Visual Basic

Programming

1
Chapter
Object Oriented
10

2
Introduction
◼ Classes
◼ Abstract Data Types

◼ Objects, Properties, Methods

◼ Exceptions
◼ Collections
◼ Object Browser
◼ Scrollable Controls

3
 Classes and Objects

Classes Are Program Structures

That Define Abstract Data Types
and Are Used to Create Objects
4
 Abstract Data Types
• An abstract data type (ADT) is a data type
created by a programmer
• ADTs are important in computer science and
object-oriented programming
• An abstraction is a model of something that
includes only its general characteristics
• Dog is an abstraction
• Defines a general type of animal but not a specific
breed, color, or size
• A dog is like a data type
• A specific dog is an instance of the data type

5
 Classes
• A class is a program structure that defines an
abstract data type
• Must create the class first
• Then can create instances of the class
• Class instances share common attributes
• VB forms and controls are classes
• Each control in the toolbox represents a class
• Placing a button
on a form creates
an instance, or
object, of the class

6
 Class Properties, Methods, &
Events
• Programs communicate with an object using the
properties and methods of the class
• Class properties example: Buttons have Location,
Text, and Name properties
• Class methods example: The Focus method
functions identically for every single button
• Class event procedures: Each button in a form
has a different click event procedure

7
 Object Oriented Design
• The challenge is to design classes that effectively
cooperate and communicate
• Analyze application requirements to determine
ADTs that best implement the specifications
• Classes are fundamental building blocks
• Typically represent nouns of some type
• A well-designed class may outlive the application
• Other uses for the class may be found

8
Object Oriented Design Example
Specifications:
We need to keep a list of students that lets us track the
courses they have completed. Each student has a transcript
that contains all information about his or her completed
courses. At the end of each semester, we will calculate the
grade point average of each student. At times, users will
search for a particular course taken by a student.
• Nouns from the specification above typically
become classes in the program design
• Verbs such as calculate GPA and search become
methods of those classes

9
 OOD Class Characteristics
Class Attributes (properties) Operations (methods)

Student LastName, FirstName, Display, Input

IdNumber

StudentList AllStudents, Count Add, Remove,

FindStudent

Course Semester, Name, Display, Input

Grade,Credits

Transcript CourseList, Count Display, Search,

CalcGradeAvg
10
 Interface and Implementation
• Class interface is the portion of the class visible to
the application programmer
• Made available by creating properties, methods, and
events that are public
• Class implementation is the portion of the class
hidden from client programs
• Kept hidden by designating member variables,
properties, & methods as private
• Hiding of data and procedures inside a class is
referred to as encapsulation

11
 Creating a Class

To Create a Class in Visual Basic,

You Create a Class Declaration
The Class Declaration Specifies the Member
Variables, Properties, Methods, and Events
That Belong to the Class

12
Class Declaration
Public Class Student
MemberDeclarations
End Class

• Student is the name of the class

• Examples of MemberDeclarations
are presented in the following slides
• To create a new class:
• Click Add New Item button on toolbar
• Select Class from Add New Item dialog box
• Provide a name for the class and click Add
• Adds a new, empty class file (.vb) to project

13
 Member Variables
• A variable declared inside a class declaration
• Syntax:
AccessSpecifer VariableName As DataType

• AccessSpecifier may be Public or Private

• Example:
Public Class Student
Public strLastName As String ‘Holds last name
Public strFirstName As String ‘Holds first name
Public strId As String ‘Holds ID number
End Class

14
Creating an Instance of a Class
• A two step process creates an instance of a class
• Declare a variable whose type is the class
Dim freshman As Student

• Create instance of the class with New keyword

and assign the instance to the variable
freshman = New Student()

• freshman defined here as an object variable

• Can accomplish both steps in one statement
Dim freshman As New Student()

15
Accessing Members
• Can work with Public member variables of a
class object in code using this syntax:
objectVariable.memberVariable

• For example:
• If freshman references a Student class object
• And Student class has public member variables
strFirstName, strLastName, and strID
• Can store values in member variables with
freshman.strFirstName = "Joy"
freshman.strLastName = "Robinson"
freshman.strId = "23G794"

16
Property Procedure
• A property procedure is a function that defines a
property
• Controls access to property values
• Procedure has two sections: Get and Set
• Get code executes when value is retrieved
• Set code executes when value is stored
• Properties almost always declared Public to
allow access from outside the class
• Set code often provides data validation logic

17
Property Procedure Syntax
Public Property PropertyName() As DataType
Get
Statements
End Get
Set(ParameterDeclaration)
Statements
End Set
End Property

18
Property Procedure Example
Public Class Student
' Member variables
Private sngTestAvg As Single

Public Property TestAverage() As Single

Get
Return sngTestAvg
End Get

Set(ByVal value As Single)

If value >= 0.0 And value <= 100.0 Then
sngTestAvg = value
Else
MessageBox.Show( _
"Invalid test average.", "Error")
End If
End Set

End Property
End Class 19
Setting and Validating a Property
• TestAverage property is set as shown:
Dim freshman as New Student()
freshman.TestAverage = 82.3

• Passes 82.3 into value parameter of Set

• If in the range 0.0 to 100.0, value is stored
• If outside the range, message box displayed instead of
value being stored
Set(ByVal value As Single)
If value >= 0.0 And value <= 100.0 Then
sngTestAvg = value
Else
MessageBox.Show("Invalid test average.", "Error")
End If
End Set

20
Read-Only Properties
• Useful at times to make a property read-only
• Allows access to property values but cannot
change these values from outside the class
• Add ReadOnly keyword after access specifier
Public ReadOnly Property PropertyName() As DataType
Get
Statements
End Get
End Property
• This causes the propertyName to be read-only --
not settable from outside of the class

21
Read-Only Property Example
' TestGrade property procedure
ReadOnly Property TestGrade() As Char
Get
If sngTestAverage >= 90
return "A“
Else If sngTestAverage >= 80
return "B“
Else If sngTestAverage >= 70
return "C“
Else If sngTestAverage >= 60
return "D“
Else
return "F“
End If
End Get
End Property
22
Class Methods
• In addition to properties, a class may also contain
Sub procedures and functions
• Methods are Sub procedures and functions defined
in a class
• Typically operate on data stored in the class
• The following slide shows a Clear method for the
Student class
• Method called with freshman.Clear()
• Method clears member data in the Student class object
referenced by freshman

23
Clear Method for Student Class
Public Class Student
' Member variables
Private strLastName As String 'Holds last name
Private strFirstName As String 'Holds first name
Private strId As String 'Holds ID number
Private sngTestAvg As Single 'Holds test avg
(...Property procedures omitted...)

' Clear method

Public Sub Clear()
strFirstName = String.Empty
strLastName = String.Empty
strId = String.Empty
sngTestAvg = 0.0
End Sub
End Class
24
Constructors
• A constructor is a method called automatically when
an instance of the class is created
• Think of constructors as initialization routines
• Useful for initializing member variables or
performing other startup operations
• To create a constructor, simply create a Sub
procedure named New within the class
• Next slide shows a Student class constructor
• The statement freshman = New Student()
• Creates an instance of the Student class
• Executes constructor to initialize properties of the
Student object referenced by freshman
25
Constructor Example
Public Class Student
' Member variables
Private strLastName As String 'Holds last name
Private strFirstName As String 'Holds first name
Private strId As String 'Holds ID number
Private sngTestAvg As Single 'Holds test avg

' Constructor
Public Sub New()
strFirstName = "(unknown)"
strLastName = "(unknown)"
strId = "(unknown)"
sngTestAvg = 0.0
End Sub
(The rest of this class is omitted.)
End Class
26
 Introduction to Inheritance

Inheritance Allows a New Class to be

Based on an Existing Class
The New Class Inherits the Accessible Member
Variables, Methods, and Properties of the Class on
Which It Is Based
27
Why Inheritance?
• Inheritance allows new classes to derive their
characteristics from existing classes
• The Student class may have several types of
students such as
• GraduateStudent
• ExchangeStudent
• StudentEmployee
• These can become new classes and share all the
characteristics of the Student class
• Each new class would then add specialized
characteristics that differentiate them
28
Base and Derived Classes
• The Base Class is a general-purpose class that
other classes may be based on
• A Derived Class is based on the base class and
inherits characteristics from it
• Can think of the base class as a parent and the
derived class as a child

29
The Vehicle Class (Base Class)
• Consider a Vehicle class with the following:
• Private variable for number of passengers
• Private variable for miles per gallon
• Public property for number of passengers
(Passengers)
• Public property for miles per gallon
(MilesPerGallon)
• This class holds general data about a vehicle
• Can create more specialized classes from the
Vehicle class

30
The Truck Class (Derived Class)
• Declared as:
Public Class Truck
Inherits Vehicle
' Other new properties
' Additional methods
End Class

• Truck class derived from Vehicle class

• Inherits all non-private methods, properties, and
variables of Vehicle class
• Truck class defines two properties of its own
• MaxCargoWeight – holds top cargo weight
• FourWheelDrive – indicates if truck is 4WD

31
Instantiating the Truck Class
• Instantiated as:
Dim pickUp as New Truck()
pickUp.Passengers = 2
pickUp.MilesPerGallon = 18
pickUp.MaxCargoWeight = 2000
Pickup.FourWheelDrive = True

• Values stored in MaxCargoWeight and

FourWheelDrive properties
• Properties declared explicitly by Truck class
• Values also stored in MilesPerGallon and
Passengers properties
• Properties inherited from Vehicle class
32
Overriding Properties and Methods
• Sometimes a base class property procedure or
method must work differently for a derived class
• Can override base class method or property
• Must write the method or property as desired in the
derived class using same name
• When an object of the derived class accesses the
property or calls the method
• VB uses overridden version in derived class
• Version in base class is not used

33
Property Override Example
• Vehicle class has no restriction on number of
passengers
• But may wish to restrict the Truck class to two
passengers at most
• Can override Vehicle class Passengers property by:
• Coding Passengers property in derived class
• Specify Overridable in base class property
• Specify Overrides in derived class property

34
Overridable Base Class Property
• Overridable keyword added to base class
property procedure
Public Overridable Property Passengers() As Integer
Get
Return intPassengers
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
intPassengers = value
End Set
End Property

35
Overridden Derived Class Property
• Overrides keyword and new logic added to
derived class property procedure
Public Overrides Property Passengers() As Integer
Get
Return MyBase.Passengers
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
If value >= 1 And value <= 2 Then
MyBase.Passengers = value
Else
MessageBox.Show("Passengers must be 1 or 2", _
"Error")
End If
End Set
End Property
36
Overriding Methods
• Overriding a method is similar to a property
• Specify Overridable and Overrides keywords
• An overridable base class method
Public Overridable Sub ProcedureName()

Public Overridable Function ProcedureName() As

DataType

• An overriding derived class method

Public Overrides Sub ProcedureName()

Public Overrides Function ProcedureName() As DataType

37
Overriding the ToString Method

• Every programmer created class is derived from

a built-in class named Object
• Object class has a method named ToString which
returns a fully-qualified class name
• Method can be overridden to return a string
representation of data stored in an object

38
ToString Override Example
• Object class ToString method is Overridable
• Vehicle class might override the ToString method
as shown below
' Overriden ToString method
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
' Return a string representation
' of a vehicle.
Dim str As String

str = "Passengers: " & intPassengers.ToString & _

" MPG: " & sngMPG.ToString
Return str
End Function
39
Protected Members
• In addition to Private and Public, the access
specifier may be Protected
• Protected base class members are treated as public to
classes derived from this base
• Protected base class members are treated as private
to classes not derived from this base

40