Your First Program

This tutorial introduces complete beginners to programming with RCBasic. No prior programming knowledge is assumed.

Hello World

Type the following into the RCBasic Studio editor and press the Run button (the triangle, or Build → Run):

Print "Hello World"

You should see Hello World appear in the console window. Congratulations — you just wrote your first program!

Data Types

RCBasic has two data types: Numbers and Strings.

• A string is a sequence of characters enclosed in double quotes.

• A number is a numeric value (integer or floating-point).

' A string and a number that look the same but behave differently:
"42"   ' this is a string  — two characters: '4' and '2'
42     ' this is a number  — the value forty-two

String concatenation vs arithmetic addition:

Print "42" + "53"   ' outputs: 4253  (string concat)
Print 42 + 53       ' outputs: 95    (numeric add)

Arithmetic Operators

Operator	Name	Example
+	Addition	Print 6 + 2 → 8
-	Subtraction	Print 6 - 2 → 4
*	Multiplication	Print 6 * 2 → 12
/	Division	Print 6 / 2 → 3
^	Power	Print 6 ^ 2 → 36

RCBasic respects standard order of operations (PEMDAS):

Print 4 + 3 * 2      ' outputs: 10  (multiply first)
Print (4 + 3) * 2    ' outputs: 14  (parentheses first)

The Print Statement

Print outputs values to the console. Multiple items of different types can be printed on one line by separating them with ;:

Print "Text"; 5 + 4; " More Text";
' Ending Print with ";" keeps the cursor on the same line.

Variables

A variable stores a value so you can reuse it later. Number variables use plain names; string variables end with $:

a       = 2
b$      = "Bob"
batman  = 4.5
superman$ = "some text"

Print a + batman          ' outputs: 6.5
Print b$ + superman$      ' concatenates the two strings

You can change a variable's value at any time:

a = 5  : Print a    ' 5
a = 6  : Print a    ' 6
a = 5 + 6 : Print a ' 11

Getting Input from the User

Input$(prompt$) displays a prompt and returns whatever the user types as a string:

name$ = Input$("What is your name? ")
Print "Hello " + name$ + ". Welcome to RC Basic."

To use the input as a number, convert it with Val():

d = Val( Input$("Enter a number: ") )

Flow Control — If / ElseIf / Else

Use If ... Then ... End If to execute code conditionally:

If name$ = "Bob" Then
    Print "We have been expecting you"
End If

Multi-branch example:

a = 1 : b = 3 : c = 5
d = Val( Input$("Enter a number: ") )

If d = a Then
    Print "You typed the A value"
ElseIf d = b Then
    Print "That is B"
ElseIf d = c Then
    Print "That would be C"
Else
    Print "You did not type any of the numbers"
End If

Comparison Operators

Given variables a and b:

Operator	Meaning
a = b	Equal to
a < b	Less than
a > b	Greater than
a <= b	Less than or equal to
a >= b	Greater than or equal to
a <> b	Not equal to

Logical Operators

Keyword	Behaviour
AND	Both conditions must be true.
OR	At least one condition must be true.
XOR	Exactly one condition must be true (the other must be false).
NOT	Reverses the boolean result of the expression.

If 1 = 1 AND 4 > 2 Then
    Print "This is true"
End If

If NOT (1 = 3) Then
    Print "This is true"   ' 1≠3 is false; NOT makes it true
End If

Loops

See Loops for full documentation. Quick overview:

' FOR loop — prints 1 to 10
For i = 1 To 10
    Print i
Next

' WHILE loop — prints 0 to 4
i = 0
While i < 5
    Print i
    i = i + 1
Wend

Built-in Functions

RCBasic provides over 200 built-in functions. A few common ones:

Print Abs(-4)              ' Absolute value → 4
Print Date$()             ' Current date as string
Print UCase$("hello")     ' Uppercase → "HELLO"
x = Val("12")             ' String to number → 12

Refer to the Math, Strings, and other API sections for the complete function reference.

Challenges

1. Write a program that asks the user for a number, then prints every number from 1 up to that number.

2. Write a program that keeps asking the user for their name until they type "Bob", then prints "Goodbye Bob".