 This allows both string variables, as well as arrays of strings, as both are represented internally by a computer word pointing to storage on a heap.In contrast, Atari BASIC copied the string-handling system of Hewlett-Packard BASIC, where the basic data type is a single character, and strings are arrays of characters.The side-effect of this design is that there are no true string arrays and each string variable must be DIMensioned before it can be used.