jBase Infobasic Command CHAR

The CHAR function returns the ASCII character specified by the expression.

Command Syntax

CHAR (expression)

Syntax Elements

The expression must evaluate to a numeric argument in the range 0-255, which is the entire ASCII character set.

International Mode

The CHAR function will return Unicode values encoded as UTF-8 byte sequences as follows:

• Expression values 0 – 127 return UTF-8 single byte characters equivalent to ASCII.
• Expression values 127 – 248 return UTF-8 double byte character sequences.
• Expression values 249 – 255 return system delimiters 0xf8 – 0xff
• Expression values > 255 return UTF-8 multi byte character sequences

When system delimiter values are not specifically required, generate UTF-8 byte sequences using the UTF8 function. i.e. X = UTF8(@AM) will generate a UTF-8 byte sequence in variable X for the system delimiter equating to Unicode value x000000fe.

Notes

jBASE BASIC variables can contain any of the ASCII characters 0-255, thus there are no restrictions on this function. Use this function to insert field delimiters within a variable or string; these are commonly equated to AM, VM, SV in a program.

See also: CHARS

Example

EQUATE AM TO CHAR (254) ;*// field Mark
EQUATE VM TO CHAR(253) ;*// value Mark
EQUATE SV TO CHAR(252) ;*// sub Value mark
CRT CHAR (7): ;*// ring the bell