BASIC stamp manual v2.2
SERIN - BASIC Stamp Command Reference
Page 404 • BASIC Stamp Syntax and Reference Manual 2.2 • www.parallax.com
While very effective at filtering and converting input text, the formatters
aren’t completely foolproof. As mentioned before, many conversion
formatters will keep accepting text until the first non-numeric text arrives,
even if the resulting value exceeds the size of the variable. After SERIN, a
byte variable will contain the lowest 8 bits of the value entered and a word
would contain the lowest 16 bits. You can control this to some degree by
using a formatter that specifies the number of digits, such as DEC2, which
would accept values only in the range of 0 to 99.
All BS2 models also have special formatters for handling a string of
characters, a sequence of characters and undesirable characters. See Table
5.101 for a list of these special formatters. Also, see Appendix C for
example serial inputs and the result of using these formatters.
Special Formatter Action
STR ByteArray \L {\E}
Input a character string of length L into an array. If specified,
an end character E causes the string input to end before
reaching length L. Remaining bytes are filled with 0s (zeros).
WAIT (Value)
Wait for a sequence of bytes specified by value. Value can be
numbers separated by commas or quoted text (ex: 65, 66, 67
or “ABC”). The WAIT formatter is limited to a maximum of six
characters.
WAITSTR ByteArray {\L}
Wait for a sequence of bytes matching a string stored in an
array variable, optionally limited to L characters. If the
optional L argument is left off, the end of the array-string must
be marked by a byte containing a zero (0).
SKIP Length Ignore Length bytes of characters.
Table 5.101: SERIN Special
Formatters for all BS2 Models.
There is an additional special formatter for the BS2p, BS2pe, and BS2px,
shown below.
Special Formatter Action
SPSTR L
Input a character string of L bytes (up to 126) into Scratch
Pad RAM, starting at location 0. Use GET to retrieve the
characters.
Table 5.102: Additional SERIN
Special Formatter for the BS2p,
BS2pe, and BS2px.
The string formatter is useful for receiving a string of characters into a byte
array variable. A string of characters is a set of characters that are
arranged or accessed in a certain order. The characters "ABC" could be
stored in a string with the "A" first, followed by the "B" and then followed
by the "C." A byte array is a similar concept to a string; it contains data
that is arranged in a certain order. Each of the elements in an array is the
same size. The string "ABC" could be stored in a byte array containing
ONCE AGAIN, PAY ATTENTION TO
POTENTIAL ROLLOVER ERRORS
.
T
HE STR (STRING) FORMATTER.