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The Latest

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Java Applications and the “Current Directory”

A recurring question in the Sun Java Forum groups is, “How do Ichange the current directory of my Java application?” The correct answer is that you don’t! Java applications don’t

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Keep HTML Totally Separate From Java Code

I have been working on Java Servlets and HTML for quite a long time and have always had a problem keeping HTML code separate from Java code, but now I’ve

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Remove Unused Controls From Projects

If you usually load many controls into your VB project during development, you often have controls loaded that aren’t used any more by the time the project’s finished. If the

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Multiply Conditions for Boolean Result

You often have to test for multiple conditions when enabling a confirmation button or other control that commits user input. Instead of using complex If…ElseIf statements or inline If functions,

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Save Forms’ Size and Location at Run Time

You’ve noticed how some apps display forms and toolboxes in the same location and size as when you last closed them. Here’s some simple code that gives your VB app

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Use an Easier Autohighlight Method

Most of us have a routine we call to autohighlight the entire contents of a textbox when it receives focus. And most of us type the name of the textbox

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Test for Illegal Characters

Use this fast function to test for the occurrence of nonalphanumeric characters in a string: Private Declare Function StrSpn Lib “SHLWAPI” Alias _ “StrSpnW” (ByVal psz As Long, ByVal pszSet

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Turn a Textbox or Label Into a Marquee

Sometimes you need to display information longer than the biggest textbox or label control you can have onscreen. I’ve written a routine that displays a textbox’s or label’s contents in

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Format Names Consistently

People’s names come in many separate parts, some of which might not be present or known. The hassle begins when you’re dealing with a storage system?database or otherwise?where the parts

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Wrap I/O for Text Files

In a production application, every time you want to access a file for reading or writing, you must retrieve a free handle using the FreeFile() function to ensure you don’t

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Create a Safer Mid Function

If you often write complex string-parsing and manipulation algorithms, the last thing you want is to add more checks to ensure your string positions are not negative. Avoid the hassle

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Account for Taskbars When Centering Forms

Most VB programmers must display a form centered on a screen. You can do this in a variety of ways, but most ignore aspects of the environment such as the

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Enhance the Replace Function

If you’re faced with a string that needs to have certain characters removed from it, use the Replace() function to make the problem more manageable. For instance, use this code

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Write an IsTime Function

Use this function to determine whether a string represents a valid time: Public Function IsTime(sTimeArg As String) As Boolean IsTime = IsDate(Format(Date, “short date”) & _ ” ” & sTimeArg)End

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Use Screen-Saver Passwords

When you write a screen saver in C and the Windows SDK, a static library (SCRNSAVE.lib) allows you to create custom dialogs to change and request the password. But in

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Enhance the Trim Function

The Trim function has a serious shortcoming: It handles only space characters?not all the usual white spaces such as tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds. Instead of the standard Trim

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Query Objects for Initialization State

In a large app, or even a small one, you can use Property Let and Property Get to make sure necessary variables and subsystems are initialized. This code is from

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Functions Parse Command Lines

Handling multiple command-line arguments has always been ugly in VB, especially when some of the arguments are quoted because they contain characters such as spaces. For example, if you want

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Position and Size Controls Using Keyboard

You can move controls using Ctrl with the arrow keys, and you can change control size using Shift with the arrow keys. The controls move or resize according to the

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Use TreeView Control With Checkboxes

When the NodeCheck event triggers, you receive as a parameter the node that was checked. Say you need to do some validation and uncheck the node when there’s an error.

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Treat a Form Like a Function

Some forms are merely dialog boxes that show something to the user and sometimes get something in return. For example, you might have to create a form that displays a

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Julian (Ordinal) Date

Question: Is there an easy function to get the Julian (Ordinal) date of a date? For example 015 from 01/15/2000. Answer: Try subtracting December 31st of the previous year from

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Netscape Does Not Support VBScript

Question: I recently rewrote my entire Web site using frames and VBScript to load the appropriate pages into the proper frame. My Web site looked fine in Internet Explorer, but

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Assign Zero or NULL to a Pointer

Question: To initialize a pointer after deleting it, should I assign a NULL to it or zero? Are they the same in C++? I know strictly speaking, I should assign

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Visual Basic 6.0 Versus Visual InterDev 6.0

Question: How does Web development with Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual InterDev 6.0 differ? Which tool is better for Web development and why? Answer: Both products can help you arrive

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Which Scripting Language Should We Use?

Question: We are in the process of putting up two service portals, which may have business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. We are confused as to which scripting language we should use. We

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Pass Strings Using URLEncode

A question I seem to answer a lot comes from people trying to pass information through a query string. While Internet Explorer seems to be more forgiving and allows most

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Recommended Books on Cross-Browser DHTML

Question: Can you recommend a book on writing cross-browser DHTML? Answer: What book you should get depends on where you are now. If you’ve never touched JavaScript before, I recommend