Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Who Should Read This Book
  • What This Book Will Do for You
  • Can This Book Really Teach Visual Basic in 24 Hours?
  • What You Need
  • Files on the Visual Basic Distribution CD-ROM
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Enough! Time Is Ticking!
  • Part I: Introducing Visual Basic
  • Hour 1. Visual Basic at Work
  • Hour 2.Analyzing Visual Basic Programs
  • Hour 3.Controls and Properties
  • Hour 4.Examining Labels, Buttons, and Text Boxes
  • Part II: Coding the Details
  • Hour 5.Putting Code into Visual Basic
  • Hour 6.Message and Input Boxes
  • Hour 7.Making Decisions
  • Hour 8.Visual Basic Looping
  • Part III:Putting Code to Work
  • Hour 9.Combining Code and Controls
  • Hour 10.List Boxes and Data Lists
  • Hour 11.Additional Controls
  • Hour 12.Dialog Box Basics
  • Part IV:Programming with Data
  • Hour 13.Modular Programming
  • Hour 14.Built-In Functions Save Time
    • Many Functions
    • Numeric Functions
    • String Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Data-Testing Functions
    • Data Conversion Functions
    • Format Function
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 15.Visual Basic Database Basics
  • Hour 16.Printing with Visual Basic
  • Part V:Sprucing Up Programs
  • Hour 17.Menus and Visual Basic
  • Hour 18.The Graphic Image Controls
  • Hour 19.Toolbars and More Graphics
  • Hour 20.Writing Correct Applications
  • Part VI:Advancing Visual Basic Applications
  • Hour 21.Visual Basic and ActiveX
  • Hour 22.Object Basics
  • Hour 23.Distributing Your Applications
  • Hour 24.Online Visual Basic
  • Part VII:Appendixes
  • Appendix A.Operator Precedence
  • Appendix B.Answers
  • Appendix C.Using the CD-ROM

Q&A

1. Why would I want to perform date arithmetic?

   Date arithmetic is useful for determining the exact date (or time) after another period of time goes by. For example, suppose you need to know the exact day that three months from today's date falls on. You cannot just add 3 or 90 (3 times 30 days) to a date value; not only can you not add to a Date datatype, but even if you could, such math doesn't take into account leap years, number of days in the months, and year changes. By using DateAdd() and DatePart(), you can perform such calculations with date values and be assured that the result will fall on a valid date.

2. If Timer returns the number of seconds since midnight, how can I use Timer to determine how much time has passed for a given task?

   The key to using Timer is to save the value of Timer before the task begins and then save the value of Timer after the task ends. You then can subtract the values to determine how many seconds elapsed between the two tasks. A single Timer reading would not be very beneficial by itself, but the two before and after values can be very helpful indeed.

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