Any elegant way of text string handling?

Hello.

I'm making a LCD clock which uses 1602 LCD. I want to display day of the week according to RTC reading.
However, since there are no string variables, I have to make an array, in which I put ASCII codes of letters to be written, and read them accordingly:

Code:

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DNAME[1]=77:DNAME[2]=111: DNAME[3]=110 'Mon
DNAME[4]=84:DNAME[5]=117: DNAME[6]=101 'Tue
DNAME[7]=87:DNAME[8]=101: DNAME[9]=100 'Wed
DNAME[10]=84:DNAME[11]=104: DNAME[12]=117 'Thu
DNAME[13]=70:DNAME[14]=114: DNAME[15]=105 'Fri
DNAME[16]=83:DNAME[17]=97: DNAME[18]=116 'Sat
DNAME[19]=83:DNAME[20]=117: DNAME[21]=110 'Sun


TAVAKI:
FOR CNT=1 to 21 STEP 3
lcdout $fe, $01, DNAME[CNT], DNAME[CNT+1],DNAME[CNT+2]
PAUSE 1000
NEXT CNT
GOTO TAVAKI

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Here it works, because I've trimmed all weekday names to same length. But say if I want to have different length texts, I have to add another array, which will hold the length of the words. This is very weird, is there any means to avoid this?

Quote:

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But say if I want to have different length texts, I have to add another array, which will hold the length of the words. This is very weird, is there any means to avoid this?

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there are many ways that have be discussed on this forum over the years

try a forum search "embedded string" or "null terminated"

Well I've checked and there are some posts, with ASM code and referring to non-existing pbpcommunity domain.
So as I can see, the easiest method is to use an external EEPROM or chip's built in one (if there are not much strings to be used) and build system like this - say first 32 bytes (16 words) of eeprom contain entry addresses of separate strings, and to read the stirng we launch a routine, which will start reading eeprom at X address till it reaches value, stored in next string entry address area. Code (for reading single string) should look like this

Code:

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READ 0, startval ' read entry address of 1st string
READ 2, nextval 'read entry address of next string
nextval=nextval-startval 'determine string length

LCDOUT $fe,$2 'set LCD start position to needed area (1st line in this case)
FOR A=1 to nextval 'start the loop
READ A,TXT 'read into variable
LCDOUT $fe,TXT, $14 "Output char and move cursor to next position
next

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Not the best, but I guess better than with dealing with ASM.

Why not use a termination character, say 0 terminated string.

So you only have to check if you reached the 0 value in the data area that your message is stored.

This is what Richard suggested. No calculations required.

Ioannis

Nice idea, but I have to have all entries for next string marked, so this makes no big difference.....

It sure does...

Think about it.

Ioannis