A-Shell Reference

Function

Description

ASC(a$)

Returns numeric value of first character of a$.

AUTOCAP$(a$)

Intelligently capitalizes a$. The A-Shell implementation of this is rather minimal; users in need of more "intelligent" capitalization should refer to XFOLD.SBR.

CHR$(x)

Returns the OEM or Latin1 character—depending on the current character set—corresponding to the value x.

EDIT$()

Returns a modified version of a string based on specified options.

FILL$()

Returns a string consisting of a string repeated until it reaches specified length.

INSTR()

Returns position of first occurrence of a specified string.

.INSTRR()

Same as INSTR() but works in reverse direction.

.ISEMPTY()

Returns yes/no if the string or unformatted expression is "empty.

LCS$(a$)

Returns string a$ folded to lower case.

LEFT$(a$,x)

Returns leftmost x characters of string a$. Equivalent to a$[1,x].

LEN()

Returns length of specified string.

LSTRIP$(a$)

Strips leading blanks from a$. Syntax: LSTRIP(a$) or LSTRIP$(a$).

MID$(a$,x,y)

Returns substring of a$, starting in position x and extending y characters or until end. Equivalent to substring syntax a$[x;y].

NUMEXPR()

Treats expression as numeric.

ODTIM$()

Outputs the specified date and/or time according to the formatting flags.

PAD$()

Returns string truncated, or padded with trailing blanks, to the specified length.

RIGHT$(a$,x)

Returns the rightmost x characters of string a$. Equivalent to a$[-x,-1].

RTRIM$(a$)

Returns string a$ with trailing spaces removed.

SPACE$(x)

Returns a string of x spaces. Also see FILL$().

STREXPR$()

Treats the expression argument as a string.

STRIP$(a$)

Same as RTRIM$(a$).

STR$()

Convert a numeric value or expression to string.

TRIM$(a$)

TRIM(a$) or TRIM$(a$) removes the leading and trailing blanks from a string; equivalent to the combination of STRIP$(a$) and LSTRIP$(a$). Besides offering the advantage of functional syntax, as a built-in function, TRIM$() is more efficient than the equivalent XCALL TRIM, although the latter offers the option to remove characters besides blanks.

UCS$(a$)

Returns string a$ folded to upper case.

VAL()

Returns the decimal value of a string.

.VALX()

Extended version of VAL.