and another one for your toolbox...

[SMcNeill]

Usually it’s in the bottom row.

CTRL - WIN - ALT - SPACEBAR - ALT - WIN - MENU - CTRL

https://www.howtogeek.com/425623/what-is-the-menu-key-for-and-how-to-remap-it/#:~:text=On%20full-size%20keyboards%2C%20the%20menu%20key%20is%20located,laptop%20keyboards—omit%20the%20menu%20key%20to%20save%20space.

[bplus]

Usually it’s in the bottom row.

CTRL - WIN - ALT - SPACEBAR - ALT - WIN - MENU - CTRL

https://www.howtogeek.com/425623/what-is-the-menu-key-for-and-how-to-remap-it/#:~:text=On%20full-size%20keyboards%2C%20the%20menu%20key%20is%20located,laptop%20keyboards—omit%20the%20menu%20key%20to%20save%20space.

Bottom row for me is:
Ctrl, Fn, Win, Alt, Space, Alt, Ctrl, 4 arrow keys   then  Number keypad block

And nothing is returned when I press Fn Key. Win key of course Interrupts probably a good thing.
Fn key works like a shift key for letters because those keys are doing double duty too.

[SMcNeill]

You just don’t have a menu key then.  Not all keyboards do.  They basically work similar to a right mouse click for the keyboard. 

[TempodiBasic]

on my TOSHIBA the bottom row is Ctrl Fn Windows Alt Space AltGr Menu Ctrl  4 cursors  numeric pad
https://www.ebay.it/itm/TOSHIBA-SATELLITE-PRO-C850-15-6-INTEL-CORE-i3-3rd-GEN-4GB-RAM-250GB-HDD-WIN-10/283549905207?hash=item4204e43137:g:OloAAOSwMXxfft3O
Alt Gr is both  to get the 3rd character on the keyboard or together numerica pad to input ASCII code of the character choosen  both as Alt.
How many variation of the hardware!

[bplus]

Here is a set of handy subs and functions for storing an array of Integers, Floats and Strings (length limit 32) into a string. Thanks to Luke for idea.

One particularly useful application is for storing arrays into a string for a UDT since UDTs cant hold arrays.

For your tool box:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. ' words have a length limit of 32, needed some sort of cutoff number not too big, not too small
2. SUB SetWord (array$, index AS LONG, word32$) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
3.     IF LEN(array$) < 32 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(32 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), SPC(32))
4.     MID$(array$, index * 32 + 1) = LEFT$(word32$ + SPC(32), 32)
5. END SUB
6.  
7. ' words have a length limit of 32, needed some sort of cutoff number not too big, not too small
8. FUNCTION GetWord$ (array$, index AS LONG)
9.     GetWord$ = _TRIM$(MID$(array$, index * 32 + 1, 32))
10. END FUNCTION
11.  
12. SUB SetLong (array$, index AS LONG, value&) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
13.     IF LEN(array$) < 4 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(4 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), CHR$(0))
14.     MID$(array$, index * 4 + 1) = _MK$(LONG, value&)
15. END SUB
16.  
17. FUNCTION GetLong& (array$, index AS LONG)
18.     GetLong& = _CV(LONG, MID$(array$, index * 4 + 1, 4))
19. END FUNCTION
20.  
21. SUB SetDbl (array$, index AS LONG, value#) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
22.     IF LEN(array$) < 8 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(8 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), CHR$(0))
23.     MID$(array$, index * 8 + 1) = _MK$(DOUBLE, value#)
24. END SUB
25.  
26. FUNCTION GetDbl# (array$, index AS LONG)
27.     GetDbl# = _CV(DOUBLE, MID$(array$, index * 8 + 1, 8))
28. END FUNCTION
29.  

And some simple little demo tests of each pair:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. OPTION _EXPLICIT
2. ' I modified this for LONG type only do one one for floats DOUBLE 2021-01-31  stored in handy toolbox
3. DEFLNG A-Z
4. REDIM i
5. TYPE t
6.     s AS STRING
7. END TYPE
8. DIM v AS t
9.  
10. FOR i = 10 TO 0 STEP -1
11.     SetLong v.s, i, i ^ 2
12. NEXT i
13.  
14. FOR i = 0 TO 10
15.     PRINT GetLong&(v.s, i)
16. NEXT i
17.  
18. SUB SetLong (array$, index AS LONG, value&) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
19.     IF LEN(array$) < 4 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(4 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), CHR$(0))
20.     MID$(array$, index * 4 + 1) = _MK$(LONG, value&)
21. END SUB
22.  
23. FUNCTION GetLong& (array$, index AS LONG)
24.     GetLong& = _CV(LONG, MID$(array$, index * 4 + 1, 4))
25. END FUNCTION
26.  

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. _TITLE "SetDbl GetDbl Test" '2021-01-31 for Handy Toolbox
2. REDIM dbl AS DOUBLE
3. PRINT LEN(dbl) ' = 8
4. PRINT
5. FOR i = 0 TO 20
6.     SetDbl rndArr$, i, RND + i
7. NEXT
8. FOR i = 20 TO 0 STEP -1
9.     PRINT GetDbl#(rndArr$, i)
10. NEXT
11.  
12. SUB SetDbl (array$, index AS LONG, value#) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
13.     IF LEN(array$) < 8 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(8 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), CHR$(0))
14.     MID$(array$, index * 8 + 1) = _MK$(DOUBLE, value#)
15. END SUB
16.  
17. FUNCTION GetDbl# (array$, index AS LONG)
18.     GetDbl# = _CV(DOUBLE, MID$(array$, index * 8 + 1, 8))
19. END FUNCTION
20.  

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. _TITLE "SetWord GetWord test" '2021-01-31 for Handy Toolbox
2.  
3. FOR i = 0 TO 20
4.     SetWord wordArr$, i, "Here is word number" + STR$(i)
5. NEXT
6. FOR i = 20 TO 0 STEP -1
7.     PRINT "'"; GetWord$(wordArr$, i); "'"
8. NEXT
9.  
10. ' words have a length limit of 32, needed some sort of cutoff number not too big, not too small
11. SUB SetWord (array$, index AS LONG, word32$) ' Luke's Method except option explicit requires mod, no variables needed for one type
12.     IF LEN(array$) < 32 * (index + 1) THEN array$ = array$ + STRING$(32 * (index + 1) - LEN(array$), SPC(32))
13.     MID$(array$, index * 32 + 1) = LEFT$(word32$ + SPC(32), 32)
14. END SUB
15.  
16. ' words have a length limit of 32, needed some sort of cutoff number not too big, not too small
17. FUNCTION GetWord$ (array$, index AS LONG)
18.     GetWord$ = _TRIM$(MID$(array$, index * 32 + 1, 32))
19. END FUNCTION
20.  

[bplus]

Along the lines in the above post, here is a set of tools for Variable Length Array-Like Strings.

https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=3681.0

[bplus]

Evaluate$ - might take a little study to use but look at LOC!

https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=3660.msg130074#msg130074

[FellippeHeitor]

Why are we screaming here?

[bplus]

We?

Dang it,  lost the link! Now I am ready to scream. ;-))

[bplus]

The Fval$ Evaluator is, in my humble opinion, light years ahead of Eval evaluator in flexibility ie it does strings and everything can be considered a string, my own private String Theory ;-))

Here I use it as core idea to my oh Interpreter:
https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=3723.0

I also use string math, and files tools and others you can find in this thread "and another one for your toolbox"
Don't forget to bookmark this thread for reference to many tools and more importantly ideas bplus uses.

The only thing Eval has going for it is it offers more Basic-like number handling and math like formulas.

Of course if you want to get a little philosophical, physicists are leaning more towards information as the basis or foundation or Theory of Everything, just another String Theory in my book.

[SMcNeill]

Here's a very short little tool for your toolbox:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. i = 2
2. Do
3.     Print i, Digits(i)
4.     i = i * 2
5. Loop Until Digits(i) > 7
6.  
7. Function Digits&& (value As Double)
8.     Digits&& = Int(Log(Abs(value)) / Log(10.#)) + 1
9. End Function
10.  

Function Digits tells you how many digits a number has, not counting any decimal places.  Can be much faster and simpler than something like Len(_Trim$(Str$(INT(number)))) + (Sgn(number) = -1) , which does the same thing (for integer values) by converting the number to a string first.

[STxAxTIC]

Not bad for fat integers, I think the more complete function captures this behavior and does these examples:

 

[bplus]

Hey while we have this thread pulled down from a year ago, let's get this one posted too!

MessageBox function:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. ' Thank you FellippeHeitor!
2. $If WIN Then
3.     Declare Library
4.         Function MessageBox (ByVal ignore&, message$, title$, Byval type&)
5.     End Declare
6. $Else
7.     DECLARE LIBRARY ""
8.     FUNCTION MessageBox (BYVAL ignore&, message$, title$, BYVAL type&)
9.     END DECLARE
10. $End If
11. ' answer = MessageBox(0, "Hi, bplus. You can do this.", "This is platform-agnostic", 0)
12. Dim m$, answer, temp
13. m$ = "Message: press OK to return 1, press Cancel to return 2."
14. answer = MessageBox(0, m$, "Test MessageBox", 4097) ' 4097 for OK = 1 Cancel = 2 Modal on top messagebox
15. If answer = 1 Then
16.     temp = MessageBox(0, "OK was pressed.", "Test MessageBox", 4096)
17. Else
18.     temp = MessageBox(0, "Cancel was pressed.", "Test MessageBox", 4096)
19. End If
20.  

Thank you Fellippe! Very lightweight in terms of LOC.

[NOVARSEG]

Ok im all rusty now but heh I remember the good ol days - labyrinth tiles, one line word editors, BMP viewers,  all the stuff we know and love

[bplus]

Ok im all rusty now but heh I remember the good ol days - labyrinth tiles, one line word editors, BMP viewers,  all the stuff we know and love

I'd ask where have you been, if you don't mind but that's for Discord. That's right they converted me.