devxlogo

We are an award-winning tech entrepreneurship website where trusted experts can provide value globally.

Since 1998, DevX has helped people start businesses, build websites, and provide enterprise technology to people globally. Interviewing the likes of Microsoft’s co-founder, Steve Ballmer, the publication brings comprehensive, reliable, and accessible insights to the Internet.

devxlogo

Trusted for 26 years

Over 30K Articles

1M+ Readers

Expert-reviewed

10K+ Tech Terms

As seen in:

microsoft logo
business_insider_logo
wired_logo
berkley
arstechnica_logo
hackernoon

The Latest

N.T. 4 Conversion

Question: Is there a painless way of converting a Novell 4.1 server to N.T. 4 without just performing a total rebuild? There are no applications running from the server but

OLE Commands for Powerbuilder to Word/Excel

Question: I was wondering if there is a list available somewhere of all the commands with their syntax for OLE? I want to manipulate Word and Excel from inside Powerbuilder

Accessing 2 or More Databases

Question: How do I access more than one database (e.g., Oracle and Access) via a Powerbuilder application? I currently have ODBC drivers for both databases, but cannot access the required

NT Scheduling

Question: How do I schedule to run my Exe automatically?When I schedule it, the exe does not run. Answer: First, for Command Scheduler to work consistently, the Schedule service must

Counting Time

Question: How can I count how long an application is used? Answer: You can use two time variables for this. Use the first variable to record the start time, then

PowerBuilder 6.5 and MS Word 97 Example

Question: Do you have any examples of calling MS Word Visual Basic to open, modify, print and close a document (i.e., calling macros, inserting tables)? Answer: Here is an example

Running NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 4

Question: I have a question about running NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 4. On start-up, I’m getting an error in my event log: Source: Server Control Manager, EventID 7023,

Use the Intern Method to Achieve String Equality

String comparison doesn’t work for variables. In fact, only variables referencing the same string will work. The String class has an intern method, which lets you compare two variables. This

Compound member attributes

The Procedure Attributes dialog includes a Procedure ID combo box, that lets you associate a particular ID to a given member of the class. You usually use this combo to

Retrieve the currency symbol

It is very simple to retrieve the correct currency symbol, using just plain VBA statements: currSymbol = Trim$(Replace(FormatCurrency(0,0), “0”, “”)) If you can also determine if the symbol precedes or

Never mix SingleUse and MultiUse classes

ActiveX components written in VB can contain both SingleUse and MultiUse classes at the same time. It usually isn’t a good idea to use both types of classes in the

Caveats of the CopyMemory API function

Here’s the correct declaration of the CopyMemory API function, which is so useful whenever you want to move a block of bytes between two memory locations: Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib

Always ensure that a printer is installed

Many developers incorrectly assume that a printer is always installed on their customers’ machines, and therefore omit to check that this is actually the case. The following function, deceiptively trivial,

Retrieving Bitmap properties

The Picture box control does not directly expose any property that returns information on the bitmap currently loaded. You can retrieve this information by calling the GetObject API function, passing

ShowPrinterProperties – Display printer’s Properties dialog

Private Declare Function PrinterProperties Lib “winspool.drv” (ByVal hwnd As _ Long, ByVal hPrinter As Long) As LongPrivate Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib “winspool.drv” Alias “OpenPrinterA” _ (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter

Tricks with LCase and UCase

There are a few tricks that you can do with LCase$ and UCase$ functions. I doubt you will be using this tip in all your applications, but here they are

GetFileExtension – The extension in a filename

‘ Return the extension of a file nameFunction GetFileExtension(ByVal FileName As String) As String Dim i As Long For i = Len(FileName) To 1 Step -1 Select Case Mid$(FileName, i,

Dragging caption-less forms

The standard way to move a captionless form is to execute some tricky code from within the MouseDown event procedure. More advanced VB developers can reach the same result by

MakeFileName – Create a file name out of its parts

‘ Make a complete file name by assemblying its individual parts’ if Extension isn’t omitted, it overwrites any extension held in BaseNameFunction MakeFileName(Drive As String, Path As String, BaseName As

Prevent IE5 AutoComplete on Your Forms

One of Internet Explorer 5.0’s new features is AutoComplete. If turned on by the user (it’s off by default) it helps users fill in the frequently used fields–like username, first

Duplicates in a Swing ComboBox

Swing’s JComboBox can be used to present a drop-down list, perhaps of status reports from a process, requiring minimal screen space until the user wishes to see the details. But

Determine Transaction Isolation Levels

When architecting a client-server or n-tier application, you should decide on a particular locking technique and accordingly the transaction isolation level and concurrency control strategy for database transactions. This decision

Don’t Forget That Mouse Pointer

If you turn the mouse pointer into an hourglass (and back to normal) in a routine with error handling, don’t forget to turn the mouse pointer back to normal in