GWBASIC User's Manual

GW-BASIC User's Guide
INPUT Statement
Purpose:
To prepare the program for input from the terminal during program execution.
Syntax:
INPUT[;][prompt string;] list of variables
INPUT[;][prompt string,] list of variables
Comments:
prompt string is a request for data to be supplied during program execution.
list of variables contains the variable(s) that stores the data in the prompt string.
Each data item in the prompt string must be surrounded by double quotation marks, followed by a
semicolon or comma and the name of the variable to which it will be assigned. If more than one
variable is given, data items must be separated by commas.
The data entered is assigned to the variable list. The number of data items supplied must be the
same as the number of variables in the list.
The variable names in the list may be numeric or string variable names (including subscripted
variables). The type of each data item input must agree with the type specified by the variable
name.
Too many or too few data items, or the wrong type of values (for example, numeric instead of
string), causes the message "?Redo from start" to be printed. No assignment of input values
is made until an acceptable response is given.
A comma may be used instead of a semicolon after prompt string to suppress the question mark.
For example, the following line prints the prompt with no question mark:
INPUT "ENTER BIRTHDATE",B$
If the prompt string is preceded by a semicolon, the RETURN key pressed by the operator is
suppressed. During program execution, data on that line is displayed, and data from the next
PRINT statement is added to the line.
When an INPUT statement is encountered during program execution, the program halts, the
prompt string is displayed, and the operator types in the requested data. Strings that input to an
INPUT statement need not be surrounded by quotation marks unless they contain commas or
leading or trailing blanks.
When the operator presses the RETURN key, program execution continues.
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