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GET (File I/O) Statement Details
 
Syntax
  GET [#]filenumber[,[recordnumber][,variable]]
 
  Argument       Description
  filenumber     The number used in the OPEN statement to open the
                 file.
 
  recordnumber   For random-access files, the number of the record
                 to be read. For binary-mode files, the byte position
                 in the file where reading starts. The first record or
                 byte position in a file is 1. 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.
 
  variable       The variable used to receive input from the file. If
                 you use a variable, you do not need to use CVD, CVL,
                 CVI, or CVS to convert record fields to numbers. You
                 may 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. A record cannot be longer than 32,767
                 bytes.
 
 
You may omit the recordnumber, the variable, or both. If you omit the
recordnumber but include the variable, you must still include the
commas:
 
  GET #4,,FileBuffer
 
If you omit both arguments, you do not include the commas:
 
  GET #4
 
The 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.
 
  Note: 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.