BASIC keyword abbreviation

Commodore BASIC offers a "shortcut" (known as BASIC keyword abbreviation) for entering keywords: Generally, a BASIC keyword may be entered as merely the first letter of the keyword in "lowercase", followed by the second one in "uppercase" (i.e. using one of the SHIFT keys). For instance:

• The keyword SAVE can be entered as sA (a lowercase "S" and an uppercase "A")
• The keyword VERIFY can be entered as vE (a lowercase "V" and an uppercase "E")

In some cases, two keywords begin with the same two letters; in these cases one takes "precedence", so the abbreviation for the consists of the first two letters in "lowercase", followed by the third in "uppercase":

• The keyword GOTO can be entered as gO
• The keyword GOSUB is abbreviated to goS

Because of the way these shortcuts are implemented in the code in BASIC ROM, there are several "shortcuts" for each keyword: GOSUB may be entered not only as "goS" (G, O, Shift+S), but also as "gosU" (G, O, S, Shift+U). But entering the whole word with the last letter capitalized: "gosuB" (G, O, S, U, Shift+B) fails, yielding some other, "random" BASIC keyword which will most likely yield a ?SYNTAX  ERROR.

One exception to the rule is PRINT, which is abbreviated to a question mark, so that

? "Hello world!"

is a valid PRINT statement . ("pR", or P, Shift+R is the abbreviation for PRINT#). A few BASIC keywords, such as NEW and INT do not have abbreviations at all.

Overview of BASIC abbreviations

BASIC 2.0

The following table gives the shortest possible abbreviation for all keywords in the Commodore BASIC V2 found in the C-64:

ABS aB (A, Shift+B) AND aN (A, Shift+N) ASC aS (A, Shift+S) ATN aT (A, Shift+T) CHR$ cH (C, Shift+H) CLOSE clO (C, L, Shift+O) CLR cL (C, Shift+L) CMD cM (C, Shift+M) CONT cO (C, Shift+O) COS (No abbreviation) DATA dA (D, Shift+A) DEF dE (D, Shift+E) DIM dI (D, Shift+I) END eN (E, Shift+N) EXP eX (E, Shift+X) FN (No abbreviation) FOR fO (F, Shift+O) FRE fR (F, Shift+R) GET gE (G, Shift+E) GET# (No abbreviation) GOSUB goS (G, O, Shift+S) GOTO gO (G, Shift+O) IF (No abbreviation) INPUT (No abbreviation)

INPUT# iN (I, Shift+N) INT (No abbreviation) LEFT$ leF (L, E, Shift+F) LEN (No abbreviation) LET lE (L, Shift+E) LIST lI (L, Shift+I) LOAD lO (L, Shift+O) LOG (No abbreviation) MID$ mI (M, Shift+I) NEW (No abbreviation) NEXT nE (N, Shift+E) NOT nO (N, Shift+O) ON (No abbreviation) OPEN oP (O, Shift+P) OR (No abbreviation) PEEK pE (P, Shift+E) POKE pO (P, Shift+O) POS (No abbreviation) PRINT ? PRINT# pR (P, Shift+R) READ rE (R, Shift+E) REM (No abbreviation) RESTORE reS (R, E, Shift+S) RETURN reT (R, E, Shift+T)

RIGHT$ rI (R, Shift+I) RND rN (R, Shift+N) RUN rU (R, Shift+U) SAVE sA (S, Shift+A) SGN sG (S, Shift+G) SIN sI (S, Shift+I) SPC( sP (S, Shift+P) SQR sQ (S, Shift+Q) STATUS (No abbreviation) STEP stE (S, T, Shift+E) STOP sT (S, Shift+T) STR$ stR (S, T, Shift+R) SYS sY (S, Shift+Y) TAB( tA (T, Shift+A) TAN (No abbreviation) TIME TI TIME$ TI$ THEN tH (T, Shift+H) USR uS (U, Shift+S) VAL vA (V, Shift+A) VERIFY vE (V, Shift+E) WAIT wA (W, Shift+A)

BASIC 3.5

BASIC 3.5 defines 50 new keywords. Most have abbreviations.

AUTO aU BACKUP bA BOX bO CHAR chA CIRCLE cI COLLECT colL COLOR coL COPY coP DEC none DELETE deL DIRECTORY diR DLOAD dL DO none DRAW dR DSAVE dS ELSE eL ERR$ eR EXIT exI GRAPHIC gR GSHAPE gS HEADER heA HELP heL HEX$ hE INSTR inS JOY jO

KEY kE LOCATE loC LOOP loO MONITOR mO PAINT pA PUDEF pU RCLR rC RDOT rD RENAME reN RENUMBER renU RESUME resU RGR rG RLUM rL SCALE scA SCNCLR sC SCRATCH scR SOUND sO SSHAPE sS TRAP tR TROFF troF TRON trO UNTIL uN USING usI VOL vO WHILE wH

BASIC 4.0

BASIC 4.0 defines fifteen new keywords. Each has an abbreviation.

Keyword	Abbreviation
APPEND	aP
BACKUP	baC
CATALOG	cA
COLLECT	coL
CONCAT	conC
COPY	coP
DCLOSE	dC
DIRECTORY	diR
DLOAD	dL
DOPEN	dO
DSAVE	dS
HEADER	hE
RECORD	reC
RENAME	rE
SCRATCH	sC

BASIC 7.0

Where an abbreviation could match two or more keywords, it is assigned to the keyword that the BASIC interpreter happens to scan first. BASIC 7.0 defines dozens of new keywords, and it scans the ones with two-byte token codes before the ones with one-byte codes, including the keywords in BASIC 2.0 and 3.5. Consequently, keywords in other BASICs have longer abbreviations in BASIC 7.0 than in the other version, or no abbreviation at all.

These are the BASIC 2.0 tokens with different abbreviations in BASIC 7.0:

Keyword	Abbreviation	2.0 abbreviation gives
CONT	coN	CONCAT
END	none	ENVELOPE
PEEK	peE	PEN
POKE	poK	POT
READ	reA	RECORD
SPC(	spC	SPRITE
STOP	stO	STASH

All of the BASIC 3.5 keywords occur in BASIC 7.0, except for RLUM, and the token codes are the same. Five keywords have different abbreviations in BASIC 7.0 than in 3.5.

Keyword	Abbreviation	3.5 abbreviation gives
BACKUP	baC	BANK
BOX	none	BOOT
COLLECT	collE	COLLISION
COLOR	colO	COLLISION
MONITOR	moN	MOVSPR

All of the BASIC 4.0 keywords occur in BASIC 7.0, but the token codes are different, and so is the scan order. Six keywords have different abbreviations in BASIC 7.0 than in 4.0. Three abbreviations are shorter, and the BASIC 4.0 abbreviation gives the same keyword.

Keyword	Abbreviation	4.0 abbreviation gives
COLLECT	collE	COLLISION
CONCAT	cO	CONCAT
HEADER	heA	HEX$
RECORD	rE	RECORD
RENAME	reN	RENAME
SCRATCH	scR	SCNCLR

These are the new BASIC 7.0 keywords with their abbreviations:

APPEND aP AUTO aU BACKUP baC BANK bA BEGIN bE BEND beN BLOAD bL BOOT bO BOX none BSAVE bS BUMP bU CATALOG cA CHAR chA CIRCLE cI COLLECT collE COLLISION coL COLOR colO CONCAT cO COPY coP DCLEAR dclE DCLOSE dC DEC none DELETE deL DIRECTORY diR

DLOAD dL DO none DOPEN dO DRAW dR DSAVE dS DVERIFY dV ELSE eL ENVELOPE eN ERR$ eR EXIT exI FAST fA FETCH fE FILTER fI GRAPHIC gR GSHAPE gS HEADER heA HELP heL HEX$ hE INSTR inS JOY jO KEY kE LOCATE loC LOOP loO

MONITOR moN MOVSPR mO OFF oF PAINT pA PEN pE PLAY pL POINTER poI POT pO PUDEF pU QUIT qU RCLR rC RDOT rD RECORD rE RENAME reN RENUMBER renU RESUME resU RGR rG RREG rR RSPCOLOR rspC RSPPOS rS RSPRITE rspR RWINDOW rW SCALE scA

SCNCLR sC SCRATCH scR SLEEP sL SLOW sL SOUND sO SPRCOLOR sprC SPRDEF sprD SPRITE sP SPRSAV sprS SSHAPE sS STASH sT SWAP sW TEMPO tE TRAP tR TROFF troF TRON trO UNTIL uN USING usI VOL vO WHILE wH WIDTH wiD WINDOW wI XOR xO