Syntax read { var | pstr$(addressVar) } [ , { var | pstr$(addressVar) }...]
Description
This statement reads one or more of the items listed in one or more data statements. If you specify var (which must be either a numeric variable or a string variable), the data item's value is stored into var. If you specify pstr$(addressVar), the item is interpreted as a string and its address is stored into addressVar (which must be a long-integer variable or a pointer variable).
Each var or pstr$ that you specify causes one data item to be read. The first time your program executes a read statement, the first item in your program's first data statement is read. Every time a var or pstr$ is encountered in any read statement, the next data item is read, until all items in all your program's data statements have been exhausted. The number of var or pstr$ specifications in a read statement does not need to match the number of items in a data statement; however, the total number of read requests should not exceed the total number of items in all data statements (unless you use the restore statement, which allows you to re-use data from previous data statements).
N.B. Data statement content is processed internally using pascal strings and is subject to its size limit of 255 characters. Other "strings" mentioned refer to pascal strings.
