Programming- Lesson #3 ~ Functions and Controlling The Program

" Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes it takes. " - Harlan Mills

The quote above means that, it is not a bout how many lines to do a program. If you did a program in one code line and someone else did it with 3 codes lines, then your program is better, because you consumed time, and memory from your computer. If you can make the same program with less codes then this is the smart way to do it, even when you fix it, it will take less time. And that's go to our lives too, if we can do things with less time, money and effort then we get the same result, aren't we going to take that path?

Now lets get into the functions.The subroutine were doing half of the work in Visual Basic Program, but you can also write methods and create functions (Imagine Method as an action or many actions grouped together). They are like the Sub except they can return a value. For example, if you want a piece of code to calculate the sum of two numbers and return the result you need to write a function because the sub does not return a value, but if you want to print the value only, then the sub is enough. The Subroutine and Function, they both have Input value and do something with it but the difference is that the function has an Output value. Rather than writing " Sub " we write " Function ". That tells the compiler that we need the value back. See the image bellow:

I tried this code above around 7 times till I got it right and print a result on the screen. It drove me nuts !! so don't be shocked if you faced the same thing.

Let me explain it to have a better picture.

First of all, you need to define the value of the function under the Sub Main, if you didn't then you wont have anything print of the screen. As I explained in previous lessons that Dim means Dimension, As Integer is type of data ( identify numbers ) and " = CalculateSum(3, 4)" are the numbers we want their value to return to us.

As I saw many examples on the internet and tried different codes, I figured that you need to write the function this way:

Function Sum(ByVal A As [ type of data ], ByVal B As [ type of data ] )

Like above example:

Function CalculateSum(ByVal A As Integer, ByVal B As Integer) As Integer

Write the Keyword " Function " then name it anything like " CalculateSum" , ByVal A or Car or Apple, anything you want; it is just a name. Then do the same thing after the comma.

Dim result ( or any message you want ) As [ any data type ] = ( the value you want ). By writing " Return message, or result or any name you put after the Dim word" , then the compiler will know to keep the value and return it to us ( to the Main ). End the function and run the program. The value returned by a function called result or returned value.

Let's jump to a different topic. Remember the first example I gave you about HelloWorld? Eric and Sandra? Well, we are back to it now and we will change the way we greeted Sandra and Eric. Let's re-write the correct function and add " If, Else " statement.

When we used the If statement, we were testing the value of toWhom. If toWhom is equal to Eric then the value returns one greeting and it will be like below picture.

In the If statement, the program compares the value toWhom variable against the string "Eric". So if you want to test two values to see if they are equal, you use equality operator.

There is other comparison operators in VB:

= : Equality. The expression has the value true when the left and right hand values are true.

<> : Inequality. The expression has the value true when the left hand is not equal to the right hand.

< : Less than. The expression has the value true when the left hand value has less value than the right hand value.

> : Greater than. The expression has the value true when the left hand value is greater than the right hand value.

<= : Less than or equal. The expression has the value true when the left hand value is less or equal to the right hand value.

>= : Greater than or equal. The expression has the value true when the left hand value is greater than or equal to the right hand value.

So let's say toWhom= " Eric " , then when the expression will work out, it will evaluated True, because right hand and left hand values are equal. If toWhom has other values then the expression will evaluate False. Boolean Expressions are the expressions that evaluate True or False value.

This what we should know for Functions and controlling your program. The next lesson will be about Looping and Iteration, those two things are also included on how your program should flow.