Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

Tim Patrick (Author), John Craig (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cookbooks (O'Reilly) | Publication Date: September 28, 2006

This book will help you solve more than 300 of the most common and not-so-common tasks that working Visual Basic 2005 programmers face every day. If you're a seasoned .NET developer, beginning Visual Basic programmer, or a developer seeking a simple and clear migration path from VB6 to Visual Basic 2005, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook delivers a practical collection of problem-solving recipes for a broad range of Visual Basic programming tasks.

The concise solutions and examples in the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook range from simple tasks to the more complex, organized by the types of problems you need to solve. Nearly every recipe contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a discussion of how the underlying technology works and that outlines alternatives, limitations, and other considerations. As with all O'Reilly Cookbooks, each recipe helps you quickly understand a problem, learn how to solve it, and anticipate potential tradeoffs or ramifications.

Useful features of the book include:

• Over 300 recipes written in the familiar O'Reilly Problem-Solution-Discussion format
• Hundreds of code snippets, examples, and complete solutions available for download
• VB6 updates to alert VB6 programmers to code-breaking changes in Visual Basic 2005
• Recipes that target Visual Basic 2005 features not included in previous releases
• Code examples covering everyday data manipulation techniques and language fundamentals
• Advanced projects focusing on multimedia and mathematical transformations using linear algebraic methods
• Specialized topics covering files and file systems, printing, and databases

In addition, you'll find chapters on cryptography and compression, graphics, and special programming techniques. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook is sure to save you time, serving up the code you need, when you need it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim Patrick is a software architect and developer of custom software solutions targeting Microsoft Windows and Web-based users. Tim has over 20 years of experience in software development and software architecture, and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). He wrote The Visual Basic DEFANGED_STYLEGuide and its successor, The Visual Basic .NET Style Guide, and recently co-authored O'Reilly's Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell.

John Clark Craig's programming experiences and interests go back quite a ways. In 1974 he was programming a DEC PDP8E attached to a teletype and running a paper tape loaded version of FOCAL, a simple programming language similar to BASIC. Over the years, John programmed in just about every version of the BASIC language available, and authored several books on the subject along the way. During John's career as a full-time Software Engineer, he has worked on several fascinating energy and environmental projects. Currently, he's enjoying his software guru position working with a small team of bright R&D engineers as they create the next generation of high-tech self-erecting towers for the world's largest wind turbines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 744 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (September 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101775
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101770
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reference for all skill levels, October 29, 2006

By 

Jerry Dixon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

There are a many, many reference books out there. Some are good, and some are not. Most are arranged in the "standard" way. They contain one or more chapters about each of their chosen topics. Readers are expected to read these chapters in order to learn what they need. This book, however, is a bit different. It presents hundreds of "recipes", each solving a real-world problem. Some "recipes" are less than a page long, while others span many pages. The cool part is this: most of these recipes stand on their own. You don't have to read them in order. You can choose the recipe that corresponds to your particular need, read it, and apply it to your own program. Sweet.

The real worth of such a book lies in the quality of the recipes. Having hundreds of recipes available does one no good unless those recipes are actually used. I have to admit that at first I was skeptical. The first recipes were well beneath my skill level. The topics were explained well, but they were still very basic. The recipes became more interesting as I progressed through the book. Things got really interesting when I reached the chapter on graphics. From then on, I was sold.

Of course, those first chapters weren't interesting to me because I already knew the material. My son, who is very much a beginning programmer, was a different story. I asked him to read the first recipe and to write the example program. He found it quite interesting and helpful. In fact, this is the first book that I've found that he will actually read. That, of course, makes this book much more useful than all of the others.

I gave this book four stars instead of five for one reason; object disposal. All throughout the book, the authors show how to use objects that should be disposed. They don't, however, show you how to do this until halfway through chapter 14. Because the independent nature of these recipes, it's possible that someone might never read chapter 14. Those people might think that they are writing good code, but they would be wrong.

So, go buy this book, and don't forget to read chapter 14.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Got something for everybody, October 11, 2006

By 

MSS (NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

You got to know the basics of Visual Basic before using this book. This book is a very good reference for learning Visual Basic 2005 and also for the advanced developer. It's good for beginners when you are in the stage of "How do I do this...". It's also includes updates for VB6 programmer who are upgrading to Visual Basic 2005 alerting them about the code breaking changes in Visual Basic 2005. The problems discussed are real-world that you may have faced or will face in your development.
I have this book for a few days and I really like it. It like a How-To book for developers. The book uses the problem-solution approach. All the problems are listed in the index so you can quickly find the recipe that you need. Each topic/recipe has got 3 sections. First is the "problem" which lists what you want to do. The second section is the "solution" for the problem. You will need to download code for the book. You can download the code for the book from the oreilly site. The third section is "discussion" where the authors have explained the solution for easy understanding.
This book has got something for everybody from beginners to advanced developers. It's got a lot of time saving solutions to the development problems that you will face. You can also call it a code library with good documented code that you can use in your development. It's the sort of book that can keep handy next to your workstation(You never know when you are in a fix and you need it or you can just pick it up to learn something new that you can use later).

Following are the recipe caregories(chapters) in the book

1. Visual Basic Programming
2. The Development Environment
3. Application Organization
4. Forms, Controls, and Other Useful Objects
5. Strings
6. Numbers and Math
7. Dates and Times
8. Arrays and Collections
9. Graphics
10. Multimedia
11. Printing
12. Files and File Systems
13. Databases
14. Special Programming Techniques
15. Exceptions
16. Cryptography and Compression
17. Web Development

The authors have done a very good job with this book. You can see the full table of contents in the O'Reilly site. There is also a sample chapter in PDF format available on the site.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect For VB 2005 Developers!!, April 5, 2007

By 

Daniel McKinnon "Dan" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

'Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers' by Tim Patrick is a perfect reference and solution manual for any and all Visual Basic 2005 developers. Written in typical great O'Reilly cookbook fashion, this book is chock full of nuts with 700+ pages of goodness.

Chapter Overview

01. VB Basics
02. Development Environment
03. Application Organization
04. Forms, Controls, Other Objects
05. Strings
06. Numbers And Math
07. Dates & Times
08. Arrays & Collections
09. Graphics
10. Multimedia
11. Printing
12. Files & File Systems
13. Databases
14. Programming Techniques
15. Exceptions
16. Cryptography & Compression
17. Web Development

This is simply a fabulous book that any and all VB programmers of today need to pick up. Not only will you save time, you'll enjoy doing it while reading this wonderful guide!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED