Editing Integer BASIC (section)

===Strings===
Integer BASIC's string handling was based on the system in HP BASIC. This treated string variables as arrays of characters which had to be {{code|DIM}}ed prior to use. This is similar to the model in [[C programming language|C]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.learn-c.org/en/Strings |title= Strings |website=learn-c.org}}</ref> or [[Fortran 77]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Steve |last=Brooks |url=http://math.hawaii.edu/~dale/190/characters_formats.pdf |website=University of Hawaii |title=Characters & Strings in Fortran}}</ref> This is in contrast to MS-like BASICs where strings are an intrinsic variable-length type.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/2020/commodore-basic-variables |title=C64 Programmer's Manual |publisher=Commodore |chapter=Integer, Floating Point and String Variables}}</ref> Before MS-derived BASICs became the ''de facto'' standard, this style was not uncommon; [[North Star BASIC]]<ref>{{cite book |title=North Star BASIC version 6 |url=http://itelsoft.com.au/north_star_manuals/North_Star_BASIC_Version_6.pdf |publisher=North Star Corporation |date=1977 |access-date=2020-03-03 |archive-date=2020-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305045335/https://itelsoft.com.au/north_star_manuals/North_Star_BASIC_Version_6.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Atari BASIC]]<ref>{{cite book |title=The ATARI BASIC Reference Manual |publisher=Atari Inc |year=1980 |url=http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Infothek/AtBasicReferenceMa |access-date=2020-04-14 |archive-date=2005-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050501034651/http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Infothek/AtBasicReferenceMa |url-status=dead }}</ref> used the same concept, as did others.
 
Strings in Integer Basic used a fixed amount of memory regardless of the number of characters used within them, up to a maximum of 255 characters.{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=89}} This had the advantage of avoiding the need for the [[Garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]] of the [[Heap (data structure)|heap]] that was notoriously slow in MS BASIC{{efn|And completely broken in some versions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pagetable.com/?p=46 |title=Create your own Version of Microsoft BASIC}}</ref>}} but meant that strings that were shorter than the declared length resulted in wasted memory.

Substring access was provided through [[array slicing]] syntax. For instance, {{code|PRINT A$(0,5)|basic}} printed the first six characters of {{code|A$}}, characters 0 through 5.{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=88}}{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=88}}{{efn|HP also allowed [ and ] in place of ( and ).}} Concatenation was provided using the same system, {{code|A$(5){{=}}"ABC"|basic}} replaced any characters starting at position 5 with the string "ABC".{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=92}} This contrasts with the DEC/MS-style string handling which uses string functions like {{code|MID$}} to access substrings and {{code|+}} for concatenation.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/content/computing/MITS/MITS_Altair8800Basic4.1Reference_April1977.pdf |title=altair 8080 basic manual |date=April 1977 |publisher=MITS |page=30}}</ref>{{efn|It also contrasts with [[Dartmouth BASIC]] which used the {{code|CONVERT}} command to convert a string into an array of ASCII values which the user then manipulated and converted back to string format with a second {{code|CONVERT}}.}}

As many of the features that would be provided by string functions were instead provided by array slicing, the selection of string functions was reduced. {{code|LEN}} returned the length of a string{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=89}} and {{code|ASC}} returned the ASCII numeric code for the first letter in a string.{{sfn|Raskin|1978|p=120}} It lacked an equivalent of the {{code|CHR$}} that returned the ASCII character with a given numeric code.{{sfn|Mini|1977|p=17}}