4.5* This book is for programmers at all levels who are either looking to learn Visual Basic 2005 or have already mastered it an

---

Product Description

Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference

Visual Basic 2005 adds new features to Visual Basic (VB) that make it a more powerful programming language than ever before. This combined tutorial and reference describes VB 2005 from scratch, while also offering in-depth content for more advanced developers. Whether you're looking to learn the latest features of VB 2005 or you want a refresher of easily forgotten details, this book is an ideal resource.

Well-known VB expert Rod Stephens features the basics of Visual Basic 2005 programming in the first half of the book. The second half serves as a reference that allows you to quickly locate information for specific language features. It's a comprehensive look at programming using the increased set of language options offered with the VB 2005 release, confirming that there has never been a better time to learn Visual Basic than now.

What you will learn from this book:

• The fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming with Visual Basic, including classes and structures, inheritance and interfaces, and generics
• How an application can interact with its environment, save and load data in external sources, and use standard dialog controls
• The syntax for declaring subroutines, functions, generics, classes, and other important language concepts

Who this book is for:

This book is for programmers at all levels who are either looking to learn Visual Basic 2005 or have already mastered it and want some useful tips, tricks, and language details.

Wrox Programmer's References are designed to give the experienced developer straight facts on a new technology, without hype or unnecessary explanations. They deliver hard information with plenty of practical examples to help you apply new tools to your development projects today.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153684 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1056 pages

Download Description
Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference Visual Basic 2005 adds new features to Visual Basic (VB) that make it a more powerful programming language than ever before. This combined tutorial and reference describes VB 2005 from scratch, while also offering in-depth content for more advanced developers. Whether you're looking to learn the latest features of VB 2005 or you want a refresher of easily forgotten details, this book is an ideal resource. Well-known VB expert Rod Stephens features the basics of Visual Basic 2005 programming in the first half of the book. The second half serves as a reference that allows you to quickly locate information for specific language features. It's a comprehensive look at programming using the increased set of language options offered with the VB 2005 release, confirming that there has never been a better time to learn Visual Basic than now. What you will learn from this book: The fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming with Visual Basic, including classes and structures, inheritance and interfaces, and generics How an application can interact with its environment, save and load data in external sources, and use standard dialog controls The syntax for declaring subroutines, functions, generics, classes, and other important language concepts Who this book is for: This book is for programmers at all levels who are either looking to learn Visual Basic 2005 or have already mastered it and want some useful tips, tricks, and language details. Wrox Programmer's References are designed to give the experienced developer straight facts on a new technology, without hype or unnecessary explanations. They deliver hard information with plenty of practical examples to help you apply new tools to your development projects today.

From the Back Cover
Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference

Visual Basic 2005 adds new features to Visual Basic (VB) that make it a more powerful programming language than ever before. This combined tutorial and reference describes VB 2005 from scratch, while also offering in-depth content for more advanced developers. Whether you're looking to learn the latest features of VB 2005 or you want a refresher of easily forgotten details, this book is an ideal resource.

Well-known VB expert Rod Stephens features the basics of Visual Basic 2005 programming in the first half of the book. The second half serves as a reference that allows you to quickly locate information for specific language features. It's a comprehensive look at programming using the increased set of language options offered with the VB 2005 release, confirming that there has never been a better time to learn Visual Basic than now.

What you will learn from this book

• The fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming with Visual Basic, including classes and structures, inheritance and interfaces, and generics
• How an application can interact with its environment, save and load data in external sources, and use standard dialog controls
• The syntax for declaring subroutines, functions, generics, classes, and other important language concepts

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers at all levels who are either looking to learn Visual Basic 2005 or have already mastered it and want some useful tips, tricks, and language details.

Wrox Programmer's References are designed to give the experienced developer straight facts on a new technology, without hype or unnecessary explanations. They deliver hard information with plenty of practical examples to help you apply new tools to your development projects today.

About the Author
Rod Stephens started out as a mathematician but, while studying at MIT, discovered the joys of programming and has been programming professionally ever since. During his career, he has worked on an eclectic assortment of applications in such fields as telephone switching, billing, repair dispatching, tax processing, wastewater treatment, and training for professional football players.
Rod has written 14 books that have been translated into half a dozen different languages, and more than 200 magazine articles covering Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, Delphi, and Java. He is currently a columnist for Visual Basic Developer (www.pinnaclepublishing.com).
Rod’s popular VB Helper Web site (www.vb-helper.com) receives several million hits per month and contains thousands of pages of tips, tricks, and example code for Visual Basic programmers, as well as example code for this book.

---

Customer Reviews

Good content. Poor index.
I had not used Visual Basic for several years before purchasing this book. I had forgotten a lot, and lots of things have changed. As I worked my way through this book, I found the actual content to be extremely useful. There is a good overview of a wide range of topics. The example programs are excellent starting points for understanding the various topics, and most proved easy for me to expand upon.

As I progressed through the book, I would frequently have the desire to use syntax, functionality, examples, etc. that I was sure that I had already read about. Unfortunately, it was not very long before I realized that the index was very underdeveloped for a book containing this much information. The index is a very important part of any good reference book, and is a big weakness of this otherwise good text.

Slightly Problematic.
I was somewhat frustrated that the chapter dealing with structures and classes said that... Classes are faster when dealing with arrays... Yet there was no example of how to use classes with arrays... And for me, I don't see any other way I would want to use classes.

For example... I was trying to make a layer system for an image manipulation program.

Code such as:
DIM layers(10) as new bitmap
So in order to get layers I had to resort to 3, 3dimensional arrays.
RED(x,y,layer number) etc.

I am sure the book is only frustrating to me because I used it mostly for the graphics section and for code tailored to manipulation of graphics.

I am sure this book is all fine and dandy if you are reading it with no particular focus in mind. But, if you are reading a chapter and then immediately try to apply it to a specific situation, you may come into problems that the book does not address.

But I guess that is how programming works. Even if you know what you are doing you still run into problems when you take your idea from... idea to actual programming.

Must have!!!
I have found, Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) to be a very good reference source. The book offers both Visual Basic references, and .net framework references side by side. I as a newer programmer (novice - intermediate ), and have been looking for a bridge, that goes between beginner and advanced. Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference, has done just that!

The gap that existed for me, was filled in quite nicely. I have been struggling with more advanced concepts and now, I have begun to make the progress that seemed to elude me.
If there is anyone out there looking for the same "bridge", I would recommend this book without hesitation.