Rocket jBASE

In jBASE 5.8, an enhancement to the BASIC (aka jBC) compiler has made comparisons against '' (empty string) dramatically faster.

Historically it was quicker to compare the LEN() of a variable against 0 to test if a variable was '' (NULL).

For example if you're on 5.7 (or earlier) try the sample code.

workVar = STR('the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog', 10000)
startTime = SYSTEM(12)
FOR I = 1 TO 10000
    IF workVar NE '' THEN
    END
NEXT I
CRT 'First FOR loop took: ':SYSTEM(12)-startTime

startTime = SYSTEM(12)
FOR I = 1 TO 10000
    IF LEN(workVar) THEN
    END
NEXT I
CRT 'Second FOR loop took: ':SYSTEM(12)-startTime
​

On 5.8 the statement:

IF workVAR NE '' THEN

now gets compiled to a special function (this is also true for EQ '') that performs the same as

IF LEN(workVar) NE 0 THEN

so the sample program (above) will produce similar results (depending on system usage).