Outputs formatted text to the screen
Syntax
Print Using formatstring ; [ expressionlist ]
Parameters
formatstring
Format string to use.
expressionlist
List of items to print.
Description
Print to screen various expressions using a format determined by the formatstring parameter. Internally, Print Using uses a buffer size of 2048 bytes, while it is highly unlikely that this buffer would be filled, it should be noted that output would be truncated should this limit be reached.
If no expression list is given, nothing will be output (note that the semi-colon after the format string is still necessary, even if no expression list is given).
The format string dictates how the expressions are to be formatted when output to the screen, indicated by the use of special marker characters. There are markers for formatting both string and numeric output:
String formatting
Marker | Formatting |
! | prints the first character of a string |
\ \ | prints as many characters of a string as occuppied between the pair \ \ |
& | prints the entire string |
Numeric formatting
Marker | Formatting |
# | placeholder for a digit |
. | placed near # indicates place for the decimal point |
+ | prints the sign of the number when placed to the left of numeric formatting |
^^^^ | prints exponential notation when placed to the right of numeric formatting |
All of the special marker characters can be escaped, or preceded, with the underscore character
"_", allowing them to be printed directly (
"_!" prints
"!").
If a numerical value can't be formatted in the form indicated by the format string, the formatting is ignored and the number is printed preceded by the percent
"%" character. E.g., the number
2E+200 with a
formatstring of " ##.## " would be printed as
"%2E+200".
All other characters within the format string are printed as they appear.
The
Using keyword is used with a different meaning with the
Palette graphics command
Example
Print Using "The value is #.## seconds"; 1.019
Print Using "The ASCII code for the pound sign (_#) is ###"; Asc("#")
Print Using "The last day in the year is ## \ \"; 31, "December"
will produce the output:
The value is 1.02 seconds
Number sign is # and its ASCII code is 35
The last day in the year is 31 Dec
Differences from QB
- In QB a not-to-be-formatted expressionlist could be entered before the USING clause;
See also