What are the 14 Keywords of Small Basic?

In the Small Basic FAQ, it mentions there are 14 keywords:

What are the unique features of the Small Basic language?

• Size
  The Small Basic language consists of just 14 keywords.

==========

Of the 14 keywords, we'll cover 16 of them in this blog post:

And
Else
ElseIf
EndFor
EndIf
EndSub
EndWhile
For
Goto
If
Or
Step
Sub
Then
To
While

==========

Examples...

 

If, Then, EndIf

If (Clock.Hour < 12) Then
  TextWindow.WriteLine("Good Morning World")
EndIf

Else

We can shorten two if..then..endif statements to be just one by using a new word, else.

If we were to rewrite that program using else, this is how it will look:

If (Clock.Hour < 12) Then 

TextWindow.WriteLine("Good Morning World") 

Else TextWindow.WriteLine("Good Evening World") 

EndIf

Goto

If (i < 25) Then 

Goto start 

EndIf

For, To, EndFor

For..EndFor is, in programming terms, called a loop.  It allows you to take a variable, give it an initial and an end value and let the computer increment the variable for you.  Every time the computer increments the variable, it runs the statements between For and EndFor.

This program prints out numbers from 1 to 24 in order: 

For i = 1 To 24 

TextWindow.WriteLine(i) 

EndFor

Step

But if you wanted the variable to be incremented by 2 instead of 1 (like say, you wanted to print out all the odd numbers between 1 and 24), you can use the loop to do that too.

For i = 1 To 24 Step 2 

TextWindow.WriteLine(i) 

EndFor

While, EndWhile

The While loop is yet another looping method, that is useful especially when the loop count is not known ahead of time.  Whereas a For loop runs for a pre-defined number of times, the While loop runs until a given condition is true. In the example below, we’re halving a number until the result is greater than 1.

number = 100 

While (number > 1) 

TextWindow.WriteLine(number) number = number / 2 

EndWhile

Sub, EndSub

A subroutine is a portion of code within a larger program that usually does something very specific, and that can be called from anywhere in the program.  Subroutines are identified by a name that follows the Sub keyword and are terminated by the EndSub keyword. Below is a program that includes the subroutine and calls it from various places.

PrintTime() 

TextWindow.Write("Enter your name: ") 

name = TextWindow.Read() 

TextWindow.Write(name + ", the time now is: ") 

PrintTime() 

Sub PrintTime 

TextWindow.WriteLine(Clock.Time) 

EndSub

And, ElseIf

  If  percentage >= 75 Then

    TextWindow.WriteLine("The student’s grade is A.")

  ElseIf  percentage < 75 And percentage >= 60  Then

    TextWindow.WriteLine("The student’s grade is B.")

  ElseIf  percentage < 60 And percentage >= 35 Then

    TextWindow.WriteLine("The student’s grade is C.")

  Else

    TextWindow.WriteLine("The student’s grade is D.")

  EndIf

Or 

Sub subRainyCount

    If Rainy = "y" Or Rainy = "Y" Then

       RainyCount = RainyCount + 1

    EndIf

EndSub

Why are there 16 Keywords instead of 14?

Okay, so that was a bit of a joke. Sorry if it was lost on you. Usually when you say/read/hear "Of the X items, we'll cover Y of them..." the Y number is smaller than the X number, not larger.

"And" and "Or" are actually Operators, and they don't count as the Keywords.

So the Keyword list looks like this:

Else
ElseIf
EndFor
EndIf
EndSub
EndWhile
For
Goto
If
Step
Sub
Then
To
While

And the Operator list:

And
Or

If you'd like to write up some short explanations of some of those keywords, I'll add your explanations above the examples. Just leave the suggested text in the comments!

Thanks!

   - Tall Basic Ed