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From: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (Che' Flamingo)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: TURBO Pascal READ
Message-ID: <4062@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Apr-87 20:33:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: iuvax.4062
Posted: Sat Apr 25 20:33:23 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 22:34:03 EDT
References: <7085@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (Che' Flamingo)
Organization: Camo Flamingo Liberation Affront
Lines: 43
Keywords: number formats read
Summary: you must handle the separating blank explicitly

Slomcenski.WBST@Xerox.COM writes:
>>
>>readln(r,a,b);
>>writeln(r:8:3,a,b);
>
>>The input line contains a real number and two characters:
>>12.34 ET
>>The output is:
>>  12.340 E
>>
>>an input of:
>>12.34ET
>>brings up an I/O error 10.
>
	[...]
>
>>So I think there must be always a blank after a read of a number.
>>
>
>Input of a number DOES NOT have to be followed by a ' '!! In fact, in the
>first case, the blank is interpreted as the value for the char variable a.
>The second case would have worked fine except that the char after the
>digits happened to be 'E' which is STILL part of a real number representation.

According to my v3.0 manual (p.109),

    With a numeric variable (Integer or Real), Read expects a string of
    characters which complies with the format of a numeric constant of the
    relevant type as defined on page 43. [ e.g., exponents -- RAM]  Any blanks,
    TABs, CRs, or LFs preceding the string are skipped.  The string must be no
    longer than 30 characters, **and it must be followed by a blank, a TAB, a 
    CR, or a Ctrl-Z.  If the string does not conform to the expected format, an 
    I/O error occurs.** [emphasis is mine -- RAM]

As far as I can see, you must either use a dummy variable to absorb the blank,
or (if you know how long the number is and it's REALLY important) read the
number as a character string and parse it yourself.  Or terminate the number
with a carriage-return.

~-~-~-~-~
RAMontante		bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu  -OR-  {?}!iuvax!bobmon
Computer Science
Indiana University				"Have you hugged ME today?"