HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual - HP 3000 MPE/iX Computer Systems - Edition 1 (32715-90001)

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record prior to reading or writing.
On a BASIC DATA file, a file I/O operation can also be:
direct word Both the record and word pointers are moved to a
specific word in the file prior to reading and writing.
Refer to Table 6-15 for the data storage and data item descriptor size
for each data type in the BASIC DATA file. This is useful for direct
record and word I/O to a BASIC DATA file.
Table 6-15. BASIC DATA File Contents
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||Data Storage Size | Descriptor Size (in |
||(in fileword) | fileword) and |
|||[Descriptor Value] |
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| Short Integer |1 |1[5] |
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| Integer | 2 | 1 [6] |
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| Short Decimal |2 |1[7] |
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| Short Real | 2 | 1 [8] |
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| Decimal | 4 | 1 [9] |
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| Real | 4 | 1 [10] |
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| Entire String (for string | (total no. of chars + 1) | 2 [1], second word is the |
| that fits into one record) | div 2 | total no. of chars in the |
| | | string |
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| Beginning of String | (record size -2) | 2 [2], second word - total |
| | | no. of chars in string |
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| Middle of String | (record size - 2) | 2 [3], second - total no. |
| | | of chars left |
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| End of String | (total no. of chars left + | 2 [4], second word = total |
| | 1) div 2 | no. of chars left |
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Table 6-15 Note: The length of each fileword is two bytes for
consistency with the MPE XL file system.
Native Language Support
This section summarizes the features of HP Business BASIC/XL that
facilitate the production of native language independent code. Refer to