Computer Programming Concepts and Visual Basic David I. Schneider

6.1 CREATING AND ACCESSING ARRAYS
A variable (or simple variable) is a name to which Visual Basic can assign a single value. An
array variable is a collection of simple variables of the same type to which Visual Basic can
efficiently assign a list of values.
Consider the following situation. Suppose you want to evaluate the exam grades for 30
students. Not only do you want to compute the average score, but you also want to display
the names of the students whose scores are above average. You might place the 30 pairs of
student names and scores in a data file and run the program outlined.
Private Sub cmdButton_Click()
Dim student1 As String, score1 As Single
Dim student2 As String, score2 As Single
Dim student3 As String, score3 As Single
.
.
Dim student30 As String, score30 As Single
’Analyze exam grades
Open “SCORES.TXT” For Input As #1
Input #1, student1, score1
Input #1, student2, score2
Input #1, student3, score3
.
.
Input #1, student30, score30
‘Compute the average grade
.
.
‘Display names of above average students
.
.
End Sub
This program is going to be uncomfortably long. What’s most frustrating is that the 30 Dim
statements and 30 Input # statements are very similar and look as if they should be condensed
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