Why Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications?
Visual Basic, as opposed to C or C++, is relatively easy to learn. It represents the evolution of the BASIC language that was first introduced in 1963 (Craig and Webb, 1997). Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) represents a specific implementation of VB. Visual Basic for Applications comes bundled with many software packages; it essentially provides an environment for software customization using the VB language. For example, to customize Microsoft Excel, you would write a series of VB commands in Excel’s VBA editor. The main differences between VB and VBA are: • You cannot build an executable program for distribution with VBA. • An application written in VBA would typically have references in it to some specific component of the software in which the application is embedded. For example, an Excel VBA application would most likely refer to the worksheet names of the workbook, and thus would be meaningless if not directly attached to that Excel workbook. Many commands work in VBA and VB
