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FORTRAN 77 Language Reference

Character Editing (A)

The A specifier is used for character type data items. The general form is: 

A  [ w ]

On input, character data is stored in the corresponding list item.

On output, the corresponding list item is displayed as character data.

If w is omitted, then:

Each of the following examples read into a size n variable (CHARACTER*n), for various values of n, for instance, for n = 9. 

	CHARACTER C*9 
	READ '( A7 )', C

The various values of n, in CHARACTER C*n are:

Size n

9  

7  

4  

1  

Data  

Node¤Id

Node¤Id

Node¤Id

Node¤Id

Format  

A7

A7

A7

A7

Memory  

Node¤Id¤¤

Node¤Id

e¤Id

d

¤ indicates a blank space.

Example: Output strings of 3, 5, and 7 characters, each in a 5 character field: 

	PRINT 1, 'The', 'whole', 'shebang' 
1	FORMAT( A5 / A5 / A5 )
	END

The above program displays: 

¤¤The
whole
sheba

The maximum characters in noncharacter types are summarized in the following table.

Table 5-5 Maximum Characters in Noncharacter Type Hollerith (nHaaa)

Type of List Item  

Maximum Number of Characters  

BYTE

LOGICAL*1

LOGICAL*2

LOGICAL*4

LOGICAL*8

INTEGER*2

INTEGER*4

INTEGER*8

REAL

REAL*4

REAL*8

REAL*16 (SPARC only)

DOUBLE PRECISION

COMPLEX

COMPLEX*8

COMPLEX*16

COMPLEX*32 (SPARC only)

DOUBLE COMPLEX

1

1

2

4

8

2

4

8

4

4

8

16

8

8

8

16

32

16

In f77, you can use Hollerith constants wherever a character constant can be used in FORMAT statements, assignment statements, and DATA statements.© These constants are not recommended. FORTRAN does not have these old Hollerith (n H) notations, although the FORTRAN Standard recommends implementing the Hollerith feature to improve compatibility with old programs. But such constants cannot be used as input data elements in list-directed or NAMELIST input.

For example, these two formats are equivalent: 

10 	FORMAT( 8H Code = , A6 ) 
20 	FORMAT( ' Code = ', A6 )

In f77, commas between edit descriptors are generally optional: 

10 	FORMAT( 5H flex 4Hible )