NOVARSEG and the quest for _MEM

[RhoSigma]

That is, because fixed length strings are directly incorporated into your type, hence 11 bytes, but for variable length strings only a pointer to the string descriptor is incorporated into the type, which should be 4 bytes when using the 32bit version of QB64, while it should be 8 bytes when using the 64bit version of QB64.

In different words, fixed length is incorporated as is, variable length strings are just incorporated AS _OFFSET.

[NOVARSEG]

As RhoSigma suggested , the first 4 bytes in the TYPE list is the memory address of variable length STRING S

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. TYPE ABC
2.     S AS STRING
3.     Z AS INTEGER
4.     Y AS INTEGER
5. END TYPE
6.  
7.  
8. DIM C AS ABC
9.  
10. C.S = "abcdefghijk"
11.  
12. DIM N AS LONG
13.  
14. DIM m AS _MEM
15.  
16. m = _MEM(C)
17.  
18. _MEMGET m, m.OFFSET, N
19.  
20. PRINT N

PRINT N = memory address of variable length string.

[SMcNeill]

PRINT N = memory address of variable length string.

This may, or may not, be true.  Variable length strings can move around in memory at any time, depending on when your OS does clean up calls and memory packing/rearranging.  When you got the value of N, that's where your variable length string was at that moment, but it could be somewhere else by the time you get to, and complete, the PRINT statement.  It's this movement of variable length strings which is why they don't work with _MEM as it currently exists.