Visual Basic Concepts

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Form Structures

While many of the files in a typical Visual Basic project are in a binary format and are readable only by specific processes and functions of Visual Basic or your application, the form (.frm) and project (.vbp) files are saved as ASCII text. These are readable in a text viewer (Notepad for instance).

The following sections describe the design- and run-time files in a typical Visual Basic project and the format of the form (.frm) and project (.vbp) files.

Visual Basic form (.frm) files are created and saved in ASCII format. The structure of a form consists of:

  • The version number of the file format.

  • A block of text containing the form description.

  • A set of form attributes.

  • The Basic code for the form.

The form description contains the property settings of the form. Blocks of text that define the properties of controls on the form are nested within the form. Controls contained within other controls have their properties nested within the text of the container. Figure A.1 illustrates the structure of the form description.

Figure A.1   Structure of the form description

Printing Form Descriptions

If you want to print a form description, you can do so without having to save the form.

To print a form description

  1. From the File menu, choose Print.

  2. Select the Form As Text check box, and choose OK to print the form description.