Visual Basic Programming: Classes and Collections

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/visual-basic-classes-collections

Introduction

### Course Review: Visual Basic Programming: Classes and Collections #### Overview "Visual Basic Programming: Classes and Collections" is the third course in an engaging series designed to equip aspiring programmers with essential skills for a thriving programming career. Hosted on Coursera, this course dives deeply into four critical concepts in programming: Advanced String Operations and Dates, Modeling Classes, Development of Classes, and Collections. As you progress through this course, you will participate in hands-on labs that allow you to apply what you've learned in real-world programming exercises. #### Course Content The syllabus is well-structured, guiding you through each concept systematically: 1. **Dates and Advanced Strings** The course begins with an exploration of dates and time values, essential for creating dynamic software applications. You will learn how to manipulate and format dates effectively, as well as expand your string manipulation skills. This foundational knowledge sets the scene for more complex programming challenges ahead. 2. **Modeling Classes** In this module, you will move into the realm of abstracting code and data using classes, which is crucial for any modern programming role. The introduction of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides a powerful tool for visualizing system designs, helping you grasp how to structure your code and data logically and efficiently. This theoretical groundwork is essential before diving into actual code. 3. **Developing Classes** Building on the class modeling from the previous module, you will implement your class designs and explore the concept of "has-a" relationships, specifically one-to-one relationships. This hands-on approach solidifies your understanding of how classes interact within your programs, setting the stage for more complex relationships in later modules. 4. **Collections** The final module introduces you to collections—an integral component of programming. You will learn about low-level arrays and higher-level data structures for storing multiple values within a single variable. Understanding these structures enables you to implement collections with "one-to-many" relationships effectively, enhancing your programming capabilities significantly. #### Learning Experience One of the standout features of this course is its practical focus. Labs and hands-on programming exercises allow you to reinforce your learning, transforming theoretical concepts into practical skills. The content is suitable for learners who have a basic understanding of Visual Basic, so it's a great follow-up for those who have completed the earlier courses in the series. The delivery of material is straightforward, and the instructor’s expertise shines through. The use of clear examples and a structured approach makes even complex topics manageable for learners. #### Recommendation I wholeheartedly recommend "Visual Basic Programming: Classes and Collections" for anyone looking to deepen their programming knowledge. Whether you're an entry-level programmer seeking to solidify your understanding or an experienced developer wanting to revisit the core concepts of object-oriented programming, this course will provide valuable insights. Moreover, the skills learned in this course are applicable beyond Visual Basic, as they align with fundamental programming principles that are transferable to other programming languages. Completing this course will not only enhance your programming toolbox but also prepare you for more advanced programming projects and roles. In conclusion, take the plunge into this course; it will undoubtedly strengthen your programming foundation and give you the confidence to tackle more complex coding challenges in the future. Happy coding!

Syllabus

Dates and Advanced Strings

In this module, we continue our adventure coding! We will build on our skills by working with dates and time values. We will expand our abilities by looking at how to work with advance string operations. Lastly we will explore was to format values for output.

In this module, we continue building out our programming toolset by adding the ability to abstract code and data. We begin to look at how classes are used to store both data and the operations on the data. In this module, we will not program, but we will model the classes in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML is a general-purpose, developmental, modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system

In this module, we continue looking at abstraction utilizing classes. We will implement parts of the models we developed in the previous module. In this module we will implement the individual classes and one-to-one has-a relationships. In future modules we will implement the one-to-many has-a relationships and is-a relationships.

In this module, we add the ability to store multiple values in a single variable. We look at both low-level arrays and a few higher-level data structures used to store multiple variables. We will utilize the collections to implement classes with one-to-many has-a relationships we discussed in our previous modeling module.