BUG on specials characters.

I use basic4A last version 1.70
With this code :
sub MYFUNCT(WSTR as String , CCHAR as char)
.... some code ....
If CCHAR = ">" Then
.... some code ...
end if

I have a compilation error :
Compiling code. Error
Error compiling program.
Error description: Missing parameter.
Occurred on line: 109
If CCHAR = ">" Then
Word: >
If I replace ">" with " " , it compile OK !

Also, when I read a text file created with Windows Notepad , and lines contains spécial Ascii caracters as "§" , ">" , after reading by File.readList() , these char are replaced by a symbol (a question mark inside a square)
WHY ?

Coming from Turbo-Pascal + Delphi , it is a frequent error to write 'some string' , at place of "some string" : this is detected by the compiler ;
but writing
dim MY_VAR_STRING as String
.... some code ....
MY_VAR_STRING = MY_VAR_STRING + "ABC"
is not détected at compiler time , only at run time with an eror : java.lang.NumberFormatException ;

This looks like a previous bug that Erel has not quite fixed. Reverse the order of the operands and it should work.

The funny characters are a UTF8 Byte Order Mark. Either save the file in Notepad as ASCII or if you need accented or other non-ASCII characters download Notepad++ and use that or any other editor that doesn't write a BOM for UTF8.

zouriteman said:

Coming from Turbo-Pascal + Delphi , it is a frequent error to write 'some string' , at place of "some string" : this is detected by the compiler ;
but writing
dim MY_VAR_STRING as String
.... some code ....
MY_VAR_STRING = MY_VAR_STRING + "ABC"
is not détected at compiler time , only at run time with an eror : java.lang.NumberFormatException ;

Click to expand...

I think agraham missed your last one.....

Assuming your problem is not related to using numbers as the value of MY_VAR_STRING, try the following instead:

MY_VAR_STRING = MY_VAR_STRING & "ABC"

The first issue is indeed a bug. Will be fixed in the next update.

It is different than the previous "similar" bug, which was fixed in v1.7.

Kevin said:

I think agraham missed your last one

Click to expand...

No, he edited it in later after I replied which is a "bad thing to do" because while new posts are flagged by sending an email to contributors to the thread edits are not so may be overlooked.

agraham said:

No, he edited it in later after I replied which is a "bad thing to do" because while new posts are flagged by sending an email to contributors to the thread edits are not so may be overlooked.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't notice the edit. I have much respect for you and your contributions to B4A and wasn't trying to be rude, just trying to help with his last question.

I can't tell if you took offense or not but I apologize if you did.

Kevin said:

I can't tell if you took offense

Click to expand...

Not at all. I just thought it was too good an opportunity to miss to point out that if you edit a post it might not always be noticed.

THANK YOU AGRAHAM , you are right :

*** this give compiler error ***
If CCHAR = ">" Then
Word: >

*** this compile good ***
if ">" = CCHAR then

Kevin said:

I think agraham missed your last one.....

Assuming your problem is not related to using numbers as the value of MY_VAR_STRING, try the following instead:

MY_VAR_STRING = MY_VAR_STRING & "ABC"

Click to expand...

YES I know that the concatenation operand in Basic4 is & , but my post is for the problem : WHY the compiler does not trap the error ?
The compile say that MY_VAR_STRINg is a string (because Dim) and "ABC" is a string , and these two operands cannot add this together with + sign.

Basic4android, although it supports strong typing, will also do type coercion for you. If you use an arithmetic operator and the operands do not represent a valid number a runtime error occurs.