What You Should Know Now — and What's Next

What You Should Know Now

• Variables, data types, conversions, and why Option Strict On matters
• Strings, numbers, operators, If, Select Case, and every kind of loop
• Arrays, Sub and Function procedures, and parameter passing
• Classes, properties, constructors, shared members, inheritance, and interfaces
• Structures, enums, collections, generics, lambdas, and LINQ
• Exceptions, files, dates, regular expressions, and nullable values
• Events and delegates, tuples, and anonymous types
• Async/Await, tasks, iterators, extension methods, and XML literals
• JSON, data access, Windows Forms, and VBA in Office
• How VB6 became VB.NET, mixing VB and C#, testing, and deployment

What Should You Learn Next?

• C# — C# runs on the same .NET platform, uses the same libraries, and gets every new .NET feature first. With your VB knowledge, most of the learning is new syntax.
• F# — F# is the functional-first .NET language; it will change how you think about data and errors.
• PowerShell — PowerShell automates Windows and Office administration and is built on .NET, so your knowledge of the class library carries straight over.
• SQL — SQL is the natural partner for the business and database applications VB is often used for.
• Classic BASIC — BASIC shows where Visual Basic came from.

Build Something

Pick a real task from work or home — a report you build by hand, an Excel workbook that needs automating, a small tool for your team — and build it in Visual Basic. If you maintain existing VB code, practice the modernization steps from Level 3 on a small part of it, with tests first.