Data

Introduction

SpiderBasic allows the use of Data, to store predefined blocks of information inside of your program. This is very useful for default values of a program (language string for example) or, in a game, to define the sprite way to follow (precalculated).

DataSection must be called first to indicate a data section follow. This means all labels and data component will be stored in the data section of the program, which has a much faster access than the code section. Data will be used to enter the data. EndDataSection must be specified if some code follows the data declaration. One of good stuff is you can define different Data sections in the code without any problem. Restore and Read command will be used to retrieve the data.

Commands

DataSection

Start a data section.

EndDataSection

End a data section.

Data.TypeName

Defines data. The type can only be a native basic type (integer, long, word, byte, ascii, unicode, float, double, quad, character, string). Any number of data can be put on the same line, each one delimited with a comma ','.

Example

  Data.l 100, 200, -250, -452, 145
  Data.s "Hello", "This", "is ", "What ?"

Restore label

This keyword is useful to set the start indicator for the Read to a specified label. All labels used for this purpose should be placed within the DataSection because the data is treated as a separate block from the program code when it is compiled and may become disassociated from a label if the label were placed outside of the DataSection.

Example

  Restore StringData
  Read.s MyFirstData$
  Read.s MySecondData$
  
  Restore NumericalData
  Read.l a
  Read.l b

  Debug MyFirstData$
  Debug a
  
  DataSection
    NumericalData:    
      Data.l 100, 200, -250, -452, 145
      
    StringData:
      Data.s "Hello", "This", "is ", "What ?"
  EndDataSection

Read[.<type>] <variable>

Read the next available data. The next available data can be changed by using the Restore command. By default, the next available data is the first data declared. The type of data to read is determined by the type suffix. The default type will be used if it is not specified.