IB Statements/asc

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ASC function

Syntax: ASC(string-argument)

Discussion: The ASC function returns the decimal value of the first byte of the string-argument using the 8-bit ASCII code.

The string-argument may be a string constant, a single-element string variable, a string array element, a string expression, or a string function.

Note: If the string-argument contains more than one character, only the first byte of the string-argument is evaluated for conversion.

The resultant value for any non-null string is always a numeric value from 0 through 255. The value that results for any null string is always -1.

The intermediate result of the ASC function is stored in an accumulator with a precision of 16.0. If this intermediate result is then moved into a receiving numeric variable, its precision is adjusted to the defined precision of that variable.

Example: VALUE = ASC("SIGNATURE")

In this example, the first byte of the string "SIGNATURE" (i.e., the letter "S") is converted to its decimal ASCII equivalent, namely 83. This value is stored in the variable VALUE.