Script Character Strings

Textual data is enclosed in double quotes and can be a string up to 140 characters long.

You may continue a string on a new line by typing a backslash, \, at the end of the line.

To use the value of a string variable, type the variable along with the text. Place double quotes around the entire string.

For example:

  _s = "how to use"

  ECHO "This is _s a variable in a string."

displays:

This is how to use a variable in a string.

Variables within strings are replaced by their values, converting integers to text. The # operator, along with a variable, is replaced by the number of answers in the answer set and is converted to text.

If you want a variable within a string to be immediately followed by non-blank text, separate the variable name and text with a period.

For example:

  _variable = "con"

  ECHO "This example string includes

  _variable.catenated text"

displays:

This example string includes concatenated text

Special characters and escape characters within strings are:

[CR]

Carriage return

[TAB]

Move to next tab position

[BS]

Backspace

[ESC]

Escape

[BELL]

Sound bell (beep)

[CTRL-A]...[CTRL-Z]

Unprintable control characters

[FF]

Formfeed

Note that many networks and STN Express use control characters in normal operations. As a result, indiscriminate use of control characters may result in lost data, locked sessions, or terminated processes.

The characters _, \, ", [, and # have special use within the script language and must be doubled if they are to be used within a string. In other words, to include a [ in a string, use two in a row:

  ECHO "Here is a string with a left bracket (i.e., [[) in it."

displays:

Here is a string with a left bracket (i.e., [) in it.

A distinction between upper- and lowercase is made when the characters are within a string, and the number of spaces between words and letters is not ignored.

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