# print

The `print` statement is used to display text to standard output while a USE script is executing.

## Syntax

**`print [-n]`***`word|{buffer_name} [... word|{buffer_name]`*

## Details

The `print` statement enables user-defined output to be generated during the execution of a USE script. When retrieving data from external sources it may take some time for a lengthy series of operations to complete, so one use of the `print` statement is to provide periodic status updates during this time.

The `print` statement will process as many arguments as it is given, but at least one argument is required. If the first argument is `-n` then no newline will be output after the last argument has been echoed to standard output, else a newline is output after the last argument.

Arguments that are normal words will be sent to standard output followed by a space. Arguments referencing a named buffer will result in the contents of the buffer being displayed.

Note that `print` will stop output of data from a named buffer as soon as a `NUL` (ASCII value 0) character is encountered

{% hint style="danger" %}

#### Binary data

It is not recommended that `print` is given a buffer containing binary data to display, as when echoed to a console on screen this is likely to result in various control codes and other sequences to be sent to the console which may have undesired side effects.
{% endhint %}

## Example

```
var server = "https://my_json_server.com"
print Obtaining token from server
buffer response = http GET ${server}/generatetoken        
print Token received:
print {response}

# Create a variable called ${secret_token} from the
# 'access_token' string in the JSON in the {response} buffer
var secret_token = $JSON{response}.[access_token]

# We no longer need the {response} buffer as the value
# extracted from it is stored in a variable
discard {response}
print Original server response now discarded
```