Software Africa's Visual Basic Programming Standards

This page details the programming standards that Software Africa uses for Visual Basic code (including VBA code in Excel and Access), the Form and Report design in Access, and Form design in Visual Basic.  Our examples on this web site follow these standards.  When programming for clients we deviate from these standards when necesary, for example to design forms in the client's corporate colours.

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Code Standards

Access/Excel Setup: Tools > Options

• Editor – Tab Width: 2, Require Variable Declaration ON
• Editor Format – Font = Fixedsys 9 pt.
• General – Show Grid 6 x 3 points

VB Setup: Tools > Options

• Editor – Tab Width: 2, Require Variable Declaration ON
• Editor Format – Font = Fixedsys 9 pt.
• General – Show Grid 60 x 60 twips
• Advanced – SDI Environment.

Code

·        Use Option Compare Text, Option Explicit and Option Base 1 at top of all Modules and Forms.  If you use something different, say why

·        Indention = 2 characters.

·        Comment freely.  Start long comments on line above item referred to, line up quote (‘) with code below, end comment with colon (:).  Put short comments on same line, end in full stop (.).  Put single space after quote.

·        Use FlagChanges to flag all changed lines of code with your initials and the date. 
Exception: New procedures have just the procedure line ending in comment: ‘ New: < FlagChanges flag> and no individual lines flagged.

·        Where changes are not obvious, comment out old line and put new line below (both lines flagged).

·        Start each procedure (Sub or Function) with description that says what procedure does, what parameters it takes (and permissible values for these), and what it returns.

·        Leave a line blank between all procedures, and where sensible in code.

·        Start each module with description that says what module does, and then list changes in reverse date order (newest at top) flagged by FlagChanges.  Use version number too if appropriate.

·        At top of one form (typically Main.frm, if there is one) list versions in reverse date order (newest at top) and major changes to each version.

·        All significant routines are to have at least standard error-trapping:

  On Error GoTo Err_
  <Main body of code>
Exit_: DoCmd.Hourglass False      ' Hourglass off (Access).
  Exit Sub
Err_:    ' General Error-Handling Routine:
  MsgBox Error$, vbInformation, "Error in Sub <Procedure Name>"
  Resume Exit_
  Resume

Naming Conventions

• Use a prefix when naming these objects on forms:
  Command Buttons – cmd
  Labels – lbl
• Exception: Bound controls, e.g. Text Boxes – use same name as bound field.
• Do not name a module with the same name as a procedure: Later versions of Access have a bug that will cause an error if you do this. Avoid this by typically naming modules in the plural.
• Use type-declaration suffixes where these are available because Visual Basic checks them for you. We only use prefixes where suffixes are not available, i.e.

Avoid Reserved Words

From Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – 209187: “ACC2000: Reserved Words in Microsoft Access”

This article lists words and symbols that you should not use in field, object, and variable names because they are "reserved words." Reserved words have a specific meaning to Microsoft Access or to the Microsoft Jet database engine. If you use a reserved word or symbol, you may receive an error such as the following:

“The wizard was unable to preview your report, possibly because a table needed by your report is exclusively locked.”

For existing objects with names that contain reserved words, you can avoid errors by surrounding the object name with brackets ([ ]).

MORE INFORMATION

Because it is not practical to provide a list of all reserved words, such as built-in function names or Microsoft Access user-defined names, please check your product documentation for additional reserved words. Note that if you set a reference to a type library, an object library, or an ActiveX control, that library's reserved words are also reserved words in your database. For example, if you add an ActiveX control to a form, a reference is set, and the names of the objects, methods, and properties of that control become reserved words in your database.

Reserved Word List (case insensitive!)

A: ADD, ALL, Alphanumeric, ALTER, AND, ANY, Application, AS, ASC, Assistant, AUTOINCREMENT, Avg.

B: BETWEEN, BINARY, BIT, BOOLEAN, BY, BYTE.

C: CHAR, CHARACTER, COLUMN, CompactDatabase, CONSTRAINT, Container, Count, COUNTER, CREATE, CreateDatabase, CreateField, CreateGroup, CreateIndex, CreateObject, CreateProperty, CreateRelation, CreateTableDef, CreateUser, CreateWorkspace, CURRENCY, CurrentUser.

D: DATABASE, DATE, DATETIME, DELETE, DESC, Description, DISALLOW, DISTINCT, DISTINCTROW, Document, DOUBLE, DROP.

E: Echo, Else, End, Eqv, Error, EXISTS, Exit.

F: FALSE, Field, Fields, FillCache, FLOAT, FLOAT4, FLOAT8, FOREIGN, Form, Forms, FROM, Full, FUNCTION.

G: GENERAL, GetObject, GetOption, GotoPage, GROUP, GROUP BY, GUID.

H: HAVING.

I: Idle, IEEEDOUBLE, IEEESINGLE, If, IGNORE, Imp, IN, In, INDEX, Index, Indexes, INNER, INSERT, InsertText, INT, INTEGER, INTEGER1, INTEGER2, INTEGER4, INTO, IS, Is.

J: JOIN.

K: KEY.

L: LastModified, LEFT, Level, Like, LOGICAL, LOGICAL1, LONG, LONGBINARY, LONGTEXT

M: Macro, Match, Max, Min, Mod, MEMO, Module, MONEY, Move.

N: NAME, NewPassword, NO, Not, NULL, NUMBER, NUMERIC.

O: Object, OLEOBJECT, OFF, ON, OpenRecordset, OPTION, OR, Or, ORDER, Orientation, Outer, OWNERACCESS,

P: Parameter, PARAMETERS, Partial, PERCENT, PIVOT, PRIMARY, PROCEDURE, Property.

Q: Queries, Query, Quit.

R: REAL, Recalc, Recordset, REFERENCES, Refresh, RefreshLink, RegisterDatabase, Relation, Repaint, RepairDatabase, Report, Reports, Requery, RIGHT.

S: SCREEN, SECTION, SELECT), SET, SetFocus, SetOption, SHORT, SINGLE, SMALLINT, SOME, SQL, StDev, StDevP, STRING, Sum.

T: TABLE, TableDef, TableDefs, TableID, TEXT, TIME, TIMESTAMP, TOP, TRANSFORM, TRUE, Type.

U: UNION, UNIQUE, UPDATE, User.

V: VALUE, VALUES, Var, VarP, VARBINARY, VARCHAR.

W: WHERE, WITH, Workspace.

X: Xor.

Y: Year, YES, YESNO

The following symbols should not be used as part of a field name:
/ ,    *,    :,    !,    #,    &,    ?,    ; ,    " ,    ' ,    $

Interface Design Standards – Microsoft Access

Forms

• Form Size: To fit on a 14” screen with 1 menu, 1 toolbar, and vertical and horizontal scroll bars, form must not exceed 21 cm wide by 13 cm high. This is not always possible. Use Page breaks if the form is more than 13 cm high. Grid X = 5, Grid Y = 10.
• Headings must have an 16-point Arial font and bold.
• Subheadings must use a 10-point Arial bold.
• Leftmost setting (minimum value of the "Left" property for any control) on Forms with record selectors should be 0.2 cm; on forms without record selectors it should be 0.5 cm.
• Text boxes and Combo boxes should have a height of 0.5 cm and have 0.1 cm vertical spacing between them and must use a 10-point Arial font.
• Command Buttons should have a height of 0.7 cm with a width of 2 cm which can increment by 0.5 cm depending on the length of text required and also be spaced at 0.1 cm apart. Use a 10-point Arial font.
• Labels must use a 10-point Arial font.
• Align horizontally on the nearest 0.2 cm.
• Vertically stacked groups of labels, text boxes, etc, should have the same "Left" setting (set manually), and preferably the same Width, which should be sized in increments of 1 cm whenever possible.
• All text must be black or bright blue (Fore Color=16711680) as decided for the project.
• Background colour must be Light blue (Back Color=16777164).

Reports

• Margins: Aim for 2 cm all round. If essential, reduce to 1.5 or even 1 cm.
• Size: Fit on A4 paper, portrait orientation if possible: With 2 cm margins all round, width should not exceed 16.8 cm. For Landscape orientation and 2 cm margins all round, width should not exceed 25.8 cm.
• Headings must have an 18-point Arial font and bold.
• Subheadings must use a 10-point Arial bold.
• Leftmost setting on Reports should be 0 cm.
• Text boxes should have a height of 0.5 cm and have 0.1 cm vertical spacing between them and must use a 10-point Arial font.
• Labels must use a 10-point Arial font.
• All text must be black.
• Background colour must be white.
  

Interface Design Standards – Visual Basic 6.0

Naming Conventions

·                  Always use a prefix when naming objects:

*Menu Items – mnu, All menu Items should have an underlined letter.  Submenus should start with the prefix and first 4 letters of the main menu name, e.g. mnuFile may contain mnuFileExit; mnuSetup may contain mnuSetuOptions.

See also:  Excel Programming Primer, Excel Spreadsheet Tips, Microsoft Word Tips, Microsoft Access Tips, Maximizer Tips, Tips on Windows and other Windows Programs, Free Software for Programmers.