Number of subscripts is incorrect - Fortran [duplicate] - fortran

Question

I have function that returns an array, say
function f(A)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: A(5)
real, intent(out) :: f(5)
f = A+1
end
My question is, how can I define f in the main program unit? E.g.
program main
implicit none
real :: A(5)
real, dimension(5), external :: f ! does not work
...
end

Answer 1

You need an explicit interface. You can do this in a few ways.
Explicitly in the scoping unit that calls f:
interface
function f(A)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: A(5)
real :: f(5)
end function
end interface
Place the function in your program host scope as an internal function:
program main
...
contains
function f(A)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: A(5)
real :: f(5)
f = A+1
end
end program
Place the function in a module:
module A
contains
function f(A)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: A(5)
real :: f(5)
f = A+1
end
end module
program main
use A
...
end program
Use the explicit interface from a different procedure with the same arguments and return type, kind and rank.
program main
interface
function r5i_r5o(r5)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: r5(5)
real :: r5i_r5o(5)
end function
end interface
procedure(r5i_r5o) :: f
...
end program
function f(A)
implicit none
real, intent(in) :: A(5)
real :: f(5)
f = A+1
end
The cleanest way of doing this is option #3 using modules. This gives you the benefit of an automatic explicit interface (not needing to do option #1 everywhere you call f) and makes your function available everywhere the module is used rather than limited to a specific scoping unit as in option #2. Option #4 can be handy if you have many procedures with the same argument and return types since one explicit interface can be re-used for all of them.

Answer 2

This shows three different ways to specify function results, and how to use modules to organize your functions:
module so_func
INTEGER, PARAMETER :: MAX_SIZE = 5
TYPE MY_DATA
INTEGER :: SIZE
REAL, DIMENSION(MAX_SIZE) :: DATA
ENDTYPE
contains
FUNCTION f1(A,N) RESULT(X)
implicit none
INTEGER, INTENT(IN) :: N
REAL, INTENT(IN) :: A(N)
REAL :: X(N)
! ....
X = 1.0+A
END FUNCTION f1
TYPE(MY_DATA) FUNCTION f2(A,N)
implicit none
INTEGER, INTENT(IN) :: N
REAL, INTENT(IN) :: A(N)
! ....
f2%SIZE = N
f2%DATA(1:N) = 1.0+A
END FUNCTION f2
FUNCTION f3(A,N)
implicit none
INTEGER, INTENT(IN) :: N
REAL, INTENT(IN) :: A(N)
REAL :: f3(N)
! ....
f3 = 1.0+A
END FUNCTION f3
end module
program SO_RESULT
use so_func
implicit none
integer, parameter :: n=5
REAL :: A(n), y1(n), y3(n)
TYPE(MY_DATA) :: y2
INTEGER :: i
! Variables
A =(/ (i, i=1,n) /)
y1 = f1(A,n)
y2 = f2(A,n)
y3 = f3(A,n)
end program SO_RESULT