Fortran Extensions supported by Flang¶
As a general principle, this compiler will accept by default and without complaint many legacy features, extensions to the standard language, and features that have been deleted from the standard, so long as the recognition of those features would not cause a standard-conforming program to be rejected or misinterpreted.
Other non-standard features, which do conflict with the current standard specification of the Fortran programming language, are accepted if enabled by command-line options.
Intentional violations of the standard¶
Scalar
INTEGER
actual argument expressions (not variables!) are converted to the kinds of scalarINTEGER
dummy arguments when the interface is explicit and the kinds differ. This conversion allows the results of the intrinsics likeSIZE
that (as mentioned below) may return non-defaultINTEGER
results by default to be passed. A warning is emitted when truncation is possible. These conversions are not applied in calls to non-intrinsic generic procedures.We are not strict on the contents of
BLOCK DATA
subprograms so long as they contain no executable code, no internal subprograms, and allocate no storage outside a namedCOMMON
block. (C1415)Delimited list-directed (and NAMELIST) character output is required to emit contiguous doubled instances of the delimiter character when it appears in the output value. When fixed-size records are being emitted, as is the case with internal output, this is not possible when the problematic character falls on the last position of a record. No two other Fortran compilers do the same thing in this situation so there is no good precedent to follow. Because it seems least wrong, we emit one copy of the delimiter as the last character of the current record and another as the first character of the next record. (The second-least-wrong alternative might be to flag a runtime error, but that seems harsh since it’s not an explicit error in the standard, and the output may not have to be usable later as input anyway.) Consequently, the output is not suitable for use as list-directed or NAMELIST input. If a later standard were to clarify this case, this behavior will change as needed to conform.
character(11) :: buffer(3)
character(10) :: quotes = '""""""""""'
write(buffer,*,delim="QUOTE") quotes
print "('>',a10,'<')", buffer
end
The name of the control variable in an implied DO loop in an array constructor or DATA statement has a scope over the value-list only, not the bounds of the implied DO loop. It is not advisable to use an object of the same name as the index variable in a bounds expression, but it will work, instead of being needlessly undefined.
If both the
COUNT=
and theCOUNT_MAX=
optional arguments are present on the same call to the intrinsic subroutineSYSTEM_CLOCK
, we require that their types have the same integer kind, since the kind of these arguments is used to select the clock rate. In common with some other compilers, the clock rate varies from tenths of a second to nanoseconds depending on argument kind and platform support.If a dimension of a descriptor has zero extent in a call to
CFI_section
,CFI_setpointer
orCFI_allocate
, the lower bound on that dimension will be set to 1 for consistency with theLBOUND()
intrinsic function.-2147483648_4
is, strictly speaking, a non-conforming literal constant on a machine with 32-bit two’s-complement integers as kind 4, because the grammar of Fortran expressions parses it as a negation of a literal constant, not a negative literal constant. This compiler accepts it with a portability warning.
Extensions, deletions, and legacy features supported by default¶
Tabs in source
<>
as synonym for.NE.
and/=
$
and@
as legal characters in namesInitialization in type declaration statements using
/values/
Kind specification with
*
, e.g.REAL*4
DOUBLE COMPLEX
as a synonym forCOMPLEX(KIND(0.D0))
– but not when spelledTYPE(DOUBLECOMPLEX)
.Signed complex literal constants
DEC
STRUCTURE
,RECORD
, with ‘%FILL’; butUNION
, andMAP
are not yet supported throughout compilation, and elicit a “not yet implemented” message.Structure field access with
.field
BYTE
as synonym forINTEGER(KIND=1)
; but not when spelledTYPE(BYTE)
.When kind-param is used for REAL literals, allow a matching exponent letter
Quad precision REAL literals with
Q
X
prefix/suffix as synonym forZ
on hexadecimal literalsB
,O
,Z
, andX
accepted as suffixes as well as prefixesTriplets allowed in array constructors
%LOC
,%VAL
, and%REF
Leading comma allowed before I/O item list
Empty parentheses allowed in
PROGRAM P()
Missing parentheses allowed in
FUNCTION F
Cray based
POINTER(p,x)
andLOC()
intrinsic (with%LOC()
as an alias)Arithmetic
IF
. (Which branch should NaN take? Fall through?)ASSIGN
statement, assignedGO TO
, and assigned formatPAUSE
statementHollerith literals and edit descriptors
NAMELIST
allowed in the execution partOmitted colons on type declaration statements with attributes
COMPLEX constructor expression, e.g.
(x+y,z)
+
and-
before all primary expressions, e.g.x*-y
.NOT. .NOT.
acceptedNAME=
as synonym forFILE=
Data edit descriptors without width or other details
D
lines in fixed form as comments or debug codeCARRIAGECONTROL=
on the OPEN and INQUIRE statementsCONVERT=
on the OPEN and INQUIRE statementsDISPOSE=
on the OPEN and INQUIRE statementsLeading semicolons are ignored before any statement that could have a label
The character
&
in column 1 in fixed form source is a variant form of continuation line.Character literals as elements of an array constructor without an explicit type specifier need not have the same length; the longest literal determines the length parameter of the implicit type, not the first.
Outside a character literal, a comment after a continuation marker (&) need not begin with a comment marker (!).
Classic C-style /comments/ are skipped, so multi-language header files are easier to write and use.
$ and \ edit descriptors are supported in FORMAT to suppress newline output on user prompts.
Tabs in format strings (not
FORMAT
statements) are allowed on output.REAL and DOUBLE PRECISION variable and bounds in DO loops
Integer literals without explicit kind specifiers that are out of range for the default kind of INTEGER are assumed to have the least larger kind that can hold them, if one exists.
BOZ literals can be used as INTEGER values in contexts where the type is unambiguous: the right hand sides of assignments and initializations of INTEGER entities, as actual arguments to a few intrinsic functions (ACHAR, BTEST, CHAR), and as actual arguments of references to procedures with explicit interfaces whose corresponding dummy argument has a numeric type to which the BOZ literal may be converted. BOZ literals are interpreted as default INTEGER only when they appear as the first items of array constructors with no explicit type. Otherwise, they generally cannot be used if the type would not be known (e.g.,
IAND(X'1',X'2')
).BOZ literals can also be used as REAL values in some contexts where the type is unambiguous, such as initializations of REAL parameters.
EQUIVALENCE of numeric and character sequences (a ubiquitous extension), as well as of sequences of non-default kinds of numeric types with each other.
Values for whole anonymous parent components in structure constructors (e.g.,
EXTENDEDTYPE(PARENTTYPE(1,2,3))
rather thanEXTENDEDTYPE(1,2,3)
orEXTENDEDTYPE(PARENTTYPE=PARENTTYPE(1,2,3))
).Some intrinsic functions are specified in the standard as requiring the same type and kind for their arguments (viz., ATAN with two arguments, ATAN2, DIM, HYPOT, MAX, MIN, MOD, and MODULO); we allow distinct types to be used, promoting the arguments as if they were operands to an intrinsic
+
operator, and defining the result type accordingly.DOUBLE COMPLEX intrinsics DREAL, DCMPLX, DCONJG, and DIMAG.
The DFLOAT intrinsic function.
INT_PTR_KIND intrinsic returns the kind of c_intptr_t.
Restricted specific conversion intrinsics FLOAT, SNGL, IDINT, IFIX, DREAL, and DCMPLX accept arguments of any kind instead of only the default kind or double precision kind. Their result kinds remain as specified.
Specific intrinsics AMAX0, AMAX1, AMIN0, AMIN1, DMAX1, DMIN1, MAX0, MAX1, MIN0, and MIN1 accept more argument types than specified. They are replaced by the related generics followed by conversions to the specified result types.
When a scalar CHARACTER actual argument of the same kind is known to have a length shorter than the associated dummy argument, it is extended on the right with blanks, similar to assignment.
When a dummy argument is
POINTER
orALLOCATABLE
and isINTENT(IN)
, we relax enforcement of some requirements on actual arguments that must otherwise hold true for definable arguments.Assignment of
LOGICAL
toINTEGER
and vice versa (but not other types) is allowed. The values are normalized.Static initialization of
LOGICAL
withINTEGER
is allowed inDATA
statements and object initializers. The results are not normalized to canonical.TRUE.
/.FALSE.
. Static initialization ofINTEGER
withLOGICAL
is also permitted.An effectively empty source file (no program unit) is accepted and produces an empty relocatable output file.
A
RETURN
statement may appear in a main program.DATA statement initialization is allowed for procedure pointers outside structure constructors.
Nonstandard intrinsic functions: ISNAN, SIZEOF
A forward reference to a default INTEGER scalar dummy argument is permitted to appear in a specification expression, such as an array bound, in a scope with IMPLICIT NONE(TYPE) if the name of the dummy argument would have caused it to be implicitly typed as default INTEGER if IMPLICIT NONE(TYPE) were absent.
OPEN(ACCESS=’APPEND’) is interpreted as OPEN(POSITION=’APPEND’) to ease porting from Sun Fortran.
Intrinsic subroutines EXIT([status]) and ABORT()
The definition of simple contiguity in 9.5.4 applies only to arrays; we also treat scalars as being trivially contiguous, so that they can be used in contexts like data targets in pointer assignments with bounds remapping.
We support some combinations of specific procedures in generic interfaces that a strict reading of the standard would preclude when their calls must nonetheless be distinguishable. Specifically,
ALLOCATABLE
dummy arguments are distinguishing if an actual argument acceptable to one could not be passed to the other & vice versa because exactly one is polymorphic or exactly one is unlimited polymorphic).External unit 0 is predefined and connected to the standard error output, and defined as
ERROR_UNIT
in the intrinsicISO_FORTRAN_ENV
module.Objects in blank COMMON may be initialized.
Initialization of COMMON blocks outside of BLOCK DATA subprograms.
Multiple specifications of the SAVE attribute on the same object are allowed, with a warning.
Specific intrinsic functions BABS, IIABS, JIABS, KIABS, ZABS, and CDABS.
A
POINTER
component’s type need not be a sequence type when the component appears in a derived type withSEQUENCE
. (This case should probably be an exception to constraint C740 in the standard.)Format expressions that have type but are not character and not integer scalars are accepted so long as they are simply contiguous. This legacy extension supports pre-Fortran’77 usage in which variables initialized in DATA statements with Hollerith literals as modifiable formats.
At runtime,
NAMELIST
input will skip overNAMELIST
groups with other names, and will treat text before and between groups as if they were comment lines, even if not begun with!
.Commas are required in FORMAT statements and character variables only when they prevent ambiguity.
Legacy names
AND
,OR
, andXOR
are accepted as aliases for the standard intrinsic functionsIAND
,IOR
, andIEOR
respectively.A digit count of d=0 is accepted in Ew.0, Dw.0, and Gw.0 output editing if no nonzero scale factor (kP) is in effect.
The name
IMAG
is accepted as an alias for the generic intrinsic functionAIMAG
.The legacy extension intrinsic functions
IZEXT
andJZEXT
are supported;ZEXT
has different behavior with various older compilers, so it is not supported.f18 doesn’t impose a limit on the number of continuation lines allowed for a single statement.
When a type-bound procedure declaration statement has neither interface nor attributes, the “::” before the bindings is optional, even if a binding has renaming with “=> proc”. The colons are not necessary for an unambiguous parse, C768 notwithstanding.
A type-bound procedure binding can be passed as an actual argument corresponding to a dummy procedure and can be used as the target of a procedure pointer assignment statement.
An explicit
INTERFACE
can declare the interface of a procedure pointer even if it is not a dummy argument.A
NOPASS
type-bound procedure binding is required by C1529 to apply only to a scalar data-ref, but most compilers don’t enforce it and the constraint is not necessary for a correct implementation.
Extensions supported when enabled by options¶
C-style backslash escape sequences in quoted CHARACTER literals (but not Hollerith) [-fbackslash]
Logical abbreviations
.T.
,.F.
,.N.
,.A.
,.O.
, and.X.
[-flogical-abbreviations].XOR.
as a synonym for.NEQV.
[-fxor-operator]The default
INTEGER
type is required by the standard to occupy the same amount of storage as the defaultREAL
type. DefaultREAL
is of course 32-bit IEEE-754 floating-point today. This legacy rule imposes an artificially small constraint in some cases where Fortran mandates that something have the defaultINTEGER
type: specifically, the results of references to the intrinsic functionsSIZE
,STORAGE_SIZE
,LBOUND
,UBOUND
,SHAPE
, and the location reductionsFINDLOC
,MAXLOC
, andMINLOC
in the absence of an explicitKIND=
actual argument. We returnINTEGER(KIND=8)
by default in these cases when the-flarge-sizes
option is enabled.SIZEOF
andC_SIZEOF
always returnINTEGER(KIND=8)
.Treat each specification-part like is has
IMPLICIT NONE
[-fimplicit-none-type-always]Ignore occurrences of
IMPLICIT NONE
andIMPLICIT NONE(TYPE)
[-fimplicit-none-type-never]Old-style
PARAMETER pi=3.14
statement without parentheses [-falternative-parameter-statement]
Extensions and legacy features deliberately not supported¶
.LG.
as synonym for.NE.
REDIMENSION
Allocatable
COMMON
Expressions in formats
ACCEPT
as synonym forREAD *
TYPE
as synonym forPRINT
ARRAY
as synonym forDIMENSION
VIRTUAL
as synonym forDIMENSION
ENCODE
andDECODE
as synonyms for internal I/OIMPLICIT AUTOMATIC
,IMPLICIT STATIC
Default exponent of zero, e.g.
3.14159E
Characters in defined operators that are neither letters nor digits
B
suffix on unquoted octal constantsZ
prefix on unquoted hexadecimal constants (dangerous)T
andF
as abbreviations for.TRUE.
and.FALSE.
in DATA (PGI/XLF)Use of host FORMAT labels in internal subprograms (PGI-only feature)
ALLOCATE(TYPE(derived)::…) as variant of correct ALLOCATE(derived::…) (PGI only)
Defining an explicit interface for a subprogram within itself (PGI only)
USE association of a procedure interface within that same procedure’s definition
NULL() as a structure constructor expression for an ALLOCATABLE component (PGI).
Conversion of LOGICAL to INTEGER in expressions.
Use of INTEGER data with the intrinsic logical operators
.NOT.
,.AND.
,.OR.
, and.XOR.
.IF (integer expression) THEN … END IF (PGI/Intel)
Comparison of LOGICAL with ==/.EQ. rather than .EQV. (also .NEQV.) (PGI/Intel)
Procedure pointers in COMMON blocks (PGI/Intel)
Underindexing multi-dimensional arrays (e.g., A(1) rather than A(1,1)) (PGI only)
Legacy PGI
NCHARACTER
type andNC
Kanji character literalsUsing non-integer expressions for array bounds (e.g., REAL A(3.14159)) (PGI/Intel)
Mixing INTEGER types as operands to bit intrinsics (e.g., IAND); only two compilers support it, and they disagree on sign extension.
Module & program names that conflict with an object inside the unit (PGI only).
When the same name is brought into scope via USE association from multiple modules, the name must refer to a generic interface; PGI allows a name to be a procedure from one module and a generic interface from another.
Type parameter declarations must come first in a derived type definition; some compilers allow them to follow
PRIVATE
, or be intermixed with the component declarations.Wrong argument types in calls to specific intrinsics that have different names than the related generics. Some accepted exceptions are listed above in the allowed extensions. PGI, Intel, and XLF support this in ways that are not numerically equivalent. PGI converts the arguments while Intel and XLF replace the specific by the related generic.
VMS listing control directives (
%LIST
,%NOLIST
,%EJECT
)Continuation lines on
INCLUDE
linesNULL()
actual argument corresponding to anALLOCATABLE
dummy data objectUser (non-intrinsic)
ELEMENTAL
procedures may not be passed as actual arguments, in accordance with the standard; some Fortran compilers permit such usage.
Preprocessing behavior¶
The preprocessor is always run, whatever the filename extension may be.
We respect Fortran comments in macro actual arguments (like GNU, Intel, NAG; unlike PGI and XLF) on the principle that macro calls should be treated like function references. Fortran’s line continuation methods also work.
Standard features not silently accepted¶
Fortran explicitly ignores type declaration statements when they attempt to type the name of a generic intrinsic function (8.2 p3). One can declare
CHARACTER::COS
and still get a real result fromCOS(3.14159)
, for example. f18 will complain when a generic intrinsic function’s inferred result type does not match an explicit declaration. This message is a warning.
Standard features that might as well not be¶
f18 supports designators with constant expressions, properly constrained, as initial data targets for data pointers in initializers of variable and component declarations and in
DATA
statements; e.g.,REAL, POINTER :: P => T(1:10:2)
. This Fortran 2008 feature might as well be viewed like an extension; no other compiler that we’ve tested can handle it yet.According to 11.1.3.3p1, if a selector of an
ASSOCIATE
or related construct is defined by a variable, it has theTARGET
attribute if the variable was aPOINTER
orTARGET
. We read this to include the case of the variable being a pointer-valued function reference. No other Fortran compiler seems to handle this correctly forASSOCIATE
, though NAG gets it right forSELECT TYPE
.The standard doesn’t explicitly require that a named constant that appears as part of a complex-literal-constant be a scalar, but most compilers emit an error when an array appears. f18 supports them with a portability warning.
f18 does not enforce a blanket prohibition against generic interfaces containing a mixture of functions and subroutines. Apart from some contexts in which the standard requires all of a particular generic interface to have only all functions or all subroutines as its specific procedures, we allow both to appear, unlike several other Fortran compilers. This is especially desirable when two generics of the same name are combined due to USE association and the mixture may be inadvertent.
Behavior in cases where the standard is ambiguous or indefinite¶
When an inner procedure of a subprogram uses the value or an attribute of an undeclared name in a specification expression and that name does not appear in the host, it is not clear in the standard whether that name is an implicitly typed local variable of the inner procedure or a host association with an implicitly typed local variable of the host. For example:
module module
contains
subroutine host(j)
! Although "m" never appears in the specification or executable
! parts of this subroutine, both of its contained subroutines
! might be accessing it via host association.
integer, intent(in out) :: j
call inner1(j)
call inner2(j)
contains
subroutine inner1(n)
integer(kind(m)), intent(in) :: n
m = n + 1
end subroutine
subroutine inner2(n)
integer(kind(m)), intent(out) :: n
n = m + 2
end subroutine
end subroutine
end module
program demo
use module
integer :: k
k = 0
call host(k)
print *, k, " should be 3"
end
Other Fortran compilers disagree in their interpretations of this example;
some seem to treat the references to m
as if they were host associations
to an implicitly typed variable (and print 3
), while others seem to
treat them as references to implicitly typed local variabless, and
load uninitialized values.
In f18, we chose to emit an error message for this case since the standard is unclear, the usage is not portable, and the issue can be easily resolved by adding a declaration.
In subclause 7.5.6.2 of Fortran 2018 the standard defines a partial ordering of the final subroutine calls for finalizable objects, their non-parent components, and then their parent components. (The object is finalized, then the non-parent components of each element, and then the parent component.) Some have argued that the standard permits an implementation to finalize the parent component before finalizing an allocatable component in the context of deallocation, and the next revision of the language may codify this option. In the interest of avoiding needless confusion, this compiler implements what we believe to be the least surprising order of finalization. Specifically: all non-parent components are finalized before the parent, allocatable or not; all finalization takes place before any deallocation; and no object or subobject will be finalized more than once.
When
RECL=
is set via theOPEN
statement for a sequential formatted input file, it functions as an effective maximum record length. Longer records, if any, will appear as if they had been truncated to the value ofRECL=
. (Other compilers ignoreRECL=
, signal an error, or apply effective truncation to some forms of input in this situation.) For sequential formatted output, RECL= serves as a limit on record lengths that raises an error when it is exceeded.When a
DATA
statement in aBLOCK
construct could be construed as either initializing a host-associated object or declaring a new local initialized object, f18 interprets the standard’s classification of aDATA
statement as being a “declaration” rather than a “specification” construct, and notes that theBLOCK
construct is defined as localizing names that have specifications in theBLOCK
construct. So this example will elicit an error about multiple initialization:
subroutine subr
integer n = 1
block
data n/2/
end block
end subroutine
Other Fortran compilers disagree with each other in their interpretations
of this example.
The precedent among the most commonly used compilers
agrees with f18’s interpretation: a DATA
statement without any other
specification of the name refers to the host-associated object.
Many Fortran compilers allow a non-generic procedure to be
USE
-associated into a scope that also contains a generic interface of the same name but does not have theUSE
-associated non-generic procedure as a specific procedure.
module m1
contains
subroutine foo(n)
integer, intent(in) :: n
end subroutine
end module
module m2
use m1, only: foo
interface foo
module procedure noargs
end interface
contains
subroutine noargs
end subroutine
end module
This case elicits a warning from f18, as it should not be treated
any differently than the same case with the non-generic procedure of
the same name being defined in the same scope rather than being
USE
-associated into it, which is explicitly non-conforming in the
standard and not allowed by most other compilers.
If the USE
-associated entity of the same name is not a procedure,
most compilers disallow it as well.
Fortran 2018 19.3.4p1: “A component name has the scope of its derived-type definition. Outside the type definition, it may also appear …” which seems to imply that within its derived-type definition, a component name is in its scope, and at least shadows any entity of the same name in the enclosing scope and might be read, thanks to the “also”, to mean that a “bare” reference to the name could be used in a specification inquiry. However, most other compilers do not allow a component to shadow exterior symbols, much less appear in specification inquiries, and there are application codes that expect exterior symbols whose names match components to be visible in a derived-type definition’s default initialization expressions, and so f18 follows that precedent.
19.3.1p1 “Within its scope, a local identifier of an entity of class (1) or class (4) shall not be the same as a global identifier used in that scope…” is read so as to allow the name of a module, submodule, main program, or
BLOCK DATA
subprogram to also be the name of an local entity in its scope, with a portability warning, since that global name is not actually capable of being “used” in its scope.
De Facto Standard Features¶
EXTENDS_TYPE_OF()
returns.TRUE.
if both of its arguments have the same type, a case that is technically implementation-defined.