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Learning VB.Net
Tutorial 16 – Modules
Hello everyone… welcome to vb.net tutorials. These are going to
be very basic tutorials about using the language to create simple
applications, hope you enjoy it. If you have any notes about it,
please send them to
[email protected] I will be happy to
answer them. Finally if you find these tutorials are useful, it would
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[email protected].
Tutorial posted on 2010-March-27.
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Modules
In vb.net you can write place your code in different files. Some of these files are
called modules. A module is a file that contains vb code only (i.e. functions, structures,
subroutines…). It does not include GUI like buttons, lists, menus …etc. Now to add a
module to your project select project then add module
After that you provide module name:
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You can see the module file is added into your project. The code you see is:
Module General
End Module
Now you can write the functions and subroutines in this module. For example:
Module General
' define the sales structure
Public Structure SalesStruct
Dim Item As String
Dim Count As Integer
Dim Price As Single
Dim Total As Single
Dim TheDate As String
Dim Flg As Boolean
End Structure
End Module
So you might be wondering what difference does modules make in a program? Well
modules helps you place related functions, subroutines, and other coding that you make
in one place, so that it becomes easier for you to find, and easier for you to work with,
and make it possible for other parts of your program to use the code.
To illustrate this consider that you have a two or three forms that require some sort
operation. Instead of writing the code in one form which makes it part of that form, you
place the code in a module, and sort function/subroutine becomes available to all the
forms. Later on you can even take the code of the sort operation and add that to
another project and you will find it works without modification (assuming the code is
done correctly).
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Now the following example (the sales vb project included on the web site). This project
contains one module:
The idea of this project is to add a number of items you were able to sale, and later on
you could find the total of sales, save or load the files.
If you check the module you will find the code:
' define the sales structure
Public Structure SalesStruct
Dim Item As String
Dim Count As Integer
Dim Price As Single
Dim Total As Single
Dim TheDate As String
Dim Flg As Boolean
End Structure
Which defines the main structure, then
' define the main array to store sales info
Public Sales() As SalesStruct
Public SalesCount As Integer
Which defines the array and its number of elements
' read info
Public Function ReadSalesInfo() As SalesStruct
AddSale.TextBox1.Text = ""
AddSale.TextBox2.Text = ""
AddSale.TextBox3.Text = ""
AddSale.TextBox4.Text = ""
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AddSale.TextBox5.Text = ""
If AddSale.ShowDialog = DialogResult.Cancel Then
Dim dummy As SalesStruct
dummy.Flg = False
Return dummy
End If
Dim S As SalesStruct
S.Item = AddSale.TextBox1.Text
S.Count = AddSale.TextBox2.Text
S.Price = AddSale.TextBox3.Text
S.Total = AddSale.TextBox4.Text
S.TheDate = AddSale.TextBox5.Text
S.Flg = True
Return S
End Function
This function uses a dialog called AddSale to read the information of an item. The first
part just clears the text boxes on the form/dialog, and the if statement part shows the
window and tells you if the user canceled the data entry, and the last part fills the
structure from the form and returns the result.
' display the information of the strucutre in the data grid view
Public Sub DisplayArray(ByVal Arr() As SalesStruct, ByVal DGV As DataGridView)
DGV.Rows.Clear()
Dim I As Integer
For I = 0 To Arr.Length - 1
DGV.Rows.Add(Arr(I).Item, Arr(I).Count, Arr(I).Price, Arr(I).Total, Arr(I).TheDate)
Next
End Sub
This part displays the information of the array in a data grid view
' remove an item from array based on item name
Public Sub RemoveItemBasedOnName(ByVal Name As String, ByRef Arr() As SalesStruct, ByRef IC As
Integer)
Dim I As Integer
Dim J As Integer
For I = 0 To Arr.Length - 1
If Name = Arr(I).Item Then
For J = I + 1 To Arr.Length - 1
Arr(J - 1) = Arr(J)
Next
ReDim Preserve Arr(0 To Arr.Length - 2)
IC = IC - 1
Exit Sub
End If
Next
End Sub
This one removes an item based on its name
' save the sales info
Public Sub SaveFile(ByVal FileName As String, ByVal Arr() As SalesStruct)
FileSystem.FileOpen(1, FileName, OpenMode.Output, OpenAccess.Write)
Dim I As Integer
FileSystem.PrintLine(1, Arr.Length)
For I = 0 To Arr.Length - 1
FileSystem.PrintLine(1, Arr(I).Item)
FileSystem.PrintLine(1, Arr(I).Price)
FileSystem.PrintLine(1, Arr(I).TheDate)
FileSystem.PrintLine(1, Arr(I).Total)
Next
FileSystem.FileClose(1)
End Sub
' load the file info
Public Sub LoadFile(ByVal FileName As String, ByRef Arr() As SalesStruct, ByRef IC As Integer)
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FileSystem.FileOpen(1, FileName, OpenMode.Input, OpenAccess.Read)
Dim I As Integer
IC = FileSystem.LineInput(1)
ReDim Arr(0 To IC - 1)
For I = 0 To Arr.Length - 1
Arr(I).Item = FileSystem.LineInput(1)
Arr(I).Price = FileSystem.LineInput(1)
Arr(I).TheDate = FileSystem.LineInput(1)
Arr(I).Total = FileSystem.LineInput(1)
Next
FileSystem.FileClose(1)
End Sub
These two saves and load the information
' get total sum
Public Function GetTotalSales(ByVal Arr() As SalesStruct) As Single
Dim S As Single = 0
Dim I As Integer
For I = 0 To Arr.Length - 1
S += Arr(I).Total
Next
Return S
End Function
This last one finds the total. As you can see there is almost no difference in the code
that is inside the module. It is exactly the same as the code you use in forms. Now if you
open the main form of the application
This one contains a menu strip and a data grid view, with open files dialog and save file
dialog. If you check the code of the form
Private Sub AddToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Handles AddToolStripMenuItem.Click
Dim SR As SalesStruct
SR = General.ReadSalesInfo
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If SR.Flg Then
SalesCount = SalesCount + 1
ReDim Preserve Sales(0 To SalesCount - 1)
Sales(SalesCount - 1) = SR
DisplayArray(Sales, DGV)
End If
End Sub
Private Sub RemoveSaleToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles RemoveSaleToolStripMenuItem.Click
If DGV.SelectedRows.Count = 0 Then
Exit Sub
End If
RemoveItemBasedOnName(DGV.SelectedRows.Item(0).Cells(0).Value, Sales, SalesCount)
DisplayArray(Sales, DGV)
End Sub
Private Sub ExitToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles ExitToolStripMenuItem.Click
End
End Sub
Private Sub SaToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Handles SaToolStripMenuItem.Click
SFD.Filter = "*.txt|*.txt"
If SFD.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Cancel Then
Exit Sub
End If
SaveFile(SFD.FileName, Sales)
End Sub
Private Sub LoadToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles LoadToolStripMenuItem.Click
If OFD.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Cancel Then
Exit Sub
End If
LoadFile(OFD.FileName, Sales, SalesCount)
DisplayArray(Sales, DGV)
End Sub
Private Sub FindTotalToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles FindTotalToolStripMenuItem.Click
MsgBox("the total sales:" & GetTotalSales(Sales).ToString)
End Sub
You can see the code is much smaller here, because it is just a call to the code in the
module. In fact later on if you want to modify the user interface, the code of the
module is not affected. Also since the code is much smaller, it is easier for other
programmers to understand you code and update it.
So to sum things up, modules:
1- Are vb files
2- Used to store functions/subroutines, and other vb coding
3- Makes your program easier to maintin
4- Makes your program easier to understand
5- You can use/not use them, it is up to you
6- You can use any number of modules in a vb project
7- Make it easy to port your code to another application
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8- Helps you isolate the interface design from program logic.
So this is all for today. If you need the source file, you can get it from the web site. If you
have notes about this tutorial, email me at: [email protected].
Thanks.
mkaatr
