Cross Ref > Language Basics

VB.Net is not case sensitive. If you type any other case for commands or variables, VB.Net will change it to the accepted or defined case. For example, if you type messagebox.show it is converted to MessageBox.Show.

Syntax Example:   The following code works: MessageBox.Show("hello")

Java is case sensitive.

Customary casing:

• Classes - Initial Caps (Pascal Casing)
• Variables - Initial lowecase (Camel case)
• Methods - Initial lowecase (Camel case)

 Camel versus Pascal Casing

VB.Net, like VB Classic code blocks, are surrounded by statement ending keywords that all use End such as End Class, End Sub, End Function, and End If.

Public Class Dog

End Class

Protected Sub MySub

End Sub

Public Shared Function MySharedFunction() As Integer
 MySharedFunction = 12345
End Function 

If x Then

End If

Curly braces are used to bracket code blocks including classes and the methods within a class.

For Java, JavaScript, PHP, and C++, I prefer to put the first { at the end of the first line of the code block as in the example above because I see moreJava codeformatted that way.

public class Dog {

  public bark() {

    System.out.println("Ruff");

  }

}

Commenting Code
VB.Net, like all the VB-based languages, uses a single quote (') or the original class-style basic "REM" (most developers just use a quote). VB.Net does NOT have a multiple line comment.

'Single line comment.
 

REM Old school single line comment.

 VB.Net Comments (' or REM)  

Commenting Code
Java uses "//" for a single line comment and /* */ for a multiple line comment.

//Single line comment in MS (not ANSI compliant so do NOT use).
/* ANSI compliant single line comment. */
/*
Multiple line
comment.

*/

/*

* This is another popular way 

* to write multi-line comments.

*/

In VB.Net, you define constants with the Const keyword.

All constants are part of a class (no global constants) but you can make a constant public and have access to it using ClassName.ConstantName so long as you have added the class to the project. This works even without creating the class as if the public constants were static, but you cannot use the Shared keyword.

Constants must be of an integral type (sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, bool, or string), an enumeration, or a reference to null.

Public Class Convert
  Inherits System.Object

  Public Const kName As String = "Mike"

  Private Const kPI Double = 3.1459

  //Declare two or more on same line too:
  Const kFeetToMeter = 3.2808, kMeterToFeet = 0.3048
End Class

 VB.Net Constants (Const kPI Double = 3.1459)  

A return marks the end of a statement and you cannot combine statements on a single line of code. You can break a single statement into two or more code lines by using a space and underscore " _".

Syntax Example:   Console.WriteLine("Hello1") Console.WriteLine("Hello2") Console.WriteLine("Hello3") 'The following commented code 'on a single line does not work... 'Console.WriteLine("Hello4") Console.WriteLine("Hello5") 'Two or more lines works too with a space+underscore: Console.WriteLine _ "Hello6";

String literals are quoted as in "Prestwood". If you need to embed a quote use two quotes in a row.

To specify a floating point literal between 1 and -1, preceed the decimal with a 0. If you don't, the compiler will auto-correct your code and place a leading 0. It will change .1 to 0.1 automatically. Trailing decimals are not allowed.

Syntax Example:   Console.WriteLine("Hello") Console.WriteLine("Hello ""Mike"".") 'Does VB.Net evaluate this simple 'floating point math correctly? No!  If (.1 + .1 + .1) = 0.3 Then MsgBox "Correct" Else MsgBox "Not correct" End If

String literals are quoted as in "Prestwood". If you need to embed a quote use a slash in front of the quote as in \".

To specify a floating point literal between 1 and -1, you can preceed the decimal with a 0 or not (both work). In other words, preceding and following decimals are allowed (both 1. and 1.0 work as well as .1 and 0.1). In general, Java follows the IEEE 754 Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic standard.

System.out.println("Hello");

System.out.println("Hello \"Mike\".");

//Does Java evaluate this simple

//floating point math correctly? No!

if ((.1 + .1 + .1) == 0.3) {
  System.out.println("Correct");
} else {
  System.out.println("Not correct");
}

 Ref: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp0114/

Variables are case sensitive but VS.Net will auto-fix your variable names to the defined case. You can declare variables in-line wherever you need them and declarative variable assignment is supported.

Syntax Example:   Dim FullName As String Dim Age As Integer Dim Weight As Double FullName = "Mike Prestwood" Age = 32 Weight = 154.4 'Declaritive variable assignment: Dim Married As String = "Y" MsgBox(Married)

Variable names are case sensitive.

The Java basic types are boolean, byte, short, int, long, float, double, and char. You can also declare a variable to hold a particular instance of a class such as String.

int a;

int a, b;

int age = 43;

String FullName;