Visual Basic: Windows Programming
Learn Visual Basic in FREE step-by-step lessons.
Arithmetic Operations
Arithmetic operators
Visual Basic has the following operators:
Operator |
Purpose |
Example |
Result |
+ |
addition |
5+3 |
8 |
- |
minus |
5-3.0 |
2.0 |
* |
multiplication |
5*3 |
15 |
/ |
division |
/2 |
4.5 |
\ |
integer division |
9\2 |
4 |
Mod |
remainder |
14 Mod 3 |
2 |
^ |
exponentiation |
5^2 |
25 |
An actual program would not use a statement such as n=5+3 it would save time to simply use n=8. An actual program would be more likely to use variables: n=a+b for example.
Note that there is a
times, or
multiplication, operator: *. In algebra, variables are always a single
letter, XY in algebra means X times Y. In programming, variables can be several letters, and we could
not be sure whether XY meant X times Y or a variable called XY.
Remainder: Mod
The Mod operator is used to find the remainder. Before children learn about decimal numbers, they may
give the answer to division problems as:
"17 divided by 5 is 3 with a remainder of 2" Note that 17/5 results in 3.4, while 17 Mod 5 results in 2. If we want to get just the integer part of a division we need to use the int function: Int(17 / 5) will result in 3.
You can test any of these operations in Visual Basic with the form load event:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Me.Text =17 \ 5
End Sub
End Class
Please study the material at each of the links below.
- The mod operator: remainder
- finding dozens
- Order of operations
- Drill: Order of operations
- calculate grade
- Algebra to code
- Decimal values on scroll bars
- Random Numbers
Glossary for arithmetic lessonFull Glossary