How to separate a string in commodore 64 basic?

Question

I have a board of "."s initialized into a board in commodore 64.

I want to randomly place words into the board with each letter of the word being a "." on the board (like a word search game). If the word does not fit, then the next word can be placed. I want to place the words vertically and horizontally. This is what I have so far: (this makes board of dots 10x10)

Any ideas on separating a word (I have the words hard coded) and placing them vertically and horizontally on the screen?

1060 rem: Subroutine Fill 
1070 rem: Purpose: read and data construct which fills b3$(x,x) with
1080 rem: either "."s or other random words depending on whether or not
1090 rem: the subroutine has been run before.
1100 x = 10
1110 rem: x represents the dimension for the board; in this case, 10
1120 rem: took out dim b3$(x, x)
1130 rem: array b3 = board = specifications for width and height (10)
1140 rem: i to x allows the horizontal aspect of board to be filled with "."s
1150 for i = 0 to x 
1160 rem: j to x allows the vertical aspect of board to be filled with "."s
1170 for j = 0 to x
1180 rem: board filled with dots horizontally and vertically
1190 b3$(i, j) = "."
1200 rem: end of first nested for loop
1210 next
1220 rem: end of second nested for loop
1230 next
1240 return

1400 dim wo$(9)
1410 wo$(0) = "word"
1420 wo$(1) = "stack"
1430 wo$(2) = "overflow"
1440 wo$(3) = "hello"
1450 wo$(4) = "no"
1460 wo$(5) = "how"
1470 wo$(6) = "why"
1480 wo$(7) = "start"
1490 wo$(8) = "end"
1500 wo$(9) = "done"
1510 print wo$(7)
1520 return

10 print "START"
20 rem: go to line 1100 in order to fill board with "."s because this is
30 rem: the board's initialization
40 gosub 1100
50 rem: looping from i to x allows for horizontal aspect of board to be printed
60 rem: x represents the width dimension of board, in this case, 10
70 for i = 0 to x
80 rem: looping from j to x allows for vertical aspect of board to be printed
90 rem: x represents the height dimension of board, in this case, 10
100 for j = 0 to x
110 rem: board initialized with "."s is printed
120 print b3$(i,j), 
130 rem: end of first for loop, looping from i to x put on 130; , USED 4 TAB
140 next
150 print
160 rem: end of second for loop, looping from j to x
170 next
180 rem: checks what at the random number is equal to; places word vertically
190 rem: if rand is 0 and places the word horizontally if rand is 1

Now I need to place the words in the grid

Any ideas?

Answer 1

The MID$ String Function

Another vital function is MID$. This function selects a portion of any string it is given for its argument.

Type the command:

PRINT MID$("ABCOEFG",2,4)

The result shows you how MID$ works. In this case it displays a 4 character string, starting at the 2nd character of "ABCDEFG".

In formal terms, the MID$ function takes three arguments which are separated by commas and enclosed in brackets. The arguments are as follows:

• The first is the string to be used.
• The second is a number specifying the position of the first character in the result.
• The third is another number giving the length of the result.

As you would expect, any of the arguments can be variables of the appropriate sort. The length of the result can be anything from 0 (called the null string) to the full length of the first argument. In practice it is often one character.

Here is a simple program to input a word and display it backwards. Study it carefully and note how the functions LEN and MID$ are used:

10 INPUT "PLEASE TYPE A WORD"; X$  
20 PRINT "YOUR WORD BACKWARD IS"  
30 FOR J = LEN(X$) TO 1 STEP - 1  
40 PRINT MID$(X$,J, 1);  
50 NEXT J  
60 STOP  

Key the program in and check it for yourself; try out words of 1, 2 or more characters.