5.19.3 String Formats

Forth commonly uses two different methods for representing character strings:

• As a counted string, represented by a c-addr. The char addressed by c-addr contains a character-count, n, of the string and the string occupies the subsequent n char addresses in memory.
• As cell pair on the stack; c-addr u, where u is the length of the string in characters, and c-addr is the address of the first byte of the string.

ANS Forth encourages the use of the second format when representing strings.

count       c-addr1 – c-addr2 u        core       “count”

c-addr2 is the first character and u the length of the counted string at c-addr1.

For words that move, copy and search for strings see Memory Blocks. For words that display characters and strings see Displaying characters and strings.