Easy Basic 1.0b - Free apache script

  RND ... Generate a random number <x

	
  SGN returns -1 (negative), 0 (for 0) or 1 (positive)
  SIN
  SQR ... SQRT in Excel formula & FORTRAN
  TAN

Other Functions ...

LEN(variable) ... returns the number of bytes required by a variable
LEN(string expression) ... returns the number of characters in a string
ASC("A") ... returns the ASCII code of "A";
             same as FORTRAN: ICHAR('A')
CHR$(64) ... returns the character corresponding to ASCII 64;
             same as FORTRAN: CHAR(64)
EOF(1) ... see if eof is reached in file/device #1 (true or false)
LOC(1) ... returns the number of bytes waiting in the input buffer
LOF(1) ... returns the number of bytes remaining in the output buffer

RSET ... right justify a string variable
LSET ... left justify a string variable
  ex. LSET NewVariable$ = oldvariable$
LTRIM$ ... strip away leading spaces
  ex. FOR i=1 to 5                   ... produce x(1) = ???
        i$ = LTRIM$(STR$(i))                     x(2) = ???
        PRINT "x("; i$; ") = ";                   :
        INPUT "", x(i)
      NEXT i
  ex. FOR i=1 to 5                   ... produce x(1) = ???
      PRINT "   a("; LTRIM$(STR$(i)); ")="; a(i)
      NEXT i

RTRIM$ ... strip away trailing spaces
           good for comparing fixed length and variable length strings
           ex. IF RTRIM$(fixed$) = variable$ THEN ...
INSTR(string1$, string2$)
  ... returns the position in string1 where string2 is found
      0 means no match
  ex. string1$ = "hi, class"
      string2$ = "class"
      PRINT INSTR(string1$, string2)  ... gives 5
INSTR(start_position%, string1$, string2$)
  ... returns the position in string1 where string2 is found
      start searching for matching at start_position%
      good for searching for multiple matching
LEFT$(string$, n%)  ... return the leftmost n% characters from string$
  ex. PRINT LEFT$("hi, class", 4)  ... gives "hi, "
RIGHT$(string$, n%) ... return the rightmost n% characters from string$
  ex. PRINT RIGHT$("hi, class", 4) ... gives "lass"
MID$(string$, start%, n%)
  ... return n characters from string$, starting at start
  ex. PRINT MID$("hi, class", 5, 2) ... gives "cl"
      MID$("hi, class", 1) = "H"  ... replace the 1st character with "H"
                                      gives "Hi, class"
      MID$("hi, class", 2) = "Go"  ... gives "Go, class"
STRING$(n, string$) ... generate string$ n% times
  ex. PRINT STRING$(20, "*")
STRING$(n, code%) ... generate string$ n% times
  ex. PRINT STRING$(20, 64)
SPACES$(n%)  ... generate n% blank spaces
LCASE$(string$) ... convert to lower case; good for case insensitive comparison
UCASE$(string$) ... convert to upper case; good for case insensitive comparison
  ex. DO
      resp$ = INPUT$(1)
      LOOP WHILE UCASE$(resp$) = "Y"

MKI$ ... convert an integer to string
  ex. New$ = MKI$(i)
MKS$ ... convert a real variable to string
  ex. New$ = MKS$(x!)
STR$ ... convert to string
  ex. a$ = STR$(45)  ... gives "45"
      a$ = STR$(i%)
VAL("45")       ... gives 45 (an integer)
  ex. i% = VAL("45")
      i% = VAL(string$)
      r! = VAL("1.2")
  ex. trick to ensure that the type is correct
      INPUT "enter n: ", n$ | n%=VAL(n$)

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Concatenation
  A$ = "hi,"
  B$ = " class"
  C$ = A$ + B$ --> gives "hi, class"
  C$ = C$ + A$ --> Add one character at a time

Integer division
  7/3  --> 2.33333
  7\3  --> 2
  9.6\2.4 --> 5 (i.e., 10\2 because real numbers are round off before
                 operation is performed.)
                 Not very accurate (bugs?)  0.5\1 --> 0
                                        but 1.5\1 --> 2
                                            2.5\1 --> 2
                                            3.5\1 --> 4
                (Use int(x+0.5) to round off instead.)
  7 MOD 3 --> 1

Precedence of Operations
  same as FORTRAN
  ^ ... exponentiation; same as FORTRAN **
        -x^2 means -(x^2) in VBA, but (-x)^2 in Excel formula!!

Assignment
  same as FORTRAN

Logical Operators -- Boolean expression, condition
  =   ... .EQ. in FORTRAN
  <>  ... .NE.
  >   ... .GT.
  <   ... .LT.
  >=  ... .GE.
  <=  ... .LE.
  0   ... .FALSE.
  -1  ... .TRUE.
  AND
  OR
  NOT()
  e.g. false = 0000000000000000 (an integer value of  0)
       true  = 1111111111111111 (an integer value of -1); true=1 in Excel worksheet!
       true  = or any nonzero value in condition testing, e.g.,
       "if 1 then" or "if -1 then"
       Variable type is the same as integer.
       PRINT 1=1 ... gives -1
  e.g., The following is very strange (in QBasic)!
      TRUE = 1                                  FALSE=0
      FALSE = NOT(TRUE)  ... gives -2, not 0    TRUE = NOT (FALSE) ... gives ?
                         ... gives 0 in VBA
  ex. CONST FALSE = 0, TRUE = NOT FALSE  ... good for readability or
                                             imitating FORTRAN
                                         ... not valid in VBA
  ex. Two strings can be compared based on ASCII values ... good for sorting

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONDITION, FLOW CONTROL

ELSEIF and ELSE part are optional
IF condition1 THEN    -+ ... same as FORTRAN: + IF (condition1) THEN
  statement1           |                      |   statement1
ELSEIF condition2 THEN |                      | ELSEIF (condition2) THEN
  statement2           |                      |   statement2
ELSEIF condition3 THEN |                      | ELSEIF (condition3) THEN
  statement3           |                      |   statement3
ELSE                   |                      | ELSE
  statement4           |                      |   statement4
END IF                -+                      + END IF

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON i GOSUB 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
  ... goto 10 if i=1, goto 20 if i=2, goto 30 if i=3 etc
  ... same as FORTRAN: GOTO (10, 20, 30, 40, 50) I
  ... unstructured; avoid

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR i=1 TO 5 + ... same as FORTRAN: +       DO label icount=1, 5
  statements  |                      |         statements
NEXT count   +                      + label CONTINUE
  ... The count variable may start with a negative integer.
  ... STEP other than 1 can be given.
  ... Infinite loop when STEP 0 is used. (This is not allowed in FORTRAN.)

FOR i=5 TO 1 STEP -1 + ... same as FORTRAN: +       DO label icount=5, 1, -1
  statements          |                      |         statements
NEXT count           +                      + label CONTINUE

Forced exist from FOR ... NEXT loop
FOR i=5 TO 1 STEP -1 + ... same as FORTRAN: +       DO label icount=5, 1, -1
  statements          |                      |        statements
  EXIT FOR            |                      |         if( ... ) goto 101
  statements          |                      |         statements
NEXT count           +                      + label CONTINUE
                                                   101   outside the loop

Counter is optional ...
  ex. FOR count=1 TO 5
        statements
      NEXT

Nesting ...
  ex. FOR i=1 TO 5
        FOR j=1 TO 10
          statements
        NEXT
      NEXT
  ex. FOR i=1 TO 5
        FOR j=1 TO 10
          statements
        NEXT j
      NEXT i
  ex. FOR i=1 TO 5
        FOR j=1 TO 10
          statements
      NEXT j, i       (list the most inner counter first)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHILE condition        label IF (condition) THEN
  statements                   statements
WEND                         ENDIF
                             GOTO label

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use EXIT DO within IF placed inside the loop to get out of the DO...LOOP
DO                       +
  statements             | infinite loop
  IF .. THEN EXIT DO     |
  statements             |
LOOP                     +

Test the condition first (thus, the statements in the loop may be completely skipped.)
DO WHILE condition + ... same as FORTRAN: + label IF (condition) THEN
  statements       |                      |         statements
LOOP               +                      |       END IF
                                          +       GOTO label

DO UNTIL condition + ... same as FORTRAN: + label IF (.not. condition) THEN
  statements       |                      |         statements
LOOP               +                      |       END IF
                                          +       GOTO label

Test the condition afterwards (thus, the statements in the loop are executed
at least once.)
DO                  +... same as FORTRAN: + label   statements
  statements        |                     +       IF (condition )GOTO label
LOOP WHILE condition+

DO                  +... same as FORTRAN: + label statements
  statements        |                     +       IF (.not. condition)GOTO label
LOOP UNTIL condition+

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INPUT/OUTPUT, FILES

PRINT (in QBasic, not VBA!)
  PRINT A; B  -- the 2nd item is separated from the 1st by a space.
                 (May show 2 spaces between numbers because there is also a
                  space before the positive number.)
  PRINT A, B  -- the 2nd item is printed at the next tab position
                 (multiples of 14).
  PRINT "A"; B --- the 2nd item is separated from the 1st string by 0 space.
                 (May show 1 space between the string and the number because
                  there is a space before the positive number.)
  PRINT A; + combine output of several PRINT statements on the same line.
  PRINT B  +
  PRINT A, + combine output of several PRINT statements on the same line.
  PRINT B  +
  PRINT       ... no argument ... print a blank line
  PRINT "character strings"
  PRINT logical expression  PRINT USING "###.###"; A   ... 123.456     same as F7.3
  PRINT USING "$$###.##"; A  ... $123.45 (note two $ signs so that the $ sign is next to the number)
  PRINT USING "#.###^^^^"; A ... 0.123E+03   same as E9.3
  PRINT USING "+###"; A      ... +123
  PRINT USING "##_! = factorial of ## = ##,###.##"; 10; 10; 123.44  ("_!" gives "!")
               ... 10! = factorial of 10 =      123.44
  fmt$ = "##_! = factorial of ## = ##,###.##" + same as the last line
  PRINT USING fmt$; 10; 10; 123.44            +
  PRINT "x("; i$; ") = "; using "##.#####^^^^"; x(i)
  PRINT using "##.#####^^^^"; a, b, c   ... repeat the same format


  PRINT "a"; SPC(10); "b"   ... skip 10 spaces between "a" and "b"
  PRINT "a"; TAB(10); "b"   ... print "b" on column 10

  LPRINT print data in DOS format  (<BR> is replaced by a linefeed(#13+#10))

Other Output Statements
  
  INPUT# 1, variable1

OPEN "filename" FOR OUPUT AS 1 ... same as open(1,file='filename',status='new')
  (existing file will be written over -- Be careful!)
OPEN "filename" FOR APPEND AS 1 ... append existing file
OPEN "filename" FOR INPUT AS 1 ... same as open(1,file='filename',status='old')
OPEN "filename" FOR RANDOM AS 1 ... random acess file
OPEN "filename" FOR BINARY AS 1 ... binary file
CLOSE 1 ... same as FORTRAN close(1)
KILL filespec ... same as DOS' "del filespec"
NAME filename1 AS filename2 ... same as DOS' "rename filename1 filename2"

  ex. Automatically find the next file number with FREEFILE function
        OPEN "file1" FOR INPUT AS 1
        n% = FREEFILE
        OPEN "file2" FOR INPUT AS n%


        
INPUT# 1, variable list
WRITE# 1, variable list   ... string variables enclosed in " ",
                              and field separated by "," in the file
PRINT# 1, variable list   ... the same as what one will see on screen
  try to use WRITE/INPUT combinations
  There is no easy way to write '"'.  Do the following
    q$ = CHR$(34)
    PRINT q$; a$; q$

MERGE fn$    Merge a basic script (.bas)

Steps in using a random acess file
  1. Define a new type, i.e., new record structure
       TYPE newtype
         variable1 AS INTEGER
         variable2 AS STRING*30
         variable3 AS SINGLE
       END TYPE
  2. Declare a variable of new type
       DIM RecordVariable AS newtype
  2. Define the length of each field in a file
       FIELD #1, 2 AS variable1, 30 AS variable2, 4 AS variable3
  3. Open a file
       OPEN "filename" FOR RANDOM AS 1 LEN = LEN(RecordVariable)
       or
       OPEN "filename" FOR RANDOM AS 1 LEN = 36
         ... calculate the record length by hand
       record% = LOF(1) \ LEN(RecordVariable)
         ... find the number of record in the file
  4. Read from or write to file
       GET 1, record%, RecordVariable
       GET 1, , RecordVariable                ... move to the next record
       PUT 1, record%+1, RecordVariable
       PUT 1, , RecordVariable                ... move to the next record
  5. Each field in the record variable can be accessed individually
       a% = RecordVariable.variable1
       a$ = RecordVariable.variable2
       a! = RecordVariable.variable3
  6. Close file
       CLOSE 1

A Binary I/O file
  OPEN "filename" FOR BINARY AS #1
  The following are the only ways to input from and output to a binary file.
    INPUT$
    GET 1, position%, RecordVariable
    GET 1, , RecordVariable                ... move to the next record
    PUT 1, position%+1, RecordVariable
    PUT 1, , RecordVariable                ... move to the next record
  SEEK 1, position%
  i% = SEEK(1)  ... returns position of next read/write
  i% = LOC(1)   ... returns position of last read/write

DOWNLOAD URL$, FileName$   Download a file FROM Internet TO your script folder

Other functions

  Using$(Format, Value)  expl.: a$=Using$("###.##",d!)

  DOWNLOAD(URL$,FileName$)    Download a file FROM Internet TO your script folder
  Exp: DOWNLOAD("http://www.aiglonsoft.com/index.html","index.htm") return TRUE or FLASE

  Time$   Give the time now
  Date$   Give the date of the day 
  EOD     End of Data Flag (for read)


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