Lesson 5: Managing Visual Basic Data

There are many types of data that we come across in our daily life. For example, we need to handle data such as names, addresses, money, date, stock quotes, statistics and more everyday. Similarly in Visual Basic, we have to deal with all sorts of  of data, some can be mathematically calculated while some are in the form of text or other forms. VB divides data into different types so that it is easier to manage when we need to write the code involving those data.

 

5.1 Visual Basic Data Types

Visual Basic classifies the information mentioned above into two major data types, they are the numeric data types and the non-numeric data types.

5.1.1 Numeric Data Types

Numeric data types are types of data that consist of numbers, which can be computed mathematically with various standard operators such as add, minus, multiply, divide and more. Examples of numeric data types are examination marks, height, weight, the number of students in a class, share values, price of goods, monthly bills, fees and others.
 In Visual Basic, numeric data are divided into 7 types, depending on the range of values they can store. Calculations that only involve round figures or data that does not need precision can use Integer or Long integer in the computation. Programs that require high precision calculation need to use Single and Double decision data types, they are also called floating point numbers. For currency calculation , you can use the currency data types. Lastly, if even more precision is required to perform calculations that involve a many decimal points, we can use the decimal data types. These data types summarized in Table 5.1

Table 5.1: Numeric Data Types

Type	Storage	Range of Values
Byte	1 byte	0 to 255
Integer	2 bytes	-32,768 to 32,767
Long	4 bytes	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,648
Single	4 bytes	-3.402823E+38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values 1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E+38 for positive values.
Double	8 bytes	-1.79769313486232e+308 to -4.94065645841247E-324 for negative values 4.94065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232e+308 for positive values.
Currency	8 bytes	-922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807
Decimal	12 bytes	+/- 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 if no decimal is use +/- 7.9228162514264337593543950335 (28 decimal places).

5.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types

Nonnumeric data types are data that cannot be manipulated mathematically using standard arithmetic operators. The non-numeric data comprises  text or string data types, the Date data types, the Boolean data types that store only two values (true or false), Object data type and Variant data type .They are summarized in Table 5.2  

 Table 5.2: Nonnumeric Data Types 

Data Type	Storage	Range
String(fixed length)	Length of string	1 to 65,400 characters
String(variable length)	Length + 10 bytes	0 to 2 billion characters
Date	8 bytes	January 1, 100 to December 31, 9999
Boolean	2 bytes	True or False
Object	4 bytes	Any embedded object
Variant(numeric)	16 bytes	Any value as large as Double
Variant(text)	Length+22 bytes	Same as variable-length string

5.1.3 Suffixes for Literals

Literals are values that you assign to data. In some cases, we need to add a suffix behind a literal so that VB can handle the calculation more accurately. For example, we can use num=1.3089# for a Double type data. Some of the suffixes are displayed in Table 5.3. 

                      Table 5.3

Suffix	Data Type
&	Long
!	Single
#	Double
@	Currency

  

In addition, we need to enclose string literals within two quotations and date and time literals within two # sign. Strings can contain any characters, including numbers. The following are few examples:
memberName="Turban, John."
TelNumber="1800-900-888-777"
LastDay=#31-Dec-00#
ExpTime=#12:00 am#

5.2 Managing Variables
Variables are like mail boxes in the post office. The contents of the variables changes every now and then, just like the mail boxes. In term of VB, variables are areas allocated by the computer memory to hold data. Like the mail boxes, each variable must be given a name. To name a variable in Visual Basic, you have to follow a set of rules.
5.2.1 Variable Names
The following are the rules when naming the variables in Visual Basic

• It must be less than 255 characters
• No spacing is allowed
• It must not  begin with a number
• Period is not permitted

Examples of valid and invalid variable names are displayed in Table 5.4

  Table 5.4

Valid Name	Invalid Name
My_Car	My.Car
ThisYear	1NewBoy
Long_Name_Can_beUSE	He&HisFather                  *& is not acceptable

5.2.2 Declaring Variables
In Visual Basic, one needs to declare the variables before using them by assigning names and data types. They are normally declared in the general section of the codes' windows using the Dim statement.
The format  is as follows:
Dim Variable Name As Data Type


Example 5.1
Dim password As String
Dim yourName As String
Dim firstnum As Integer
Dim secondnum As Integer
Dim total As Integer
Dim doDate As Date
 
You may also combine them in one line , separating each variable with a comma, as follows:
Dim password As String,  yourName As String, firstnum As Integer,.............
If data type is not specified, VB will automatically declare the variable as a Variant.
For string declaration, there are two possible formats, one for the variable-length string and another for the fixed-length string. For the variable-length string, just use the same format as example 5.1 above. However, for the fixed-length string, you have to use the format as shown below:
Dim VariableName as String * n, where n defines the number of characters the string can hold.
Example 5.2:
Dim yourName as String * 10
yourName can holds no more than 10 Characters.   
 
5.3 Constants
Constants are different from variables in the sense that their values do not change during the running of the program. 
 
5.3.1 Declaring a Constant
The format to declare a constant is
Const  Constant Name  As Data Type = Value
Example 5.3
Const Pi As Single=3.142
Const Temp As Single=37
Const Score As Single=100    

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