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42 Articles in: Blog
Guest Blog: Brad Jensen weighs in with his ideas about how to deal with Microsoft
First, the response to the article about the VB 6'er protest of Microsoft's continuing campaign to de-emphasize VB 6 and focus exclusively on VB.NET has been
Converting VB6 to VB.NET
Brad wrote, The VB6 to VB.NET converter doesn't seem to exist anymore. Microsoft sent me to Artinsoft. They apparently have a good one, but it will
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Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
How often do you see this error? If you're like me, you see it a lot. I've seen Microsoft techies get balled up in variations of this error in presentations.
Bingo Revisted
Bingo Revisted
Migrating the Menu to VB .NET
A review of the changes in programming menus between VB 6 and VB .NET
This is a logo for w:Microsoft Excel 2013. - Microsoft/Public Domain
How to Convert Text to Number in Excel
The advice on the web that tells you how to convert text to numbers in Excel doesn't work. The advice here does. Tested in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007.
MVC in VB.NET Explained
An Introduction Written So You Can Understand It. MVC - Model View Controller - is a whole new way to write programs. It's as much a revolution in thinking
Should I Learn To Program in VBA?
"Sharon" (see the note below) wrote to ask ... I hope to peruse a career as a financial analyst. While (my recently completed) MBA program gave me a solid 
Woman typing on computer at her desk - Klaus Vedfelt/Taxi/Getty Images
Want to Include a File in Your Actual Project Assembly?
VB.NET resource files allow you to make objects like graphic files, strings, and icons available to your code and be included as part of the project. A resource file is integrated directly into your Visual Basic project for maximum execution speed and minimum hassle packaging and deploying your application. This article tells just how to use them in VB.NET.
Introduction to Commands in WPF
Commands let you include common actions into your code such as Cut, Copy, and Paste or Bold and Italic for text. This short article gets you started using WPF commands by showing how to implement a command to format text as italic in a RichTextBox control.
VB6 or VB.NET?
This question keeps coming up, so I keep answering it. Readers of this site know that I have answered this question before, but I've received several emails
A Beginner's Guide to Using Data Sources in VB.NET
It's a lot harder than it should be ... right now. A couple of years ago (Before LINQ to XML), I wrote an example program using the DOM syntax Microsoft
Serializing Example -
A Quick Little Bingo Program ...
A reader recently asked for help programming a Bingo game. "It's for a old people's house ... they're still doing things in the old fashioned way, picking
Sum an "Hours and Minutes" Time Column in Excel
I have a business relationship with someone who sends me an Excel spreadsheet with a column of time amounts formatted as "hours and minutes" like this ... 15
Male office worker at workstation, hand on computer mouse - David Lees/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images
Understanding 'Shallow Copy' and 'Deep Copy' Coding (VB.NET)
The pair of terms Shallow Copy and Deep Copy are seen quite frequently in articles about programming. This article explains what they mean.
Computer Number Systems
An exploration of Hexadecimal, Octal, Binary as well as the familiar Decimal numbers that are fundamental parts of a programmer's knowledge toolkit.
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Reading Excel 2007 ".xlsx" in VB.NET
Bhaskar Saikia wanted to open and read an Excel workbook in VB but the program wasn't working. Private Sub Form_Load() Dim cPart As Range Dim cLoc As
Hand and Cat's Cradle - Yagi Studio/Digital Vision/Getty Images
A Beginner's Guide to Threading in VB.NET
Threading is a technique that you usually don't learn about until you find that your program just isn't performing the way it should. This introduction shows you how to get started using threads and also illustrates how they work using a Permutations regression example from a previous article running as a worker thread.
WPF Tutorial Part 6: A First Introduction to WPF and XAML for Visual Basic
An introduction for VB programmers to WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation - and XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language - can be found in part 1 of this series. WPF requires a fundamental understanding of multithreading. Part 6 of the series introduces the important concept of multithreading by showing how to solve the problem of the error message, "The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it."
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VB versus Java
John asks a question that gets me thinking about it. John Pusatera wrote to me with this question, "I am not a professional programmer, but I always
Learn .NET for Free with This Microsoft Development System
Microsoft is making it as easy as they can for you to learn Visual Studio by giving away a really great development system absolutely free: Visual Basic .NET 2010 Express Edition. This is part 1 of a introductory tutorial using VB.NET Express. In this segment, you learn what it is, how to get it, and how to get started using it by writing a program.
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Using AddHandler and AddressOf
Adding Run-Time Event Handlers Dynamically "Erick" had a problem figuring out how to record the sequence of clicks in a program. The program displayed a
Programming The Tic Tac Toe Game
Get started learning how to program games by programming Tic Tac Toe in Visual Basic.
Learn Visual Basic .NET
Microsoft is making it easy for you to learn Visual Basic .NET by giving away a really great development system absolutely free: Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express Edition. This site features an About Visual Basic 'From the Ground Up' tutorial to match.
I Lost My VB 6 CD Key !!!
I received this message recently: I had my computer fixed recently and so I had to reinstall VB6 but I can't find my CD Key. The reason I can't find my CD Key
The Visual Studio Command Prompt
... so I was reading along in this book ... "ASP.NET ships with a tool (that) you can easily call from within a Visual Studio Command Prompt window. ... you
Using the Enter key in a program ... and the InputBox as a better way
Just because you can do it, that doesn't mean that you should do it. "J" wrote to ask: Do you know how to make a button on one form open up another
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 - Ipernity/Flikr/CC BY 2.0
What to Know about Visual Basic
An article for those who need an explanation of Visual Basic that doesn't assume any previous experience at all. This article explains the "What, Who, When, Where, Why, and How" of Visual Basic in completely non-technical language for non-programmers.
Progressive Search Using a Combobox in VB.NET 2005
And an editorial on the subject, "What is programming today, anyway?" "Lolo" recently wrote to ask about how to display a progressive search in a Combobox.
Beware the IIF
You can execute code you didn't plan on! Beware the IIF, my son! The clause that bites, the logic mismatch! --with apologies to Lewis
Learn Visual Basic .NET 2005
A lot of people have been asking me, "When are you going to have a tutorial about Visual Basic .NET 2005?" Good question! The "Complete Course" is a 23
When is a copy not a copy?
I've been looking at a pre-publication draft the VB.NET 2005 edition of Matthew McDonald's The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers. I reviewed the
Using VBScript to Clear the Screen in DOS (AGAIN!)
A few months ago, I tried to answer an About Visual Basic reader's question about clearing the screen in DOS using VBScript, "How do you clear screen using
I Lost My VB 6 CD Key !!!
I received this message recently: I had my computer fixed recently and so I had to reinstall VB6 but I can't find my CD Key. The reason I can't find my CD Key
How To Print in VB.NET
Printing ... Another thing that's not as easy as it used to be Geoff Miles, a Curriculum Development Officer in Auchinleck, Scotland writes, "Do you have a
Line Numbers in VB.NET
Remember line numbers? Those of us who go WAAAAAAY back remember when they were the default and you could branch to them with a GoTo statement. It's been a
Use VBA to Extract a Number from Excel Cells
"Hans-Peter" wrote to me about a spreadsheet that he was having trouble with. He wanted to convert the cells to a specific format. I had to admit that the
The Visual Studio Command Prompt
... so I was reading along in this book ... "ASP.NET ships with a tool (that) you can easily call from within a Visual Studio Command Prompt window. ... you
Where did the solution in Solution Explorer go?
Microsoft seems to have made a change in their default configuration with VB.NET 2005 that is confusing people. The problem is that there is no "solution" in
Is it just me, or is Microsoft deliberately confusing?
While doing some reading on Microsoft's site ... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.enum.aspx ... I came across some code that I just do not
'Open Source' VB.NET ?
VB.NET might actually become "open source" ... and not because of Microsoft's generosity and public spirited attitude. No, in fact, there are some converging
Using an Excel 2010 Chart in a VB 2010 Form
Using an Excel 2010 Chart in a VB 2010 Form
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