The SAY statement displays user-defined comments on the screen during a LOAD BATCH run. Thus the author of a command file can determine the places at which LOAD shall give a "sign of life" and the user need not consider and comprehend each single statement.
SAY can be used in interactive mode as well. In this case, the comment is output in one of the two system message lines.
The position indicators &U, &1, .., &9 within the comments are replaced by the current parameters, if any. The variable $RC can also be used to generate the return code of the last statemen into the comment.
Example:
The statement
SAY The table &1 cannot be accessed (error $RC)
could display the message on the screen
The table CUSTOMER cannot be accessed (error -4004)