LINE INPUT

The LINE INPUT statement requests a STRING keyboard entry from a program user.

Syntax

LINE INPUT [;] "[text prompt or question]"{,|;} stringVariable$

LINE INPUT ; stringVariable$

Parameters

A semicolon immediately after LINE INPUT stops the cursor after the entry and prevents screen roll on the lowest two screen rows.
text prompt or question is optional, but quotes are necessary unless just a semicolon is used before the stringVariable$.
Requires only one string variable to hold the entire text entry.

Description

Cannot use numerical type variables or comma separated variable lists for multiple entries.
Allows commas and quotation marks in the user input, unlike INPUT where commas denote extra input values and quotes delimit strings.
The statement halts the program until an entry is made. Pressing Enter ends the entry and code execution resumes.
LINE INPUT does not trim off leading or trailing spaces in the string entry like INPUT string returns.
Use VAL to convert string numbers and &O (octal), &H (hexadecimal) or &B (binary) prefixed entries into numerical values.
Use _DEST _CONSOLE before LINE INPUT statements to receive input from a console window.
Note: QB64 will not remove CHR$(0) from the end of LINE INPUT string return values like QBasic did.

Examples

Example: Preventing screen roll after an input entry on the bottom 2 screen rows.

SCREEN 12 COLOR 14: LOCATE 29, 2 ' place dursor at beginning of prompt liine PRINT "Enter a name to search for... "; 'print prompt on screen COLOR 15: LINE INPUT ; "", name$ ' get search name from user LOCATE 29, 2: PRINT SPC(78); ' erase previous prompt n$ = UCASE$(name$) ' convert search name to upper case COLOR 14' change foreground color to yellow LOCATE 29, 2: PRINT "Searching..."; 'print message SLEEP