The _HIDE action is used to hide the console window opened by a SHELL statement.

Syntax

SHELL [_HIDE] StringCommandLine$

Description

• Allows any command line window to be hidden from view without affecting the program.
• _HIDE must be used when sending (“piping”) screen information to a file.
• Note: Some commands may not work without adding CMD /C to the start of the command line.

Example(s)

Subprogram that displays long and short filenames using the DIR /X option (WindowsNT or above) in SCREEN 12:

SUB LFN
 IF LEN(ENVIRON$("OS")) = 0 THEN EXIT SUB   ' /X not available Win 9X and ME 
 SHELL _HIDE "cmd /c dir /x > DOS-DATA.INF" ' load display data to a file
 OPEN "DOS-DATA.INF" FOR INPUT AS #1
 IF LOF(1) THEN
   Header$ = SPACE$(10) + "Short" + SPACE$(16) + "Long" + SPACE$(20) + "Last Modified"
   tmp$ = "\   \  \          \      &" ' print using template format
   COLOR 14: LOCATE 2, 4: PRINT Header$
   DO UNTIL EOF(1)
    LINE INPUT #1, line$
    IF LEN(line$) AND MID$(line$, 1, 1) <> SPACE$(1) THEN ' ignore other file data
      cnt% = cnt% + 1
      last$ = MID$(line$, 1, 20): DIR$ = MID$(line$, 26, 3)
      IF MID$(line$, 40, 1) <> SPACE$(1) THEN ' found line with short and long name 
        SHFN$ = MID$(line$, 40, INSTR(40, line$, SPACE$(1)) - 1)
        LGFN$ = MID$(line$, 53)
      ELSE : SHFN$ = MID$(line$, 53): LGFN$ = "" ' found short name only
      END IF
      IF cnt% MOD 25 = 0 THEN ' pause every 25 files
        COLOR 14: LOCATE 29, 27 "Press a key for more files!"
        DO: LOOP UNTIL INKEY$ <> ""
        CLS: COLOR 14: LOCATE 2, 4: PRINT Header$
      END IF
      COLOR 11: LOCATE (cnt% MOD 25) + 3, 4
      PRINT USING tmp$; DIR$; SHFN$; LGFN$
      LOCATE (cnt% MOD 25) + 3, 58: PRINT last$
    END IF
   LOOP
 END IF
 COLOR 10: LOCATE CSRLIN + 1, 27 "Total folders and files ="; cnt%
 CLOSE #1
END SUB 

Explanation: The above routine can also be used to place the file name info into string arrays by using the count variable cnt% to determine the index. Long file names are normally returned by QB64. To keep older QBasic programs compatible, you may want to only use the short names when displaying the files on the screen.

See Also

• SHELL, _DONTWAIT
• FILELIST$ (function) (FILES function, member-contributed)