Your First Program

Replace the contents of Program.vb with:

Module Program
    Sub Main()
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!")
        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Visual Basic.")
    End Sub
End Module

Run it with dotnet run.

Expected output

Hello, world!
Welcome to Visual Basic.

Line by line:

• Module Program ... End Module — a module is a container for code. Every VB statement lives inside a module or class.
• Sub Main() ... End Sub — Main is the entry point: the procedure that runs when the program starts. A Sub is a procedure that doesn't return a value.
• Console.WriteLine(...) — prints text followed by a new line. Console.Write prints without the new line.
• Strings go in double quotes. There are no semicolons: each statement is one line.

Case and spacing don't matter

VB is not case-sensitive: console.writeline works the same as Console.WriteLine, and Visual Studio fixes the capitalization for you. Indentation is for readability only.

Building a line in pieces

Module Program
    Sub Main()
        Console.Write("Loading")
        Console.Write("...")
        Console.WriteLine(" done")
        Console.WriteLine("Name: " & "Ada" & ", age: " & 36)
        Console.WriteLine($"Interpolated: {2 + 3}")
    End Sub
End Module

Loading... done
Name: Ada, age: 36
Interpolated: 5

& joins strings (and converts numbers to text). $"..." is an interpolated string: expressions in braces are evaluated and inserted.

Practice

Write a program that prints your name on one line, and on the next line "I am learning Visual Basic" built with & from two pieces.

Module Program
    Sub Main()
        Console.WriteLine("Ada")
        Console.WriteLine("I am learning " & "Visual Basic")
    End Sub
End Module

Ada
I am learning Visual Basic