In this lesson, I’ll discuss a very important part of the VB6 IDE, the Object Browser. Understanding the Object browser is essential if you are curious about all the libraries, functions, objects and practically everything of the language.
And its helpful as you get the library members in one place with their syntax and a little explanation. That is why giving you a complete lesson on this topic is good for you instead of just giving you an overview. A brief explanation was given in VB6 Tutorial 02: The IDE.
What is Object Browser?
Object Browser is simply a part of the VB6 IDE, a window where you get the details of every function/method, object, property, constant, class, module, enumerator, event and the libraries available in the VB6 development environment.
How to open the Object Browser?
Press F2 to open the Object Browser.
How to use the Object Browser?
You can search any member (e.g function, property, event etc) of the libraries or you can browse the library members of the language to learn about them. Select one and you can see the details along with its syntax below. In this way, you’ll get the overview of the VB6 language. You may want to search a particular module and learn about its members. Thus you can have an attempt to learn A to Z of the VB6 language, at least you can learn about some of them.
Language Libraries
In the Object Browser, you can see four libraries listed as:
- Stdole: OLE automation
- VB: Visual Basic objects and procedures
- VBA: Visual Basic for Applications
- VB RUN library: Visual Basic runtime objects and procedures, with an addition to your current project in the list
The Object Browser maintains a hierarchy such as the members fall under the Classes, and the Classes fall under the Libraries.
After going through the Object Browser, you notice that the Visual Basic language has really a large number of things, so it’s not really easy to master the language. You need to work very hard.