what's the meaning of "iostat" argument in open statement? - fortran

I am confused by the use of the 'iostat' argument in open file. As it's said, when the open command succeeds, the 'iostat' gets a value of 0.
open(unit=99, file='vel_zcor22.txt', status='old', iostat=ierr, err=100)
100 if(ierr .ne. 0) then
print*, 'open file error'
endif
print*, ierr
Why is not the 'iostat' used to tell the state rather than the 'ierr'. As my understanding of assignment operator, the 'ierr' transfers its value to 'iostat'. So what is the role of the 'ierr' playing in this procedure?

In an open statement, the iostat=ierr is using iostat= as a specifier. It is not an assignment, transferring the value of ierr to the variable iostat.
Much like when using keywords in a subroutine or function reference (where call sub(a=x) associates the actual argument x with the dummy argument a), what is happening is more:
use the variable ierr to store the resulting status of the statement.
So, when "iostat gets a value of 0" what really happens is the variable ierr becomes defined.
You could instead use any variable name instead of ierr, and typically one often uses iostat:
open(..., iostat=iostat, ...)
Equally, the other parts you see aren't assignments either. That is:
open(unit=99, file='vel_zcor22.txt', status='old', iostat=ierr, err=100)
may look like assignments, but it's still saying:
open on unit 99, this file, with status 'old', passing control to statement labelled 100 if there's an error.
It isn't setting a variable unit to 99, etc.

Related

Fortran read statement successful but calls err parameter also - why? [duplicate]

In a program I am improving, I noticed that Fortran does not detect file existing or not. This led to a logic error which has not been fixed. I highly appreciate if you could point out the problems or errors and give me your corrections.
open(unit=nhist,file=history,iostat=ierr)!This setting cannot exit program if file does not exist because ierr is always 0
if (ierr /=0) then
write(*,*)'!!! error#',ierr,'- Dump file not found'
stop
endif
!I used below statement, the program exits even though a file is existing
open(unit=nhist,file=history,err=700)
700 ierr=-1
if (ierr /=0) then
write(*,*)'!!! error#',ierr,'- Dump file not found'
stop
endif
There are two distinct problems here. Let's look at them separately.
First, consider
open(unit=nhist,file=history,iostat=ierr)
The comment suggests that ierr is always set to zero. Well, why shouldn't it be set to zero? ierr should be non-zero in the case the case of an error, but is the file not existing an error?
Not necessarily. In the absence of a status= specifier the default status='unknown' is taken. The compiler doesn't have to (and is unlikely to) treat opening in this case as an error if the file doesn't exist. It's likely to create it as needed on a write, or complain when trying to read.
Adding status='old' to the open statement is the usual way of saying "the file should exist".
Second, consider
open(unit=nhist,file=history,err=700)
700 ierr=-1
if (ierr /=0) then
...
If there's an error here, execution is transferred to the statement labelled 700. From this statement ierr is set to a non-zero value and off we go to the if construct to handle that error.
It's just that the statement labelled 700 also happens to be executed even without an error: it's simply the next statement after the open and there's no branch to miss it. [I could give an example of such branching, but I don't want to encourage use of err= in modern code. With the working iostat= things are far preferable.]
But if you just wish to test the existence of a file, consider inquire-by-file:
logical itexists
inquire (file=history, exist=itexists)
if (.not.itexists) error stop "No file :("
Some would argue this is even better than having status='old' in an open statement.

Cannot detect file existing or not

In a program I am improving, I noticed that Fortran does not detect file existing or not. This led to a logic error which has not been fixed. I highly appreciate if you could point out the problems or errors and give me your corrections.
open(unit=nhist,file=history,iostat=ierr)!This setting cannot exit program if file does not exist because ierr is always 0
if (ierr /=0) then
write(*,*)'!!! error#',ierr,'- Dump file not found'
stop
endif
!I used below statement, the program exits even though a file is existing
open(unit=nhist,file=history,err=700)
700 ierr=-1
if (ierr /=0) then
write(*,*)'!!! error#',ierr,'- Dump file not found'
stop
endif
There are two distinct problems here. Let's look at them separately.
First, consider
open(unit=nhist,file=history,iostat=ierr)
The comment suggests that ierr is always set to zero. Well, why shouldn't it be set to zero? ierr should be non-zero in the case the case of an error, but is the file not existing an error?
Not necessarily. In the absence of a status= specifier the default status='unknown' is taken. The compiler doesn't have to (and is unlikely to) treat opening in this case as an error if the file doesn't exist. It's likely to create it as needed on a write, or complain when trying to read.
Adding status='old' to the open statement is the usual way of saying "the file should exist".
Second, consider
open(unit=nhist,file=history,err=700)
700 ierr=-1
if (ierr /=0) then
...
If there's an error here, execution is transferred to the statement labelled 700. From this statement ierr is set to a non-zero value and off we go to the if construct to handle that error.
It's just that the statement labelled 700 also happens to be executed even without an error: it's simply the next statement after the open and there's no branch to miss it. [I could give an example of such branching, but I don't want to encourage use of err= in modern code. With the working iostat= things are far preferable.]
But if you just wish to test the existence of a file, consider inquire-by-file:
logical itexists
inquire (file=history, exist=itexists)
if (.not.itexists) error stop "No file :("
Some would argue this is even better than having status='old' in an open statement.

GFortran I/O error 5002 while reading a direct access file

I have a little Problem reading a file in Fortran. As you can see I am lopping over a file reading certain records with a specific length.
What happens is, when it comes to a certain record I'm getting an IOSTAT Error 5002. Now my question is what does this error mean: is it end of file or there is no record left or something else? Can I ignore it?
I am using MinGW GFortran 4.8.0.
Here's the code:
PROGRAM test_read
INTEGER*4 HCM_error
DOUBLE PRECISION N_Record(22)
CHARACTER*8 C_Record(22)
EQUIVALENCE (N_Record,C_Record)
OPEN (UNIT=11, FILE='C:/BORDER/D__HOL.000',STATUS='OLD', ACCESS='DIRECT',RECL=176, ACTION='READ', IOSTAT=IOS)
HCM_error=0
DO N_rec = 1, 2000
READ (11, REC=N_rec, IOSTAT=IOS) C_Record
WRITE(*,*) "|",IOS,' ',N_rec,' ',N_record(21),' ',N_record(22),"|"
!End of file reached (or non existing record) ?
IF ((IOS .LT. 0) .OR. (IOS .EQ. 36)) EXIT
IF (IOS .NE. 0) THEN
!Error in (border-) line data
HCM_Error = 1049
EXIT
END IF
END DO
CLOSE(UNIT=11)
WRITE (*,*) HCM_error
END PROGRAM
The non-zero values returned by an iostat= specifier are not portable across compilers. If you wish to determine what a particular code means then you have two options:
read the compiler's documentation (if it exists)
use the iomsg= specifier with a character variable
In this case, when you tried iomsg= you got the message "Non-existing record number". So, problem solved.
Well, almost. There's more to say.
You may be surprised that you are going through records in turn in direct access, but are reaching a "no record" state without first reaching an "end of file" state. You are testing (IOS .LT. 0) with a comment "!End of file reached".
When reading a file connected for direct access, the end of file condition doesn't arise.
What can you do to detect that the record isn't a valid number, beyond the end of the file? Not much, portably, but any positive number from iostat= indicates an error condition. You know now, though, what this particular 5002 means.
I should probably also add that the character variable for iomsg= is defined by the transfer statement only if there isn't success. Consider it only if you know the transfer failed.

Error in fortran, undefined reference to subroutine

I am writing a subroutine and main function to call it, but getting error as undefined reference to ___. I found one reason: When I save the main and subroutine in the same file, compile and run that file, everything runs perfectly. However, when I save them into different .f90 files and try to run the main file, I get error. Is there any way I can make subroutine into a separate file and call into main calling program?
I got confused with another place - in the main program at !------ERROR------ place. I referred to Automatic width integer descriptor in fortran 90 I can use I0 as automatic width display indicator. But when I used the same, there is run time error expected integer but got character. Any idea about this?
! saved as sub_program.f90 file
SUBROUTINE sub_program (v1,v2,ctr)
IMPLICIT NONE
INTEGER, INTENT(IN) :: ctr
INTEGER, INTENT (OUT) :: v1,v2
SELECT CASE (ctr)
CASE (1)
v1=1
v2=0
CASE (2)
v1=0
v2=1
END SELECT
RETURN
END SUBROUTINE
! main calling program, saved as caller.f90
PROGRAM caller
IMPLICIT NONE
INTEGER :: v1,v2,ctr
DO ctr = 1,2,1
CALL sub_program (v1,v2,ctr)
WRITE (*,100) 'STEP = ',ctr,'V1 = ',v1,'V2 = ',v2 !------ERROR------
100 FORMAT (I0)
END DO
END PROGRAM
Thanks!
What is your compile command? For me, this compiles and runs normally
gfortran caller.f90 foo.f90 && ./a.out
I0 is an integer indicator, but some items following your WRITE statement are character strings. You can try, for example,
100 FORMAT (3(A, I0, 1X))
where 1X refers to a space.
As a note, if formatting is not terribly important and you're only interested in seeing some quick results, you can use the free format output (WRITE(*,*) ...).
EDIT: I had incorrectly referred to FORMAT as obsolete.

How to execute a command on the first and only first time entering fortran subroutine?

I wrote a subroutine for a Fortran program and I want to execute a command (delete file in the program directory and open a new one) the first, and only first time, the subroutine is called. I know that I can achieve this by creating some flag outside of the subroutine, in the main program, that I set to false at program startup and then set to true upon entering the subroutine. Then I could use this flag in an if statement to figure if the commands I want to execute on the initial call should be executed or not. But this requires me modifying the existing program and I didn't want to do that if I could avoid it. Is there some other way to do what I want to do?
An example might be:
subroutine test(a)
implicit none
integer, intent(inout) :: a
logical, save :: first_time=.true.
if(first_time) then
first_time=.false.
a = a + 12345
else
a = a - 67890
end if
end subroutine test
How about using some characteristic of the output file to determine whether or not to delete it? Time stamp, file lock, a particular file extension, etc.