This section summarizes the rules for constructing and using format
specifications and their components in FORMAT statements. It also
summarizes the rules for constructing external fields and records.
The following are general FORMAT statement rules:
- A FORMAT statement must always be labeled.
- In a field descriptor such as rIw[.m] or nX, the terms
r, w, m, and n must be
unsigned integer constants or variable format
expressions. These terms cannot be names assigned to
constants in PARAMETER statements. You can omit the repeat count
and field width specification. (See Section 8.1
for the range of values for r,
w, m and n.)
- In a field descriptor such as Fw.d, the term d
must be an unsigned integer constant or
variable format expression. You must specify d
with F, E, D, and G field descriptors even if d is
zero. The decimal point is also required. You must either specify
both w and d, or omit them both. In a field
descriptor such as Ew.dEe, the term e must also be an
unsigned integer constant.
- In an edit descriptor such as nHc1c2...cn, exactly
n characters must follow the H format code. You can use any
printable ASCII character in this edit descriptor.
- In a scale factor of the form nP, n
must be an integer constant in the range of -128 to 127,
or a variable format expression. The
scale factor affects the F, E, D, and G field descriptors only.
Once you specify a scale factor, it applies to all subsequent
real field descriptors in that format specification until another
scale factor appears. You must explicitly specify 0P to reinstate
a scale factor of zero. Format reversion does not affect the
scale factor.
- The numeric field descriptors ignore leading spaces in the
external field. Embedded and trailing spaces are ignored only if
the BN edit descriptor is specified or if BLANK=
'
NULL'
is in effect for the logical unit. Otherwise,
embedded and trailing spaces are treated as zeros.
- No repeat count is permitted in edit descriptors BN,
BZ, S, SS, SP, H, Q, X, T, TR, TL,
$, :, or character constants unless
these descriptors are enclosed in parentheses and treated as
group repeat specifications.
- If the associated I/O statement contains an I/O list, the
format specification must contain at least one field descriptor
(I, O, Z, F, E, D, G, L, or A)
or the edit descriptor Q.
- A format specification in a character variable, character
substring reference, character array element, character array,
character expression, numeric array, or
numeric array element must be constructed in the same
way as a format specification in a FORMAT statement, including
the opening and closing parentheses.
- If a character-constant format includes apostrophes
as delimiters, the apostrophes must be represented by two
consecutive apostrophes (' ') with
no spaces or characters between them.
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