Visual Basic .NET Data Types and Features

Chapter 4

Visual Basic .NET Data Types and Features

So far we've used a few easy examples to understand how programs are created in Visual Basic .NET. As you've learned, you need to understand concepts such as object-oriented programming up front to work with the code that's generated in Visual Basic .NET—even to display and use a simple form.

Another concept you need to be sure you understand is data types. A data type is a blueprint for the layout of a section of memory. This blueprint determines the range of values the memory can store and the operations you can perform on the memory. Of course, every variable, array, constant, property, procedure argument, and procedure return value has a data type. You'll see shortly that understanding data types goes far beyond simple numeric types—it extends to every object.