QBasic/Basic Input


Here is the syntax of the input command:





INPUT "What is your name"; name$


INPUT "What is your age", age

When a semicolon (;) is used after the text output to the user, a question mark (?) and space ( ) are added to the output. When a comma (,) is used, no question mark is added.

If a string is specified (e.g., 'name$'), anything the user enters before pressing the 'return' key will be accepted.

If a numeric variable (e.g., 'age') is specified, the user must enter a number. If any non-numeric key is entered, the error message "Redo from start" will be output and the INPUT command rerun.


INPUT "What is your name"; name$
PRINT "Hello, "; name$; 
INPUT "How old are you"; age
INPUT "What is your best computer game?", game$
PRINT "     name:"; name$
PRINT "      age:"; age; " years old"
PRINT "best game:"; game$


If a numerical variable is specified within the PRINT command, additional space is automatically added both before and after the number.

See also: LINE INPUT command to read a line of text from a file (and place the result in a string variable) or to input a series of variables (in which case any comma found will be treated as a delimiter between fields).


INPUT # uses an open file stream to collect data from the file itself. The file may be a data file, a bitmap, or a text file. The syntax is:

INPUT #file_stream, variable1 ; variable2$ ' more variables can be taken.

LINE INPUT is used to collect an entire line of a text file. Syntax:

LINE INPUT 1,file_line '1 is the file stream number. Can be any other number too.

WARNING: If input is taken beyond the file end, the error : "Input past end of file " is issued. You can use LOF and EOF functions to prevent errors. (LOF stands for LENGTH OF FILE while EOF stands for END OF FILE)