This program will access and modify a database file, which holds information about various countries. We'll begin by creating the database file, then creating the Visual Basic interface which accesses that file.

• In Visual Basic, choose Visual Data Manager from the Add-Ins menu. When the Data Manager window appears, open the File menu, selet New, select Microsoft Access, and choose Version 2.0 MDB...
• When the New Database dialog box appears, type A:\Country in the File Name text box to save the database, using the name Country, on your floppy disk. Click the Save button. In VisData, two windows will appear: "Database Window" and "SQL Statement"
• Right-click in the Database Window and select New Table to open the Add Table dialog box.
• In the Table Name text box, type "Country" (without the quotes).
• Click the Add Field button.
• In the Name text box, type "Country Name".
• Click the down-arrow button to the right of the Type combo box; a drop-down list open so you can select the field's data type.
• Scroll down the list and select Text, to indicate that the Country Name field contains text data (e.g. strings).
• In the Size box, type 20 to limit the data for this field to 20 characters of text.
• Click the OK button. The Country Name field will be added and you'll be able to add another field directly.
• Click the right-arrow button to the right of the
• Repeat the preceding steps to specify the rest of the fields in the database, using the data below.

  Field Name     Field Type      Field Size
  -----------------------------------------
  Capital Name   Text            20
  Population     Long
  Comments       Memo
  

• Click the Close button on the Add Field window.

Now we'll set up Country Name as our primary index for the database.

• Click the Close button in the "Table Structure" window.
• Click Add Index button; the Indexes window will appear.
• Type "CntryName" (without the quotes) in the Name text box.
• Make sure the Primary Index check box is checked.
• In the "Available Fields" list, select the Country Name field.
• Click the OK button. Now, there can be no duplicate entries in Country Name, and the list of entries will be maintained in ascending order.
• In the Indexes window, click the Close button.
• In the Table Structure window, click the Build The Table button.

OK! Now we've got a database designed, but with no data in it. Next we'll add actual data.

Note that you can't change the structure of your fields once you've created them in the Visual Data Manager. All you can do is Remove and Add fields.

• In the Data Window, double-click the Country table name to open an interface to that table.
• To add records, first click the Add button.
• For the first record, type "Canada" (without the quotes) in the Country Name field.
• Click the next field for which you want to add new data, then enter the data for the record. For this record, type "Ottawa" (without the quotes) in the Capital Name field, 2565200 in the Population field, and the following text in the Comments field:

• When you are done, click the Update button to add the new record to the table.
• Repeat the preceding steps to enter the data shown below. For each record, add your own comment in the Comments field.

  Country Name    Capital Name     Population
  -------------------------------------------
  France          Paris            55632000
  Germany         Berlin           78420000
  Great Britain   London           57142000
  Mexico          Mexico City      81163000
  

• Close out of the Dynaset:Country window.

The database is now complete! Exit the Visual Data Manager.

Now we'll add the controls we need to access the database.

• Create a Data control to the bottom of the form; make sure there's enough space to see the name of the form in between the buttons on the control.
• Add four text boxes to the form, along the right-hand side of the form. Make the fourth rather tall, so that several lines' worth of text can fit in it. Delete what's in each text box's Text property.
• Add four labels to the form, to the left of each of the text boxes.
• Set the following properties:

Form1      Caption        Country Database
Data1      Caption        Countries
           DatabaseName   A:\Country.mdb
           Exclusive      False
           Options        0
           ReadOnly       False
           RecordSource   Country
           EOFAction      2 - Add New
Text1      DataField      Country Name
           DataSource     Data1
Text2      DataField      Capital Name
           DataSource     Data1
Text3      DataField      Population
           DataSource     Data1
Text4      DataField      Comments
           DataSource     Data1
           MultiLine      True
           ScrollBars     2-Vertical
           TabIndex       0
Label1     Alignment      2-Center
           Caption        Country
Label2     Alignment      2-Center
           Caption        Capital
Label3     Alignment      2-Center
           Caption        Population
Label4     Alignment      2-Center
           Caption        Comments

Now start the application, and use the arrow buttons on the Data control to move through the records. When you're satisfied that all the information you entered earlier is now accessible, return to the first record and enter the following text in the Comments field (note how the text wraps):

Stop the application. Now we'll include the ability to add and delete records from the Visual Basic form.

• Add a command button to the form.
• Type New for the Caption property.
• Double-click on the button and enter the following code:

  Data1.Recordset.AddNewText1.SetFocus

Now run the program to verify that it's working correctly. Click the New button, and enter the following data:

Country      Japan
Capital      Tokyo
Population   123778000
Comments     An economic powerhouse.

• Stop the program.
• Add another command button to the form; change its Caption property to "Delete" (without the quotes).
• Double-click on the button and add the following code:

Dim Msg As String
Msg = "Are you sure you want to delete" & Chr$(10)
Msg = Msg & Text1.Text
If MsgBox(Msg, 17, "Delete Record?") = 1 Then
  ' User clicked OK
  ' (MsgBox 17 is Stop icon with OK & Cancel buttons)
  Data1.Recordset.Delete
  Data1.Recordset.MoveNext
  If Data1.Recordset.EOF Then
    Data1.Recordset.MovePrevious
  End If
End If

Run the application. Select the record you just entered, Japan, and click Delete. You can click either OK or Cancel; for our purposes it doesn't matter. If you click OK, Japan will be deleted. If you click Cancel, the Japan record will remain intact.

Extra Improvements:

1. Add another field to the database, Continent, which can hold the name of the continent on which that country is situated (North America, South America, Asia, Europe, or Africa). Add this field as another item on the form.
2. Make the Continent field on the form a ComboBox, from which the user can select one of the continents.
3. Add a second button, and a list box, which displays the result of a query run on the data.