MSX Basic / QBASIC etc - DATA clause?

[Trenton_net]

Hi Everyone,

In MSX Basic, QBASIC, or any kind of basic derivative, I noted a lot of the sample games/programs include these massive "DATA" sections. As an example:

2790 DATA0F700F700F7007700770074003400000,FE70DA70DA40D A70DA40FC40FC40F840
2800 DATA3C617E6106F606F60F6803687E803C80,0414041404150 0112014201420150011
2810 DATA3C747E74C37F817F817F817F7EF53C71,99F499F41EFA7 EA13C647EF40CFA0CFA

Or something that looks like that. Does anyone understand what this is, how to use it, and what the purpose is?

[Calpis]

It defines immediate data:

http://www.qb64.net/wiki/index.php?title=READ
http://www.qb64.net/wiki/index.php?title=DATA
http://sip.clarku.edu/tutorials/True_BASIC.html
http://justbasic.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=tutorial&action=display&num=1106258194

[Trenton_net]

Ah ha! Thanks.

[ttn]

Was that a satisfying answer to you?

The DATA-section is where you store information inside your code instead of storing it into individual files. The data may be anything from graphical elements (sprites, levels) to music/sound fx to pre-calculated mathematical data to speed up calculations to 3D-coordinates and textures.

When you only have tiny amounts of data you can store it like that directly into arrays instead of having to load files.