To return the address in memory of the variable or file control block (FCB).
VARPTR(variable name) VARPTR(#file number)
VARPTR is usually used to obtain the address of a variable or array so it can be passed to an assembly language subroutine. A function call of the following form:
VARPTR(A(0))
is usually specified when passing an array, so that the lowest-addressed element of the array is returned.
All simple variables should be assigned before calling VARPTR for an array, because the addresses of the arrays change whenever a new simple variable is assigned.
VARPTR (#file number) returns the starting address of the GW-BASIC File Control Block assigned to file number.
VARPTR (variable name) returns the address of the first byte of data identified with the variable name.
A value must be assigned to variable name prior to execution of VARPTR, otherwise, an "Illegal function call" error results.
Any type variable name may be used (numeric, string, or array), and the address returned will be an integer within the range of 32767 to -32768. If a negative address is returned, it is added to 65536 to obtain the actual address.
Offsets to information in the FCB from the address returned by VARPTR are shown in the following table:
Offsets to FCB Information
| Offset | Length | Name | Description |
| 0 | 1 | Mode | The mode in which the file was opened: 1 Input only 2 Output only 4 Random I/O 16 Append only 32 Internal use 64 Future use 128 Internal use |
| 1 | 38 | FCB | Diskette file control block. |
| 39 | 2 | CURLOC | Number of sectors read or written for sequential access. The last record number +1 read or written for random files. |
| 41 | 1 | ORNOFS | Number of bytes in sector when read or written. |
| 42 | 1 | NMLOFS | Number of bytes left in INPUT buffer. |
| 43 | 3 | *** | Reserved for future expansion. |
| 46 | 1 | DEVICE | Device Number: 0-9 Disks A: through J: 255 KYBD: 254 SCRN: 253 LPT1: 252 CAS1: 251 COM1: 250 COM2: 249 LPT2: 248 LPT3: |
| 47 | 1 | WIDTH | Device width. |
| 48 | 1 | POS | Position in buffer for PRINT. |
| 49 | 1 | FLAGS | Internal use during BLOAD/BSAVE. Not used for data files. |
| 50 | 1 | OUTPOS | Output position used during tab expansion. |
| 51 | 128 | BUFFER | Physical data buffer. Used to transfer data between DOS and BASIC. Use this offset to examine data in sequential I/O mode. |
| 179 | 2 | VRECL | Variable length record size. Default is 128. Set by length option in OPEN statement. |
| 181 | 2 | PHYREC | Current physical record number. |
| 183 | 2 | LOGREC | Current logical record number. |
| 185 | 1 | *** | Future use. |
| 186 | 2 | OUTPOS | Disk files only. Output position for PRINT, INPUT, and WRITE. |
| 188 | n | FIELD | Actual FIELD data buffer. Size is determined by S:switch. VRECL bytes are transferred between BUFFER and FIELD on I/O operations. Use this offset to examine file data in random I/O mode. |
100 X=VARPTR(Y)
When executed, the variable X will contain an address that points to the storage space assigned to the variable Y.
10 OPEN "DATA.FIL" AS #1 20 FCBADR = VARPTR(#1) 30 DATADR = FCBADR+188 40 A$ = PEEK(DATADR)
In line 20, FCBADR contains the start of FCB.
In line 30, DATADR contains the address of the data buffer.
In line 40, A$ contains the first byte in the data buffer.