String Too Long
Apple Apple II
Severity: MinorWhat it means
String Too Long means a string variable exceeded the 255-character maximum that Applesoft BASIC allows.
You need to shorten the string or split it across multiple variables.
Affected Models
- Apple II
- Apple II Plus
- Apple IIe
- Apple IIc
- Apple IIgs
Common Causes
- String concatenation (A$ = A$ + B$) producing a result longer than 255 characters
- Reading a line from a file that exceeds 255 characters
- Assigning a literal string longer than 255 characters
How to Fix It
-
Check the length of your strings.
Use LEN(A$) to print the current length of a string.
If it's approaching 255, split the data across multiple string variables. -
Avoid building long strings through repeated concatenation.
Loops that do A$ = A$ + X$ can quickly exceed 255 characters.
Process your data in chunks instead. -
Split long text into an array of strings.
DIM A$(10) and store each 255-character segment in a separate element.
Process them one at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is 255 the string limit?
Applesoft (and most 8-bit BASICs) stores the string length in a single byte.
A byte can hold values 0–255, so 255 characters is the natural maximum.
This was considered generous in 1977 — most programs never needed strings that long.