P2041¶

Code: P2041
Message: String length is more than a string can hold

This error occurs when a STRING or WSTRING is declared with a length greater than a string can hold.

Every string, wherever it is stored, records its capacity in a 16-bit field, so the longest string a program can declare holds 65,535 code units. A length above that has no capacity to be recorded as, so the compiler reports it rather than keeping the low bits, which would give a shorter string than the one the program declared and silently cut every value written into it.

The check applies wherever a length is declared:

a variable, s : STRING[70000]
a structure field
an array element type, ARRAY[0..9] OF STRING[70000]
a function or method return type, FUNCTION f : STRING[70000]
a named type, TYPE Long : STRING[70000]; END_TYPE

Example¶

The following code will generate error P2041:

Try it

Source

PROGRAM main
    VAR
        document : STRING[70000];
    END_VAR
END_PROGRAM

To fix this error, declare a length the string can hold:

Try it

Source

PROGRAM main
    VAR
        document : STRING[65535];
    END_VAR
END_PROGRAM

Long text in a control program¶

A string is copied whole every time it is assigned, passed to a function or compared, so a very long string costs time on every scan that touches it as well as memory. Where a program handles more text than one string can hold, split it across an array of shorter strings and work on one element at a time.

P2041¶

Example¶

Long text in a control program¶

See Also¶