Hints and Recipes for VB6

 strTimeStamp = Date & " " & Format(Time, "HH:mm:ss")
 strMsg = strMsg & "date/time of request: " & Date & " " & Time & vbCrLf
 strSQLdate = Format(Date, "M/d/yyyy")

 With cboDelimiter
   .AddItem "TAB"
   .AddItem "PIPE"
   .AddItem "SPACE"
   .AddItem "fancy!"
 End With
 cboDelimiter = "TAB"

• must add 'reference' to "Microsoft Scripting Runtime"

 Dim fso As New FileSystemObject, fsoStream As TextStream
 Dim rec1, strLine, strFileSpec
 Dim cnt0 As Integer, tag1 As Integer
 strFileSpec = Environ("HOMEPATH") & "\My Documents\kaching.log"
 strLine = "kaching incident " & Date & " " & Format(time, "HH:mm:ss") & vbCrLf
 Set fsoStream = fso.CreateTextFile(strFileSpec, True)
 fsoStream.Write strLine
 fsoStream.Close
 Set fsoStream = Nothing: Set fso = Nothing

 If fso.FileExists(strFileSpec) Then
   Set fsoStream = fso.OpenTextFile(strFileSpec, 2)
 Else
   Set fsoStream = fso.CreateTextFile(strFileSpec, True)
 End If
 
 fsoStream.Write strLine
 fsoStream.Close
 Set fsoStream = Nothing: Set fso = Nothing

 ' strFileSpec, 1 : ForReading 2 : ForWriting  8 : ForAppending  

 Dim lblCaught As Label
 Set lblCaught = frmKaching.lblCaught
 frmKaching.WindowState = vbNormal
 lblCaught = "You've Been Naughty!"
 frmKaching.Show

 Public Sub LongDelay(intSeconds As Long)
   Dim cnt As Double
   cnt = Timer + intSeconds
   Do While Timer < cnt
     DoEvents
   Loop
 End Sub

The wrong way:

 if form1.visible = true then

The reason:

Due to the way an intrinsic variable instance works in VB, the line above will actually cause form1 to load. Forms are loaded automatically whenever referenced in code, whether loaded visibly or not.

Special thanks to a gentleman named Steve Gerrard who posted a correct sample script on another forum. His example works by going through a list of loaded forms and matching by the form name you are looking for.

 Public Function FormIsLoaded(FormName As String) As Boolean
   Dim oFrm As Form
   For Each oFrm In Forms
     If oFrm.Name = FormName Then
       FormIsLoaded = True
       Exit For
     End If
   Next oFrm
 End Function

lovely!

Often OptionButton controls are arranged in control arrays. To quickly find the index of the only selected OptionButton control apply this little math trick. The following example assumes there are 3 option buttons in a control array.

intSelected = Option(0).Value * 0 - Option(1).Value * 1 - Option(2).Value * 2

Note that the first operand is always zero, and you can simplify the above expression as follows:

intSelected = -Option(1).Value - Option(2).Value * 2

Credit to Ed Lampman for this VB trick.