Basic Programming Tutorial
Visual Basic
• Open a Microsoft Excel worksheet
• Click on view, then click on macros, and on the pull
down menu select record macros.
• You can give the recorded macro a name, or use the
default name. This far you have set a macro, so:
• Select the view macro option, and then select edit.
• Now you are in the visual basic interface.
Lets start programming
• Piggery population dynamics:
– User inputs:
• number of sows, non-negative numeric values.
• Number of weeks, prediction time, not more than 30 weeks.
– Validation to ensure the inputs are okey.
• Command 1: Option Explicit
– On Optional. Enables Option Explicit checking. If On or Off
is not specified, the default is On.
– Off Optional. Disables Option Explicit checking.
• Understanding and Optimizing Data Types
– In Visual Basic there are 11 different data types.
– These are Boolean, Byte, Currency, Date, Double, Integer,
Long, Object, Single, String, and Variant.
– They each have a specific purpose and using them
correctly will increase your programs performance.
• Boolean
– The Boolean data type has only two states, True and False.
– These types of variables are stored as 16-bit (2 Byte)
numbers, and are usually used for flags.
• Byte,
• The Byte data type is an 8-bit variable which can store value from 0 to
255. This data type is very useful for storing binary data. It can also be
very useful when sending/receiving byte values to/from a Basic Stamp
or PIC.
• Double
• The Double data type is a 64-bit floating point number used when high
accuracy is needed.
• These variables can range from -1.79769313486232e308 to -
4.94065645841247e-324 for negative values and from
4.94065645841247e-324 to 1.79769313486232e308 for positive
values.
• Integer
The Integer data type is a 16-bit number which can range
from -32768 to 32767.
• Integers should be used when you are working with values
that can not contain fractional numbers.
• Long
– The Long data type is a 32-bit number which can range from -
2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
– Long variables can only contain non-fractional integer values.
• Single
The Single data type is a 32-bit number ranging from -
3.402823e38 to -1.401298e-45 for negative values and
from 1.401298e-45 to 3.402823e38 for positive values.
• When you need fractional numbers within this range, this is
the data type to use.
• String
– The String data type is usually used as a variable-length type of
variable.
– A variable-length string can contain up to approximately 2 billion
characters. Each character has a value ranging from 0 to 255
based on the ASCII character set.
– Strings are used when Text is involved.
Microsoft Access
• Database creation and management
– Go to All programs, then click on Microsoft
Office, then select Microsoft access. Select blank
database,
– Select Table design, which gives you “field name,
data type and field properties, etc.
– Data type is crucial, Field size is also crucial
• Data sheet
– Lower left corner on the right.
