Multi use of String Constants

[Richard Kemp]

Is there a way to define global string constants in DOS 3.50 power Basic for re-use from various places in the program?

I am writing a program with a lot of repetitively used text, each phrase of which I hoped would be stored once in the executable. It is pointless and creates many problems to read each phrase as a variable that will never be modified. There is so much that storing each occasion of a re-used phrase makes the executable grossly and unnecessarily inflated. I used to be under the impression that if the same string constant was repetitively quoted in the source, it was only stored once, and was multi-referenced. However, this appears not to be happening. I cannot work out any syntax to make this happen.

Richard Kemp of Kemputa Systems, Ysbyty Ystwyth, Wales, UK

[Eric Pearson]

Richard --

I think you'll find that if you use the exact same string two or more times in a PB/DOS program, the compiler will embed only one copy of the string in the EXE. The PB compilers have always done that.

Even if they didn't, you could design a simple function called MessageString (or something similar):

%HELLO_WORLD = 1
%GODDBYE_WORLD = 2
 
FUNCTION MessageString(BYVAL lNumber AS LONG) AS STRING
 
     IF lNumber = %HELLO_WORLD THEN
          FUNCTION = "Hello world"
     ELSEIF lNumber = %HELLO_WORLD THEN
          FUNCTION = "Goodbye world"
     ELSE...
 
END FUNCTION
 
PRINT MessageString(%HELLO_WORLD)

A function like that is a good way to "centralize" your strings, so you can edit them all in one place.

-- Eric

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[This message has been edited by Eric Pearson (edited May 05, 2002).]

[David J Venable]

Here's another alternative:

' obviously, more descriptive names should be used
shared string1$, string2$
string1$="Hello world"
string2$="Goodbye world"


print string1$
print string2$

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