Characteristics

PureBasic is a native cross platform 32 bit and 64 bit BASIC compiler. Currently supported systems are Windows, Linux, macOS. The AmigaOS version is legacy and open-source. The compiler produces native executables and the syntax of PureBasic is simple and straightforward, comparable to plain C without the brackets and with native unicode string handling and a large library of built-in support functions.^[2] It can compile console applications,^[3] GUI applications,^[4] and DLL files.^[5]

Hello World example

The following single line of PureBasic code will create a standalone x86 executable (4.5 KiB (4,608 bytes) on Windows version) that displays a message box with the text "Hello World".

 MessageRequester("Message Box", "Hello World")

And the following variant of the same code, which instead uses an inline Windows API call with no need for declarations or other external references, will create an even smaller 2.0 KiB (2,048 bytes) standalone x86 executable for Windows.

 MessageBox_(0, "Hello World", "Message Box", 0)

The following is a console version of the Hello World example.

 OpenConsole()          ; Open a console window. 
 Print("Hello, World!")
 Delay(5000)            ; Pause for 5 seconds

Procedural programming

PureBasic is a "Second generation BASIC" language, with structured conditionals and loops, and procedure-oriented programming supported. The user is not required to use procedures, so a programmer may opt for a coding style which includes Goto, Gosub Label, and Return.

Below is a sample procedure for sorting an array, although SortArray is now a built-in function of PureBasic.

 Procedure bubbleSort(Array a(1))
   Protected i, itemCount, hasChanged
  
   itemCount = ArraySize(a())
   Repeat
     hasChanged = #False
     itemCount - 1
     For i = 0 To itemCount
       If a(i) > a(i + 1)
         Swap a(i), a(i + 1)
         hasChanged = #True
       EndIf 
     Next  
   Until hasChanged = #False
 EndProcedure

Below is a sample program that displays a sizeable text editor with two menu items.

;Create Window:
OpenWindow(0, #PB_Ignore, #PB_Ignore, 800, 600, "Simple Text Editor", #PB_Window_SystemMenu | #PB_Window_MinimizeGadget | #PB_Window_MaximizeGadget | #PB_Window_SizeGadget)

;Add 2 menus:
CreateMenu(0, WindowID(0))
MenuItem(1, "&OK")
MenuItem(2, "&Cancel")

;Add Editor:
EditorGadget(0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
SetGadgetFont(0, LoadFont(0, "Courier New", 10))

;Process window messages until closed:
Repeat
    Select WaitWindowEvent()
    Case #PB_Event_Menu
        Select EventMenu()
        Case 1: MessageRequester("OK clicked directly or with '&' mnemonic.", GetGadgetText(0))
        Case 2: Break
        EndSelect
    Case #PB_Event_SizeWindow: ResizeGadget(0, 0, 0, WindowWidth(0, #PB_Window_InnerCoordinate), WindowHeight(0, #PB_Window_InnerCoordinate))
    Case #PB_Event_CloseWindow: Break
    EndSelect
ForEver

PureBasic does not escape double quotes in strings so these must be concatenated with Chr(34).

Object-oriented programming

Fred, the developer of PureBasic, has stated that PureBasic will never be object oriented.^[6] However, numerous users have created object oriented support systems.^[7][8][9]

Data types

Variable data type specified when you first use it (and optionally - in the future), and is separated from the name of the point. There is a set of basic types - .f, .d (float and double numbers), .b, .c, .w, .l, .q (integers - from single-byte and 8-byte), .s - strings.

• Len(String) used to count the length of a string will not exceed the first null character (Chr(0)).

In addition to basic types, the user can define the type of construction via

Structure type_name
   field_name.type ; Single field. Perhaps the structures attachment.
   field_name[count].type ; Static arrays.
   ; ... 
   ; Optional construction StructureUnion .. EndStructureUnion allows you
   ; to combine multiple fields into one area of memory
   ; that is sometimes required for the conversion types.
   StructureUnion
      type_name.type
      ; ... 
   EndStructureUnion 
EndStructure

Variables can be single (actually, standard variables), dynamic array (declared using the Dim var_name.type_name (size1, size2, ... ), a linked list (List() var_name.type_name), an associative array (in new versions of language) (Map var_name.type_name())

General references

• Hale Ligh, Michael (2010). Malware Analysts Cookbook Tools for Thwarting Malicious Attacks. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons Inc. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-470-61303-0.
• Galbreath, Nick (2002). Cryptography for Internet and database applications : developing secret and public key techniques with Java. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley. pp. 300. ISBN 978-0-471-21029-0.
• "Learning to Crack Code". Manly Daily. 25 June 2004.
• Georges, Philippe. "La programmation avec PureBasic". PROgrammez (141).
• Svoboda, Luboš (2012). Překvapivý PureBasic (Surprising PureBasic: A Czech ebook for prospective users of PureBasic). p. 89.