Month Function
| Month Function |
Class
Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime
Syntax
Month( datevalue )
- datevalue (required; date)
-
Date variable or literal date
Return Value
An Integer between 1 and 12
Description
Returns an integer representing the month of the year of a given date expression
Rules at a Glance
If datevalue contains Nothing , Month returns Nothing .
Programming Tips and Gotchas
-
The validity of the date expression, as well as the position of the month element within the date expression, is initially determined by the locale settings of the current Windows system. However, some intelligence has been built into the Month function that surpasses the usual comparison of a date expression to the current locale settings. For example, on a Windows machine set to US date format ( mm/dd/yyyy ), the date "13/12/1998" would technically be illegal. However, the Month function returns 12 when passed this date. The basic rule for the Month function is that if the system-defined month element is outside legal bounds (i.e., greater than 12), the system-defined day element is assumed to be the month and is returned by the function.
-
Since the IsDate function adheres to the same rules and assumptions as Month , it can be used to determine whether a date is valid before passing it to the Month function.
-
Visual Basic also has a new MonthName function for returning the
name of the month. -
You can also use the DatePart function.
See Also
Day Function, Year Function
| MonthName Function |
Class
Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime
Syntax
MonthName( month [, abbreviate ])
- month (required; Integer)
-
The ordinal number of the month, from 1 to 12
- abbreviate (optional; Boolean)
-
A flag to
indicate if an abbreviated monthname should be returned
Return Value
String containing the name of the specified month
Description
Returns the month name of a given month. For example, a month of 1 returns January or (if abbreviate is True ) Jan.
Rules at a Glance
The default value for abbreviate is False .
Example
Public Function GetMonthName(dat As Date) As String Dim iMonth As Integer = Month(dat) GetMonthName = MonthName(iMonth) End Function
Programming Tips and Gotchas
-
month must be an integer; it cannot be a date. Use DatePart("m", dateval ) to obtain a month number from a date.
-
If month has a
fractional portion, it is rounded before calling the MonthName function. -
MonthName with abbreviate set to False is the equivalent of Format(dateval, "mmmm") .
-
MonthName with abbreviate set to True is the equivalent of Format(dateval, "mmm") .
See Also
WeekdayName Function
| MsgBox Function |
Class
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction
Syntax
MsgBox( prompt [, buttons ][, title ])
- prompt (required; String)
-
The text of the message to display in the message box dialog box
- buttons (optional; MsgBoxStyle enumeration)
-
The sum of the Button , Icon , Default Button , and Modality constant values
- title (optional; String)
-
The title displayed in the title bar of the message box dialog box
Return Value
A
MsgBoxResult
enumeration constant indicating the button clicked by the
Description
Displays a dialog box containing a message, buttons, and optional icon to the user. The action taken by the user is returned by the function in the form of an enumerated constant.
Rules at a Glance
-
prompt can contain approximately 1,000
characters , includingcarriage return characters such as the built-in vbCrLf constant. -
If the title parameter is omitted, the
name of the current application or project is displayed in the title bar. -
If you omit the buttons argument, the default value is 0; that is, VB opens an application modal dialog box containing only an OK button.
-
The constants of the MsgBoxStyle enumeration can be added together to form a complete buttons argument. The constants can be divided into the following groups:
- Button Display Constants
- Icon Display Constants
- Default Button Constants
- Modality Constants
Only one constant from each
group can be used to make up the overall buttons value.
Button Display Constants
|
Constant |
Value |
Buttons to display |
|---|---|---|
MsgBoxStyle.OKOnly |
OK only |
|
MsgBoxStyle.OKCancel |
1 |
OK and Cancel |
MsgBoxStyle.AbortRetryIgnore |
2 |
Abort, Retry, and Ignore |
MsgBoxStyle.YesNoCancel |
3 |
Yes, No, and Cancel |
MsgBoxStyle.YesNo |
4 |
Yes and No |
MsgBoxStyle.RetryCancel |
5 |
Retry and Cancel |
Icon Display Constants
|
Constant |
Value |
Icon to display |
|---|---|---|
MsgBoxStyle.Critical |
16 |
Critical Message |
MsgBoxStyle.Question |
32 |
Warning Query |
MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation |
48 |
Warning Message |
MsgBoxStyle.Information |
64 |
Information Message |
Default Button Constants
|
Constant |
Value |
Default button |
|---|---|---|
MsgBoxStyle.DefaultButton1 |
First button |
|
MsgBoxStyle.DefaultButton2 |
256 |
Second button |
MsgBoxStyle.DefaultButton3 |
512 |
Third button |
MsgBoxStyle.DefaultButton4 |
768 |
Fourth button |
Modality Constants
|
Constant |
Value |
Modality |
|---|---|---|
MsgBoxStyle.ApplicationModal |
Application |
|
MsgBoxStyle.SystemModal |
4096 |
System |
Return Values
The following intrinsic constants can be used to determine the action taken by the user and represent the value returned by the MsgBox function:
|
Constant |
Value |
Button clicked |
|---|---|---|
MsgBoxResult.OK |
1 |
OK |
MsgBoxResult.Cancel |
2 |
Cancel (or Esc key pressed) |
MsgBoxResult.Abort |
3 |
Abort |
MsgBoxResult.Retry |
4 |
Retry |
MsgBoxResult.Ignore |
5 |
Ignore |
MsgBoxResult.Yes |
6 |
Yes |
MsgBoxResult.No |
7 |
No |
If the MsgBox contains a Cancel button, the user can press the Esc key and the function's return value will be that of the Cancel button.
Programming Tips and Gotchas
-
Application modality means that the user cannot access other
parts of the application until a response to the message box has been given. In other words, the appearance of the message boxprevents the application from performing othertasks or from interacting with the user other than through the message box. -
System modality used to mean that all applications were
suspended until the message box was closed. However, with multitasking operating systems, such as Windows 95 and Windows NT, this is not the case. Basically, the message box is defined to be a "Topmost" window that is set to "Stay on Top," which means that the user can switch to another application and use it without responding to the message box. But because the message box is the topmost window, it will be positioned on top of all other running applications. -
Unlike its InputBox
counterpart , MsgBox cannot be positioned on the screen. It is always displayed in the center of the screen. -
If your application is to run out-of-process on a remote machine, you should remove all MsgBox functions since they will not be displayed to the user, but instead will appear on the monitor of the remote server!
-
MsgBox should never be used in ASP.NET applications.
VB.NET/VB 6 Differences
In VB 6, the
MsgBox
function has five parameters. The last two,
helpfile
(which specified the
See Also
InputBox Function
