  
  
 	STRING VARIABLES AND STRING VARIABLE FUNCTIONS
  
      BASIC variables may be integers, floating point or string
 variables.  Each of these type of variables may also be arrays of
 1 or 2 dimensions.  String variables are signified  by having a dollar
 sign,  $  , following the variable name.
  
 	A string variable can contain from 0 to 255 ASCII characters
 (letters,numbers, and punctuation).  A string variable is created  
 by assigning quantity in quotes to the variable.
  
 		A$ ="KMS FUSION"
 		B$ ="ERDA CONTRACT"
  
 	String variables may be concatonated to create larger strings,
 ie the expression
  
 		C$ = A$ + " HAS A " + B$
  
 creates a string  C$ = "KMS FUSION HAS A ERDA CONTRACT".
  
 
  
 	BASIC posesses a number of built in functions to manipulate
 strings in a very simple manner.
  
 LEN(string)		Determine the length of the string.
 			    l=LEN(A$)
  
 TRM$(string)		Trim trailing blanks off a string variable
 			    B$ = TRM$(string)
  
 POS(string1,string2,expression)
 			Search string1 for the position of the set
 			of characters(string2) starting with the
 			character number given by the expression
 			(an integer).  If POS does not find string2 it 
 			it returns a zero.  The strings can be string 
 			variables or ASCII characters in quotes.
 				X=POS("ABCDE","CD",1)
 			In this example, starting at the first letter
 			the string is searched for "CD" and returns a 
 			value of 3 to X.
  
 SEG$(string,expression1,expression2)
 			The SEG$ function is used to copy a segment
 			of a string from position given by expression1
 			to an position given by expression2, into 
 			another string.
 				A$ = SEG$("ABCDEFGHIJ",3,5)
 			Sets  A$ ="CDE"
  
 ASC(string)		Converts the 1 character string to its ASCII
 			decimal equivalent.
  
 CHR$(expression)	Converts the expression(0 or greater) to the
 			ASCII leter code corresponding to the
 			decimal value of the expression mod 256.
  
 VAL(string)		String may contain digits 0-9.  Converts the 
 			one character string to its numeric value.
 				X=VAL("9")
 			          yields an X value of 9.
  
 STR$(expression)	Takes the numeric value of the expression and
 			converts it to a string variable.
 DAT$
 CLK$			Returns the value of the current date or
 			time to the string variable.
 				X$ = CLK$
 			or
 			        PRINT DAT$
