Continuing education with Visual Basic 9

Question

I am completely new to programming and starting my education with visual basic 9 and SQL. I have read Visual Basic, in easy steps, 2nd edition by Mike Mcgrath. Although it was very easy to understand, it only gave me an introduction to learning VB. I'm looking for something more in depth, albeit for a beginner.

I've read through the questions with a VB and book tag. Unfortunately, most of what I've found here references VB 6 and VB 8. Any recommendations? I cannot afford to create a library or college at the moment. So, I need to make sure that what I do buy counts. Thanks for any suggestions!

Answer 1

You should not solely have to look at buying books, There are PLENTY online tutorials available, for any direction you wish to move in

GOOGLE : VB Tutorials

Answer 2

I have bought and own several VB books but the two that I think made the most difference in my learning was Visual Basic 2005 for Dummies, which I think is the next step up for the VB Step by Step book you mentioned and then Doing Objects with VB 2005 (I could only post one link so Google this one for more info), which will get you up to speed on OOP principles in VB plus much more including a sample project then can be used as a "framework" for future applications.

The combination of those two should give you enough knowledge to start building your own applications, which, at least for me, is the best way to learn something new. Also don't worry about the two books using the 2005 version of Visual Studio. The concepts and code samples are still relevant to 2008 and should be to 2010 also.

Answer 3

long time ago when i was learning vb i used to like a site called planet source code this site provides source of programs made by others in many language including vb.net

off course learning from books is a must but sometimes you like to see some examples also you can post your code for others to rate which gives you motivation to learn more..

also if you learn the basics of vb you can grasp the new changes in vb.net 9 easily

Answer 4

For beginners, sample code is a great way to learn. Go through the samples and see how they do things, get used to the language and how it all connects together.

Once you are used to the idea, and start tinkering with your own code, SO is a great place to find answers!

MSDN has the language and framework references, very useful. Check the Library and Learn tabs.

Update - Another site I also recommend for tutorials and articles The Code Project, and for Q&A Bytes.com. Dreamincode has tutorials as well.