What langues do I need to know to be successful as a RPA Dev

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Hello,

I am new to RPA and want to know what are the languages that I should be learning so that I can be a good RPA dev and become job ready?

Thanks,
Domnic

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VB.Net and C# are the two main ones. They’re very similar so learning one will mean that you know a good chunk of the other.

Most modern object-oriented languages offer similar capabilities. What you really need to learn (even more so than a specific language) is the fundamental concepts, because these won’t change. Before diving headfirst into VB.Net or C# I would recommend looking around for a non-language-specific tutorial to help familiarize you with the overarching concepts of programming, if you aren’t already familiar.

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@DanielMitchell, Thanks for responding. So, I will have to watch some video which teach concepts of programming. Anything you suggestion?

Regards,
Domnic

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Nothing in particular. I’d check out Youtube and just try a couple videos to see who has content that you can learn from.

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Understood :+1: I have a understanding about different data types and few other things.

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Hi @domnic

Right now UIPATH using VB.Net as a stable languages but they will also incorporate C# as well
It’s your choice that’s why they create an option button for you to choose whats best for you.

image

cheers :smiley:

Happy learning :smiley:

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@pattyricarte Thanks for the info. I will try and learn C# first maybe. Forgot to mention I don’t have previous experience on programming.

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@domnic
I actually do have a suggestion, I remembered a tool I used to learn.

I used Codecademy a few years back, and I remember it being pretty good. Most of the main courses are completely free and run in the browser so you don’t need to worry about compiling code right off the bat.

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Hi @domnic
Yes C# is good also here some link that might be helpful to you using UiPath Studio

cheers :smiley:

Happy learning :smiley:

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Thanks @DanielMitchell. I’m watching some videos on Udemy which teaches about UiPath

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Thanks for the link @pattyricarte I will check it out. Right now i’m following a course on Udemy for UiPath.

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Is there any place where I can get some requirements and practice building bots for different scenario ?

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@domnic
There’s a Challenge category here on the Forum, but most of those are going to be fairly difficult to do.

You can search on the RPA Rookies forum for ideas or just make some up. Here’s what I have off the top of my head:

  1. Read new emails and save the contents as a word doc.
  2. Read data from an excel table, sort it, and write it back.
  3. Combine two spreadsheets in excel.
  4. Given a random word/phrase, google it and store the links from the first page of results.
  5. Get stock prices for several companies and append to an excel file.
  6. Search LinkedIn/Indeed for RPA-related jobs and email them to you.
  7. Email/text you if there is a weather advisory.

etc…

Start off by doing little thing: read/write emails, read/write excel, etc and then start chaining them together.

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There is a lot you can do in scripting languages. It might be beneficial to focus on specific things you want to do with the language.

First, have the mindset that you can pretty much do anything if you think you should be able to do it.

RPA is done mostly with drag and drop steps that removes most programming code, but to be truly robust in your design, it will help to learn certain things:

  • When to use Variables and the order that they are declared in (scopes), and the most common data types that you would use in business (Boolean, String, Int32, Int64, Double, DateTime, DataTable, DataRow, Object, Arrays, etc)
  • Data Type conversion, mostly in order to change strings to numbers or dates. Type Convert., and the period will list all the things you can do for conversion.
  • Variable manipulation, mainly to adjust strings, datetimes, arrays, and datatables. When you type the variable name followed by a period, you will get a list. Also, when you select something from the list, the syntax will be shown after you type a ‘(’. - You don’t actually need to memorize this stuff. Tab key will fill in the selected member from the list to type things out super fast.
  • Conditions, like checking if a variable is in certain format which is required before you can convert it to a type. Order of operations is helpful too using parenthesis when needed, like AND, OR, ANDALSO, IS, ISNOT
  • Inline If statements. While there is an If activity, you can’t use an activity for everything otherwise your project becomes a mess of activities. If(arr isNot Nothing AndAlso arr.Count > 0, arr(0), Nothing) is just an example of checking if the arr has been set then checks if it also has items, in order to use a value or condition. Without these checks, it will fail if the arr variable was not set or is empty.
  • When you should use certain types of loops, but you can use the activities for this.
  • Get Filepaths and Directories, and combine directory with filename to make filepaths. System.IO type stuff.
  • How to troubleshoot problems by checking what values, you can make this up as you go, but you can simply use Message Boxes to pause the automation or WriteLine, or use Debug mode (which I don’t even really use much)

Long story short, if you type a period next to a variable or member (like System. or Convert.), you get a list of members that can be used. Then, type the first few characters of the member and type Tab to fill it out; type a period again if there are more members that can be used. Then, finally type a ‘(’ to see its syntax and what type of data it returns. When you don’t know what a member is used for, then go to google and look it up in .net (or C# if you use the new feature)

That one simple idea will get you curious and you will learn as you go.

Those are just some added thoughts on this. :laughing:

Regards.

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Hi @ClaytonM, thanks for all the info you shared. Few part I dint understand but once i start off I will learn more for sure.

Just want to understand your thought. If I had to ask you should I learn .Net or C# what would you suggest and why?

Regards,
Domnic

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It doesn’t matter to be honest. The language everyone is wanting to learn these days is either Python or C#.

RPA, in general, depends on the tool you use. For UiPath, I think you need an understanding of VB and .net or C#.

Scripting is all the same, just the syntax is a little different. If you can’t remember the syntax of one language, you can always look it up.

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Got it. I’ll start with C# maybe, sign up for a online course but then getting completing the course is one thing and being able to use it another thing, right!

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Goodluck to us @domnic. I’m also a newbie and have a little knowledge about (vb6) programming but it was 10 years ago in college. Lol.

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All the best @dimpzdhel and
How do you plan on learning UiPath?

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