dos assign command output to variable (when output is a single line)

In BASIC, you can assign the output of a DOS command to a variable using the SHELL statement. Here's an example of how you can do this:

DECLARE FUNCTION ShellOutput$ (command$)

DIM output AS STRING
output = ShellOutput$("dir") ' Replace "dir" with your desired command

PRINT output

FUNCTION ShellOutput$ (command$)
    SHELL "command$ > temp.txt"
    OPEN "temp.txt" FOR INPUT AS #1
    LINE INPUT #1, ShellOutput$
    CLOSE #1
    KILL "temp.txt"
END FUNCTION

In this example, the ShellOutput$ function takes a command as input and executes it using the SHELL statement. The output of the command is redirected to a temporary text file (temp.txt). The function then reads the first line of the file and assigns it to the ShellOutput$ variable. Finally, the file is deleted using the KILL statement.

You can replace "dir" in the above code with the DOS command you want to execute. After executing the command, the output will be stored in the output variable, which you can use as needed in your BASIC program.