J 40 M=J, J=K, K=K+1 50 NEXT I This example also includes the ability to set multiple values in a single LET statement, as seen in lines 10 and 40. This feature was also found in HP BASIC. As in most versions of BASIC, the keyword is optional, and is left out of line 40. Line 40 also illustrates the alternate form of assignment seen in a number of early BASICs, where multiple assignments can be separated with commas. Common mathematical operations included , , and , using or for exponents. Logical comparisons, like HP, could be written in any order, so was equivalent to , and was the same as . Most dialects only allow the later syntax in both cases. Unlike HP BASIC, SDS did not include the ability to use the hash, , as an alternate form of . SDS supported computed GOTO using ON, but also allowed the alternate syntax with the ON at the end of the line instead of the front: GOTO 140,160,180 ON Y An alternate form of REM was a leading star, , similar in purpose to the short-form found in MS-derived BASICs, the single quote, . String handling The early versions of SDS BASIC, sometimes known as Batch BASIC or BTM BASIC, did not support string variables. However, string values could be assigned to numeric variables which could store six characters as their EBCDIC numeric values. The later CP-V BASIC added true string variables containing up to 132 characters that could be indicated with a trailing dollar sign, , or uncommonly, a leading $ — and are equivalent. The manual notes that the latter format was added for compatibility with A00 BASIC. Internally, CP-V used a fixed-length string layout consisting of an array of bytes that could not be changed in size at runtime. This was similar to the other BASICs that used slicing notation, like HP and Atari. It contrasts with the DEC/Microsoft style, where strings were dynamically allocated on a heap. Unlike the other fixed-length BASIC dialects, string variables did not have to be DIMmed prior to use, instead, all strings defaulted to a maximum length of 72 characters. This was a global setting that could be changed to better manage memory by setting it to a smaller value, or allow longer strings up to a maximum of 132 characters. This was accomplished using . Confusingly, SET was also