Programming languages are evolving for the sake of simplicity. The computer doesn’t understand the human language, so we need machine language to understand. A programming language is a set of instructions or codes that a computer can follow accordingly.
With the increasing complexity of codes, programmers or developers are coming out with new programming languages to make the previous problems simpler.
Before knowing how to convert VB6 to C#, let us briefly discuss thechanges in programming languages from Visual Basic to C#.
What is BASIC?
BASIC stands for Beginners’ All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It is a programming language that was designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz in 1964. They invented this language so that students other than science and mathematics could use the computer.
The purpose of this language was to be easy for everyone. This language was first released at Dartmouth College.
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is a third-generation programming language from Microsoft. They designed this language to be easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC with some advanced features. This programming language was comparatively new, released in 1991.
In 2008, the latest version of VB, which is Visual Basic 6 was released. In 2016, Visual Basic 6.0 won the technical impact award at The 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.
Visual Basic .NET
Visual Basic .NET is the successor of Visual Basic. It was released by Microsoft back in 2002. There was some debate on whether Visual Basic .NET should be called a programming language as it is modified from Visual Basic.
What is C#
C# and Visual Basic .NET both languages are made to program in .NET framework. The first version of C# was released in 2000 by Microsoft. C# and Visual Basic .NET are similar. The only difference is in syntax.
They are both developed, managed, and supported by the same language development team at Microsoft. They are very similar; almost every feature of VB6 has an equivalent feature in C#.
Why Convert VB6 to C#
Everything started from BASIC. BASIC is outdated, and people switched to VB6. Then VB.NET came, and people moved to VB.NET. Visual Basic.NET and C# are similar. At first, programmers were against using C# as they thought it was less “human readability.”
Afterward, they realized C# was better, so they started using C#. There’s not much competition between VB.NET and C# as both are developed similarly to work on the .NET framework.
Even though VB6 is outdated and people nowadays hardly use it, codes written in VB6 is still running is different things around the world. But programmers are thinking about changing those codes into C# codes. It will become hard to find someone who can code on VB6 or modify VB6 codes soon. This is why it is essential to convert VB6 to C#.
How to Convert VB6 to C#
Simply put, there is no straightforward way of converting VB6 codes to C# codes. This is a tricky process, but not impossible. Different languages come with different instructions and syntaxes. It is not easy to convert any language to another in a simple way. Here are the steps to do it.
Step 1: VB6 to VB.NET
To convert VB6 to C#, firstly, you need to convert your code into VB.NET code. There are few converters available online where you can convert VB6 to VB.NET. But these converters might not give accurate results. For complex codes, it becomes difficult for the converters to convert codes.
Step 2: VB.NET to C#
When you get VB.NET code, then you can again convert them into C#. You might face a similar problem again; online converters are not efficient enough to convert complicated or complex codes.
The arrays in VB.NET are converted into Functions in C#; the logical operations will be converted into bitwise logical operators. You might all lose a lot of essential codes.
Even if you use a converter, you have to check and update the codes manually. The things that need to be checked are the following:
- Check if the data type is converted correctly
- If the constants are equivalent in the new language
- Functions are not turned into something else
- Operators are following the new language’s syntaxes
- Objects in VB.NET is converted into objects in C#
Conclusion
It can take months if you want to convert a complex VB6 code into C# code. Its best practice to write code in C# in the first place. Though correcting codes should be avoided if possible, but sometimes there’s no other way. It takes twice or thrice times to convert a code than to write one. You can also find professionals to help you with how to convert VB6 to C#.
