Appendix I
Characters Recognized by GW-BASIC

The GW-BASIC character set includes all characters that are legal in GW-BASIC commands, statements, functions, and variables. The set comprises alphabetic, numeric, and special characters.

The alphabetic characters in GW-BASIC are the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

The numeric characters in GW-BASIC are the digits 0 through 9.

The following special characters and terminal keys are recognized by GW-BASIC:

CharacterDescription
  Blank.
= Equal sign or assignment symbol.
+ Plus sign or string concatenation.
- Minus sign.
* Asterisk or multiplication symbol.
/ Slash or division symbol.
^ Caret, exponentiation symbol, or CTRL key.
( Left parenthesis.
) Right parenthesis.
% Percent or integer declaration.
# Number sign or double-precision declaration.
$ Dollar sign or string declaration.
! Exclamation point or single-precision declaration.
[ Left bracket.
] Right bracket.
, Comma.
"" Double quotation marks or string delimiter.
. Period, dot, or decimal point.
' Single quotation mark, apostrophe, or remark indicator.
; Semicolon or carriage return suppressor.
: Colon or line statement delimiter.
& Ampersand or descriptor for hexadecimal and octal number conversion.
? Question mark.
< Less than symbol.
> Greater than symbol.
\ Backslash or integer division symbol.
@ "At" sign.
_ Underscore.
BACKSPACE Deletes last character typed.
ESC Erases the current logical line from the screen.
TAB Moves print position to next tab stop. Tab stops are every eight columns.
CURSOR Moves cursor to next physical line.
RETURN Terminates input to a line and moves cursor to beginning of the next line, or executes statement in direct mode.