VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages [Paperback]

Paul Lomax (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565923588 | ISBN-13: 978-1565923584 | Publication Date: October 8, 1998 | Edition: 1st

The online documentation of VB/VBA language components seems to follow the 80/20 rule: the basic facts that you need to use a language statement are provided in the documentation. But the additional 20 percent that you need to use it effectively or to apply it to special cases is conspicuously absent. To a professional VB/VBA programmer, though, this missing 20 percent of the language's documentation isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. And in VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language, it finally is available.

The bulk of the book consists of an alphabetical reference to the statements, procedures, and functions of the VB/VBA language. Each entry has a standardized listing containing the following information:

• Its syntax, using standard code conventions
• Differences in the operation of the keyword in a macro environment (e.g., in Office) and in Visual Basic, if there are any
• A list of arguments accepted by the function or procedure, if any
• A description of the data type returned by a function
• The finer points of a keyword's usage that are often omitted from or blurred over by the documentation
• Tips and gotchas that include undocumented behaviors and practical applications for particular language elements -- a section particularly invaluable for diagnosing or avoiding potential programming problems
• A brief, nonobvious example that illustrates the use of the keyword

Also included in VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language is a brief overview of the VB/VBA language, including:

• Basic VBA programming concepts, such as its data types and its support for variables, constants, and arrays
• Error handling in VBA applications
• Object programming with VBA
• Using VBA with particular applications. Excel and Project are utilized to show how to work with an application's integrated development environment and to take advantage of its object model Regardless of how much experience you have programming with VBA, this is the book you'll pick up time and time again both as your standard reference guide and as a tool for troubleshooting and identifying programming problems.

VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language is the definitive reference for Visual Basic and VBA developers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages documents the latest version of the world's bestselling rapid application development environment. Paul Lomax's explanation of the language comes in two main parts.

First, Lomax explains the structure and syntax of Visual Basic (VB) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programs. He details all the important stuff, including how to work with variables, how to create custom functions, how to create classes, how to handle errors, and how to react to user events. If you're up to speed on general programming concepts and just want to know how to get something done in VB/VBA, you'll find this part of the book especially handy.

The second, and largest, part of the book is a language reference in the classic O'Reilly style. Every function, statement, keyword, and miscellaneous bit of code has a clear, complete entry. Each entry includes a statement of syntax, a description of the function's purpose, a quick example of its use, and some tips for using it successfully. The reference documents the language as it exists in VB6. --David Wall

About the Author

Paul Lomax, author of O'Reilly's VB & VBA in a Nutshell and a coauthor of VBScript in a Nutshell, is an experienced VB programmer with a passion for sharing his knowledge--and his collection of programming tips and techniques gathered from real-world experience.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (October 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565923588
• ISBN-13: 978-1565923584
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > VBA
  • #94 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > Visual Basic

More About the Author

Born in Bury, England. Educated at the Derby School, Bury.

Started programming in Basic for DOS on an Amstrad PC (those were the days!.. thank you Lord Sugar).

The launch of the IE3 beta in 1996 was a life changing moment, the start of a career of programming for the web, combining VB, VBScript and ASP.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing my books for O'Reilly, and certainly in VB & VBA in a Nutshell I think this comes across. Myself and my editor Ron Petrusha had a great deal of fun with that book, but my apologies to Tim O'Rielly for creating such a huge nutshell book.. we just didn't know when to stop!

Currently residing in Southern Spain and President/CTO of Freeparking Domain Registrars Inc. an ICANN Accredited domain name registrar.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars O'Reilly Scores Again, January 19, 2001

By 

JRK "jkunz" (N.H.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages (Paperback)

Since you may not be familiar with the "Nutshell" series books by this publisher, I will start by telling you that this book is strictly a reference intended for the intermediate or advanced VB programmer. If you are new to the language, do not purchase this book expecting to learn how to program. You already know your If..Then..Else and Select Case statements. What this book does is give you a quick reference to find that date function that you have never used or remind you the exact syntax of a Property Set procedure.

The bulk of the book (80-85%) is the language reference alphabetized and some appendices dividing the language reference up by other methods, such as similar functions/methods, data types, operators, etc. Chapter 4 "Class Modules" contains a concise, 20-page refresher on how to object-orient your VB with classes. I had studied a few other books on OOP VB but still don't have it down pat, this chapter will be my guide until I can do classes in my sleep. Very little covered on API functions but also a great section on ActiveX (creating, registering, unregistering, Controls, EXE vs. DLLs).

Probably the biggest question I faced was: "Why get this book when I have an MSDN subscription at work?" This book is supposed to pick up where that takes off. I hate searching through the whole MSDN for one method. It can take forever. Plus, this book will travel with me.

On a side note, I'm studying for my MCSD and this book has been very valuable. From my past experience with Microsoft exams, you never know when you are going to get a specific question about a particular function, property and method and have to know the default value, or which property would not belong to an object. If you have never used it before, you'll have no idea. It's no fun to actually "study" such a reference book, but this book is very detailed and comprehensive about what everything does and how it could be used. I know the more I thumb through this thing, the better the chance I have of nailing a question on a test. Would make a great complimentary book to the MCSD VB exams 70-156 and 70-155.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convenient, Concise, Complete, February 27, 2000

By 

"1234567890" - See all my reviews

This review is from: VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages (Paperback)

As a VB client-server programmer, I hardly have the time to wait for VB's HTML help to appear, much less search through it! This book is really in a class by itself as far as VB references go. It's the perfect size to keep right at hand, yet it contains the answer to virtually every question I've asked it. The encyclopedia-type language reference is preceded by exceptional discussions of VB data types, classes, object models, and error handling, and also includes several interesting and useful appendices. About the only thing I've not found in it is an ASCII chart. The language element entries are peppered with sidebars on relevant topics, all entries are discussed with remote automation issues in mind, and great examples abound (the entry for the Format function runs to 9 pages, mostly examples). If you program VB for a living, you've got to have this book close by.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference Book, February 18, 2000

By 

Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for someone who already knows how to program VB but needs a reference for looking up VB commands and syntax. I especially like the "Programming Tips and Gotchas" that are listed with every command. They contain the little things that you usually only learn about through experience and they really do save you a lot of time. Another helpful thing, after each command there's a list of related commands.

All in all this is a great resource for the professional programmer. And the clincher is that it's relatively inexpensive as far as computer books go.