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Microsoft's event-driven programming language. Used in legacy enterprise applications and Office VBA macros.
Microsoft released the original Visual Basic in 1991, and Alan Cooper — often called the "father of Visual Basic" — contributed the drag-and-drop form designer concept that made it revolutionary. Visual Basic democratized Windows application development by allowing programmers to build GUI applications by visually arranging controls and writing event-driven code in an approachable BASIC-derived syntax. VB6, released in 1998, became one of the most widely used programming languages in history, with millions of enterprise applications built for inventory management, point-of-sale systems, financial reporting, and internal business tools.
Microsoft transitioned to Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) in 2002 as part of the .NET Framework, fundamentally redesigning the language with full object-oriented capabilities, structured exception handling, and access to the entire .NET class library. VB.NET shares the .NET runtime with C#, meaning it can do nearly everything C# can, though Microsoft announced in 2020 that VB.NET would no longer receive new language features while remaining supported. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) persists as the macro language embedded in Microsoft Office — Excel VBA alone automates countless business workflows in finance, accounting, and operations worldwide.
The VBA editor ships with every copy of Office, making it arguably the most widely installed programming environment. Legacy VB6 applications still run in enterprises that have resisted migration, and VB.NET continues in active use for Windows desktop applications, ASP.NET web forms, and .NET libraries. The language's English-like syntax with keywords such as Dim, Sub, Function, and If...Then...End If remains among the most readable for non-professional programmers.
Visual Basic code often encodes critical business logic in legacy enterprise systems and Office VBA macros that lack automated testing. Comparing VB files catches modified form event handlers that change application workflow, altered SQL query strings in data access layers that may introduce injection vulnerabilities, changed Excel VBA macros that affect financial calculations, and updated module-level variables that shift application state management.
Teams maintaining decades-old VB applications need careful diffs since these systems often lack documentation and any change could affect untested code paths.
UtraDiff compares Visual Basic files in a diff editor with VB syntax highlighting, coloring Sub, Function, Dim, and class declarations distinctly. Side-by-side and inline views reveal changes to event handlers, form logic, and module-level variables.
The case-insensitivity toggle is especially relevant since VB is case-insensitive by design. Keyboard navigation jumps between changed regions for reviewing legacy enterprise application updates and Office VBA macro modifications efficiently.
Supported extensions: .vb .bas