PureBasic

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Procedural computer programming language

title: "PureBasic" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1998-software", "basic-compilers", "basic-programming-language-family", "high-level-programming-languages", "integrated-development-environments", "linux-integrated-development-environments", "macos-programming-tools", "procedural-programming-languages", "programming-languages", "programming-languages-created-in-1998", "user-interface-builders", "windows-integrated-development-environments"] description: "Procedural computer programming language" topic_path: "technology/programming-languages" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureBasic" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Procedural computer programming language ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox programming language"]

Field	Value
name	PureBasic
screenshot	PureBasic VD.png
caption	The PureBasic Visual Designer, showing a selection of popular GUI components that it supports.
paradigm	Structured, imperative, procedural
family	BASIC
designer	Fantaisie Software
developer	Fantaisie Software
latest release version	6.21
latest release date
year
license	Trialware
website
operating_system	Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi OS, AmigaOS
::

PureBasic is a commercially distributed procedural computer programming language and integrated development environment based on BASIC and developed by Fantaisie Software for Windows, Linux, macOS and Raspberry Pi. An Amiga version is available, although it has been discontinued and some parts of it are released as open-source. The first public release of PureBasic for Windows was on 17 December 2000. It has been continually updated ever since.

PureBasic has a "lifetime license model". As cited on the website, the first PureBasic user (who registered in 1998) still has free access to new updates and this is not going to change.

PureBasic compiles directly to IA-32, x86-64, arm32 and arm64, PowerPC or 680x0 instruction sets, generating small standalone executables and DLLs which need no runtime libraries beyond the standard system libraries. Programs developed without using the platform-specific application programming interfaces (APIs) can be built easily from the same source file with little or no modification.

PureBasic supports inline assembly, allowing the developer to include FASM assembler commands within PureBasic source code, while using the variables declared in PureBasic source code, enabling experienced programmers to improve the speed of speed-critical sections of code. PureBasic supports and has integrated the OGRE 3D Environment. Other 3D environments such as the Irrlicht Engine are unofficially supported.

Since version 6.00 (June 2022), in addition to compilation using ASM, PureBasic offers compilation with a C backend. This enables access to new platforms (e.g. Raspberry) and should make it easier to add new libraries in the future.

Programming language

Characteristics

PureBasic is a native cross platform 32 bit and 64 bit BASIC compiler. Currently supported systems are Windows, Linux, macOS. The AmigaOS version is legacy and open-source. The compiler produces native executables and the syntax of PureBasic is simple and straightforward, comparable to plain C without the brackets and with native unicode string handling and a large library of built-in support functions. It can compile console applications, GUI applications, and DLL files.

Hello World example

The following single line of PureBasic code will create a standalone x86 executable (4.5 KiB (4,608 bytes) on Windows version) that displays a message box with the text "Hello World". ::code[lang=blitzbasic] MessageRequester("Message Box", "Hello World") ::

And the following variant of the same code, which instead uses an inline Windows API call with no need for declarations or other external references, will create an even smaller 2.0 KiB (2,048 bytes) standalone x86 executable for Windows. ::code[lang=blitzbasic] MessageBox_(0, "Hello World", "Message Box", 0) ::

The following is a console version of the Hello World example. ::code[lang=blitzbasic] OpenConsole() ; Open a console window. Print("Hello, World!") Delay(5000) ; Pause for 5 seconds ::

Procedural programming

PureBasic is a "Second generation BASIC" language, with structured conditionals and loops, and procedure-oriented programming supported. The user is not required to use procedures, so a programmer may opt for a coding style which includes , and .

Below is a sample procedure for sorting an array, although SortArray is now a built-in function of PureBasic. ::code[lang=blitzbasic] Procedure bubbleSort(Array a(1)) Protected i, itemCount, hasChanged

itemCount = ArraySize(a()) Repeat hasChanged = #False itemCount - 1 For i = 0 To itemCount If a(i) > a(i + 1) Swap a(i), a(i + 1) hasChanged = #True EndIf Next
Until hasChanged = #False EndProcedure ::

Below is a sample program that displays a sizeable text editor with two menu items. ::code[lang=blitzbasic] ;Create Window: OpenWindow(0, #PB_Ignore, #PB_Ignore, 800, 600, "Simple Text Editor", #PB_Window_SystemMenu | #PB_Window_MinimizeGadget | #PB_Window_MaximizeGadget | #PB_Window_SizeGadget)

;Add 2 menus: CreateMenu(0, WindowID(0)) MenuItem(1, "&OK") MenuItem(2, "&Cancel")

;Add Editor: EditorGadget(0, 0, 0, 0, 0) SetGadgetFont(0, LoadFont(0, "Courier New", 10))

;Process window messages until closed: Repeat Select WaitWindowEvent() Case #PB_Event_Menu Select EventMenu() Case 1: MessageRequester("OK clicked directly or with '&' mnemonic.", GetGadgetText(0)) Case 2: Break EndSelect Case #PB_Event_SizeWindow: ResizeGadget(0, 0, 0, WindowWidth(0, #PB_Window_InnerCoordinate), WindowHeight(0, #PB_Window_InnerCoordinate)) Case #PB_Event_CloseWindow: Break EndSelect ForEver ::

PureBasic does not escape double quotes in strings so these must be concatenated with .

Object-oriented programming

Fred, the developer of PureBasic, has stated that PureBasic will never be object oriented.PureBasic won't be object oriented However, numerous users have created object oriented support systems.

Data types

Variable data type specified when you first use it (and optionally - in the future), and is separated from the name of the point. There is a set of basic types - (float and double numbers), (integers - from single-byte and 8-byte), - strings. ::data[format=table]

Type	Suffix	Memory usage	Numerical range
Byte		1 byte (8 bits)	−128 ... +127
Ascii		1 byte (8 bits)	0 ... +255
Character		1 byte (8 bits) (ascii)	0 ... +255
Word		2 bytes (16 bits)	−32768 ... +32767
Unicode		2 bytes (16 bits)	0 ... +65535
Character		2 bytes (16 bits) (unicode)	0 ... +65535
Long		4 bytes (32 bits)	−2147483648 ... +2147483647
Integer		4 bytes (32 bits) x86	−2147483648 ... +2147483647
Float		4 bytes (32 bits)	Depending on the ratio of the decimal number.
Integer		8 bytes (64 bits) x64	−9223372036854775808 ... +9223372036854775807
Quad		8 bytes (64 bits)	−9223372036854775808 ... +9223372036854775807
Double		8 bytes (64 bits)	Depending on the ratio of the decimal number.
String		(String length + 1) * SizeOf(Character)	No limit.
Fixed String	}	(String length) * SizeOf(Character)	No limit.
::

used to count the length of a string will not exceed the first null character ().

In addition to basic types, the user can define the type of construction via ::code[lang=text] Structure type_name field_name.type ; Single field. Perhaps the structures attachment. field_name[count].type ; Static arrays. ; ... ; Optional construction StructureUnion .. EndStructureUnion allows you ; to combine multiple fields into one area of memory ; that is sometimes required for the conversion types. StructureUnion type_name.type ; ... EndStructureUnion EndStructure ::

Variables can be single (actually, standard variables), dynamic array (declared using the , a linked list (), an associative array (in new versions of language) ()

Form Designer RAD

PureBasic has its own form designer to aid in the creation of forms for applications, but other third-party solutions are also available. The original non-integrated Visual Designer was replaced with a new integrated Form Designer on 14 Feb 2013.

User community

PureBasic provides an online forum for users to ask questions and share knowledge. On 17 february 2025 the English language forum had 6,484 members and contained 70,174 threads comprising 578,646 posts since 17 May 2002.

Numerous code sharing sites show PureBasic is used to create tools and games in a fast and easy way, and share large amounts of open-source code.

References

General references

References

[http://www.purebasic.com/faq.php FAQ] lifetime licence details
[http://www.purebasic.com/index.php PureBasic home page]
[http://www.purebasic.com/documentation/console/index.html PureBasic - Console]
[http://www.purebasic.com/documentation/gadget/index.html PureBasic - Gadget]
[http://www.purebasic.com/documentation/reference/dll.html Building a DLL]
[http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?t=30236 PureObject: PureBasic OOP support]
[http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?t=36255 OOP tutorial]
[http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?t=30774 Another OOP PreCompiler]
[http://purevision.reelmedia.org/ PureVision], Professional form design for PureBASIC.
[http://www.progui.co.uk/ ProGUI], DLL library comprising more than 100 well documented commands to quickly incorporate rich, customizable GUI components into your applications.
[http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=53464 PureBasic 5.10 is released]
[http://www.purebasic.fr/english English forum], Official forum.
[http://www.horstmuc.de/win.htm Horst Schaeffer's Software Pages]
[http://www.purearea.net/ PureArea]
[http://www.purearea.net/pb/CodeArchiv/English.html Andre Beer's code archive.]

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