Indexed files

[PhilOfPerth]

I think there is a better way to do this using the SEEK command.

You can do this and go directly here, circumventing all of the random using BINARY symbols instead:

file$ = "c:\myfile.dat"

OPEN FILE$ for BINARY as #1

Z$= CHR$ (0) ' Null value, Gets 1 symbol at a time.

SEEK #1,10 : 'Seek out the 10th symbol of the file.

GET #1 , , Z$: 'Get the symbol.
 
Print Z$: 'Prints the symbol

CLOSE #1


You can do this too in GWBASIC and Qbasic both, and around the time of GWBASIC, you were limited to a FIELD length of about 128 characters or less...

But this is the way to access files efficiently at a byte level (unless you have another more recent way using file direct access).

Thanks James. I'll experiment with this. The records are of different lengths, so I may need to use fixed-length strings as also suggested.