Passing Basic Dynamic Arrays of Fixed Strings to MASM 5.x (35964)

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about passing other types of parameters between Basic and MASM, search in the Microsoft Knowledge Base using the following word:

Code Example 1

Please note that it is necessary to pass the segment and the offset of a dynamic array being passed to assembly using VARSEG and VARPTR respectively.

'The following Basic program passes two arrays to a routine called
'MASM. The MASM routine copies the first array to the second array,
'passing it back to Basic through a parameter.
REM $DYNAMIC
DECLARE SUB Masm (_
       BYVAL StrLength AS INTEGER,_
       BYVAL Length AS INTEGER,_
       BYVAL SegAddr1 AS INTEGER,_
       BYVAL Addr1 AS INTEGER,_
       BYVAL SegAddr2 AS INTEGER,_
       BYVAL Addr2 AS INTEGER)
CONST Size% = 20%     'Size of the array (# of elements)
CONST StrSize% = 11%  'Size of strings stored in array
CLS
DIM inArray(1 TO Size%) AS STRING * strsize%
DIM outArray(1 TO Size%) AS STRING * strsize%

'Load inArray with a 11 character string " *inArray* ":
FOR i = 1 TO Size%
  inArray(i) = " *inArray* "
NEXT i

' Masm will copy the contents of inArray to outArray:
CALL Masm(StrSize%,_
          Size%,_
          VARSEG(inArray(1)),_
          VARPTR(inArray(1)),_
          VARSEG(outArray(1)),_
          VARPTR(outArray(1)))

' Print the inArray:
PRINT
PRINT
PRINT "inArray: "
FOR i = 1 TO Size%
  PRINT inArray(i);
NEXT i

' Print the outArray to see that the contents of inArray
' were copied to it:

PRINT
PRINT "outArray: "
FOR i = 1 TO Size%
  PRINT outArray(i);
NEXT i
END
				

The following is the assembly routine that copies the array:

;***********************************************************
; The routine 'Masm' copies a dynamic string array of any
;   length to another string array.
; Warnings:
;   -- Arrays must be adequately dimensioned.
; Masm takes six parameters from the Basic routine:
;   1 - Size of strings in array to be copied (BX)
;   2 - # of elements in Array
;   3 - Segment of source array
;   4 - Offset of first element of source array
;   5 - Segment of destination array
;   6 - Offset of first element of destination array
;***********************************************************

.MODEL MEDIUM
.CODE
PUBLIC Masm

Masm    PROC
     push   bp
     push   si
     mov    bp, sp

     mov    bx, [bp+16]   ; Size of strings in array -> bx
     mov    ax, [bp+14]   ; Elements in array -> ax
     mul    bx     ; multiply ax by bx and put answer in ax
     mov    cx,ax  ; Number of bytes in array -> cx

     mov    es, [bp+12]   ; Segment of first array (inArray)
     mov    bx, [bp+10]   ; Offset of first element in first
                          ; array
; body
     mov    si,0 ; initialize first array index (inArray)
again:
     mov    al,es:[bx] ; Load byte to copy to second array
                       ;  in al
     push   bx         ; save bx
     push   es         ; save es
     mov    es, [bp+8] ; Segment of second array (outArray)
     mov    bx, [bp+6] ; Offset of second arrays first
                       ; element
     add    bx,si ; Get correct offset into 2nd array from
                  ; index
     mov    es:[bx],al ; Move the byte into the second array
     pop    es ; restore es
     pop    bx ; restore bx
     add    bx,1 ; point to next element in first array
                 ; (inArray)
     add    si,1 ; increment second array (outArray) index
     loop    again ; Loop until cx is 0
     pop    si
     pop    bp
     ret
Masm ENDP
     END
				

Code Example 2

The following Basic program is BTWOFIX.BAS, which passes an uninitialized two-dimensional array of fixed-length strings to an assembly routine that initializes the array:

   DECLARE SUB TwoFix(BYVAL ASeg AS INTEGER, BYVAL AOff AS INTEGER)

   DIM FixArray(1 TO 2, 1 TO 3) AS STRING * 9

   CALL TwoFix(VARSEG(FixArray(1, 1)), VARPTR(FixArray(1, 1)))
   FOR row% = 1 TO 2
      FOR col% = 1 TO 3
         PRINT FixArray(row%, col%)
      NEXT
   NEXT
   END
				

The following program is ATWOFIX.ASM, which initializes a two-dimensional array of fixed-length strings passed from Basic:

.MODEL MEDIUM, Basic
.DATA
        Fix11 DB 'String 11'     ; allocate string data
        Fix21 DB 'String 21'
        Fix12 DB 'String 12'
        Fix22 DB 'String 22'
        Fix13 DB 'String 13'
        Fix23 DB 'String 23'
.CODE
        PUBLIC TwoFix
TwoFix  PROC
        push bp
        mov bp, sp               ; set stack frame
        push es
        mov es, [bp+8]           ; segment of string array
        mov di, [bp+6]           ; offset of string array
        mov si, OFFSET Fix11     ; get offset to string data
        mov cx, 54               ; length of all string data
        rep movsb                ; copy string data to array
        pop es
        pop bp
        ret 4
TwoFix  ENDP
        END
				

To demonstrate these programs from an .EXE program, compile and link as follows:

   BC BTWOFIX.BAS;
   MASM ATWOFIX.ASM;
   LINK BTWOFIX ATWOFIX;
				

BTWOFIX.EXE produces the following output: