# Directives

PRINT | Display Information

## Formats

PRINT [(chan,fileopt)]varlist

.. or ..

? [(chan,fileopt)]varlist

Where:

? | PxPlus accepts the ? (question mark) as a substitute for PRINT.
chan | Channel or logical file number of the target device (terminal or printer) or serial file for a display or print job. The user's terminal is always defined as 0 (zero).
fileopt | Supported file options (see File Options):
ERR=stmtref | Error transfer
TBL=stmtref | Record number
stmtref | Program line number or statement label to which to transfer control.
varlist | Comma-separated list of variables, literals, expressions, mnemonics, IOL= options, and/or location functions '@(...)'. Include Format Masks to define how data is to be displayed.

## Description

Use the PRINT directive to format and send printable data to a terminal, printer or file. This instruction processes mnemonics and positioning information.

If the print statement ends with a trailing comma, the output from a subsequent PRINT directive will continue on the same line; otherwise, it will start at the first column of the next line.

If you omit a format mask for a numeric in the PRINT statement, the 'DP' (Decimal Point Symbol) and 'TH' (Thousands Separator) system parameters are ignored for European decimal settings.

PxPlus accepts the ? (question mark) as a substitute for PRINT.

#### Note:
Because of the potential conflict between the function AND( ) and the logical operator AND, there is a problem when the syntax processor tries to parse the statement PRINT AND($41$,$42$). As a work around, assign the result of a logical AND to a temporary variable or change the statement to PRINT ""+AND($41$,$42$).

## See Also

Mnemonics
Data Format Masks

## Example

> print 'CS',"Date:",day," Time:",tim

… is the same as:

> ? 'CS',"Date:",day," Time:",tim

Both result in the same date and time display on a clear screen (Date:02/22/00 Time: 8.398397). You can assign a page or screen position for PRINT data:

> print @(5,5),"CUSTOMER LISTING", ! Prints to screen at col 5, line 5

You can also print data overlaying a graphic in PxPlus but only if all text output is sent using 'FONT' and 'TEXT' mnemonics (rather than as standard PRINT statements). In the following example, "Hello" will overlay the embedded bitmap:

> print 'CS'
> print 'picture'(220,210,600,500,"!Binoculars",2),
> print 'font'("MS Serif",-20);
> print 'green','text'(220,210,"Hello")