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From: donn@utah-cs.UUCP (Donn Seeley)
Newsgroups: net.lang.f77
Subject: Re: Question on "Parameter" statement
Message-ID: <3651@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Jan-86 01:22:58 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3651
Posted: Wed Jan 29 01:22:58 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 31-Jan-86 23:54:59 EST
References: <410@cubsvax.UUCP>
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 30

Peter Shenkin asks why

	parameter (size = 10)
	character*size string

doesn't work.  The problem probably seems straightforward to those who
have programmed in antique Fortrans...  It is perhaps more obvious if
one uses antique style:

      PARAMETER(SIZE=10)
      CHARACTER*SIZESTRING

White space is not significant in Fortran, so SIZESTRING appears as one
token to the Fortran compiler.  This is obviously a syntax error since
SIZESTRING is not defined and in any case no variable is being declared
by the type statement.  What was intended was probably:

	parameter (size = 10)
	character*(size) string

My reading of the standard indicates that only integer constants (and
not symbolic names of integer constants) may appear naked as length
specifications; all other integer constant expressions must appear
enclosed in parentheses (Section 8.4.2, ANSI X3.9-1978).  This
conveniently rules out the tokenizing difficulty described here...

ISNTFORTRANWONDERFUL,

Donn Seeley    University of Utah CS Dept    donn@utah-cs.arpa
40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W    (801) 581-5668    decvax!utah-cs!donn