Visual Basic .net
Contents
- 1 Graphics
- 2 Files
- 3 Arrays
- 4 Threading / Parallel
- 5 Loops
- 6 Conditionals
- 7 Math
- 8 Calling Windows API
- 9 RS-232
- 10 Network / Internet
- 11 Conversion
- 12 Strings
- 12.1 Finding text in a string
- 12.2 Using the start of a string
- 12.3 Using the middle of a string
- 12.4 Using the end of a string
- 12.5 Getting just the path of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
- 12.6 Getting just the file name (with extension) of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
- 12.7 Getting just the file name (without extension) of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
- 12.8 Seperating the values from a time and date string
- 12.9 Converting a string to a number in other locales
- 13 Time
- 14 Multimedia
- 15 Datatypes
Graphics
Simple pixel plotting
Dim pic As New Bitmap(256, 256) For y As Integer = 0 To 99 For x As Integer = 0 To 99 pic.SetPixel(x, y, Color.Black) Next x picturebox.Image = pic Application.DoEvents() Next y
Setting up graphics and drawing pixels, shapes, and colours
Dim bm As New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height) Dim gr As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bm) bm.SetPixel(10, 10, Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 0)) Dim greenthickpen As New Pen(Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255, 0), 10) gr.DrawLine(greenthickpen, 20, 20, 40, 40) gr.DrawArc(Pens.Blue, 80, 80, 20, 20, 0, 360) gr.FillPie(Brushes.Black, 150, 150, 20, 20, 0, 360) Dim rect As Rectangle rect.Width = 10 rect.Height = 10 rect.X = 200 rect.Y = 200 gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, rect) Dim triangle(2) As Point triangle(0).X = 5 triangle(0).Y = 0 + 30 triangle(1).X = 0 triangle(1).Y = 5 + 30 triangle(2).X = 10 triangle(2).Y = 5 + 30 gr.FillPolygon(Brushes.Blue, triangle) PictureBox1.Image = bm
Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 0) is in the format of Alpha, Red, Green, Blue
Copies bitmap named bm into a 1D array called picArray as A,R,G,B,A,R,G,B,...
Dim bm As New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height) Dim pict2 As New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height) Dim gr As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bm) Dim bmdR As System.Drawing.Imaging.BitmapData Dim picArray() As Byte Select Case bm.PixelFormat Case Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppPArgb, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb 'Nothing to do here, this is our native format Case Else 'Convert all other formats to our native format of RGB 8 bit per primary colour Pict2 = New Bitmap(bm.Width, bm.Height, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb) gr = Graphics.FromImage(Pict2) gr.DrawImageUnscaled(bm, 0, 0) bm = Pict2 End Select bmdR = bm.LockBits(New Rectangle(0, 0, bm.Width, bm.Height), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, bm.PixelFormat) frameSize = bmdR.Stride * bmdR.Height ReDim picArray(frameSize) System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(bmdR.Scan0, picArray, 0, frameSize) bm.UnlockBits(bmdR)
Clearing the image to a solid colour
gr.Clear(Color.Black)
Files
Reading text files line by line
Dim f1 As Long dim filestring as string f1 = FreeFile() FileOpen(f1, My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\filename.txt", OpenMode.Input) Do Until EOF(f1) filestring=LineInput(f1) Loop FileClose(f1)
Note My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\filename.txt" may be replaced by "C:\some_path\file.txt"
FileOpen(f1, My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\filename.txt", OpenMode.Input, , OpenShare.Shared) may be used in order to not lock access to the file such that other programs may open it at the same time
Writing text the preferred way (simpler and faster)
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\programfile.txt", ProgramTxt.Text, False)
Writing text files line by line
Dim f1 As Long f1 = FreeFile() FileOpen(f1, My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\filename.txt", OpenMode.Output) Print(f1, "This is line 1") Print(f1, "This is line 2") FileClose(f1)
Note: FileOpen(f1, My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\filename.txt", OpenMode.Output, , OpenShare.Shared) may be used in order to not lock access to the file such that other programs may open it at the same time
loading data files into an array of bytes
Dim oFile As System.IO.FileInfo oFile = New System.IO.FileInfo(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\file.dat") Dim oFileStream As System.IO.FileStream = oFile.OpenRead() Dim lBytes As Long = oFileStream.Length If (lBytes > 0) Then ReDim fileData(lBytes - 1) oFileStream.Read(fileData, 0, lBytes) End If oFileStream.Close()
Writing binary files
Dim FS As New IO.FileStream(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\file.dat", System.IO.FileMode.Create) Dim BW As New IO.BinaryWriter(FS) BW.Write(byteval) BW.Close() FS.Close()
Using a "Browse" button
Dim ofd As New OpenFileDialog dim f1 as Long If ofd.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then f1 = FreeFile() Try FileOpen(f1, ofd.FileName, OpenMode.Input) Catch ex As Exception MsgBox(ex.Message) err = 1 End Try If err = 0 Then 'read the file here End If End if
To separate a file path string, see this section
Arrays
Initialize array in line
Dim words() As String = {"zero", "one", "two"}
Threading / Parallel
Start a new thread
Dim player As New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf midiPLayer) player.Start() Do System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100) Application.DoEvents() Loop While player.IsAlive
Distribute tasks automatically on all available cores
Imports System.Threading Imports System.Threading.Tasks Parallel.For(0, yRes - 1, Function(n) mandelbrotline(n, cr + xr, ci + yr, mandN, xRes, xStp, yStp, picarray))
n will iterate from 0 to yres -1 in no particular order
Requires .net 4 or Parallel extensions on .net 3.5
Loops
Conditionals
Math
Rounding
Math.Round(3.14159,2)
Rounds to 2 decimal places, giving 3.14
Seperating just the whole part of a number
Int(3.14159,2)
Gives 3
Seperating just the fractional part of a number
double pi double frac pi=3.14159 frac=pi-Int(pi)
Gives 0.14159
Calling Windows API
Public Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByRef Counter As Long) As Integer Public Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByRef counter As Long) As Integer Dim curFreq, tStart, tStop As UInt64 QueryPerformanceFrequency(curFreq) QueryPerformanceCounter(tStart) ...code to be timed... QueryPerformanceCounter(tStop) msgbox(CStr(CInt(1 / ((tStop - tStart) / curFreq))) & " Frames per second")
RS-232
Setting up a serial port
Dim SerialPort1 As New System.IO.Ports.SerialPort SerialPort1.PortName = "COM1" SerialPort1.BaudRate = "19200" SerialPort1.DataBits = 8 SerialPort1.Parity = System.IO.Ports.Parity.None SerialPort1.StopBits = 1 SerialPort1.Handshake = System.IO.Ports.Handshake.None SerialPort1.Open()
Sending an entire array of bytes
SerialPort1.Write(bytearray, 0, bytearray.Count)
0 indicated the index to start reading the array, bytearray.Count is the number of bytes to transmit.
This operation is incredibly fast compared to looping through the array and sending 1 byte at a time. This is especially useful for high speed serial ports.
Reading a byte
Dim serialbyte as Byte serialbyte=SerialPort1.ReadByte
Network / Internet
POST text to a PHP program on a WEB server
Imports System.Net Dim client As WebClient = New WebClient() Dim encoding As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding() client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded") client.UploadData(URL & "net2.php", "POST", encoding.GetBytes("data=" & text)) client.Dispose()
Downloading HTML as a string from a web page
Dim webClient As System.Net.WebClient = New System.Net.WebClient() Dim result As String Try result = webClient.DownloadString("http://www.google.com") Catch ex As Exception MsgBox(ex.Message) End Try If result <> "" Then MsgBox(result) End If
Conversion
To text
dim var as integer = 1103 var.ToString("x") -> "ff4" var.ToString("X4") -> "0FF4" Convert.ToString(var, 16) -> "ff4"
From text
Convert.ToInt32("ff4", 16) -> 1103
Strings
Finding text in a string
New method:
"this is a string".IndexOf("is")
returns (zero based character position number) 5. This function returns -1 when not found.
VB6 method:
InStr("this is a string", "is")
returns (character position number) 6. This function returns 0 when not found.
Using the start of a string
dim str as string dim outputstr as string str = "this is a string" outputstr = str.Substring(0, 4)
Starts at character index 0 (the first character), and reads 4 characters (including the first one), resulting in "this".
Using the middle of a string
dim str as string dim outputstr as string str="this is a string" outputstr=str.Substring(5, 4)
Starts at character index 5 (the 6th character), and reads 4 characters, resulting in "is a".
Using the end of a string
dim str as string dim outputstr as string str="this is a string" outputstr=str1.Substring(str1.Length - 4, 4)
Starts 4 chacters before the end, and reads 4 characters, resulting in "ring".
Getting just the path of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
PathStr.Substring(0, ofd.FileName.LastIndexOf("\")) & "\"
Getting just the file name (with extension) of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
System.IO.Path.GetFileName(PathStr)
Getting just the file name (without extension) of a file given the entire path and filename as a string
System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(PathStr)
Seperating the values from a time and date string
curtimeanddate = Now yearstr = DateAndTime.Year(curtimeanddate) monthstr = DateAndTime.Month(curtimeanddate) dayofmonthstr = DateAndTime.Day(curtimeanddate) hourstr = DateAndTime.Hour(curtimeanddate) minutestr = DateAndTime.Minute(curtimeanddate) secondstr = DateAndTime.Second(curtimeanddate)
Note: hours are in 24 hour/day.
Converting a string to a number in other locales
n = Single.Parse(text, System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo)
Time
Getting the current date and time
timeanddatestr=Now
For processing this string, see the Seperating the values from a time and date string section
Multimedia
Playing and stopping audio playback from an array of audio sample bytes
To begin playback:
My.Computer.Audio.Play(SampleArray, AudioPlayMode.Background)
To stop playback:
My.Computer.Audio.Stop()
Datatypes
Creating custom data types (structure)
To set up:
Structure RGBtype Dim R As Byte Dim G As Byte Dim B As Byte End Structure
To use:
Dim pict(640, 480) As RGBtype pict(0, 0).R = 100 pict(0, 0).G = 120 pict(0, 0).B = 150 pict(1, 2).R = 200 pict(1, 2).G = 220 pict(1, 2).B = 250 value1 = pict(0, 0).R value2 = pict(0, 0).G value3 = pict(0, 0).B value4 = pict(1, 2).R value5 = pict(1, 2).G value6 = pict(1, 2).B
This will result in value1=100, value2=120, value3=150, value4=200, value5=220, value6=250
Datatype information
VB type | .net type | Size | Range |
---|---|---|---|
Boolean
|
System.Boolean
|
4 bytes | True or False |
Byte
|
System.Byte
|
1 byte | 0 to 255 (unsigned) |
SByte
|
System.SByte
|
1 byte | -128 through 127 (signed) |
Char
|
System.Char
|
2 bytes | 0 to 65535 (unsigned) |
Date
|
System.DateTime
|
8 bytes | January 1, 1 CE to December 31, 9999 |
Decimal
|
System.Decimal
|
12 bytes | +/-79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 with no decimal point; +/-7.9228162514264337593543950335 with 28 places to the right of the decimal; smallest non-zero number is +/-0.0000000000000000000000000001 |
Double
|
System.Double
|
8 bytes | -1.79769313486231E308 to -4.94065645841247E-324 for negative values; 4.94065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232E308 for positive values |
Integer
|
System.Int32
|
4 bytes | -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 |
UInteger
|
System.UInt32
|
4 bytes | 0 through 4,294,967,295 (unsigned) |
Long
|
System.Int64
|
8 bytes | -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 |
ULong
|
System.UInt64
|
8 bytes | 0 through 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (1.8...E+19) (unsigned) |
Object
|
System.Object (class)
|
4 bytes | Any type can be stored in a variable of type Object
|
Short
|
System.Int16
|
2 bytes | -32,768 to 32,767 |
UShort
|
System.UInt16
|
2 bytes | 0 through 65,535 (unsigned) |
Single
|
System.Single
|
4 bytes | -3.402823E38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values; 1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E38 for positive values |
String
|
System.String (class)
|
10 bytes + (2 * string length) | 0 to approximately two billion Unicode characters |
User-Defined Type (structure) | (inherits from System.ValueType )
|
Sum of the sizes of its members | Each member of the structure has a range determined by its data type and independent of the ranges of the other members |