Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!chidsey
From: chidsey@smoke.BRL.MIL (Irving Chidsey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Variable repetition count in FORMAT
Keywords: FORMAT, repetition count
Message-ID: <12027@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 24 Jan 90 21:02:16 GMT
References: <5435@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Reply-To: chidsey@brl.arpa (Irving Chidsey (INF) <chidsey>)
Distribution: na
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 41

In article <5435@blake.acs.washington.edu> djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) writes:
<
<Somewhere in my youth (or childhood!) I recall working on a (CDC?)
<FORTRAN compiler that allowed you to pass an integer variable in a
<READ or WRITE statement to the FORMAT statement to enable a variable
<number of repetitions of a particular descriptor.  I think the equals
<sign was used on the FORMAT end, so that
<      ICOUNT=4
<      WRITE (41,900) ICOUNT, (IARRAY(I),I=1,ICOUNT)
<900   FORMAT (=(I5))
<
<would act as if the FORMAT statement read
<900   FORMAT (4(I5))
<
<Now in this case, it's trivial, because FORMAT will do what you want
<anyway, without any special repetition count.  In The Real World, I have
<a case where the FORMAT statement is complicated, writes different
<alpha descriptions on each line, followed by the rep count and ICOUNT
<many real numbers, where ICOUNT is actually an array of integer variables,
<not all the same.  That equals sign (if I recall the character used 
<correctly) would come in handy, but my current environment doesn't
<support it.
<
<I can clever my way around the problem with a bit more code, but it got
<me wondering...is this construct I recall a legal bit of FORTRAN in any
<current implementations?  Is this all just a bad dream?  :)
<
<"Moby" Dick O'Connor                            ** DISCLAIMER: It would


	I have an old CDC Fortran Extended Version 4 manual, revision H,
1982, that lists = sign specification and also V specification as CDC extensions
for doing neat things with outputs.  I even used the = a few times.  I would
hate to have to explain it without much thought, but it did exist.

							Irv
-- 
I do not have signature authority.  I am not authorized to sign anything.
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			Irving L. Chidsey  <chidsey@brl.mil>