In BASIC, the REM statement is used to create comments. Comments are lines in the program that are not meant to be executed or affect the output. They are used to provide explanations, notes, or reminders to the programmer who is reading the code.
When the interpreter or compiler encounters the REM statement, it simply ignores it and moves on to the next line of code. It is like a reminder or a message to yourself or other programmers working on the code, but it does not have any effect on the program execution or output.
For example, if we have the following code in BASIC:
10 PRINT "Hello, world!" ' This line prints "Hello, world!" 20 REM This is a comment ' This line is a comment and is ignored
In this code, "Hello, world!" will be printed on the screen because it is an executable statement. However, the line with the REM statement will be ignored because it is a comment. It serves as a note to explain the purpose of the code or provide additional information for the programmer.
So, in BASIC, the REM statement is used to indicate a comment and does not have any impact on the program execution or output.