Q65504: BASIC "Statements/Labels Illegal Between SELECT CASE and CASE"

Article: Q65504
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 4.00 4.00b 4.50
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | B_BasicCom | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 21-SEP-1990

Line numbers are allowed in most BASIC source statements. One area
line numbers are not allowed in is an area of BASIC's SELECT CASE
statement. If a line number precedes the first CASE ExpressionList
part of the statement, the error "Statements/labels illegal between
SELECT CASE and CASE" will be returned.

This information applies to Microsoft QuickBASIC versions 4.00, 4.00b,
and 4.50 for MS-DOS; to Microsoft BASIC Compiler versions 6.00 and
6.00b for MS-DOS and MS OS/2; and to Microsoft BASIC Professional
Development System (PDS) versions 7.00 and 7.10 for MS-DOS and MS
OS/2.

The first versions of BASIC (interpreter) required line numbers for
every line. For upward compatibility, this feature is still available
in the newer BASICs. Some statements that are new to the language,
however, restrict the use of the line number feature. One such
statement is the SELECT CASE statement. Line numbers are allowed
anywhere in the statement except between the SELECT CASE
TextExpression and the first CASE ExpressionList.

This limitation can be inconvenient to a programmer who wants to use
line numbers in each line so that the ERL function can report the line
on which an error occurred. However, with syntax checking turned on in
QB.EXE or QBX.EXE, it is very unlikely an error will exist.

The code example below demonstrates this discussion.

Code Example
------------

CLS
INPUT "Enter acceptable number (1-10): ", num
'   Line numbers are OK to use on the SELECT statement:
10     SELECT CASE num
' The following statement generates the error "Statements/labels
' illegal between SELECT CASE and CASE":
15      CASE IS = 10
' Removing the "15" eliminates the error.
'   It is OK to put line numbers inside of the rest of the CASE:
20         PRINT "Maximum number"
        CASE 6 TO 9
           PRINT "Higher, but not the maximum"
        CASE 2 TO 5
           PRINT "Moderate picker, aren't you"
        CASE 1
           PRINT "A low number indeed"
        CASE ELSE
           PRINT "RESPONSE OUT OF RANGE"
     END SELECT

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