Programming with Objects: Using Classes

As you learned in an earlier lesson, Visual Basic programs are built with objects such as forms and controls. Objects can also represent real-world things such as a person, a computer, or even something more abstract such as a bank account.

A class is just a representation of a type of object; think of it as the object's blueprint. Just as a single blueprint can be used to build multiple buildings, a class can be used to create multiple copies of an object.

In the following lessons, you will learn how to use classes in your Visual Basic programs.

• What Is a Class?
  Explains how to use classes to represent objects in your programs.

• Modeling a Real-World Object: Creating Your First Class
  Describes how to create a class by using a Class Library project.

• Adding Properties to a Class
  Describes how to add properties to a class and explains fields, property procedures, and property modifiers.

• Adding Methods to a Class
  Explains how to add methods to a class so that it can perform actions.

• Adding Events to a Class
  Shows how to add events to classes so that you can write code to handle the events.

• Testing a Class
  Shows how to create an instance of a class in order to test it.

• Building a Class from an Existing Class: Using Inheritance
  Describes how to use inheritance to create a class that is based on an existing class.

• Using Collections to Manage Multiple Objects
  Explains how to use a collection to store and retrieve groups of like objects.

• Closer Look: Creating Multiple Versions of the Same Method with Overloading
  Demonstrates how to add multiple versions of a method to your class.

• Closer Look: Overriding Members
  Explains how to override a member of a derived class.

• Closer Look: Using a For Each...Next Loop in a Collection
  Explains how to use a For Each...Next loop to loop through a collection.

• Closer Look: Handling Events
  Shows how to raise an event, create an event handler, and write code to handle events.

• Visual Basic Guided Tour
  The Visual Basic Guided Tour is a series of sequential lessons that introduce you to the basics of programming in Visual Basic.