FILE (storage)

Inside a BEGIN STORAGE...END STORAGE block, the FILE command plays a crucial role in the process of embedding external data directly into the storage medium you are defining while compiling your program. Imagine you want to include a set of configuration data or any other static file directly into your program's storage medium, the FILE command allows you to do just that.

The basic syntax is to indicate the name of the source file that will be inserted into the media. If you do not want to use the same name, you can indicate an alias (AS target).

The addition of the CSV OF type statement is a powerful feature that allows you to include Comma Separated Values (CSV) files and specify the data type of each column. Instead of treating the CSV file as a simple block of bytes (as the FILE statement alone would), the compiler will parse the contents of the CSV file and convert it into a more structured internal representation that is ready for use by your program. The kind of structure will be described by the datatype type.

EXAMPLE

 FILE "examples/data.dat"
 FILE "sprites.png" AS "sprites.dat"
 FILE "examples/data.csv" CSV OF BYTE
 BEGIN TYPE point
     x AS POSITION
     x AS POSITION
 END TYPE point
 FILE "examples/structure.csv" CSV OF point

Used in:
LOADING A FILE