This section introduces the typical Visual Basic program structure, provides a simple Visual Basic program, "Hello, World", and discusses Visual Basic code conventions. Code conventions are suggestions that focus not on a program's logic but on its physical structure and appearance. Following them makes your code easier to read, understand, and maintain. Code conventions can include, among others:
- Standardized formats for labeling and commenting code.
- Guidelines for spacing, formatting, and indenting code.
- Naming conventions for objects, variables, and procedures.
The following topics present a set of programming guidelines for Visual Basic programs, along with examples of good usage.
##In This Section ###Structure of a Visual Basic Program Provides an overview of the elements that make up a Visual Basic program.
###Main Procedure in Visual Basic Discusses the procedure that serves as the starting point and overall control for your application.
###References and the Imports Statement (Visual Basic) Discusses how to reference objects in other assemblies.
###Namespaces in Visual Basic Describes how namespaces organize objects within assemblies.
###Visual Basic Naming Conventions Includes general guidelines for naming procedures, constants, variables, arguments, and objects.
###Visual Basic Coding Conventions Reviews the guidelines used in developing the samples in this documentation.
###Conditional Compilation in Visual Basic Describes how to compile particular blocks of code selectively while directing the compiler to ignore others.
###How to: Break and Combine Statements in Code (Visual Basic) Shows how to divide long statements into multiple lines and combine short statements on one line.
###How to: Collapse and Hide Sections of Code (Visual Basic) Shows how to collapse and hide sections of code in the Visual Basic code editor.
###How to: Label Statements (Visual Basic) Shows how to mark a line of code to identify it for use with statements such as On Error Goto.
###Special Characters in Code (Visual Basic) Shows how and where to use non-numeric and non-alphabetic characters.
###Comments in Code (Visual Basic) Discusses how to add descriptive comments to your code.
###Keywords as Element Names in Code (Visual Basic) Describes how to use brackets ([]) to delimit variable names that are also Visual Basic keywords.
###Me, My, MyBase, and MyClass in Visual Basic Describes various ways to refer to elements of a Visual Basic program.
###Visual Basic Limitations Discusses the removal of known coding limits within Visual Basic.
##Related Sections ###Typographic and Code Conventions (Visual Basic) Provides standard coding conventions for Visual Basic.
###Writing Code in the Code and Text Editor Describes features that make it easier for you to write and manage your code.