DATA Keyword

DATA value, value, value

The DATA statement is not supported in Retro Rocket BASIC.

In BBC BASIC IV, DATA embedded constants directly in the source and they were consumed with READ (and rewound with RESTORE). Retro Rocket BASIC replaces this pattern with file-based I/O and simple initialisers.

Remarks

READ$ in Retro Rocket BASIC returns one character at a time from an open

file handle. It does not read a whole line. If you need to parse lines or

comma-separated values, build them yourself from characters and then convert

with functions like VAL.

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Example: load newline-separated integers from a file

Suppose values.txt contains:

10
20
30

Programme:

DIM A, 100
I = 0
LINE$ = ""
 
FH = OPENIN("values.txt")
 
WHILE NOT EOF(FH)
    C$ = READ$(FH)
 
    IF C$ = CHR(10) OR C$ = CHR(13) THEN
        IF LEN(LINE$) > 0 THEN
            I = I + 1
            A(I) = VAL(LINE$)
            LINE$ = ""
        ENDIF
    ELSE
        LINE$ = LINE$ + C$
    ENDIF
ENDWHILE
 
IF LEN(LINE$) > 0 THEN
    I = I + 1
    A(I) = VAL(LINE$)
ENDIF
 
CLOSE FH

This accumulates characters until a line break (CHR(10) or CHR(13)), then converts the buffered text into a number with VAL.

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Example: simple inline table (no files)

DIM A, 3
A(1) = 10
A(2) = 20
A(3) = 30

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See also

• OPENIN – open a file for reading
• OPENOUT – open a file for writing (truncate)
• OPENUP – open a file for update (read/write)
• READ$ – read one character from a file handle
• EOF – end-of-file check
• VAL, LEN, CHR