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BASIC Conversion Functions

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Curtis F Kaylor edited this page Sep 20, 2025 · 21 revisions

ASC

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: ASC ( string )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 255 corresponding to the ASCII value of the first character in the string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is zero.
Examples

PRINT ASC("Z")

Prints 90 (the ASCII value of "Z")

X = ASC("zebra")

Sets X to 122 (the ASCII value of "z")

J = ASC(J$)

Sets J to the ASCII value of the first character of J$

plusBASIC v0.23h enhancement

FORMAT: ASC ( string , pos )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 255 corresponding to the ASCII value of the specified character in the string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • pos is the position of the character.
  • Illegal quantity results if pos is less than one or greater than the length of string.
Examples

PRINT ASC("ABCDE",3)

Prints 67 (the ASCII value of "C")

ASC$

TYPE: plusBASIC string function

FORMAT: ASC$ ( hexstring )

Action: Convert hex_string to an ASCII string.

  • hexstring is a string containing an even number of hexadecimal digits.
    • Returns a string of length 0 if the length of hexstring is 0.
    • Illegal Quantity results if hexstring contains an odd number of characters or any character is not a hexadecimal digit.
Examples 
10 READ H$ 
20 A$=ASC$(H$)
30 DATA FF

Sets A$ to a ASCII character 255.

PRINT ASC$("30313233")

Prints 0123 -- the ascii characters for hex values 30, 31, 32, and 33.

BYTE

TYPE: plusBASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: BYTE ( string )

Action: Returns a number from -128 to 127 corresponding to the binary value of the first character in a string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is zero.

Example:

10 H$="Hello!" 
20 A=BYTE(H$)
30 PRINT A

Sets A to 72, the signed integer value of the first character in Hello! (H), then prints it.

FORMAT: BYTE ( string , pos )

Action: Returns a number from -128 to 127 corresponding to the binary value of the specified character in the string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • pos is the position of the character.
  • Illegal quantity results if pos is less than one or greater than the length of string.

Example:

10 Z$="Amazing!" 
20 Q=BYTE(Z$,4)
30 PRINT Q

Sets Q to 112, the signed integer value of the fourth character in Amazing! (z), then prints it.

CHR$

TYPE: BASIC String Function

FORMAT: CHR$ (number)

Action: Converts an ASCII code to a character string.

  • The string will contain a single character with the ASCII value number,
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range 0 through 255.

Note: See plusBASIC ASCII Table for a list of characters and their codes.

Example:

10 PRINT CHR$(65) : REM 65 = UPPER CASE A
20 A$=CHR$(13) : REM 13 = RETURN KEY
50 A=ASC(A$) : A$ = CHR$(A) : REM CONVERTS TO ASCII CODE AND BACK

plusBASIC v??? enhancement

number may be in the range -255 to 255.

  • Numbers less than 0 are treated as twos-complement, resulting in an ASCII value of 256 + number.

DEC

TYPE: USB BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: DEC ( string )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 65535 corresponding to the hexadecimal digits at the beginning of a string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Value of 0 will be returned if the first character is not a valid hexadecimal digit: 0-9, A-F/a-f .
  • Hexadecimal digits must be contiguous from the beginning of the string. Any non-hexadecimal digit will "end" the evaluation.
  • Overflow error results if the hexadecimal digits evaluate to a value greater than 65535 (usually because there are five or more valid hexadecimal characters at the beginning of the string).

Examples:

10 H$ = "a0b1jzqt"
20 A = DEC(H$)
30 PRINT A

Sets A to 41137, the integer value of the hexadecimal equivalent of the first four characters in a0b1jzqt (#A0B1), then prints it.

PRINT DEC("fffff")

Returns Overflow error because all five characters at the beginning of the string are valid hexadecimal digits (#FFFFF), but their value exceeds 65535.

FLOAT

FLOAT$

HEX$

TYPE: USB BASIC string function

FORMAT: HEX$ ( number )

Action: Returns string containing number in two-byte hexadecimal format.

  • number is an expression that reduces to in integer in the range -32768 to 32767.
Examples

PRINT HEX$(1)

Prints "01"

10 PRINT HEX$(PEEK(12288))

Prints the HEX value of the border char (usually "20", SPACE character)

plusBASIC enhancement

  • address can be in the range -65535 and 65535 ($0000 to $FFFF).

TYPE: plusBASIC string function

FORMAT: HEX$ ( string )

Action: Returns string containing a list of two-character hexadecimal numbers corresponding to the characters in string.

  • string is an expression that evaluates to a string no more than 127 characters long.
  • The returned string will be twice as long as the argument string.

Examples:

PRINT HEX$("ABC")

Prints 414243

10 PRINT HEX$(STR$(10))

Prints 203132

INT

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: INT ( string )

Action: Returns a number from -32768 to 32767 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes of a string expression.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than 2.

FORMAT: INT ( string , pos )

Action: Returns a number from -32768 to 32767 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes starting at character pos of a string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than or equal to pos.

LONG

LONG$

LWR

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: LWR (number)

Action: Returns the ASCII code of the lowercase equivalent of the specified character.

  • number is an expression evaluating to the ASCII code of the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range -256 through 255.
  • Values in the range -256 through -1 are evaluated as 0 through 255, respectively.
  • ASCII codes 65 through 90 (A - Z) are converted to 97 through 122 (a - z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

FORMAT: LWR (string)

Action: Returns the ASCII code of the lowercase equivalent of the first character of the specified string.

  • string is a string expression containing the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if string has a length of 0.
  • ASCII codes 65 through 90 (A - Z) are converted to 97 through 122 (a - z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

LWR$

TYPE: BASIC String Function

FORMAT: LWR$ (number)

Action: Returns a one character string containing the lowercase equivalent of the specified character.

  • number is an expression evaluating to the ASCII code of the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range -256 through 255.
  • Values in the range -256 through -1 are evaluated as 0 through 255, respectively.
  • ASCII codes 65 through 90 (A - Z) are converted to 97 through 122 (a - z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

FORMAT: LWR$ (string)

Action: Returns a string in which all the uppercase characters or replaced with their lowercase equivalents.

  • string is a string expression containing the string to be converted.
  • ASCII codes 65 through 90 (A - Z) are converted to 97 through 122 (a - z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

STR$

TYPE: BASIC String Function

FORMAT: STR$(numeric)

Action:

STR$ gives you the string representation of the numeric value of the argument. When the STR$ value is converted to each variable represented in the numeric argument, any number shown is followed by a space and, if it's positive, it is also preceded by a space.

EXAMPLES of STR$ Function:

100 FLT = 1.5E4: ALPHA$ = STR$(FLT)
110 PRINT FLT, ALPHA$

15000     15000

UPR

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: UPR (number)

Action: Returns the ASCII code of the uppercase equivalent of the specified character.

  • number is an expression evaluating to the ASCII code of the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range -256 through 255.
  • Values in the range -256 through -1 are evaluated as 0 through 255, respectively.
  • ASCII codes 97 through 122 (a - z) are converted to 65 through 90 (A - Z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

FORMAT: UPR (string)

Action: Returns the ASCII code of the uppercase equivalent of the first character of the specified string.

  • string is a string expression containing the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if string has a length of 0.
  • ASCII codes 97 through 122 (a - z) are converted to 65 through 90 (A - Z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

UPR$

TYPE: BASIC String Function

FORMAT: UPR$ (number)

Action: Returns a one character string containing the uppercase equivalent of the specified character.

  • number is an expression evaluating to the ASCII code of the character to be converted.
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range -256 through 255.
  • Values in the range -256 through -1 are evaluated as 0 through 255, respectively.
  • ASCII codes 97 through 122 (a - z) are converted to 65 through 90 (A - Z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

FORMAT: UPR$ (string)

Action: Returns a string in which all the uppercase characters or replaced with their lowercase equivalents.

  • string is a string expression containing the string to be converted.
  • ASCII codes 97 through 122 (a - z) are converted to 65 through 90 (A - Z), respectively,
    • No other characters are changed.

VAL

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: VAL(string)

Action:

Returns a numeric value representing the data in the string argument. If the first non-blank character of the string is not a plus sign (+), minus sign (-), or a digit the value returned is zero. String conversion is finished when the end of the string or any non-numeric character is found (except decimal point or exponential e).

EXAMPLE of VAL Function:

10 INPUT#1, NAM$, ZIP$
20 IF VAL(ZIP$) < 19400 OR VAL(ZIP$) > 96699 THEN PRINT NAM$ TAB(25) "GREATER PHILADELPHIA"

WORD

TYPE: BASIC ***

WORD

TYPE: BASIC Conversion Function

FORMAT: WORD ( string )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 65535 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes of a string expression.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than 2.

FORMAT: WORD ( string , pos )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 65535 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes starting at character pos of a string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than or equal to pos.

Function

FORMAT: WORD ( string )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 65535 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes of a string expression.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than 2.

FORMAT: WORD ( string , pos )

Action: Returns a number from 0 to 65535 corresponding to the binary value of the first two bytes starting at character pos of a string.

  • string is the string to be evaluated.
  • Illegal quantity results if the length of string is less than or equal to pos.

WORD$

FORMAT: WORD$ (number)

Action: Converts an integer to a binary character string.

  • The string will contain two characters representing the binary value number,
  • Illegal Quantity error results if number is not in the range -65535 through 65535.
  • Numbers less than 0 are treated as twos-complement, resulting in binary value of 65536 + number.

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