Tech IQ: How Well Do You Know Visual Basic.NET 2012?

Hi everyone. I have a project that I was going to hire an individual to create, but decided that I'd push it to the community (all of you) instead. I still do need one person who is preferably a Microsoft MVP to help pull this together (PM or email me if interested), but otherwise, I was going to use this thread to garner the info.

What's the plan?

I want to create a new Tech IQ based on the subject line. This will be a set of multiple choice questions that test someone's knowledge of Visual Basic.NET 2012. Some of these questions should start easy to test basic concepts and then we'll include harder questions too. In the end, the person will be scored. The scores can be given 3 results. For example, if we end up with 30 questions, A score of 29-30 would be "Excellent - A true VB expert", a score of 25-28 would be "A Proven VBer", and a score of 24 or less would be a "Fail". Once we have figured out the questions and number of questions, we can then determine what the appropriate breaks are for the three groups.

So what are we doing in this thread?

If you have a question to suggest, then post a response. Include the following:

(1) text: NEW QUESTION or UPDATED (##)
(this is straight text so we know if it is a new or updated question. If an update, add the post number for the question you are updating or commenting on.

(2) Question: < the actual question>
This will be the question and then the answers. Any format can be used for a question and we can include pictures, code snippets, and anything that basic HTML formatting can handle. This is true of the answers too.

(3) CORRECT: This is the answer that is correct. If you label your answers (a), (b), etc. then you can just state which one.

(4) ERROR: This is information about the correct answer. This is the text that displayed when a person answers wrong. It can include any markup, images, code snippets, etc. It should explain a little bit about the right answer and can include information on why the bad answers were wrong.

(5) Difficulty: Include a difficulty rating from 1 to 10, where 1 is easy and 10 is hard.

That's it. For an example, you can go to http://www.codeguru.com/quizzes/

Questions about what we are doing? Post those in this thread too.

< this is simply a sample. Not real question >

NEW Question:
Which of the following are valid keywords in Visual Basic.NET 2012?

(a) async, while, do, int, virtual
(b) async, while, do, int, virtual
(c) async, while, do, int, virtual
(d) async, while, do, int, virtual
(e) async, while, do, int, virtual

CORRECT: (d)

ERROR MSG:
Keywords in Visual Basic 2012 include xxxx, yyy, and zzz. For Visual Studio 2012, nnnn is not a keyword. Rather it is a C# keyword.

DIFFICULTY: 2

It looks good, but really can't understand the logic behind these objective type questions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by annaharris

It looks good, but really can't understand the logic behind these objective type questions.

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To test a person's knowledge....?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by annaharris

It looks good, but really can't understand the logic behind these objective type questions.

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Maybe because it's rather complicated to give a computerized rating on the answer if the questions would be subjective. I can't really understand the logic behind your post... :)

if someone can come up with 30 objective multiple choice questions, I can provide the quiz interface + scoring system.
@JA. are you coordinating this?

Good idea but I am curious, how do you stop someone from using Google while taking the test ? Do you disable access to the Internet ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevininstructor

Good idea but I am curious, how do you stop someone from using Google while taking the test ? Do you disable access to the Internet ?

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Would you want to? If I was giving someone a test and someone didn't know the answer then going to the internet and being able to find it would be something that I'd definitely like to know was in their arsenal. If you're worried that someone with 0 knowledge is going to come in and take the test then making it timed would weed out the ones who are searching too much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MattP

Would you want to? If I was giving someone a test and someone didn't know the answer then going to the internet and being able to find it would be something that I'd definitely like to know was in their arsenal. If you're worried that someone with 0 knowledge is going to come in and take the test then making it timed would weed out the ones who are searching too much.

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If I was giving a test the Internet would be disconnected. There are developers out there that can not function w/o access to say Google or MSDN etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .paul.

@JA. are you coordinating this?

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This is Brad's baby. As I understand it he just wants to get help getting some questions and answers formatted in the way he showed in post #2 above. If he needs any other assistance I'm prepared to give a hand.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevininstructor

There are developers out there that can not function w/o access to say Google or MSDN etc.

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But why do you care whether they can function w/o access to Google or MSDN? Surely you care how well they can function when in the work environment, which generally will include access to Google and MSDN.

Yeah, someone who doesn't need to Google Every. Last. Thing. is going to be more productive, but that would show up on the scale of "how well" they can function. If they're very proficient with Google and MSDN so they can get the right answer really quickly, would it matter?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evil_Giraffe

But why do you care whether they can function w/o access to Google or MSDN? Surely you care how well they can function when in the work environment, which generally will include access to Google and MSDN.

Yeah, someone who doesn't need to Google Every. Last. Thing. is going to be more productive, but that would show up on the scale of "how well" they can function. If they're very proficient with Google and MSDN so they can get the right answer really quickly, would it matter?

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It was only a question. But let's dig a little deeper with two examples that I got positions from. The first was a test for a Clipper position, no Internet access, just Brief editor, if I remember correctly I was choosen out of about 10 people because the others needed outside resource for simple operations, nothing complex. The second example, got a job where after taking the test there was no viable solution to the problem given to me for a Delphi position. After the test was done they asked me how did I get to a conclusion. I really like this test so we have been using a similar test here where I work and each time poor canidates were weeded out bringing the cream of the crop to the top which would then go to a panel interviewing the prospects. Not saying this works for everyone but it does for us. What I care about is how someone can work thru a problem and understand that anyone that is good at some point needs things like Google etc.

Are you only looking for questions relevant to the changes between 2010 and 2012?

I guess I wouldn't be very good at it since I spend most my time stuck in the stone age... VB6.

I dunno if this could be used as a question or not but it might work for a question for vb coders in general to see if they can tell what the code will produce you could have some of the questions be like this. My example question here would be pretty easy for someone who can read vb codes to answer after looking at it for a bit but would be pretty hard for someone to guess correctly if they can't read it. I dunno if this will be any help to you but thought I'd throw a question out since no one else gave you anything at all to go with yet even though this might not be what your looking for I still wanted to try to help you out.

NEW Question:
Which of the fallowing is the correct file created by this code. (L1.-L3. = the text lines created on the text file.)
http://i42.tinypic.com/otn2hz.png

Code:

---

               
                Dim Root As String
                Root = Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
                Dim i2 As Integer
                W = New IO.StreamWriter(Root & "ProgramData\Backup\" & "Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt")
                For i2 = 0 To ListBox1.Items.Count - 1
                    W.WriteLine(ListBox1.Items.Item(i2))
                Next
                W.Close()

---

(a) Root.txt and the text in the file would say L1.333 L2.222 L3.111
(b) 333222111Backup.txt and the text in the file would say L1.333 L2.222 L3.111
(c) Backup3.txt and the text in the file would say L1.333 L2.222 L3.111
(d) Backup321.text and the text file would say L1.Backup333 L2.Backup222 L3.Backup111
(e) i2Root.text and the text file would say L1.ProgramData L2.Backup L3.123

CORRECT: (c)

ERROR MSG:


DIFFICULTY: 1

Shouldn’t that be something more along the lines of

Code:

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Dim root As String = Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())

Using w As New StreamWriter(Root & "ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt")
    For Each item In ListBox1.Items
        w.WriteLine(item)
    Next
End Using

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? Anyways… ignoring some other things for the moment, you have to consider how the options can be narrowed down… this one’s obvious to anyone who can read file paths, so…

Quote:

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Originally Posted by minitech

Shouldn’t that be something more along the lines of

Code:

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Dim root As String = Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())

Using w As New StreamWriter(Root & "ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt")
    For Each item In ListBox1.Items
        w.WriteLine(item)
    Next
End Using

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? Anyways… ignoring some other things for the moment, you have to consider how the options can be narrowed down… this one’s obvious to anyone who can read file paths, so…

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I personally prefer the this way...

vb Code:

IO.File.WriteAllText("\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt", join(ListBox1.items.toarray, vbcrlf))

:)
... also may be less obvious too (for someone who doesn't know what their doing)? ... I find it faster to read and type, but think it would be slightly harder to step through the procedures logic to other programmers?

Kris

Edit:

maybe something like this:

What does the following do:

Regex.replace(sometext, "<(\w+)[^>]*?>\s*?</\1>", function(x) len(x.match)^4, ignorecase)

A. replaces "<(\w+)[^>]*?>\s*?</\1>" with 22
B. replaces all empty html tags with with the number of their length to the power of four
C. replaces all html tags with with the number of their length to the power of four
D. replaces all len(x.match)^4 with the regex "<(\w+)[^>]*?>\s*?</\1>"

Answer B

Or this:

Dim result = (From xItem In items Where TypeOf xItem Is Something AndAlso Math.Pow(DirectCast(xItem, Something).People, 4) = SomeNumber)

Which of the following statements has the same effect as the above:

A
B
C
D Dim result = items.OfType(Of Something)().Where(Function(x) x.People ^ 4 = SomeNumber)

Answer D .. yes I know that's the only one but.. couldn't be assed writing the other possibilities atm.. is 4:19am here ... but may give you an idea

Kris

I think the modern way is

Code:

---

Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"

IO.File.WriteAllLines(path, ListBox1.Items)

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Er, does that work? If not:

Code:

---

Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"

IO.File.WriteLines(path, From x In ListBox1.Items Select x.ToString())

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by minitech

I think the modern way is

Code:

---

Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"

IO.File.WriteAllLines(path, ListBox1.Items)

---

Er, does that work? If not:

Code:

---

Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"

IO.File.WriteLines(path, From x In ListBox1.Items Select x.ToString())

---

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or even:

Code:

---

Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"
IO.File.WriteAllLines(path, ListBox1.Items.Cast(Of Object).Select(Function(o) ListBox1.GetItemText(o)).ToArray)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by .paul.

or even:

Code:

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Dim path = "\ProgramData\Backup\Backup" & ListBox1.Items.Count & ".txt"
IO.File.WriteAllLines(path, ListBox1.Items.Cast(Of Object).Select(Function(o) ListBox1.GetItemText(o)).ToArray)

---

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Are we trying to write the code in one line? :D

Code:

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IO.File.WriteAllLines(System.IO.Path.Combine(Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "ProgramData\Backup\Backup", String.Format("{0}.{1}", ListBox1.Items.Count.ToString(), "txt")), ListBox1.Items.Cast(Of Object).Select(Function(o) o.ToString()))

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Have fun with that mess :D


EDIT: Don't need the NewLine call, duh. WriteAllLines() for a reason :D

I just took the how basic is your visual basic quiz and scored a 7/10. One was the very first question and it was because I misread, which I'm not to upset about. The other two where on Win8 development which the quiz was obviously promoting. I haven't done any Win8 development because, well I don't have Windows 8.

i think so many change. that for tags vs 2012?or this we make question for test knowledge on vs 2012. sorry much question.

We should start a new thread and use it to create a new set of questions for a new Tech IQ or Two. We could do one on VB2013, one on VB in general, etc.

Once a thread solidifies the questions, I can have them posted into a Tech IQ, and then we can hide the thread so people don't find it and cheat!

I know this is a old thread, but I just have to comment on something here:
Kevin is worried about people using Google to find the answer of the test !! What is the aim of the test? Are you going to hire people if they are smart? Hiring people like that ?!
It is so ironic : "This VB.Forum is a place where people (like me) come to talk about VB.net and to help each other...", or am I wrong, so placing a Question-base on a help forum where people came in the first place to get help, is just a TOOL OF TEACHING.
If you are trying to post questions just to show people that they are VB.net illiterate , then I am in the wrong place.
Looks to me that some people would like to be known as 'VB.net- Experts' , and then prove that no-one else can obtain the knowledge.

I am a teacher, and the way that I teach my students is to show them how explore and investigate. This DOES involve using the Internet and Google (and even this forum) Why are these tools available? Only for the smart few that does not need it?

Of course when a person is sitting in a company confronted with a coding task that is beyond his knowledge, he should be able to find help in any which way.. even GOOGLE.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marius40

I know this is a old thread, but I just have to comment on something here:
Kevin is worried about people using Google to find the answer of the test !! What is the aim of the test? Are you going to hire people if they are smart? Hiring people like that ?!
It is so ironic : "This VB.Forum is a place where people (like me) come to talk about VB.net and to help each other...", or am I wrong, so placing a Question-base on a help forum where people came in the first place to get help, is just a TOOL OF TEACHING.
If you are trying to post questions just to show people that they are VB.net illiterate , then I am in the wrong place.
Looks to me that some people would like to be known as 'VB.net- Experts' , and then prove that no-one else can obtain the knowledge.

I am a teacher, and the way that I teach my students is to show them how explore and investigate. This DOES involve using the Internet and Google (and even this forum) Why are these tools available? Only for the smart few that does not need it?

Of course when a person is sitting in a company confronted with a coding task that is beyond his knowledge, he should be able to find help in any which way.. even GOOGLE.

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That's all a bit high-horsey. The point was to test someone's knowledge. It's not about teaching or learning; it's about testing. Sure, you encourage your students to use tools like web search engines but do you let them use Google when they're sitting an exam?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

Sure, you encourage your students to use tools like web search engines but do you let them use Google when they're sitting an exam?

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I DO let my students use the VS help. They should be able to master the tool(s) that they are using (going to use) under every condition. If a student spends to much time on the help, he is going to penalize himself on time in any case.!! As you know, programming and time management are very closely related. I even let them create their own library of often used programming snippets. This is called 'recycling' and a MUST for all programmers.

People should know that programming is not just about 'slinging code', it is also about logical thinking and analyzing a problem. Programmers are problem solvers, and not 'code junkies'. Knowing all the commands in VB.net, does help, but does not make a programmer!!

The idea is that in real life we ALL make use of the tools we are provided with.
If you are an engineer, do you use calculators and books?
Even my doctor has a book in which he looks up certain symptoms!. Am I going to died because my doctor can't remember all of the thousands of symptoms to thousands of deceases? NO!!.
I am not 'High horsey', am just concerned that certain people on the forum just what to forget that they themselves where starting somewhere... even you!!
Helping and teaching is what this is supposed to be about. If you give a person a small piece of code, are you helping him? FOR SURE... just also point him/her in the correct direction on how to apply this ...

I am not fighting, just make a comment..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marius40

I DO let my students use the VS help. They should be able to master the tool(s) that they are using (going to use) under every condition. If a student spends to much time on the help, he is going to penalize himself on time in any case.!! As you know, programming and time management are very closely related. I even let them create their own library of often used programming snippets. This is called 'recycling' and a MUST for all programmers.

People should know that programming is not just about 'slinging code', it is also about logical thinking and analyzing a problem. Programmers are problem solvers, and not 'code junkies'. Knowing all the commands in VB.net, does help, but does not make a programmer!!

The idea is that in real life we ALL make use of the tools we are provided with.
If you are an engineer, do you use calculators and books?
Even my doctor has a book in which he looks up certain symptoms!. Am I going to died because my doctor can't remember all of the thousands of symptoms to thousands of deceases? NO!!.
I am not 'High horsey', am just concerned that certain people on the forum just what to forget that they themselves where starting somewhere... even you!!
Helping and teaching is what this is supposed to be about. If you give a person a small piece of code, are you helping him? FOR SURE... just also point him/her in the correct direction on how to apply this ...

I am not fighting, just make a comment..

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Everything you are saying, we already know. We don't need your comment. Noone here thinks that using Google to solve programming issues is a bad thing. This one six-month-old thread is about a tool for testing knowledge. It's a bad idea to let people use Google while taking such a test because it would then be testing their searching skills rather than their knowledge. That's it. You're drawing illogical, unjustified and untrue conclusions about this site based on one old thread that you seem to be misinterpreting.

Whats so bad about using Google? They are the ones suffering from it!
One would take this test with the willingness to test their own knowledge.

Yes that is true, but then one has to be offered a different opinion because of the fact that stands in the end-users face and that is what about being a totally diverse type of operating system to be programmed on many different types of IDEs, like Cobol, Pascal, C, BASIC and Fortran. All of these mean in relation to being used from say Yahoo! and Google, you will be totally messed with if you change your language. So then keep with what you know and then nothing bad will happen. That is the stuff that I go by and then as a programmer of a small business that I hold at my home/office and which now I am the only full time programmer there. I guess that you can say that if you change your type of language for even one project, you will have problems trying to adapt more later version source code to the Application, program even build file, too. Which in relation to this is a major problem that I even suffer from when writing for newer version software that has been written on a obselt version of an IDE that is so far out of date that it is impossible to gain any up to date access of support from even Forums that have had support for it. Like for example the CodeGurus type of Website URL, which I am not going to link that website, cause I am not in touch with them anymore and then that would very much like being totally ludicrous to do so, at this point in time for the Visual Basic IDE, at that.

New Question
Is .caption or .text in VB 12.0?
Correct: the second one
Difficulty 1

Caption exist in VB 2012

Yes the .Caption property exists in nearly all of the COM Architecture and only a few of the .NET Frameworks

It does?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cow124

It does?

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This is the reason I'm a Junior.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cow124

New Question
Is .caption or .text in VB 12.0?
Correct: the second one
Difficulty 1

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I think this is a poor question ... .text or .caption is just a property ... so you could have a control with both... I have actually done this with a toolstrip text box that I made (as the built in one doesn't allow a "caption")... .text is the text that goes in the textbox, and caption is the text that appears before it!

... yes the standard is text... but that's irrelevant ... it's still just a property, and could be called .putyourcathere for all it matters

Kris

It's not necessarily a bad question. Especially for people that just came from VB6 where Caption was the default text property when the user couldn't directly edit it and Text was used for editable text (although MS wasn't completely consistent since a ToolbarButton had a Text property). Even though you can create a third party control that goes away from the standard, the Text property is pretty much standard in .Net (at least for Windows Forms).

ActiveX Control Object programming works like this in Visual Basic. You can write up a Control to work like this. When the text in inputted in txtText1 and appears inside the .Text property then it will automatically appear inside the .Caption property to just more or less before it appears in the .Text property, I guess seeing that .Text equals .Caption, so then it is totally possible to have the property .Caption and .Text to work together inside just about any kind of Visual Basic edition, version and also platform, too...

Code:

---

m_Caption = usercontrol.txtText1.Text

---

I don't understand what that had to do with anything. All the standard controls in Windows Forms that can display text has a Text property, not a Caption property. That you can create your own control with a Caption property is beside the point. You normally also don't create COM components in VB.Net (even though you can), you normally create regular .Net Assemblies, so I also don't understand what "ActiveX Control Object Programming" has anything to do with the fact that the control have a Text property. ActiveX is a very vague name that the marketing team at MS came up with, but is usually connected to COM.

So then what is the .NET and # type of componentry names, just wanting to know. Cause I thought that they were the very same here with the naming conventions of the Controls...

C# is really named C#.Net just as VB is named VB.Net, however since there never been a C# that isn't for the .Net framework it's was easier for people to just drop the .Net part. But yes, just like ActiveX, .Net doesn't really say anything except that they are labels for a broad technology.