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  ◄Syntax►  ◄Details►  ◄Example►                 ◄Contents►  ◄Index►  ◄Back►
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GET reads from a disk file into a random-access buffer or variable.
 
GET [#]filenumber%[,[recordnumber&][,variable]]
    ■ The argument filenumber% is the number used in the OPEN statement
      to open the file.
    ■ If you omit recordnumber&, the next record or byte (the one
      after the last GET or PUT, or the one pointed to by the last SEEK)
      is read into the buffer. The largest possible record number is
      2^31 -1, or 2,147,483,647.
    ■ The first record or byte position in a file is 1.
    ■ A record cannot be longer than 32,767 bytes.
    ■ If you specify a variable, you do not need to use CVI, CVL, CVS,
      CVD, or CVC to convert record fields to numbers. You can not use a
      FIELD statement with the file if you use the variable argument.
    ■ For random-access files, you can use any variable as long as the
      length of the variable is less than or equal to the length of the
      record. Usually, a record variable defined to match the fields in a
      data record is used.
    ■ For binary-mode files, you can use any variable. The GET
      statement reads as many bytes as there are in the variable.
    ■ When you use a variable-length string variable, the statement
      reads as many bytes as there are characters in the string's value.
      For example, the following two statements read 10 bytes from file
      number 1:
 
        VarStrings$=STRING$ (10, " ")
        GET #1,,VarString$
 
    ■ See the examples for more information about using variables
      rather than FIELD statements for random-access files.
 
Usage Notes
    ■ Do not use GET on ISAM files.
    ■ You can omit the arguments recordnumber&, variable, or both. If you
      omit the recordnumber& but include a variable, you must still
      include the commas:
 
        GET #4,,FileBuffer
 
    ■ If you omit both arguments, do not include the commas:
 
        GET #4
 
Important
    ■ GET and PUT statements allow fixed-length input and output for
      BASIC communications files. Use GET carefully because if there is a
      communications failure, GET waits indefinitely for recordnumber&
      characters.
 
Programming Tips
    ■ When you use GET with the FIELD statement, you can use INPUT #
      or LINE INPUT # after a GET statement to read characters from
      the random-access file buffer. You may use the EOF function
      after a GET statement to see if the GET went beyond the end
      of the file.