Fortran 95 language features: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:11, 20 June 2007

Revision as of 13:20, 19 July 2007

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===Intrinsic data types===

Fortran has five ''intrinsic data types'': <code>INTEGER</code>, <code>REAL</code>, <code>COMPLEX</code>, <code>LOGICAL</code> and <code>CHARACTER</code>. Each of those types can be additionally charactericized by a ''kind''. Kind, basically, defines internal representation of the type: for the three numeric types, it defines the precision and range, and for the other two, the specifics of storage representation. Thus, it is an abstract concept which models the limits of data types' representation; it is expressed as a member of a set of whole numbers (e.g. it may be {1, 2, 4, 8} for integers, denoting bytes of storage), but those values are not specified by the Standard and not portable. For every type, there is a ''default kind'', which is used if no kind is explicitly specified. For each intrinsic type, there is a corresponding form of ''literal constant''. Numeric types can only be [[Signedness|signed]]{{checkVerify source|date=July 2007}}.

====Literal constants and kinds====