QuickBasic syntax

In version 2.xx and above, Superbase introducted the support for declaring subroutines, functions, and procedures. To rewrite our simple sample above in QuickBasic syntax, we could do this:

SUB main()

OPEN FILE SHARE,0"PEOPLE"

OPEN FORM "CONTACT"

SELECT KEY "John Smith"

CALL ring_the_bell( 5 )

END SUB

SUB ring_the_bell ( num_times% )

FOR I% = 1 to num_times%

BELL

NEXT I%

END SUB

In this program, there are two notable items. First is that the process of ringing the bell has been moved into it's own SUBroutine, and we have "passed into" the subroutine, the number of times that we want to ring the bell. This is the first step towards modularity and reuseability.

The next important advantage of this code, which isn't immediately apparent is that the variables inside of each subroutines are LOCAL only to that subroutine. This means that the variables cannot be "seen", changed, or altered intentionally or accidentally by other part of the program executing. This is a HUGE step up from the version 1 style of programming where ALL VARIABLES ARE GLOBAL.