The .NET runtime has everything you need to format your output and handle special characters. Both Visual Basic 2010 Express edition and Visual Studio 2010 help you with Intellisense if you can't remember the syntax. This article explores simple console input and output and shows you how to get it done.

Understanding data and how it is represented is key to making use of it in a program. This article walks thru VB.NETbs standard data types and talks about how to make use of them.

VB.NET provides a solid set of programming tools to implement flow control. VB.NET 2010 includes the For Each construct, making it possible to easily iterate over a list of items with little to no extra coding. This article examines the different VB.NET keywords and gives examples of how they're used.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is a great integrated development environment for turning out top quality .NET framework applications. VB 2010 Express provides the same basic tools without some of the high-end team development pieces. This first of a two-part article will introduce the user to the VB 2010 Express product.

Is some of your business logic in code and some in SQL Server? Then, just call the SQL from the .NET framework and the .NET framework from SQL with CLR integration. Here are all the steps you need to get started.

Memory mapped files use the system's memory manager and lets you treat large files as if they were in-memory objects, supporting extremely large file access, faster access, and multiple, simultaneous processes accessing the same file.

Learn how to enumerate the files and folders on a computer with LINQ, managing access exceptions along the way.

Encryption and keeping secrets depends on large prime numbers that are too big to crack by brute force. .NET framework 4.0 introduces the BigInteger that has no theoretical upper and lower bounds.

Microsoft Visual Studio has extensive support for setting breakpoints with extra conditions, including code, and then searching for and managing those breakpoints. Read more to see how to put beakpoints to work for you.

There are as many explanations, examples, and mathematical descriptions for covariance and contravariance as you care to explore, but all of this information adds to the confusion. This article shows you why they are important concepts for software developers and how you can leverage variance when you design your code.

The VB and C# programming teams have merged and you'll start to notice capability features--like Lambda Expressions and automatic properties--that are more similar in these two languages, but both languages are suited for the same kinds of software development.

Auto-implemented properties in VB 2010 provide developers with the convenience of fields, in terms of how much code you write and the benefit of properties.

Beginning with basic file I/O concepts this article wraps up by demonstrating how you can use the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) in .NET 4.0 to map text file data to objects.

LINQ to SQL is one of many valuable implementations of LINQ. Check out this post for information on reading, updating, and managing concurrent updates with LINQ to SQL.

Dynamic objects in VB let you bind data to members at runtime without defining a custom mapping class.

Write a reflection mechanism one time to reflect any object or collection; knowing your code's state is the first step in writing bug-free code.

VB2010 supports Sub routine Lambda expressions and multiline expressions, read on to see how to define these little method packages.

Paul Kimmel writes about his favorite top ten new features that are being rolled out with this recent Microsoft update of Visual Basic.

Learn to use the basic parallel operations--multithreading--incorporated into .NET framework 4.0.

By default LINQ uses deferred query execution. This means you can access the results, change the data and use the same query again. Using Visual Studio 2010, beta 1 and the .NET Framework 4.0 we'll see how to use this to our advantage.

Learn to use CodeRush in Microsoft Visual Studio to write code faster and easier than ever before.

Say your goodbyes to line continuation characters, with a brief look back at Basic.

Learn how to dynamically build and explore Lambda expressions from expression trees.

Learn about LINQ and all the ways you can use "Where" in your code.

Paul takes a look at WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) to see how it might bridge the gap between Web development and Windows development.

Learn about the history of debugging and evolutionary improvements in Intellisense in Visual Studio 2010.

Using an anonymous type in VB, which is essential for technologies like LINQ, means that the compiler will generate a class for you based on context and named initializers saving you time and effort. To learn more read on.

Add ultimate flexibility and power to your programs with function parameters and Lambda Expressions.

Follow these simple steps to let users upload image files and display them as thumbnails in ASP.NET.

Sometimes when you have all kinds of data what you really need is XML. LINQ to XML let's you employ functional construction to convert your data into XML.

Using skins and themes make it much easier to quickly, uniformly, and easily change the way web application looks.

Obtain client-specific information from your Web application using ActiveX, which only works with Internet Explorer and browsers that have ActiveX extensions.

Programming is hard,debugging is hard. Doing both well is critical to being a good programmer. To make things easier for us Paul Kimmel demonstrates how to run custom Tracepoint with macros.

OP-ED: Unlike the Illuminati, the IEEE exists, and they have a secret. This secret helps them turn out shiny MP3 players, phones, and computers with processing power than we programmers can figure out how to use. This is how they do it. When will developers learn the same truths?

Providing a drop down list in your ASP.NET Web applications help users avoid wasting time with bad data and it's a kinder, gentler thing to do.

Discover how to render an image directly from a database using an IHttpHandler and how to modify the image on its way to the client using GDI+.

Respond to every HTTP request. Just implement event handlers or an IHttpModule (which is a cool way to write a re-deployable solution for multiple projects).

How do I hide the unneeded features? Don't cut corners just because people are cutting budgets and staff.

The security-hole testing that hackers engage results in a sparring match where security-conscious companies like Microsoft are forced to—well, make life harder on the rest of us.

Old school programming, whereby the programmer reads control values and writes inline SQL, still works, but it's so 90s. If you are new to WinForms or Web programming but experienced, peruse the article and then master LINQ.

Elevate your SQL game (a little bit) with CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY.

Devexpress has a commitment to providing amazing ASP.NET (and other controls), such as their latest revision of their ASPxGridView, version 8.3, which supports filtering, grouping, sorting, and much more, with little or no coding on your part.

Round those corners and make your user interfaces a little jazzier with a rounded rectangle Panel control; a fun chunk of code to incorporate into your application.

Few projects end up having too much time. Successfully completing a project often depends on tackling core, significant, and risky aspects of any custom solution first—like the long hard march up hill—and finishing with the trim, or cosmetic work, last.

Emitted code and the DynamicMethod have the benefit of speed and the emitted code can be unloaded when the DynamicMethod goes out of scope, resulting in the best of all worlds.

Use Reflection.Emit to speed up Reflection intensive processes by writing one general algorithm that emits a specific solution.

When handed a crate of lemons, make lemonade. Success in a tough economic climate is about perspective and attitude.

One general-purpose algorithm, written one time, is a great time saver for programmers.

Some things that seem hard are actually quite easy, and some things that seem easy take a little work, like that little [X] on a Windows Form, the ControlBox. Learn how to know just when that little bugger is pressed.

The MenuStrip and ToolStripMenuItem are a little harder to use than the Menu from earlier versions of VB. Walk through exercises using the MenuStrip, ToolStrip, and the Command behavior pattern to encapsulate a Recents menu for your applications that operate on files.