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Declares entities
of type character. SyntaxCHARACTER [char-selector] [[, attrib-list] ::] entity-list |
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- char-selector
specifies
the length and kind of the character variable. It takes one of the following
forms: ([LEN=]len-spec[, KIND=kind-param]) (len-spec, [KIND=]kind-param) (KIND=kind-param[, LEN=len-spec])
where kind-param (if specified) must be 1, the default; len-spec is either an asterisk (*) or a specification expression; and len-const is an integer constant. In the last form, len-param is enclosed in parentheses, and the optional comma
may be included only if the double colon does not appear in the
type declaration statement. If len-spec evaluates to a negative value, a zero-length string
is declared. If len-spec is unspecified, the default is 1. - attrib-list
is a list of one or more of the following attributes,
separated by commas: Table 10-4 Title not available (CHARACTER) ALLOCATABLE | INTRINSIC | PRIVATE | DIMENSION | OPTIONAL | PUBLIC | EXTERNAL | PARAMETER | SAVE | INTENT | POINTER | TARGET |
If attrib-list is present, it must be followed by the double colon.
For information about individual attributes, see the corresponding
statement in this chapter. - entity-list
is a list of entities, separated by commas. Each
entity takes the form: name[(array-spec)][*len-spec][= initialization-expr] where name is the name of a variable or function, array-spec is a comma-separated list of dimension bounds, len-spec is either an asterisk (*) or a specification expression,
and initialization-expr is a character constant expression. If initialization-expr is present, entity-list must be preceded by the double colon.
DescriptionThe CHARACTER statement is used to declare the length and properties
of character data. It is constrained by the rules for all type declaration
statements, including the requirement that it precede all executable
statements. To indicate that
the length of a character can vary, you may use an assumed character
length parameter by specifying an asterisk (*) for len-param. The asterisk may be used only when doing the following: Declaring the type of a function.
The function must not be an internal or module function, nor must
it be array-valued, pointer-valued, or recursive. Declaring a dummy argument of a procedure. Declaring
a named constant (see the PARAMETER statement).
ExamplesThe following are valid declarations: CHARACTER c1, c2
CHARACTER(LEN=80) :: text(0:25)
CHARACTER(2, 1), PARAMETER :: limit='ZZ'
! initialize an array, using an array constructor
CHARACTER(4) :: response(3) = (/"Yes.", "No!!", "Huh?"/)
! use slashes as initialization delimiters, an HP extension
CHARACTER*10 c1/'Tom'/,c2/'Jones'/ ! note, no double colon |
The following are valid uses of the assumed length parameter: CHARACTER(*) dummy_arg_name
CHARACTER(*), PARAMETER :: hello=”Hi Sam”
CHARACTER(LEN=*), PARAMETER :: hello=”Hi Sam” |
Assuming that c is an ordinary variable and not the dummy argument
to a procedure, the following declaration is an illegal use of the
assumed length parameter: CHARACTER*(*) c ! illegal |
Related conceptsFor related information, see the following: |
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