Radio Shack TRS-80 User Manual page 87

Chapter
16
READing
DATA
So
far,
we
have learned
how
to
enter
numbers
into
our programs
by two
different
methods.
The
first is
by
building the value into
the
program
:
10 A =
5
The second
is
by
using
an
INPUT
statement to enter a
number
through the keyboard:
10
INPUT
A
The
third principal
way
is
through the
DATA
statement.
Enter
this
program
:
10
DATA 1,2,3,4,5
20
READ A ,B ,C ,D ,E
30
PRINT AiBiC|D;E
. . .
and
RUN.
The
DATA
statement
is
in
some ways
similar
to the
first
method
in that a
DATA
line
is
part
of the program.
It's
different,
however,
since
each
DATA
line
can contain
many num-
bers,
or
pieces
of data,
each separated
by
a
comma.
Each
piece
of
DATA
must
be read
by
a
READ
statement.
Each
READ
statement can read a
number
of pieces of
DATA
if
each
variable letter
is
separated
by
a
comma.
The
display
shows
that
all
5 pieces
of data
in line 10,
the
numbers
1, 2,
3,
4
and
5
were
READ
by
line
20, assigned the letters
A
through E,
and
printed
by
line
30.
j^pih
mind
this
important distinction:
DATA
lines
can he read only
by
READ
state-
ments.
If
more
than
one
piece
of data
is
placed
on
a
DATA
liney
they must be
Separated
by commas. Keyboard data can be entered only
via
INPUT
statements.
DATA
lines are
always read
from
left
to right
by
READ
statements; the
first
DATA
line
first
(when
there
is
more
than one),
and
IT
DOES
NOT MATTER WHERE THEY ARE
IN
85