SPACE$

The SPACE$ function returns a STRING consisting of a number of space characters.

Syntax

result$ = SPACE$(count&)

Parameters

• count& is the number of space characters to repeat. Cannot use negative values!

Description

• Semicolons can be used to combine spaces with text STRING or numerical values.
• Concatenation using + can be used to combine STRING text values only.
• Spaces are often used to erase previous text PRINTs from the screen.
• The function result can also be used to GET and PUT a number of bytes as zero characters: bytes$ = SPACE$(numbytes)
• Spaces can also be made using SPC, CHR$(32) or STRING$(n%, 32).

Differences between QB64 and QB 4.5:

• QB64 can use LONG values for count up to 2,147,483,647 while QB 4.5 could only use INTEGER values up to 32,767.

Examples

Example 1: How to space text in a PRINT statement using SPACE$ with string concatenation.

FOR count% = 0 TO 3 PRINT "abc" + SPACE$( count% ) + "def" NEXT count%

abcdef abc def abc def abc def

Example 2: In SCREEN 0 SPACE$ can be used to change the background color to make an American flag.

USA flag centered on screen with thin horizontal red & white stripes ' blue corner field with randomly twinkling stars CLS LOCATE 25, 1 PRINT "Press any key to stop twinkling"; COLOR , 4 z = 15 FOR x = 5 TO 19 '13 red & white stripes (x =5 to 21 for 15 stripes) IF z = 15 THEN z = 4 ELSE z = 15 COLOR , z LOCATE x, 15 PRINT SPACE$(55) NEXT x FOR x = 5 TO 11 'blue field in upper left quadrant (x = 5 to 13 to hold all 50 stars) COLOR 15, 1 'sits above 4th white stripe LOCATE x, 15 PRINT SPACE$(23) NEXT x DO stop$ = INKEY$ FOR x = 5 TO 10 STEP 2 '39 stars staggered across blue field (50 stars if x = 5 to 12) w = 16 FOR y = 1 TO 6 '5 rows of 6 stars r = INT(RND * 6) IF r = 0 THEN z = 31 ELSE z = 15 IF stop$ = "" THEN COLOR z ELSE COLOR 15 LOCATE x, w w = w + 4 PRINT "*"; NEXT y w = 18 FOR y = 1 TO 5 '5 rows of 5 stars r = INT(RND * 6) IF r = 0 THEN z = 31 ELSE z = 15 IF stop$ = "" THEN COLOR z ELSE COLOR 15 LOCATE x + 1, w w = w + 4 PRINT "*"; NEXT y NEXT x w = 16 FOR y = 1 TO 6 '1 row of 6 stars r = INT(RND * 6) IF r = 0 THEN z = 31 ELSE z = 15 IF stop$ = "" THEN COLOR z ELSE COLOR 15 LOCATE x, w w = w + 4 PRINT "*"; NEXT y t = TIMER DO WHILE t + .2 >= TIMER: LOOP LOOP WHILE stop$ = "" COLOR 7, 0 END

Code by Solitaire

Explanation: In SCREEN 0, the background color is only placed with the the printed text and spaces. CLS can color the entire screen.

See also

• PRINT, PRINT USING
• STRING$, CLS
• SPC, TAB

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