Restrictions for Fields

Fields that are type declarations use the identical syntax of normal FORTRAN type statements, and all f77 types are allowed, subject to the following rules and restrictions:

• Any dimensioning needed must be in the type statement. The DIMENSION statement has no effect on field names.

• You can specify the pseudo-name %FILL for a field name. The %FILL is provided for compatibility with other versions of FORTRAN. It is not needed in f77 because the alignment problems are taken care of for you. It is a useful feature if you want to make one or more fields not referenceable in some particular subroutine. The only thing that %FILL does is provide a field of the specified size and type, and preclude referencing it.

• You must explicitly type all field names. The IMPLICIT statement does not apply to statements in a STRUCTURE declaration, nor do the implicit I,J,K,L,M,N rules apply.

• You cannot use arrays with adjustable or assumed size in field declarations, nor can you include passed-length CHARACTER declarations.

In a structure declaration, the offset of field n is the offset of the preceding field, plus the length of the preceding field, possibly corrected for any adjustments made to maintain alignment.

You can initialize a field that is a variable, array, substring, substructure, or union.