The INPUT Statement for Strings

The INPUT statement that reads a string looks like this:

INPUT #fileNumber, variable

The #fileNumber must be for a file that has already been opened for INPUT. For string input, variable should be a string variable. Such variables end with a dollar sign, for example DATA$.

When the statement executes, one string is read from the file. The string consists of all the characters on one line up to a comma or the end of the line. Leading and trailing spaces are removed from the string, but internal spaces are kept. The string is read into variable.

For example, say that the input file looks like this:

line one
     string two, string three
123 456 789

Say that the file has just been opened (as #5) so that nothing has been read in, yet. When the statement

 
INPUT #5, WORDS$

is executed, the the entire first line is read in. The string "line one" including the space is assigned to the variable WORDS$.

 
INPUT #5, WORDS$