Liberty Basic Payroll Calculator IF ELSE - calculator

Question

I'm just getting started with learning basic programming with Sams and already am having issues with the simple payroll calculator I've been trying to write. Could someone explain how I could better rewrite this? And can you only follow IF THEN statements with a print command? I think I'll have to invest in a newer book but I was hoping I could get this to run at least in the meantime.
Input "Please input payrate: "; Ans$
Print
Input "Please input hours worked: "; Hrs$
If (Hrs$ >= "40") Then
payRate = (Hrs$ * Ans$)
Else If (Hrs$ <= "41") Then
payRate = Hrs$ * (1.5 * Ans$)
End If
taxRate = payRate * .15
grossPay = payRate * Hrs$
netPay = payRate - taxRate
Print
Print: "Your net pay is: "; netPay

Answer 1

Also, I see you have an else if statement. One of the perplexing design decisions in Liberty Basic is that it doesn't support the else if/elseif statement that you might find in most BASIC language dialects.
From the online manual:
The elseif keyword is not supported. Here is an >example using elseif (QBasic):
'QBasic only
if sis boom bah then
print "Yippie!"
elseif la dee da then
print "So what!"
end if
Instead in Liberty BASIC, it looks like this:
'Liberty BASIC - no elseif
if sis boom bah then
print "Yippie!"
else
if la dee da then
print "So what!"
end if
end if
And to extend the above official documentation a little further with my own code sample in LB (Liberty Basic), you might just appreciate how deeply nested the if, else, end if can become.
'Liberty BASIC
grade = 55
if grade > 90 then
print "Excellent!"
else
if grade > 80 and grade < 90 then
print "Good"
else
if grade > 70 and grade < 80 then
print "We need to try a little harder."
else
if grade > 60 and grade < 70 then
print "We need to try a lot harder!"
else
print "Let's have a talk."
end if
end if
end if
end if
end
The equivalent in another dialect of BASIC, in this case FreeBasic, might look something like this which of course appears much tidier with only one end if vs a trail of end if's:
'FreeBasic
Dim grade as integer = 55
if grade > 90 then
print "Excellent!"
elseif grade > 80 and grade < 90 then
print "Good"
elseif grade > 70 and grade < 80 then
print "We need to try a little harder."
elseif grade > 60 and grade < 70 then
print "We need to try a lot harder!"
else
print "Let's have a talk."
end if
sleep
end
But all is not lost with LB because the language actually implements a fairly powerful select case statement which can include conditional statements which is not possible in certain dialects of BASIC (i.e. PureBasic)
'LB - Liberty Basic
grade = 55
select case grade
case grade > 90
print "Excellent!"
case (grade > 80) and (grade < 90)
print "Good"
case (grade > 70) and (grade < 80)
print "We need to try a little harder."
case (grade > 60) and (grade < 70)
print "We need to try a lot harder!"
case else
print "Let's have a talk."
end select

Answer 2

I don't use Liberty, but I imagine it's complaining when you're trying to do math on strings. Additionally, I find your misuse of the "payrate" name to be confusing. The logic of the overtime calc is also wrong. Here's my first attempt at a rewrite:
Input "Please input payrate: "; Rate$
Rate = val(Rate$)
Print
Input "Please input hours worked: "; Hrs$
Hrs = val(Hrs$)
Gross = Hrs * Rate
If Hrs > 40 Then Gross = Gross + ((Hrs - 40) * Rate / 2))
Taxes = Gross * .15
Net = Gross - Taxes
Print
Print: "Your gross pay is: "; Gross
Print: "Your net pay (after $";Taxes;" in taxes) is: "; Net

Answer 3

This code will work in Liberty BASIC:
INPUT "Please enter hours worked: "; hours 'you don't need a dollar sign at the end of the variable because it's a value not a string
INPUT "Please enter your hourly rate: "; hourlyRate
gross = hours * hourlyRate 'works out the gross amount
IF (hours > 40) THEN 'if the person worked more than 40 hours, then the following command is applicable...
gross = 40 * hourlyRate + ((hours - 40) * (hourlyRate * 1.5)) 'this line calculates the money earned for 40 hours, and adds the remaining hours at 1.5 times the hourly rate
END IF 'end the IF condition
tax = gross * 0.15 'calculates the tax at 15%
net = gross - tax 'calculates the net pay (i.e., gross pay after tax)
PRINT "-------------------------------"
PRINT "Your gross pay is: "; gross
PRINT "Your net pay is: "; net
As the previous poster suggested, you should use values instead of strings for maths (values don't have a dollar sign at the end), and when you label your variables they should have a meaningful name in relation to what you're trying to achieve.
Liberty BASIC has a tutorial under Help that you can use to teach yourself how to code. Otherwise Beginning Programming for Dummies is another useful guide - that's what I'm using :)