Programming with Microsoft

Visual Basic 2012

Chapter 10: Structures and Sequential Access Files
Previewing the CD Collection Application
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Figure 10-1 CD information added to the list box
Figure 10-2 Contents of the CDs.txt file
CD Collection application
Keeps track of a persons
CD collection
Saves each CDs name,
artists name, and price
Uses a sequential access
file named CDs.txt
Can add information to or
remove information from
a file
Lesson A Objectives
After studying Lesson A, you should be able to:
Create a structure
Declare and use a structure variable
Pass a structure variable to a procedure
Create an array of structure variables
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Structure statement
Enables you to create your own data types
Used to group related items of different data types into
one unit
Typically appears in a forms Declaration section
Structure (or user-defined data type)
A data type created with the Structure statement
Member variables
Variables, constants, or procedures declared within the
structure declaration



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Structures
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Structures (cont.)
Figure 10-3 Syntax and an example of the Structure statement
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Declaring and Using a Structure
Variable
Structure variables
Declared using the structure data type
Example: Dim hourly As Employee
hourly is a variable declared with the Employee structure type
To access the member variable in code, use
structureVariableName.memberVariableName
Example: hourly.dblPay = 26
Member variables are used like scalar variables
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Declaring and Using a Structure
Variable (cont.)
Figure 10-5 Examples of
using a member variable
Figure 10-4 Syntax
and examples of
declaring a structure
variable
Application for the sales manager at Norbert Pool
& Spa Depot
Allows the user to enter the length, width, and depth
Calculates the gallons of water needed to fill a pool
Advantages of using a structure to group
dimensions:
Three inputs are stored in one structure variable
You pass a single structure variable to a procedure
instead of three scalar variables
Your code is structured in a more readable form



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Passing a Structure Variable to a
Procedure
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Passing a Structure Variable to a
Procedure (cont.)
Figure 10-7 Code for the Norbert Pool & Spa Depot application (without a structure)
Figure 10-6 Interface
showing the required
number of gallons
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Passing a Structure Variable to a
Procedure (cont.)
Figure 10-8 Code for the Norbert Pool & Spa Depot application (with a structure)
Three ways to manage pairs of ID-price data:
Two parallel one-dimensional arrays
One two-dimensional array (tabular format)
A one-dimensional array of structure variables
Each structure variable will contain:
A String variable for the ID
An Integer variable for the price


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Creating an Array of Structure
Variables
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Creating an Array of Structure
Variables (cont.)
Figure 10-10 Interface for the Treasures Gift Shoppe application
Figure 10-9 Problem specification for the Treasures
Gift Shoppe
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Creating an Array of Structure
Variables (cont.)
Figure 10-11 Code for the
Treasures Gift Shoppe
application (without a structure)
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Creating an Array of Structure
Variables (cont.)
Figure 10-12 Syntax and examples of referring to member variables in an array
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Creating an Array of Structure
Variables (cont.)
Figure 10-13 Code
for the Treasures
Gift Shoppe
application (with a
structure)
Figure 10-14 Interface showing the price for
product ID FE15
Lesson A Summary
To create a structure (user-defined data type):
Use the Structure statement
In most applications, you enter the Structure statement
in the forms Declarations section
To declare a structure variable, use the following
syntax:
{Dim | Private} structureVariableName As structureName
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Lesson A Summary (cont.)
To refer to a member within a structure variable, use the
following syntax:
structureVariableName.memberVariableName
To create an array of structure variables:
Declare the array using the structure as the data type
To refer to a member within a structure variable stored
in an array, use the following syntax:
ArrayName(subscript).memberVariableName
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Lesson B Objectives
After studying Lesson B, you should be able to:
Open and close a sequential access file
Write data to a sequential access file
Read data from a sequential access file
Determine whether a sequential access file exists
Test for the end of a sequential access file
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Sequential Access Files
Reading a file means getting data from a file
Writing to a file means sending data to a file
Output files store application output
An application uses data in input files
Sequential access files
Composed of lines of text that are both read and written
in consecutive order
Also called text files

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Writing Data to a Sequential Access
File
Stream of characters
A sequence of characters
StreamWriter object
Used to write a stream of characters to a sequential
access file
Must declare the StreamWriter variable
The Game Show Contestants application uses the
StreamWriter variable

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Writing Data to a Sequential Access
File (cont.)
Figure 10-17 Syntax and an example of declaring a StreamWriter variable
Figure 10-18 Interface for the Game Show
Contestants application
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Figure 10-19 Syntax and
examples of the CreateText
and AppendText methods
CreateText method
Used to open a new sequential file
AppendText method
Used to open a file that exists and add data to it
Writing Data to a Sequential Access
File (cont.)
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Figure 10-20
Syntax and
examples of
the Write and
WriteLine
methods
Write method
Leaves the cursor at the end of the last character
WriteLine method
Moves the cursor to the next line
Writing Data to a Sequential Access
File (cont.)
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Closing an Output Sequential Access
File
Figure 10-21 Syntax and an example of closing an output sequential access file
Close method
Used to close an output sequential access file
All open files must be closed before being opened again
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Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File
StreamReader object
Used to read data from a sequential access file
Must declare the StreamReader variable
OpenText method
Used to open a sequential access file for input
You can use this method to automatically create a
StreamReader object
Exists method
Used to determine if a file exists
Returns True if a file exists, otherwise False
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Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (cont.)
Figure 10-23
Syntax and an
example of
declaring a
StreamReader
variable
Figure 10-24
Syntax and an
example of the
OpenText
method
Figure 10-25
Syntax and
an example
of the Exists
method
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Figure 10-26 Additional code entered in the procedure
Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (cont.)
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Line
A sequence (stream) of characters followed by the newline
character
ReadLine method
Used to read the contents of a file, one line at a time
Returns the String value containing data in the current line
Returns only data, not including the newline character
Peek method
Determines whether a file contains another character to
read

Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (cont.)
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Figure 10-27
Syntax and an
example of the
ReadLine
method
Figure 10-28
Syntax and an
example of the
Peek method
Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (cont.)
Close method
Used to close input sequential access files
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Closing an Input Sequential Access
File
Figure 10-29 Syntax and an example of closing an input sequential access file
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Closing an Input Sequential Access
File (cont.)
Figure 10-30 Click event
procedures for the
btnWrite and btnRead
controls (continues)
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Figure 10-30 Click event procedures for the btnWrite and btnRead controls
Closing an Input Sequential Access
File (cont.)
(continued)
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Figure 10-32 Nine contestant names listed in the list
box
Figure 10-31 Five contestant names listed in the
Contestants box
Closing an Input Sequential Access
File (cont.)
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Lesson B Summary
To write data to a sequential access file:
Declare a StreamWriter variable and then use either the
CreateText method or the AppendText method to open a
sequential access file
Assign the methods return value to the StreamWriter
variable
Use either the Write method or the WriteLine method to
write the data to the file
Close the file using the Close method
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Lesson B Summary (cont.)
To read data from a sequential access file:
Declare a StreamReader variable
Use the Exists method to determine whether the
sequential access file exists
If the file exists, use the OpenText method to open the
file
Assign the methods return value to the StreamReader
variable
Use the ReadLine and Peek methods to read the data
from the file
Close the file using the Close method
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Lesson B Summary (cont.)
To determine whether a sequential access file exists:
Use the Exists method using the syntax
IO.File.Exists(fileName)
The method returns the Boolean value True if the file exists;
otherwise, it returns the Boolean value False
To determine whether the end of a sequential access file
has been reached:
Use the Peek method using the syntax
streamReaderVariableName.Peek
The method returns the number 1 when the end of the file
has been reached; otherwise, it returns the next character
in the file
Lesson C Objectives
After studying Lesson C, you should be able to:
Add an item to a list box while an application is running
Align columns of information
Remove an item from a list box while an application is
running
Save list box items in a sequential access file
Write records to a sequential access file
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Coding the CD Collection Application
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Figure 10-34 Interface for the CD Collection application
Figure 10-35 TOE chart for the CD Collection application
Figure 10-36 CDs.txt window
Coding the Forms Load Event
Procedure
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Figure 10-37 Pseudocode for the forms Load event procedure
Figure 10-38 Additional comment and code entered in the Load event
procedure
Coding the Forms Load Event
Procedure (cont.)
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Figure 10-39 Contents of the CDs.txt file shown in the list box
Coding the btnAdd_Click Procedure
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Figure 10-40 Pseudocode for the btnAdd_Click procedure
Aligning Columns of Information
PadLeft and PadRight methods
Used to pad strings with characters
These methods can be used to align text in a list box or
text written to a sequential access file
Strings.Space method
Used to include a specific number of space characters in
a string
Syntax: Strings.Space(number)
number is an integer representing the number of spaces
to include
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Aligning Columns of Information (cont.)
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Figure 10-41 Examples of aligning columns of
information
Aligning Columns of Information (cont.)
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Figure 10-42 CD information added to the list box
Coding the btnRemove_Click
Procedure
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Figure 10-43 Pseudocode for the
btnRemove_Click procedure
Figure 10-44 Syntax and examples of the Items collections Remove and RemoveAt methods
Coding the Forms FormClosing Event
Procedure
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Figure 10-45 Pseudocode for the forms FormClosing event procedure
Figure 10-46 CD information saved in the CDs.txt file Figure 10-47 Current contents of the CDs.txt file
Coding the Forms FormClosing Event
Procedure (cont.)
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Figure 10-48 Code for the CD Collection application (continues)
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Figure 10-48 Code for the CD Collection application (continues)
(continued)
Coding the Forms FormClosing Event
Procedure (cont.)
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(continued)
Figure 10-48 Code for the CD Collection application (continues)
Coding the Forms FormClosing Event
Procedure (cont.)
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Figure 10-48 Code for the CD Collection
application
(continued)
Coding the Forms FormClosing Event
Procedure (cont.)
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Lesson C Summary
To align columns of information:
Use the PadLeft and PadRight methods
To align a column of numbers by the decimal point:
Format each number in the column to ensure that each has
the same number of digits to the right of the decimal point,
and then use the PadLeft method to right-align the numbers
To include a specific number of spaces in a string:
Use the Strings.Space method using the syntax
Strings.Space(number) in which number is an integer that
represents the number of spaces to include

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Lesson C Summary
To remove an item from a list box:
Use either the Items collections Remove method or its
RemoveAt method
The Remove methods syntax is object.Items.Remove(item)
where item is the value of the item you want to remove
The RemoveAt methods syntax is
object.Items.RemoveAt(index) where index is the index of
the item you want removed