Hi Ken;

     I like your approach and suggested a very similar way to Brian 
quite a while ago complete with a working example. He has chosen to 
stick with this method so my recent suggestions have shown how to use 
INSTR(), LEFT$(), and MID$() to parse his WIN instruction.

    Learning a language goes in stages; perhaps working with arrays 
will be next.  Here is that example using an array again. It parses 
the entire command variable before the SELECT/CASE and each CASE just 
uses the items from the array.



HERE'S A SAMPLE PROGRAM TO DEMONSTRATE PARSING A COMMAND
INTO AN ARRAY or LIST OF WORDS. That  list can then be used easily
to carry out the intended instruction each time This demo justs
prints the items in the list to show the concept.

STUDY IT. PLAY WITH IT. USE IT. OR ADAPT IT, AS YOU SEE FIT.

If you use it, place the 2 subroutines and the global definition at
the start of your program so they are defined before being used.

HTH

'======================================================================================

// DEMO PROGRAM FOR BRIAN H - PARSING COMMAND LINES
//    INTO A LIST OF WORDS

// FN Digest - October 10, 2004  By Stu Cram, OGSS

_maxNumWords = 20
' used for size of gWords array, change to more if needed.

DIM gWord$( _maxNumWords )
END GLOBALS

LOCAL FN TRIM$( txt$ )
  ' This function deletes any leading and trailing spaces from txt$
    DIM result$
    result$ = txt$
    DEF Truncate( result$ )
' remove trailing spaces
    WHILE ( LEN(result$) > 0 ) AND ( result$[1] = _" " )
' remove leading spaces
      result$ = mid$( result$, 2 )
    WEND
END FN = result$

LOCAL FN ParseCommand( cmdLine$ )
' This procedure breaks a text list with comma separators and
'    puts the individual words in global array gWord$
' Leading and trailing spaces are removed. (See FN TRIM$)
' The leading word should be the command keyword and end with
'     a space, not a command. It goes in cell 0 of the gWord$ array.
' Missing items become null strings.
' Quotation marks " are not handled here. Better not to use them.
'
' Ex.  XXXX  WON, TOO,   TREE, FORE   ,PHYVE, SICKS ,. ATE, K 9 , Etc.
' Will give these results in the global array gWord$
'     gWord$(0)  <--- "XXXX" (keyword like PRINT, WIN, or CLEAR)
'     gWord$(1)  <--- "WON"
'     gWord$(2)  <--- "TOO"
'     gWord$(3)  <--- "TREE"
'     gWord$(4)  <--- "FORE"
'     gWord$(5)  <--- "PHYVE"
'     gWord$(6)  <--- "SICKS"
'     gWord$(7)  <--- ""
'     gWord$(8)  <--- "ATE"
'     gWord$(9)  <--- "K 9"
'     gWord$(10) <--- "Etc."
'     gWord$(11) <--- ""
'       ...
'     gWord$(20) <--- ""
'
    DIM wordNum, x   ' counters
    DIM wrd$         ' single word or pharase being built
    DIM 1 ch$        ' single character from line
    DIM 1 delim$     ' SPACE (after keyword) or COMMA (after parameter)
'
' Erase all values in the array
    FOR wordNum = 0 TO _maxNumWords
      gWord$( wordNum ) = ""
    NEXT wordNum
  '
  ' Examine command line char by char to get the words between commas
    wordNum  = -1
    cmdLine$ = FN TRIM$( cmdLine$ )
' remove any leading or trailing spaces
    cmdLine$ = cmdLine$ + ","
' ensure it has a comma after last item
    wrd$     = ""
    delim$   = " "
' delimeter is space after starting keyword
    FOR x = 1 to LEN( cmdLine$ )
      ch$ = MID$( cmdLine$, x, 1 )
' get a single char at position x in command line
      LONG IF ch$ <> delim$
        ' Is it a comma (or space after keyword)
        wrd$ = wrd$ + ch$
        ' No - add character to end of word
      XELSE
        wordNum ++
' Yes - increase word count
       IF wordNum > _maxNumWords THEN wordNum = _maxNumWords
'        prevent array overflow
        gWord$( wordNum ) = FN Trim$( wrd$ )
'        store the word in the array
        wrd$   = ""
'        reset word to null string
        delim$ = ","
'        change delimeter to comma for remaining words
      END IF
    NEXT x
    gWord$(0) = UCASE$(  gWord$(0) )
'  capitalize the keyword at start of the instruction
END FN


'~' Main Program ...

DIM SampleLineStr$

DATA "xx-Demo-xx  WON, TOO,   TREE, FORE   ,PHYVE, SICKS ,, ATE"
DATA "WIN 7,Help Me,100,200,300,400,5"
DATA "Menu 3,COLORS,RED,Blue,Green,,Yellow,Pale Blue,Pink, ,Black,White"
DATA "ShowURL http:gym-Score-Depot.ca"
DATA "*** STOP DEMO ***"

WINDOW 1, "Parsing CommandLines Demo", (0,0)-(600,600), 5
DO
    CLS
    READ SampleLineStr$
    IF SampleLineStr$ = "*** STOP DEMO ***" THEN END
    FN ParseCommand( sampleLineStr$ )
    PRINT
    TEXT _Courier,14,1 : COLOR _zBlack
    PRINT : PRINT sampleLineStr$
    TEXT _Courier,12,0
    PRINT
    FOR n = 0 TO _maxNumWords
      LONG COLOR 32000,32000,32000
' gray
      PRINT USING "### " ; n ; "<" ;
      IF n > 0 THEN COLOR _zBlue ELSE COLOR _zRed
' blue for parameters, red for keyword
      PRINT gWord$( n ) ;
      LONG COLOR 32000,32000,32000
' gray
      PRINT ">"
    NEXT n

    TEXT _Geneva, 9, 0 : Color _Magenta
    PRINT : INPUT "-----> Press 'RETURN'  to continue..."; n
UNTIL 0

'======================================================================================

-- 
- Stu Cram, OGSS
   http://Gym-Score-Depot.ca
--
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