Book 14 · Programming LanguagesPage 32 of 33

Visual Basic

Pronunciation: VIZH-oo-ul BAY-sik

Updated October 3, 20262 min read

In short

Visual Basic is Microsoft's family of beginner-friendly languages, including classic Visual Basic, VB.NET and VBA, which automates Office apps with macros.

What is Visual Basic?

Visual Basic 1.0 appeared in 1991 and made building Windows applications dramatically easier: you drew buttons and forms on screen and wrote short pieces of BASIC-style code for their events. Version 6, released in 1998, became hugely popular for business applications, and countless internal tools were built with it.

In 2002 Microsoft replaced it with Visual Basic .NET, a fully object-oriented language on the .NET platform with the same capabilities as C#. VB.NET is still supported, but Microsoft stated in 2020 that it would not add new language features, so most new .NET development happens in C#.

The most widely used member of the family today is VBA, Visual Basic for Applications, built into Microsoft Office. Accountants, analysts and office workers use it to write macros that automate Excel workbooks, generate Word documents or process Outlook email, and many businesses depend on such macros every day.

A common misconception is that Visual Basic disappeared. Classic VB6 is long out of support, but VB.NET applications still run, and VBA macros are everywhere in offices. Because macros can run arbitrary code, they are also a classic route for malware, which is why Office blocks macros in files from the internet by default.

Key takeaways

Visual Basic is Microsoft's family of beginner-friendly languages.
Visual Basic 1.0 in 1991 made visual Windows app building popular.
VB.NET, from 2002, is supported but no longer gets new language features.
VBA automates Excel, Word and Outlook with macros.
Macros can carry malware, so Office blocks internet macros by default.

Example

An Excel macro in VBAvb

' Highlight every order above a limit and count them
Sub HighlightLargeOrders()
    Dim cell As Range
    Dim count As Long
    Const LIMIT As Double = 1000

    For Each cell In Worksheets("Orders").Range("C2:C500")
        If cell.Value > LIMIT Then
            cell.Interior.Color = RGB(255, 235, 156)
            count = count + 1
        End If
    Next cell

    MsgBox count & " orders are above " & LIMIT
End Sub

Readers ask

What is the difference between VB.NET and VBA?

VB.NET is a full .NET language for building applications. VBA is a version of classic Visual Basic built into Office applications for writing macros that automate documents and spreadsheets.

Is Visual Basic still used?

Yes. VBA is widely used for Office automation, and many VB.NET and older VB6 applications are still maintained in businesses, even though new projects usually choose C# or Python.

Should I learn VBA?

If you work heavily with Excel or other Office applications, VBA can save hours of repetitive work. For general programming, Python is more versatile and can also automate Excel.