebecca Rider Indexer: Jack Lewis Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Cover Image: © Pete Gardner/DigitalVision/Getty Images Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-53287-4 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or autho- rization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to th e Publisher f or permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/p ermissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, includ- ing without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. N either the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organiza- tion or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or rec- ommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Cus- tomer Care Department within the U.S. at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of e lectronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be avail- able in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Petroutsos, Evangelos. Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 / Evangelos Petroutsos. 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-470-53287-4 (paper/website) 1. Microsoft Visual BASIC. 2. BASIC (Computer program language) I. Title. QA76.73.B3P487 2010 005.2’768 dc22 2010000339 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other c ountries, and may not be used without written permis- sion. Microsoft and Visual Basic are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10987654321 Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2010. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing con- sistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re w orking hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you t he best books available. I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how w e’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at nedde@wiley.com. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feed- back is critical to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley To my dearest and most precious ones, Nepheli and Eleni-Myrsini Acknowledgments Many people contributed to this book, and I would like to thank them all. I first want to express my deep appreciation to Danijel Arsenovski for contributing and revising several chapters, and especially for his work on Chapter 17, ‘‘Using the Entity Data Model.’’ Many thanks to the book’s technical editor, Kirstin Juhl, who has read this book with great care and a particular attention to detail. Thank you, Kirstin. I also want to thank the folks at Microsoft for their commitment to Visual Basic. Visual Basic remains my absolute favorite language. Special thanks to t he talented people at Sybex — to all of them and to each one individ- ually — starting with my ‘‘Gentle Editor,’’ Mary Ellen Schutz, who has taken this book under her wing and improved it in numerous ways. To acquisitions editor Agatha Kim, who has followed the progress of this book from its conception through its completion. (She will keep working on this book long after I’m done with this page). To Pete Gaughan, editorial manager; Rachel McConlogue, production editor; Judy Flynn and Kim Wimpsett, copyeditors; Rebecca Rider, proofreader; Jack Lewis, indexer; t he compositors at Laserwords; and everyone else who added their expertise and talent to this book. [...]... Menus at Runtime The Bottom Line Chapter 7 • 17 6 17 9 18 2 18 3 18 4 18 7 18 8 19 1 19 3 19 7 19 7 200 2 01 203 204 209 211 212 216 219 2 21 223 224 225 226 233 234 2 41 243 243 246 248 2 51 More Windows Controls 253 The Common Dialog Controls Using the... Using the Basic Debugging Tools Exception Handling The Bottom Line Chapter 5 • 12 9 13 0 13 1 13 3 13 6 14 0 14 4 14 5 14 7 15 2 15 5 15 8 Basic Windows Controls 16 1 The TextBox Control Basic Properties... liked or did not like and how useful the examples are Your comments will be carefully considered for future editions Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2 010 Part 1 Visual Basic: The Language ◆ ◆ ◆ Chapter 1: Getting Started with Visual Basic 2 010 Chapter 2: Handling Data Chapter 3: Visual Basic Programming Essentials ... Identity Columns VB 2 010 at Work: The SimpleDataSet Project The Bottom Line Chapter 17 • 635 638 640 642 643 645 6 51 6 51 653 656 658 659 660 6 61 662 662 663 665 676 685 687 689 7 01 702 707 708 709 710 711 714 715 716 717 723 Using the Entity Data Model 725... Appendix • 900 9 01 9 01 902 903 904 905 906 910 912 912 920 928 932 934 937 939 The Bottom Line 9 41 Chapter 1: Getting Started with Visual Basic 2 010 Chapter 2: Handling Data Chapter 3: Visual Basic Programming Essentials ... xxv Part 1 • Visual Basic: The Language 1 Chapter 1 • Handling Data 37 Chapter 3 • Getting Started with Visual Basic 2 010 3 Chapter 2 Part 2 • • Visual Basic Programming Essentials 85 Developing Windows Applications 12 7 Chapter 4 • Basic Windows... applications This book shows you how to use Visual Studio 2 010 and Visual Basic 2 010 to design rich Windows and web applications We’ll start with the visual tools and then we’ll explore Visual Basic and the Framework A Windows application consists of a visual interface and code behind the elements of the interface (The code handles the user actions on the visual interface, such as the click of a button,... 11 1 Custom Functions 11 3 Passing Arguments and Returning Values 11 5 Overloading Functions 11 8 The Bottom Line 12 5 Part 2 • Developing Windows Applications 12 7 Chapter 4 • GUI... VB 2 010 at Work: The TextPad Project 16 1 16 2 16 5 16 7 16 8 16 8 CONTENTS Capturing Keystrokes Autocomplete Properties The ListBox, CheckedListBox, and ComboBox Controls Basic Properties ... www.sybex.com/go/masteringvb2 010 These tutorials are actual chapters (some of them quite lengthy); we couldn’t include them in the printed version of the book, so we included them as PDF files They are as follows: ◆ Accessing Files and Folders ◆ Creating Graphics with VB 2 010 ◆ Printing with VB 2 010 ◆ Making the Most of the ListView and TreeView Controls This book is a revision of Mastering Visual Basic 2008 . 978-0-470-53287-4 www.sybex.com/go/masteringvb2 010 www.sybex.com MASTERING Visual Basic ® 2 010 Petroutsos spine=2 .11 ” Microsoft ® Microsoft ® Evangelos Petroutsos Mastering Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® 2 010 Mastering Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® 2 010 Evangelos. Data Petroutsos, Evangelos. Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2 010 / Evangelos Petroutsos. 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-470-53287-4 (paper/website) 1. Microsoft Visual BASIC. 2. BASIC (Computer program. Interface 14 5 Programming the MathCalculator 14 7 Using the Basic Debugging Tools 15 2 Exception Handling 15 5 The Bottom Line 15 8 Chapter 5 • Basic Windows Controls 16 1 The TextBox Control 16 1 Basic