# DATA Statement

#### Purpose:

To store the numeric and string constants that are accessed by the program READ statement(s).

#### Syntax:

    DATA constants

#### Comments:

constants are numeric constants in any format (fixed point, floating-point, or integer), separated by commas. No expressions are allowed in the list.

String constants in DATA statements must be surrounded by double quotation marks only if they contain commas, colons, or significant leading or trailing spaces. Otherwise, quotation marks are not needed.

DATA statements are not executable and may be placed anywhere in the program. A DATA statement can contain as many constants that will fit on a line (separated by commas), and any number of DATA statements may be used in a program.

READ statements access the DATA statements in order (by line number). The data contained therein may be thought of as one continuous list of items, regardless of how many items are on a line or where the lines are placed in the program. The variable type (numeric or string) given in the READ statement must agree with the corresponding constant in the DATA statement, or a "Type Mismatch" error occurs.

DATA statements may be reread from the beginning by use of the RESTORE statement.

For further information and examples, see the RESTORE statement and the READ statement.

Example 1:

    .
    .
    .
    80 FOR I=1 TO 10
    90 READ A(I)
    100 NEXT I
    110 DATA 3.08,5.19,3.12,3.98,4.24
    120 DATA 5.08,5.55,4.00,3.16,3.37
    .
    .
    .

This program segment reads the values from the DATA statements into array A. After execution, the value of A(1) is 3.08, and so on. The DATA statements (lines 110-120) may be placed anywhere in the program; they may even be placed ahead of the READ statement.

Example 2:

    5 PRINT
    10 PRINT "CITY","STATE","ZIP"
    20 READ C$,S$,Z
    30 DATA "DENVER,","COLORADO",80211
    40 PRINT C$,S$,Z
    RUN
     CITY STATE ZIP
     DENVER, COLORADO 80211

This program reads string and numeric data from the DATA statement in line 30.