# ENVIRON Statement

#### Purpose:

To allow the user to modify parameters in GW-BASIC's environment string table. This may be to change the path parameter for a child process, (see ENVIRON$, SHELL, and the MS-DOS utilities PATH command), or to pass parameters to a child by inventing a new environment parameter.

#### Syntax:

    ENVIRON string

#### Comments:

string is a valid string expression containing the new environment string parameter.

string must be of the following form

    parmid=text

where parmid is the name of the parameter such as PATH.

parmid must be separated from text by an equal sign or a blank. ENVIRON takes everything to the left of the first blank or equal sign as the parmid; everything following is taken as text.

text is the new parameter text. If text is a null string, or consists only of a single semicolon, then the parameter (including parmid=) is removed from the environment string table, and the table is compressed. text must not contain any embedded blanks.

If parmid does not exist, then string is added at the end of the environment string table.

If parmid does exist, it is deleted, the environment string table is compressed, and the new string is added at the end.

#### Examples:

Assuming the environment string table is empty, the following statement will create a default path to the root directory on Disk A:

    ENVIRON "PATH=A:\"

If your work subdirectory were john, you would be able to get DEBUG from the root.

A new parameter may be added:

    ENVIRON "COMSPEC=A:\COMMAND.COM"

The environment string table now contains

    PATH=A:\; COMSPEC=A:\COMMAND.COM

The path may be changed to a new value:

    ENVIRON "PATH=A:\SALES; A:\ACCOUNTING"

The path parameter may be appended by using the ENVIRON$ function with the ENVIRON statement:

    ENVIRON "PATH="+ENVIRON$("PATH")+"; B:\SAMPLES"

Finally, delete the parameter COMSPEC:

    ENVIRON "COMSPEC=;"

The environment string table now contains

    PATH=A:\SALES; A:\ACCOUNTING; B:\SAMPLES