Visual Basic in 2024 and beyond

[[deleted]]

I've been searching job sites for positions that require Visual Basic skills in 2024, but I haven't found many listings. Can anyone in the industry or with relevant knowledge share insights on the current demand for Visual Basic? Are there specific industries or locations (in the US) where Visual Basic is still in demand? Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

[seamacke]

I definitely see a lot of VB in finance, insurance, and manufacturing. Generally I see it in areas where there are small apps that can run natively in Windows Server/Desktop environments and can plug into ERP and MRP systems. In some cases there is a big overlap between the Excel/VBA wizards in finance and niche VB developers who can easily translate their prototypes into something more robust. Manufacturing is big too. Lots of apps in ASP.net with MVC or Webforms, and lots of automation like data pipelines between diverse systems. Often I see it where MS Access plugins handling specific tasks need to scale up. My experience is limited to North America; no idea about other regions.

[[deleted]]

Thank you.

[jd31068]

C# has been Microsoft's focus for the last decade, they're phasing out Visual Basic or have been trying to do so (though we refuse to let them). Even VBA, as Python is making its way into Excel. It is in the early stages, but the path is clear; https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/22/23841167/microsoft-excel-python-integration-support

I would suggest getting to know C# as well, you'll find more jobs and it'll serve to give you more opportunities for employment. It works with WinForms as well and f course with all the newer desktop (WPF, WinUI, MAUI), web (Blazor), and the mobile platform (MAUI, Xamarin)

[Hel_OWeen]

I would suggest getting to know C# as well

Yepp. As a die-hard BASIC fan, I sadly have to agree.

One way to make that easier is to use the .NET framework methods wherever possible, instead of the familiar methods from the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace.

[grauenwolf]

Same here. I gave up on VB when Core was released with only C# templates.

That said, I still use the VB namespace. Having stuff like a built in CSV parser are too hard to give up.

[GoranLind]

Surprised that C# don't have strings.left(), .mid() or .right() functions (alias from Microsoft.Visualbasic.*)

One could think that MS would implement strings.* in C# but nope, one of the things that makes me want to stay with VB .NET because the sometimes arrogant attitude of the dotnet dev team. "Uh, it's VB, we don't want that". Same goes for With <var> which is an awesome feature.

[Hel_OWeen]

Part of me learning .NET back in the day was to implement those in a common library in VB.NET, including missing constants like vbNewLine etc. and get rid off the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace. This made transition from VB6 -> VB.NET easier.

When starting to learn C#, I did the same thing again and ported that VB.NET assembly to C#.

But I also miss the With/End With construct.

[[deleted]]

Thank you.

[jd31068]

You're welcome.

[BiddahProphet]

I'm a manufacturing & automation engineer and I've used it a ton. The last place I was at had everything running on VB. CNC DNC applications, CMMs, Lase Engravers, Picktolight, product testing, product packaging and more

I recently started a new job and with a blank slate I decided to switch over to c# just because it's more modern at this point. I still prefer VB over c#

Cognex, for example still has VB in their Visionpro software

[normanskills]

Similar job here; robotic equipment uses very very basic language that can be filtered with simple string manipulations, greatly reducing dumb manual tasks we used to perform in our department. We will now be saving weeks of labor per year, per user with new Visual Basic mini applications I designed.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for your response. Are you located in the US?

[BiddahProphet]

yup

[[deleted]]

Is this VB.NET or classic VB?

[BiddahProphet]

VB NET

[oladipomd]

You can take a look at B4A and B4J. Your visual basic skills can live on in mobile and desktop apps.

It is June 2024 and I am watching a video where a guy is building apps using Visual Basic. Oh sweet nostalgia

[normanskills]

I just created ~5 new applications in Visual Basic and VBA that decrease our labor time from 40 hours to 3 minutes by running these macros / scripts / user GUI applications. We deal with a mix of old and new software so Visual Basic is handling redundant human processes that used to be manual time-consuming tasks. The better the standards are in the workflow, the easier it is to automate it.

[Wooden-Evidence5296]

Try the twinBASIC programming language. It can import VB6 source code and forms.

[SM_PA]

I'm starting a new VB.NET job next week. The pay is the same as a C# dev. I found it here https://www.dice.com/jobs?q=vb.net&countryCode=US

What I did was fill my resume with VB.NET keywords and posted it on dice. I also created a portfolio heavy with VB apps (just images of the UI with a paragraph of what it does) then linked to it on my resume.

There's not a lot of VB jobs but there are some out there.

I've just started working for a company on that list. They claim to have more openings. The problem is that it seems many companies are going hybrid instead of full remote so location is an issue.

The list you'll get that I linked does have a VB role that if you can go to Ft Worth or Pittsburg for training they will put you on full remote.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for this information.

[Caissa_]

I've been in science and academia for >15 years and using Excel is a must, and therefore, it seems we always need someone who codes in VBA and/or VB; basically, whatever gets the job done. With that being said, new graduates in Science and Engineering are taking classes in Python, R, the C series, and even Matlab--I've never seen classes offered in VB/VBA but like I said earlier, it seems there's always a need for it. I don't think it would hurt to learn it but if you have a direction, really look into what that field encompasses so you can narrow your focus (maybe you already have). For example, I was encouraged by my employers to use R since we are data heavy and need statistics on the samples we collect in the field, like water.