$CPU 8086          ' make compatible with XT systems
$LIB ALL OFF       ' turn off all PowerBASIC libraries
$ERROR ALL OFF     ' turn off all PowerBASIC error checking
$OPTIMIZE SIZE     ' optimize for smaller code
$COMPILE UNIT      ' compile to a UNIT (.PBU)
'$COMPILE EXE       ' compile to a UNIT (.PBU)

DEFINT A-Z         ' Required for all numeric functions, forces PB to not
                   ' include floating point in UNIT (makes it smaller)
'/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
$CODE SEG "MLIB5"
'/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
' F2ABC FILESPEC, STARTCOL, ENDCOL, ARRAY$()
'     File to Array By Columns.
'     Loads the contents of disk file FILESPEC into ARRAY$() starting
'     at column SC for EC columns.
'     The number of elements is placed into ARRAY$(0).
'     Be sure to properly dimension ARRAY$().
'     EXAMPLE:  F2ABC "c:\code\data.dat", 1, 30, M$()
'/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
    SUB F2ABC(BYVAL F AS STRING, BYVAL SC AS INTEGER, BYVAL EC AS INTEGER, M$()) PUBLIC
      MCNT = 0
      FFN = FREEFILE
      OPEN"I",FFN,F
      DO WHILE NOT EOF(FFN)
        LINE INPUT#FFN,T$
        MCNT = MCNT + 1
        M$(MCNT) = MID$(T$,SC,EC)
      LOOP
      CLOSE#FFN
      M$(0) = STR$(MCNT)
    END SUB
'/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
'   DIM M$(5000)
'   F2ABC "C:\DATA\MARK\MEMOUT.TXT",1,30,M$()
'   EA = VAL(M$(0))
'   FOR CNT = 1 TO EA
'     PRINT M$(CNT)
'   NEXT CNT
'   INPUT Z