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The Latest

Changing Date Format

Question: I am having trouble saving dates into an Access 1.1 DateTime field. The aplication I am writing is for the European market, so international dates are a problem as

Using Basic File Input/Output

Question: Do you know of any plans to include basic I/O in VBSCript ? I could make my site a lot more efficient if I could send a text file

Finding the End of a Word

Question: I am new to VB and must learn it by yesterday! I am working with text strings and must figure out how to pull words from a line by

Calculating Elapsed Time

Question: Do you know an algorithm that will give me the elapsed time froma beginning and end date/times (day:hh:mm:ss)? Answer: The DateDiff function, included with VB 3 and 4, will

Using Registry Editing Functions

Question: How do I get VB to edit the registry inruntime? Answer: The easiest way, assuming you’re in VB 4.0 and using Win95, is to use the GetSetting and SaveSetting

Checking for NULL Values

Question: When you read a string from a character field in a snapshot/dynaset you can append a pair of double quotes to protect yourself from “Type mismatch” errors, if the

Deleting Control Code

Question: How do I delete a control AND the corresponding code? Answer: When a control is deleted, the code is listed in the (general) section in the Procedures drop-down list

Detecting Combo Box List Retraction

Question: How would you detect the Retraction of a Combo Box Dropdown List in VB 4.0? I have asolution which claims to work under VB 3.0 andVB 2.0 using the

Copying Controls and Code

Question: Is there a way to easily copy all theevent code for a control from one form to another or even within thesame form. As an example I have a

Executing Programs Stored in Variables

Question: Is it possible to store a MS-DOS pathname in avariable, and run the program at that path withthe shell command? Answer: The Shell command can be given a string

Databound Providing Partial Matching

Question: I’m trying to create a DBCombo function on a form which operates similar to MS Access’s ComboBox. As the user types in an entry, character by character, the DBCombo’s

Printing to MS-DOS Window

Question: I would like to create a module that has no visual objects. It just prints to a MS-DOS window and then exits. Is this possible? Answer: Unfortunately, the only

Saving a Picture to Disk

Question: I am able to use the API call ExtractIcon to get an icon from a .VBX, .EXE, or .DLL. I can put the icon in a Picture Control, but

Changing RecordSource at Runtime

Question: At runtime, how do I change the query that I’m using with my data controls to be one a user selected? I don’t want to keep the same name

Accessing Properties

Question: How do you access a Public Property in a class module from an in-project module? For example:In a new project create one class module; “Class1” and one bas module;

Incompatible Version Errors

Question: I know that there is a fix needed in order to use VB 3.0 and Microsoft Access 2.0. I have downloaded the file COMLYR.EXE and have run it. I

Simulating Click Event

Question: How can I have a combo box “combo1” execute another combo boxs “combo2” procedure click ? Answer: Doing this action this way can have some messy side effects. I

Computing Future Value

Question: I am trying to make a financial calculator that will compute Future Value,but I don’t know how to write code for compounded interest. Answer: I believe you want to

Event-Oriented Programming

Question: What’s the meaning of “event oriented programing?” Answer: Basically, it means that you program everything as a response to an event, instead of a topdown program where the ordering

Expanding Functionality

Question: Our firm would like to integrate our Configuration Management tool into VB. I understand some vendors outside of Microsoft have suceeded in adding links to their product via a

Installing all Files Required

Question: I’ve created a small utility. The exe is only 27k, but vb40032.dll, mfc40.dll (for a custom control) and others make the setup zip over 1 meg. Can I leave

Using Tab Control

Question: I have an old DOS-Clipper app that I plan to upgrade to VB. The old app handles insurance claims. To enter a new claim, 4 screens of data are

Misalignment of Columns

Question: I try to align numeric numbers in columns (to be right-justified). Hwvr, some of the numbers don’t right-justify very well. In my example, most of these numbers hve 2

Removing Picture Property

Question: If I apply a picture to a Form’s Picture property, is there a way to clear it out at design time? (Rather than by using LoadPicture “” at run

Locking Box Against Input

Question: I want to disable a text box without having its text dimmed. I know of one way, which is put the controlinto a picture box and disable the picture

Starting Application Through File Manager

Question: What do I have to do to make my application respond to a file-kickstart (double-click)in file-manager? When I select and associate a specific file type with my application it

Determining Exit Method

Question: I am currently experimenting with VB 3.0. In version 1.0 common dialogs provided the information about which button was used to exit from the dialog. I want to know

Highlighting Text

Question: Is there an API function that will highlight a word in a textbox the way the find command does without using the clipboard? Answer: Set the SelStart property of

Creating a Status Bar

Question: How do I put a status bar at the bottom of an MDI parent form like in Word for Windows.Whenever I place a 3d panel on the form it

Playing WAV Files

Question: How can I play WAV or MID files through Visual Basic? Answer: Use the MSMCI.VBX, provided with VB/Win Pro 3.0. You can also declare and call the MM-functions manually:Declare

Using the SecureString Class

NET 2.0’s System.Security namespace includes the SecureString class, which lets you create encrypted strings and delete them from memory when they’re no longer needed. You

Send Emails Through SMTP in .NET

When sending emails via SMTP in .NET, developers seldom check to ensure the SMTP service is installed and running. Here’s some code to perform the

Employing a Winning Porting Strategy

n the recent “Race to Linux 2.0” competition, a .NET programming event hosted by DevX, .NET developers were invited to get ASP.NET applications up and