Often times when writing a Visual Basic application we need to display boring data in a more appealing way. This is where charts come in handy. This tutorial explains how you can create charts from within VB6. It specifically shows how to create animated charts using a third part control called FusionCharts.
Want to get a hold of Visual Basic 6.0? Do you have a program written in VB that you wish to run but don't have the VB6 runtime any longer? Have an older program and want to get it running on the latest OS. Read this article for information about downloading VB6 and other VB components.
Club Penguin is a sweet site where you can make your own fun trainers. This tutorial shows you how to do so in Visual Basic.
You will find times that you need to interact with other programs code through DLLs. These can be DLLs written by yourself or others. The most common time you do this is with the Windows API. This tutorial explains how you can convert C style strings like the Win32 API uses into VB strings.
This VB6 tutorial teaches you how you can use Visual Basic coupled with the Win32 API to activate the main window of a program that is running. Very useful if you want to check if a program is running or if you want to bring another program to the forefront.
When designing a program you will want to think through what standards you should use for yourself and your end users. This VB6 tutorial guides you through how to do this.
Developing a standard naming convention for all your Visual Basic objects and variables will make your code easier to understand and update down the road. This VB6 tutorial walks you through the best way of doing this.
Properly documenting your Visual Basic code will not only help you later as you make changes but it is also something that any professional developer must have a full grasp on.
When creating complex database applications in Visual Basic it is very helpful if you use a standard naming convention for your database objects. This might seem trivial but in the long run will save you development time down the road.
Microsoft Access allows you to create, retrieve, and manipulate data using the SQL language. This tutorial explains all the main ways you will want to use this SQL language within your Visual Basic application or other programs.
Microsoft Access is a great database application that is easy to interface into from within Visual Basic. A key thing you might want to learn is how to implement the proper security for your database.
Microsoft Access is a very useful and effective database application. It uses the Microsoft JET database back end and your Visual Basic applications can easily interact with it.
Microsoft has a great database back end called JET. It is most known because the program called Microsoft Access uses it. You can also use this same database in your Visual Basic applications. This VB6 tutorial explains how.
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize! This is how you can create the best, fastest, most user friendly apps. In this tutorial you learn what the optimum way to do database development is.
As you begin to program more advanced programs that store data in databases you will need to understand how to layout the database in the most efficient way. This will allow you to create Visual Basic applications that run as quickly as possible.
Database development is very confusing if you don't understand how databases work and what the heck you are supposed to do with them. This article teaches you exactly what you need to know to get started with databases.
The Win32 API is a bit complex but very powerful. This tutorial shows you how to easily use the Windows API in a simple way. It explains the safety steps you need to take and how to write excellent API code.
Understanding how variables work is very important. Learn how Visual Basic handles scope and duration with this tutorial.
Visual Basic is a great language that can be used to create full featured applications. Learn how to optimize your code to create faster, more efficient, and user friendly applications.
Errors happen. This is how programming works. Your goal is to handle runtime errors in a graceful way. At times this means simply displaying them to the end user in a pretty way. Other times you have to handle them yourself. Learn how with this Visual Basic tutorial.
Visual Basic allows you to easily create event driven applications. Depending on your background this might be very new for you to understand. This tutorial shows you exactly how to begin as an event driven programmer.
There are many versions of Visual Basic to choose from. How do you decide which version to use? This guide will help you make this decision.
Visual Basic comes with a bunch of help files. These are great for reference, but they can also be used by the beginner to see samples and to begin learning. Learn the best way to go about this.
Some good advice as you start to learn Visual Basic, this tutorial introduces the VB6 IDE and helps the beginner think through how to start tackling this great programming language.
The PlaySound API is a simple and very useful function that allows you to play any WAV file from within your Visual Basic application. This includes playing built in Windows sounds that are set through the control panel.
You can use the Windows API to move the mouse cursor around the screen. Learn how with this VB6 tutorial.
Visual Basic has a built in Shell command however it is very limited. This tutorial describes how you can use the Windows API functions to create a "Super Shell". This will allow you have more advanced program launching abilities.
Sub classing in Visual Basic is a very powerful concept. However, it fails when you try to implement it from within an ActiveX control. Learn how you can handle window sub classing from withing your active x controls with this tutorial.
When interfacing with the Windows API from within Visual Basic you many times get return values that are made up of complex data types. C has built in functions to handle these but you need to write your own in VB6. Learn how with this Visual Basic tutorial.
The Scroll Mouse (or intelli-mouse) has been around for a long time. Sometimes you might want to catch the scroll events in your application. You can do this with Windows API calls. Learn how in this VB6 tutorial.
WAV format is a very common format for sound files. You can not get all the information you might want directly using Visual Basic built in commands. However, by utilizing a few Windows API calls. This tutorial shows you how you can get extended WAV info such as the bit level and format.
We can interface with Oracle databases very easily from within Visual Basic. However, it is slightly different from how we normally use ADO with a SQL database. This tutorial shows you how to still use ADO but in a way that it will work with and Oracle back end.
You knew you could create database apps with VB6 but this tutorial walks you through how you can create a Visual Basic Screen Saver. The sky is the limit once you learn how to do this.
Subroutines and functions allow you to break your program up into smaller and more manageable chunks. You will use both of these many times when you develop VB applications you must learn them well.
There is only one very important time to use the GoTo statement in error handling. You almost never need to use the GoSub function but this tutorial explains it in case you see it in other peoples code.
Many times when programming you will need to join strings together or a string with some other data type such as a currency or a number. This tutorial explains how to properly do this in Visual Basic 6 using the & (ampersand) or plus operator.
VB's arithmetic operators allow you to actually do things with numbers. You have all the basics (like you'd find on your calculator) plus many more advanced operators at your disposal.
In VB assignments are very easy to use. However, this tutorial explains all the details of what VB does when you use the simple = statement and gives examples of valid and invalid assignments.
Constants in Visual Basic are like variables that you define right away and can never change. Static variables are variables that maintain their value even when they go out of scope. This VB tutorial explains both.
User Defined Types allow you to define your own structures in Visual Basic. Many programming languages allow you to do this and it is very handy when you want to make up a structure to fit your program.
Variables can be declared in different scopes so that they can be accessed from within different areas of a program. Once you start creating applications that have any complexity you must understand variable scope.
Variables store data. This is the same in every programming language. Visual Basic has many different variable types to store different types of data. Learn how to use them in this tutorial.
A VB project is made up of many different files that each have a different purpose. Data in files have a defined scope that dictates what other parts of the program can access the data. This VB tutorial explains how all of this works.
This is a beginner tutorial that explains what the Visual Basic 6 IDE looks like and how you can use it effectively as you begin developing full fledged VB6 applications.
This VB tutorial helps a beginner understand what a project is and how it works in VB. It also gives some basic examples on how to use and format controls in your Visual Basic applications.
This is another program that says hello to the world. However, it uses a few more controls and says hello in a bit of a fancier way. Learn how to write a simple VB6 app using command buttons and label controls with this VB tutorial.
Learn how to use the Visual Basic environment to run, save, and reopen a project you are working on. This covers some of the "Visual Basics" you will need to know if you want to ever develop full applications in VB6.
The common dialog control allows you to do exactly what you would expect: use common dialogs with in your Visual Basic application. This allows you to use things like the print dialog box, file save and open dialog box, the color selector, and font selector dialog boxes. With this simple control you can display all the common dialogs your used to on a windows system.
Toolbars allow you to provide a simple and effective way to present users with access to different functions within your application you develop. Visual Basic makes it easy for you to add tool bars to your VB6 application. Check out this tutorial to learn exactly how to add this great future to your next program.
This tutorial explains how you can work with Menus in Visual Basic. It covers both normal (on the top) menus and pop-up menus (that "popup" when you right click). You will use both these types of menu's in almost any Visual Basic application you develop.
You've probably used Drag and Drop in other windows applications. Its a useful feature and it adds a bit of flair to any application you develop. Learn how to use Drag and Drop in this Visual Basic tutorial.
Many times within your Visual Basic application you will need to implement your own scroll bars for selection or to display different pieces of a larger graphic or document. Many controls have scroll bars built in but when you are handling things yourself you can learn how with this VB6 tutorial.
Learn how to use the DriveListBox, DirListBox, and FileListBox to interact with the Windows file system from within your own VB6 environment. This VB tutorial teaches you how to create a file browser and viewer from within Visual Basic.
Visual Basic combo boxes are like list boxes but they allow you to have a drop down list and/or be able to type in your own list items instead of only selecting one of the current items. This VB6 combo box tutorial teaches you everything you need to know to use combo boxes in your Visual Basic application.
Control Break concepts allow you to break apart and display fields from a sorted sequential file. In this Visual Basic tutorial you learn how this can be used to generate your own reports from a database or your own file format. This is especially useful if you don't want to use some other report generator (like Crystal reports).
The VB6 File System Object (FSO) allows you to do many things that aren't built into the normal VB commands. With the FSO you can do all sorts of file and folder manipulation, querying, reading, writing, and many many other things.
Visual Basic has many built in functions that allow you to manipulate files, directories, and other file system properties. This VB tutorial shows how you can use these functions to manipulate and change Window's file system objects.
Random Access files allow you to read from a specified area of the file with out having to read everything before it. This works great if you want to read the 50th record of your data with out reading all 49 records before it. Check out how to do this in this Random Access VB tutorial.
If a file doesn't have a standard text format you will need to read and write to it using VB's binary functions. This works well for files such as pictures, zip files, exe's, and other resource files that aren't just text. Learn how to manipulate binary files in this VB6 tutorial.
Many times you need to write data from your VB application to a file. This tutorial explains how you can use the Write # and Print # commands to write out your variables into a sequential file.
COBOL is a classic programing language that many people have used. Even if you don't ever write any COBOL programs yourself you might very well have to work with data that was produced by a COBOL program written in the past. This VB6 tutorial explains how you can interact with these ancient COBOL files within Visual Basic.
Many times you need to read a file that has each field a fixed width. This can be used to keep track of data (like a poor mans database) or if you are reading in a file that a different program printed out.
Once you start learning how to create even slightly complex VB programs you will inevitably need to implement some basic error handling. This allows you to capture errors and handle them in a graceful way instead of having your fancy Visual Basic application crash and burn.
Many times, when programming, you need to know how to sort a bunch of items. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use an array and some of the built in VB6 functions. This Visual Basic tutorial shows you exactly how to do this!
This VB6 tutorial explains how you can easily search an array in Visual Basic. It gives examples of both serial (or linear) searches and binary searches.
This VB6 tutorial demonstrates how you can pass arrays to functions, how User Defined Type (UDT) arrays work, and how variant arrays work. It is a little more advanced then the beginner tutorial but is still very easy to follow.
Many times you want your VB6 application to interact with other dlls and applications. This can occur if you want to use one of the functions that Microsoft wrote in their Windows API Dlls or if you want to call a function written in a different language such as c or c++. To do this you need to understand how VB6 handles API's this VB tutorial explains how.
The VB6 IDE is very easy and effective to use but sometimes you want to customize it to fit your own needs this tutorial shows you how.
Arrays are used to hold collections of data. They are like variables but slightly different. This Visual Basic Tutorial explains how to use them.
This VB tutorial builds off the last and demonstrates how you can create more advanced PDF files. It teaches you how to create a multi-page document, with page headers, footers, page numbers, shapes, and images.
Creating PDF documents in Visual Basic has always been a difficult task. Many times people have to purchase controls to do it for them. Not with this Visual Basic tutorial. PDF documents can be created in a snap using the mjwPDF class. This is the first in a series of tutorials. It covers the creation of a basic PDF document.
When writing a program you will often need to do something repeatedly. Visual Basic makes this very easy using different kinds of loops. This tutorial focuses on VB6's Do, While, and For loops.
Selection statements in VB6 allow you to branch based on conditions. Use the Visual Basic if, else, and select statements.
Understanding conditional statements are a necessity if you are going to write any sort of real world applications. This tutorial walks you through it.
Learn how to use VB6 to convert numbers that are in different bases. For example convert a decimal to a hexadecimal or to octal.
This tutorial shows you how to use the Visual Basic Math, Financial, and Boolean functions. It has examples for Abs, Atn, Cos, Exp, Fix, Int, Log, Round, Rnd, Sgn, Sin, Sqr, and Tan VB6 functions.
Many times in a VB6 program you will need to convert data between variables of different data types such as converting an integer to a string or a string to a date variable. Learn how to do this in this Visual Basic data conversion tutorial.
Compare dates in Visual Basic with the built in DateDiff function. This VB6 tutorial explains how to use this valuable function.
Visual Basic 6 has many Date and Time functions to help in development. Learn how to use the VB6 DateAdd function using this tutorial.
Learn how to use the time and date functions in Visual Basic. This VB6 tutorial introduces you to the basics of these functions.
Visual Basic has a few built in string array functions including Split, Join, and Filter. This VB tutorial explains how to use them.
This tutorial explains all the main vb6 string functions that allow you to manipulate strings including the Len, Mid, Left, Right, UCase, LCase, Instr, InstrRev, String, Space, Replace, StrReverse, LTrim, RTrim, Trim, Asc, Chr, and the ASCII table. This Visual Basic tutorial should meet all your needs.
This Visual Basic Tutorial explains how you can format Numbers, Currency, and percents using VB6 Format functions.
By nesting the VB6 Format function inside of itself we are able to format some pretty amazing strings. Check out this Visual Basic Tutorial to see how.
The Visual Basic 6 Format function can be used to format some very advanced data. This tutorial explains how to use Multi Formats to do this.
Custom string formatting can be accomplished in Visual Basic using specific characters recognized by the Format function. This VB6 tutorial explains how.
This VB6 tutorial explains how you can format dates and times using the Visual Basic format command.
The VB6 Format function can be used to format numeric, date, time, and string data. This Visual Basic tutorial explains exactly how this can be done using Custom Numeric Formats.
The VB6 Format function can be used to format numeric, date, time, and string data. This Visual Basic tutorial explains exactly how this can be done using Named Formats.
Sometimes you just need to print some data out to an hard copy from your VB6 program. This Visual Basic Tutorial shows you exactly how using the print object.
The PrintForm method sends an image of the current form to the default printer. This Visual Basic tutorials shows you how you can use this method to print a VB6 form.
This Visual Basic tutorial explains everything you need to know about displaying a message box using the VB6 MsgBox command.
This vb6 tutorial explains in detail how you can use print method along with the space function to format a clean print onto forms or into Visual Basic picture boxes.
The Visual Basic print method can be used to print information onto forms or into picture boxes. This tutorial shows you how to print with the tab() function.
The Visual Basic print method can be used to print information onto forms or into picture boxes. This tutorial shows you how using a comma for a separator.
The Visual Basic print method can be used to print information onto forms or into picture boxes. This tutorial shows you how using a semicolon separator.
The clear screen method has existed and been used since the first BASIC language. Visual Basic still has it in its commands and you can use it to clear a VB6 form or picture box.
The Visual Basic InputBox is an easy and much used way to get input from a user in VB6. This tutorial shows you how you can use the InputBox effectively.
Follow this tutorial to create a test harness for any sample VB6 programs you want to try out. Many other tutorials on this site use this test harness.
This tutorial explains in detail how you can open text files in different formats and read them into your Visual Basic program.
Learn how you can compile your VB6 code into a stand alone executable program. You can then distribute it to other computers.
Learn how to use ADO along with stored procedures in this VB6 tutorial. It shows examples using an access database, SQL database, and oracle database.
Learn everything about the Listbox control. From simple to advanced to very advanced things you can do with this neat control.
This tutorial creates a complete program that uses forms, timers, check boxes, radio options, and other basic controls to make a fractional math game.
Check boxes are used many times in programming for settings - this shows how they work in Visual Basic 6.
Learn how to use the option buttons aka radio button controls in your Graphical User Interface (GUI).
This explains the very useful feature of control arrays. Control arrays allow you to create controls at runtime.
Learn many different ways to work with images in - such as resizing them, displaying them, using icons, etc.
Learn how you can use multiple forms. This example shows how to display a splash screen to your program before it starts.
The timer control is very useful learn how to use it effectively.
This explains in detail how forms work in Visual Basic. It demonstrates how to create them and handle events.
This shows you how to use the standard Visual Basic controls in your GUI.
This demonstrates how you can use RDO (remote data objects) in Visual Basic to access a database.
Learn how to use Crystal Reports to display a nice report from your database in.
This demonstrates a full working application using nothing but DAO code (no data control) this gives you the advantage of having full control over everything.
See examples of developing database applications using the data control that ships with Visual Basic 6.
This explains in great depth how the SQL language works. It has many examples and uses access databases to demonstrate the SQL syntax.
See how to create a program that reads data using ADO and displays it in a nice ListView control in this VB6 tutorial.
This VB6 tutorial explains how to access a database using ADO in. It uses two different access databases for the backend.
This explains how you can declare and call Windows API functions from within your program.
This tutorial explains the basics to creating a graphical user interface (GUI) in. It focuses in on some simple GUI elements such as MsgBox, InputBox, and the Form.
To break a chunk of code up we use functions and subroutines. Learn how both of these work and when to use them.
This tutorial explains all of the Visual Basic 6 loop commands (the do loop, do-while loop, do-until loop, and for loop) all with code to demonstrate.
This explains exactly how to use conditional if statements. It provides all the ways you can use them and gives detailed examples.
To write any decent program you must have a basic understanding of how variables and types work.
This tutorial explains how you can use the Winsock control to create a server that accepts multiple clients. A lot like how IRC works.
See how easy it is to create a simple chat program. This tutorial explains how to create both the client and server sides of the program using the Winsock control.
Learn all the different data types and objects Visual Basic has to offer. It also explains a standard naming convention that helps keep your code clean.
This tutorial helps the beginner (and even more experienced users) understand a lot of the cool features the VB6 environment has to offer.
Every good game allows you to input your name in a high score board. Learn how we can do that using the GetSettings and SaveSettings VB6 functions.
Have you ever wanted to write your own scripting language? Learn how you can use Dynamic Classes to do just that. You can examine a class at runtime and use it for scripting.
Sometimes we want to use windows resource files to store our resources. Learn how you can store bitmaps, waves, AVI's, icons, strings, etc. in a Windows resource file and access it from your VB program.
Visual Basic stores resource in the forms .frx file. We can do the same things with our custom resources by using property bags.
Windows resource files are sometimes a pain to use. Instead we can store resources in binary format in our own custom resource file using only Visual Basic 6. Than to read the resources you do the same in reverse.
This tutorial explains how to manipulate Bitmaps in VB6. Once you know this you can manipulate pictures, do screen captures, etc.
Binary is sometimes a confusing thing, but if you use binary operators you can store a lot more data in a simple integer. See how this can be used to store properties for game characters.
This Visual Basic 6 tutorial shows how to select objects in a 3D space using Microsoft DirectX 8 - Very useful for any 3D game development.
If you are creating a game that has cutting edge graphics you want to take advantage of every CPU cycle you can. By learning Time Based Modeling you can take full advantage of your computer's FPS.
In a good game we need our enemies to seek after the main character (like pacman and the ghosts) or we need them to flee (like the ghosts when pacman eats a pill).
Games aren't much fun without collisions. Ships collide into astroids little mushrooms collide into mario. We must know how to detect these collisions - and it turns out to be pretty easy.
Many times in a game you want a bunch of objects to move as if they are a flock. It is not too complicated with a little math to make this happen.
Sometimes all you need is some simple encryption so users don't easily see something you don't want them to. Learn how you can do that with the XOR function.
For the beginner it is often hard to understand how conditionals work, but if you see a few examples it makes a lot of sense. You will use these all the time in development.
Have you ever wanted to display your program in the system tray (next to the clock). You can buy a control to do this or you can do it yourself using Windows API calls only.
A fun thing maybe a useful thing. See how in you can call a Windows API function in order to tell Windows to start the default screen saver.
The FlashWindow Win32 API call allows you to do some fun things. This tutorial shows you how to declare and call it from your app.
You will use variables all the time. Why not learn how to declare and use them properly.
Create your first working application that says "Hello, World!". A standard in all programming environments.
Many times you want to add menus at runtime based off of config files or other info. Learn how to do that simply by using menu control arrays.
Learn how to create a full working application that mimics a cellphone keypad. We do this with control arrays and a timer.
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