DIM (string)

Dimension String

This directive defines a string of a given length with the option to preset its value to a specific character.

Syntax

DIM variable-name(length [,init-value])
[, variable-name (length [,init-value])...]

variable-name: is the name of a string variable.
length: is an integer in the range of 0 to 65000 specifying the initial number of characters the variable-name contains.
init-value: is a string whose first character is used as the character that fills the string variable-name. If this value is not specified and length is not 0, variable-name is preset to spaces.

Defining variable-name with a length of 0 erases the contents of variable-name and releases the memory space it occupied.

More than one variable can be dimensioned in a statement. Separate the variables by commas.

DIM DISK_SECTOR$(512, $00$)

defines a string variable whose length is 512 bytes and presets its value to null (hexadecimal zeros).

DIM STRING_VARIABLE$(1000, "MESSAGE")

constructs a string variable of 1000 bytes and loads it with the character “M”.

DIM SPACE_TAKER$(80)

defines a string variable that is 80 characters long and presets it to spaces.