Lookdown command the result not consistent

[sayzer]

I forgot to mention -

If you want to grab the data and don't want to sit around and wait to see if it is OK,
you can use the following structure:

 
Parse01: Cmd=01 : ARRAYREAD Data_Array,20,Parse02,[WAIT("Status1?")] : GOTO Foundit
Parse02: Cmd=02 : ARRAYREAD Data_Array,20,Parse03,[WAIT("Status2?")] : GOTO Foundit

This is a small part of a command parser that I'm currently using. The data you want to test is placed in the array "Data_Array", it will look at the first 20 characters (of course you can change that), and if it finds "Status1?" it jumps to FOUNDIT: and Cmd contains the line where it was found (in this case, 1). If "Status1?" is not found in the string, it jumps to line 2, and checks for "Status1?"

etc.

I am sure it was supposed to be "Status2?", just to avoid any confusion here.
And the previous example was indeed nice; smart.
This second one is also nice (at least for me).

[Charles Linquis]

No.

Suppose that you have an input routine where a computer sends you a bunch of commands to parse, and you have to decode those commands. In my case, I have 45 different commands that I have to respond to. Two of those commands are "Status1?" and "Status2?". My incoming packet (it actually is a pre-processed Ethernet packet) is loaded into Data_Array.

Say the packet contains "Status2?"

In the first line in the code example above, I look for "Status1?" in the first 20 characters. Since it doesn't exist, I don't get a match and I jump to line 2 and search for "Status2?" in Data_Array. If it finds "Status2?" (which it will), then I jump to Foundit, and CMD = 2. A SELECT CASE structure using CMD then goes and performs the right thing.

Another tip for those of you who handle a lot of strings (or ARRAYS as they must sadly be called in PBP):
It is often very convenient to make the first element of the array (element 0) the length of the array.