HP 3000 Manuals

HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual

SLEN 

The SLEN function returns the string length of the next datum in a file.
If that item is not a string, SLEN returns -1.  The result is of type
INTEGER.

Syntax 

SLEN(fnum)

Parameters 

fnum             The file number that HP Business BASIC/XL uses to
                 identify the file.  It is a numeric expression that
                 evaluates to a positive short integer.  Fnum must
                 specify a BASIC DATA file.  An optional # can precede
                 fnum.

Examples 

     100 CREATE "File1",FILESIZE=1000 !BDATA file; series of data items.
     110 ASSIGN "File1" TO #1
     120 POSITION #1; BEGIN       !Rewind File1 before writing it.
     130 PRINT #1; "abc", 123     !"abc" is item 1, 123 is item 2.
     140 POSITION #1; BEGIN       !Rewind File1.
     150 DISP SLEN(1)             !Next item, "abc", is a string;
     155                          ! return its length, 3.
     160 READ #1; A$              !Read item 1.
     170 DISP SLEN(1)             !Next item, 123, is not a string;
     175                          ! return -1.
     999 END

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation