2.1.1 Statements

Program statements are grouped into two general classes: executable and nonexecutable. An executable statement specifies an action to be performed. A nonexecutable statement describes program attributes, such as the arrangement and characteristics of data, as well as editing and data-conversion information.

Order of Statements in a Program Unit

Figure 2-1 shows the required order of statements in a Fortran program unit. In this figure, vertical lines separate statement types that can be interspersed. For example, you can intersperse DATA statements with executable constructs.

Horizontal lines indicate statement types that cannot be interspersed. For example, you cannot intersperse DATA statements with CONTAINS statements.

Figure 2-1 Required Order of Statements


PUBLIC and PRIVATE statements are only allowed in the scoping units of modules. In Fortran 95/90, NAMELIST statements can appear only among specification statements. However, Compaq Fortran allows them to also appear among executable statements.

Table 2-1 shows other statements restricted from different types of scoping units.

Table 2-1 Statements Restricted in Scoping Units

Scoping Unit  Restricted Statements 
Main program  ENTRY and RETURN statements 
Module1  ENTRY, FORMAT, OPTIONAL, and INTENT statements, statement functions, and executable statements 
Block data program unit  CONTAINS, ENTRY, and FORMAT statements, interface blocks, statement functions, and executable statements 
Internal subprogram  CONTAINS and ENTRY statements 
Interface body  CONTAINS, DATA, ENTRY, SAVE, and FORMAT statements, statement functions, and executable statements 
1 The scoping unit of a module does not include any module subprograms that the module contains.

For More Information:

For details on scoping units, see Section 16.1.


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