Visual Basic vs. Visual Basic .NET vs. Visual Basic for Applications

Q: I am not a programmer by nature. A while ago, I purchased VB 101. Good stuff. My goal is to become "decent" with VBA. How different is it from straight VB? Will your new VB courses take me in that direction? - Lou

A: Lou, VBA is a close cousin of VB, but it's not the same thing. You're talking about apples and oranges. I know the names sound the same, but they are completely different beasts. 

Basic has changed a lot over the past few decades. In fact, I started out programming on a TRS-80 Radio Shack computer back in the 1980s on one of the earliest versions of BASIC. Yes, it's an acronym. It stands for Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

It has evolved a lot since then...

VB

VB is short for Visual Basic. It's a self-contained programming environment used for building standalone programs. The most popular version of it was VB 6.0, and this is what my VB lessons are for. It's old and out of date, but one of the most popular Basic programming languages ever created.

VB.NET

VB.NET is the new kid on the block. In 2002, VB was updated and expanded and became VB.NET. Like VB, it's a self-contained programming environment and is part of the Visual Studio suite. It's a completely different programming language and not compatible with either VB or VBA. VB.NET is part of Microsoft's Visual Studio and does have a free version.

VBA

VBA is short for Visual Basic for Applications. It is a close cousin to VB, however it is used within other applications like Word, Excel, and Access. If you want to learn how to write code for Access and Excel, this is what you want.

Classes

As far as the classes that I have online, my VB courses for Visual Basic 6.0 which was very popular back in it's day, but is no longer sold by Microsoft. You might be able to find an old copy on eBay or somewhere like that. But, be careful and make sure it's an original copy. Even though it's old, it's still a good, simple application to learn programming with (especially for beginners).

If you want to learn VBA for Microsoft Access, then I start covering that in Access Developer 1. I teach VBA specific to Access. I do have some VBA videos available for Excel, and I plan on making more in the near future. I do have plans to make VBA classes for the other Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.) and I'm also going to make a generic VBA language class the covers the syntax for ALL VBA applications (things like variables, loops, etc.) but that's still in development.

I do not currently have lessons for VB.NET, but my colleague, Alex Hedley, has released this course. 

Compare and Contrast

Other Types of Basic

There are also some 3rd-party Visual Basic-like programs available, like twinBasic. I may make tutorials for those too. Again, still in planning.

If you have a favorite version of Basic that you like, post a comment about it down below!

Learn More

If you want to learn more about any of these topics, check out these links.

• VB 101 - Visual Basic 101 for VB6 (Free)
• Microsoft Access Developer Level 1 (VBA)
• Introduction to VBA (Free)
• VB.NET Beginner Level 1 by Alex Hedley (Free)

And of course if you have any questions, please post them below. Thanks.

LLAP
RR

Updated: April 2024