Customer Reviews

VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have never been dissapointed with an "In a Nutshell" book. This book is a must have guide for any programmer who finds themself programming with Visual Basic. I am a seasoned C++ and Powerbuilder programmer and picked up this book as an aid to learning the VB language and soon discovered this was the only book I needed. I especially like the "Rules at a glance" and the "Programming Tips and Gotchas" found after each function description. I often find myself going to this book first before searching Microsoft's online help.

As a C++ and former BASIC programmer, I picked up this book to have a reference of all the keywords and constants in the VB language, but also to see simple examples of concepts and have the overall structure of the language explained to me. This book provides an excellent desktop reference of all the functions and keywords, etc., as most of the book is just that. The first/remaining 1/3 of the book covers the "structure" territory, but not terribly well. It does this as an explanation to VB5 programmers who are moving up to VB6; definitely NOT from the perspective of an object-oriented language like C++, making the switch. IMHO, the explanations are quite confusing (e.g. the author assumes certain VB concepts are already known, such as the difference between code modules and class modules, etc.); the author eschews full code examples (providing only snippets and fragments); and there are no exercises whatsoever anywhere in the book with which to test your knowledge. As a tutorial (admittedly, the reviewers here have said this is NOT), the book fails miserably. As a reference for an established VB programmer, I'd say it's quite good. I'm only disappointed I will have to seek out a different book to get the lessons I now (still) need.

I agree this is one of the best books on VB on the market... The O'Reilly books are perfect as reference and sharpening your skills.

For those who are "familiar" with VB this book provides concise coverage of the VB Language features and tips and "gottchas" on using them. He has information on what REALLY works in VB and little quirks that work in some cases, but not in others....

For those upgrading from VB5 to VB6 this is the perfect book. It covers VB5 and VB6 features in detail; and annotates which apply to each. You don't need to buy an expensive library... this book has it all (except VB components... which is in another O'Reilly book). I don't have to go through a thousand books to find the language feature I need. Mr. Lomax's discussion of error trapping is one of the best I've seen.

The appendix of Visual Basic Language Constants gathered together in one place is worth the price of the book alone.

This is the book to have.

As a former Unix/C programmer, who's been out of programming for three years, switching to VB programming was a bit of a shock. This book is invaluable. For example, it lists all the string functions in an appendix. Most of the book is ordered alphabetically, so you just flip to that function and get it's full syntax and some good examples. Part of the problem I was having was not knowing which functions existed. MSDN is fine if you know the function name, but when you don't you're usually stuck. This book solves that problem. It's really worth it's weight in gold, and I refer to it many times a day.

This is an excellent reference on the VB/VBA Language 6.0. For every function, statement, and keyword in the base language, there is a one-page-or-so explanation; most importantly, this book includes the inevitable "gotchas" in programming in a Microsoft environment. This book is the ideal replacement for the MS online help, which, in my experience, has *never* told me anything I didn't already figure out, and *always* fails to describe the behavior that causes the problem that made me look for help in the first place. The one trick I failed to find immediately in this book was the need to use "Is" to compare an object reference to "Nothing." (It's in the book, just not where I first looked.)

That said, one warning: this does not describe the object model of any application. If you want to understand why Excel's Range object is not behaving the way you expect, this book says nothing. There are other thick books to describe that.

For the basics of programming in VB this may well be a good book but if you're an experienced programmer and want to dive in at the deep end and program in VBA for Excel, Word etc then this book won't help you much. Better to buy Walkenbach, Green or Kofler. For a terse, precise clarification of language syntax it gets top marks.

It's about time for me to buy a new one. My book is getting a little worn. I use it all the time, when I need to know the syntax. Don't expect to learn from this book. This book is for when you know the stuff, but are having a problem with the syntax and the gotchas.

I have written several 5 star reviews for OReillys books. I do not have any stake in OReillys, but from experience, I have always found OReilly books to be the best. Whenever I am interested in a computer subject and want to know more, I always look for an OReilly book on the subject first.