Reading Macintosh Sequential Files Randomly and Vice Versa

SUMMARY

This information applies to Microsoft QuickBASIC Versions 1.00, 1.00a, 1.00b, Microsoft BASIC Compiler Version 1.00, and Microsoft BASIC Interpreter Versions 2.00, 2.10, and 3.00 for the Apple Macintosh.

To read with Sequential access from a file created with Random access, you must put a carriage-return character, CHR$(13), at the end of each Random record. In Sequential access, each record is delimited with a carriage-return character, and records can have different lengths.

To read with Random access from a file created with Sequential access, all the records must have the same length; otherwise, the records will not line up properly into the fielded variables. Each record in a file created sequentially will have the number of characters written to it plus an extra byte for the return CHR$(13) at the end. The record length specified in the random OPEN statement should thus reflect the number of characters in the record plus a byte for the return.

   OPEN f$ FOR INPUT AS #1
   x$ = INPUT$(128,1)
				

    OPEN f$ FOR INPUT AS #1
    id% = CVI( INPUT$(2,1) )
    count% = CVI( INPUT$(2,1) )
    price! = CVS( INPUT$(4,1) )
    descr$ = INPUT$(80,1)