Module 5: Object-

Oriented Programming
in Visual Basic .NET
Cont ent s

Over view 1
Defining Classes 2
Creat ing and Dest roying Obj ect s 16
Dem onst rat ion: Creat ing Classes 23
Lab 5.1: Cr eat ing t he Cust om er Class 24
I nherit ance 31
Dem onst rat ion: I nherit ance 43
I nt erfaces 44
Dem onst rat ion: I nt er faces and
Poly m or phism 50
Wor k ing w it h Classes 51
Lab 5.2: I nher it ing t he Pack age Class 65
Review 74

This course is based on the prerelease version (Beta 2) of Microsoft® Visual

Studio® .NET Enterprise Edition. Content in the final release of the course may be
different from the content included in this prerelease version. All labs in the course are to
be completed with the Beta 2 version of Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Edition.
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 Module 5: Object-Oriented Programming in Visual Basic .NET iii

Instructor Notes
Presentation: This module provides students with the knowledge required to create object-
90 Minutes oriented applications that use many of the new features of Microsoft®
Visual Basic ® .NET, such as inheritance, overloading, shared members, and
Labs: event handling.
105 Minutes
In the first lab, students will create part of the Customer class for the Cargo
system that they designed in Lab 4.1, Creating Diagrams from Use Cases. They
will define the properties, methods, and constructors, based on those shown in
Lab 4.1. Finally, they will write the code in a form to test the Customer class.
In the second lab, students will create a base class called Package and a derived
class called SpecialPackage. The classes contain some pre-written code,
including the properties. Students will add methods to both classes and create
the inheritance relationship. They will then complete a pre-written form to test
their classes.
After completing this module, students will be able to:
n Define classes.
n Instantiate and use objects in client code.
n Create classes that use inheritance.
n Define interfaces and use polymorphism.
n Create shared members.
n Create class events and handle them from a client application.
iv Module 5: Object-Oriented Programming in Visual Basic .NET

Materials and Preparation

This section provides the materials and preparation tasks that you need to teach
this module.

Required Materials
To teach this module, you need the following materials:
n Microsoft PowerPoint® file 2373A_05.ppt
n Module 5, “Object-Oriented Programming in Visual Basic .NET”
n Lab 5.1, Creating the Customer Class
n Lab 5.2, Inheriting the Package Class

Preparation Tasks
To prepare for this module, you should:
n Read all of the materials for this module.
n Read the instructor notes and the margin notes for the module.
n Practice the demonstrations.
n Complete the labs.
 Module 5: Object-Oriented Programming in Visual Basic .NET v

Demonstrations
This section provides demonstration procedures that will not fit in the margin
notes or are not appropriate for the student notes.

Creating Classes
å To examine the Employee class
1. Open the Classes.sln solution in the install folder\DemoCode\
Mod05\Classes folder.
2. View the code for the Employee class and point out the private variables,
the properties, and the multiple constructors. Specifically point out the
EmployeeId read-only property.

å To test the New Employee code

1. Run the project.
2. Enter values for the First Name and the Last Name.
3. Click the New Employee button on the form. The code will enter break
mode at the preset breakpoint.
4. Step through the code, and explain each line as you go. Inc lude the Dispose
method but not the Finalize method. Point out that, in a real situation, the
Dispose method would be used for saving data and closing a database
connection.

å To test the Existing Employee code

1. Enter a positive integer value for the Id (any number will work), and then
click the Existing button.
2. Point out that this time the constructor takes the intEmpId as a parameter,
so it can load the data from a database immediately.
3. Step through the code until the object has been instantiated, and then press
F5 to allow the remaining code to run.
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