DEBUGGING:

CATEGORIES OF PROBLEMS:

A. VISUAL BASIC WON’T RUN
B. VISUAL BASIC RUNS, BUT THE PROGRAM DOESN’T DO WHAT I WANT IT TO.

A. VISUAL BASIC WON’T RUN:

1. The VISUAL BASIC editor says, “Expecting Expression” 

When typing in commands, you either hit a carriage return before you were supposed to, 
or you forgot some part of the command, such as a “TO” on a FOR-TO-STEP-NEXT command, 
or perhaps a parentheses ( ), etc.

2.  The VISUAL BASIC editor says, “cannot find object”

The biggest source of errors is you don’t use the right variable names.  Make sure that the
 name property on the object is spelled correctly.  Then every time you reference
 that object, make sure you spell it exactly the same way.

For example, if Visual Basic does not recognize a SHOW or HIDE command, 
 then check the property name on the form object.  It must be equal to the
 form name on the HIDE and SHOW commands.  You can check your form names
 from either the project window or the properties window

3. VISUAL BASIC doesn’t know which form to load first

Go to the menu bar and select “Option”
Select “Project”
Type in “FrmTitle” at the Start-Up-Form Line
 
B. VISUAL BASIC RUNS, BUT THE PROGRAM DOESN’T DO WHAT
 I WANT IT TO.


1. If your menu doesn’t look right, go back to the menu design window 
and make sure you specified the 
right menu captions, menu names, and the right “arrows”

2. If your Window is not maximized at runtime, Change the property Widowstate
 to Maximized on the Form object.

3. If your fonts are too small, change the font-size

4. “My list box on the FRMPAY.FRM doesn’t have a scroll bar”

That’s okay; you just made your list box big enough to display all the terms (1  2 3 4 5 6)

5. “My Rocket Icon won’t get big”

Change the stretch property on the Image object.


 The most common errors occur when students don’t understand how variables
 within a form or across forms relate to each other.  When we first create an object
on a form, we give the object a name in the name property.  Everytime we refer
to this object throughout a system, we must use the correct name.  


FOR EXAMPLE, ON THE FRMTITLE, THE
THE FOLLOWING OBJECT WAS CREATED:


FORM		OBJECT TYPE		NAME PROPERTY	
FrmTitle	Form	 		FrmTitle

LOOK AT ALL THE OTHER PLACES IN THE SYSTEM WE
REFERENCE THIS OBJECT:


FORM		OBJECTTYPE	NAME PROPERTY		CODING
FrmTitle	MENU		MnuFileOpenNotes	FrmTitle.Hide
FrmTitle	MENU		MnuFileOpenPayment	FrmTitle.Hide
FrmTitle	MENU		MnuFileOpenQuote	FrmTitle.Hide
FrmCust		Command		CmdExit			FrmTitle.Show
FrmPay		Command		CmdExit			FrmTitle.Show
FrmQuote	Command		CmdExit			FrmTitle.Show
 


ON THE FRMCUST LOOK AT ALL THE
 CROSS-REFERENCES:

THE FOLLOWING OBJECT WAS CREATED:


FORM		OBJECT TYPE		NAME PROPERTY	
FrmCust		Form			FrmCust


FORM		OBJECTTYPE	NAME PROPERTY		CODING
FrmCust		Command		CmdOK			FrmCust.Hide
FrmTitle	MENU		MnuFileOpenNotes	FrmCust.Show
FrmCust		Command		CmdExit			FrmCust.Hide
FrmNotes	MENU		MnuFileExit		FrmCust.Show

For the following objects, can you identify all the places the object name
is used?

FORM		OBJECT TYPE		NAME PROPERTY	

FrmCust		Textbox			TxtName	

Textname is referrenced in 4 other places in our system:

1. FrmCust	Command	CmdOK		Line1 = TxtName.Text
2. FrmCust	Command	CmdOK		IF TxtName.Text = “” OR
					 TxtAddr.Text =“” 
					OR  TxtCity.Text = “” OR TxtState.Text = “”
					OR	TxtZip.Text = “” THEN Msgbox
					 “Please Complete The Customer Information
					 Form”ELSE  FRMCUST.HIDE ENDIF
3. FrmNotes	MENU	MnuFileExit	Frmcust.TxtName.Text = “”
4. FrmNotes	MENU	MnuFileExit	FrmCust.TxtName.SetFocus



FORM		OBJECT TYPE		NAME PROPERTY	
FrmCust		Textbox			TxtAddr	

1. FrmCust	Command	CmdOK		Line2 = TxtAddr.Text
2.FrmCust	Command	CmdOK		IF TxtName.Text = “” OR TxtAddr.
						Text
						 =“” OR  TxtCity.Text = “” OR TxtState.Text 
						= “” OR	TxtZip.Text = “” THEN 
						Msgbox “Please Complete The Customer 
						Information Form”ELSE  FRMCUST.HIDE 
						ENDIF
3. FrmNotes	MENU		MnuFileExit	Frmcust.TxtAddr.Text = “”


See if you can find all the other cross references for the following variables:

FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmCust	Textbox	TxtCity	

1.
2.
3.


FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmCust	Textbox	TxtState	

1.
2.
3.



FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmCust	Textbox	TxtZip

1.
2.
3.


ON THE FRMNOTES, FIND ALL THE CROSS-REFERENCES FOR OBJECTS
CREATED ON THIS FORM:


FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Form	FrmNotes	

1.


FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Textbox	TxtCustomer	

1.


FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Textbox	TxtNote

1.	



FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Textbox	TxtDate	FrmNotes

1.
2.



FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Textbox	TxtSalutation	

1.
2.


FORM	OBJECT 	NAME PROPERTY	
FrmNotes	Textbox	TxtNote	

1.
2. 
 




 
 SOME MORE DEBUGGING


“I have a little icon stuck in the top left hand side of my form”

	Select the Form object, change the Picture Property to none

“I have phantom objects in my properties box which are not on my form”

Hit the tab key...until the cursor lands on something not on your form.  Look at the
 properties Window. Look at the TOP and LEFT properties.  Is your object hiding under 
another object?  Is your object off the screen altogether?

“I have phantom coding I can’t get rid of”

Go to the coding box.  Select “GENERAL”, pull down the “DECLARATIONS” bar.  
All phantom code will be displayed here.  You can delete it from here.

“I have index errors and array errors”
You tried to name two different objects the same name.  VISUAL BASIC asked
 you if you wanted to create an array and you said yes.  To back out of this error:

	Find the object you don’t want
	Change the name property 
	Change the Index Property to Blank
	Delete the Object