Introduction

Thirty tutorials are presented in this chapter. The tutorials assume that you are familiar with programming in Visual Basic, know what a Data control is, and know how to use the Visual Basic built-in Data control with bound controls in general. The tutorials provide step-by-step instructions—no prior knowledge of True DBGrid is needed. By following the steps outlined in this chapter, you will be able to create projects demonstrating a variety of True DBGrid features, and get a good sense of what the grid can do and how to do it.

The tutorials use an Access database, TDBGDemo.MDB. The database files TDBGDemo.MDB, TDBGDemo.SAV, and the tutorial projects are in the TUTORIAL subdirectory of the True DBGrid installation directory. TDBGDemo.SAV is a backup copy of TDBGDemo.MDB. If you want to restore TDBGDemo.MDB after editing, adding, or deleting records while using the tutorials, make a new copy of TDBGDemo.MDB from TDBGDemo.SAV.

We encourage you to run the tutorial projects in Visual Basic, examine the code, and experiment with your own modifications. This is the best and quickest way to learn how to realize the full potential of True DBGrid. You will find that True DBGrid is very easy to use, and it enables you to create powerful database applications.

The tutorials assume that the database file TDBGDemo.MDB is in the C:\Program Files\ComponentOne Studio\Common directory, and refer to it by filename instead of the full pathname for the sake of brevity.

Note: Depending on where you store the projects and database files in the TUTORIAL subdirectory, you may need to change the DatabaseName property of the Data control in the tutorial projects in order for the projects to work properly.