Visual Basic Tutorial Lesson 7: Controlling Program Flow

Lesson 7 : Controlling Program Flow

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In previous lessons, we have learned how to create Visual Basic 6 code that can accept input from the user and display the output without controlling the program flow. In this lesson, you will learn how to create Visual Basic 6 code that can make decision when it process input from the user, and control the program flow in the process. Decision making process is an important part of programming because it can help to solve practical problems intelligently so that it can provide useful output or feedback to the user. For example, we can write a program that can ask the computer to perform certain task until a certain condition is met.

7.1 Conditional Operators

To control the VB program flow, we can use various conditional operators. Basically, they resemble mathematical operators. Conditional operators are very powerful tools, they let the Visual Basic 6 program compare data values and then decide what action to take, whether to execute a program or terminate the program and more. These operators are shown in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1: Conditional Operators

Operator	Meaning
=	Equal to
>	More than
<	Less Than
>=	More than or equal
<=	Less than or equal
<>	Not Equal to

7.2 Logical Operators

In addition to conditional operators, there are a few logical operators which offer added power to the VB programs. There are shown in Table 7.2.

Table 7.2:Logical Operators

Operator	Meaning
And	Both sides must be true
or	One side or other must be true
Xor	One side or other must be true but not both
Not	Negates truth

* You can also compare strings with the above operators. However, there are certain rules to follows: Upper case letters are less than lowercase letters, "A"<"B"<"C"<"D".......<"Z" and number are less than letters.

7.3 Using If.....Then.....Else Statements with Operators

To effectively control the VB program flow, we shall use If...Then...Else statement together with the conditional operators and logical operators.
The general format for the if...then...else statement is

If conditions Then

VB expressions

Else

VB expressions

End If

* Any If...Then.. Else statement must end with End If. Sometime it is not necessary to use Else.

Example7.1 :

Private Sub OK_Click()

firstnum=Val(usernum1.Text)

secondnum=Val(usernum2.Text)

If total=firstnum+secondnum And Val(sum.Text)<>0 Then

    correct.Visible = True
   wrong.Visible = False
Else
    correct.Visible = False
    wrong.Visible = True
End If

End Sub

Example 7.2

In this example, the program will check whether the password entered by the user matches the password assigned by the Form_Load procedure. If the two passwords match, then the textbox will disappear and the label will display “Login Successful”; otherwise the label will display "Login Fail! Please enter your password again" and the user has to key in the password again.

Dim password As String

Private Sub Command1_Click()

If Text1.Text = password Then

Text1.Visible = False

Label1.Visible = True

Label1.Caption = "Login Successful"

Else

Label1.Visible = True

Label1.Caption = "Login Fail! Please enter your password again"

Text1.Text = ""

End If

End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()

password = "1234"

End Sub

7.4 Nested If... Then...Else Statements

We need to use nested If...Then... Else statements if a condition is depending on other conditions that have to be fulfilled first. A nested If statements are enclosed within other If statements. There can be many levels of nested If .. Then ..Else statements but will examine only the two-level nested statements. The format for a two level nested If ..Then...else statement is as follows:

If condition A Then
   If Condition B Then
      VB6 statement
   Else
      VB6 statement
   End If
End If

* Any If...Then.. Else statement must end with End If. For two-level nested If, you must have two End If

Example 7.3

In this example, both conditions i.e. user name and password must be fulfilled before login can be sucessful.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim userpassword, userName As String
userpassword = "123"
userName = "Liew"

If Text1.Text = userName Then

If Text2.Text = userpassword Then
     MsgBox ("Login Successful")
Else
       MsgBox ("Wrong password, login failed, please try again!")
End If

Else
       MsgBox ("Wrong user name, login failed, please try again!")
End If

Example 7.4

In this example, suppose an airline company wish to recruit air stewards and air stewardesses, the height requirement might be at least 170 cm for male candidates and 160 for female candidates. The following code heps to filter the candidates based on gender and height.

If Option_Male.Value = True Then
    If Val(txtHeight.Text) >= 170 Then
        MsgBox ("Congratulation, welcome to join our team")
    Else
        MsgBox ("Sorry, your application is not sucessful,thank you.")
   End If

Else
   If Val(txtHeight.Text) >= 160 Then
       MsgBox ("Congratulation, welcome to join our team")
   Else
      MsgBox ("Sorry, your application is not sucessful,thank you.")
   End If
End If

View more examples that involve the usage of If......Then.... Else

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