GWBASIC User's Manual

GW-BASIC User's Guide
PRINT Statement
Purpose:
To output a display to the screen.
Syntax:
PRINT [list of expressions][;]
?[list of expressions][;]
Comments:
If list of expressions is omitted, a blank line is displayed.
If list of expressions is included, the values of the expressions are displayed. Expressions
in the list may be numeric and/or string expressions, separated by commas, spaces, or
semicolons. String constants in the list must be enclosed in double quotation marks.
For more information about strings, see the STRING$ function.
A question mark (?) may be used in place of the word PRINT when using the GW-BASIC
program editor.
Print Positions
GW-BASIC divides the line into print zones of 14 spaces. The position of each item printed is
determined by the punctuation used to separate the items in the list:
Separator Print Position
, Beginning of next zone
; Immediately after last value
space(s) Immediately after last value
If a comma, semicolon, or SPC or TAB function ends an expression list, the next PRINT statement
begins printing on the same line, accordingly spaced. If the expression list ends without a comma,
semicolon, or SPC or TAB function, a carriage return is placed at the end of the lines (GW-BASIC
places the cursor at the beginning of the next line).
A carriage return/line feed is automatically inserted after printing width characters, where
width is 40 or 80, as defined in the WIDTH statement. This results in two lines being skipped
when you print exactly 40 (or 80) characters, unless the PRINT statement ends in a semicolon.
When numbers are printed on the screen, the numbers are always followed by a space. Positive
number are preceded by a space. Negative numbers are preceded by a minus (-) sign. Singleprecision
numbers are represented with seven or fewer digits in a fixed-point or integer format.
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Lorenzo/Desktop/GW%20Basic/PRINT.html (1 of 2)28/03/2004 21.29.31