HP Fortran Programmer's Reference (September 2007)

Language elements
Source format of program file
Chapter 2 51
Spaces
Spaces are not significant except within a character context. For example, the two statements
RETURN
R E T U R N
are equivalent, but
c = "abc"
c = "a b c"
are not.
Source lines
There are three types of lines in fixed source form:
• Initial line
• Continuation line
• Comment line
The following sections describe each type of source lines.
Initial line An initial line has the following form:
• Columns 1 to 5 may contain a statement label.
• Column 6 contains a space or the digit zero.
• Columns 7 to 72 (optionally, to 254) contain the statement.
Continuation line A continuation line has the following form:
• Columns 1 to 5 are blank.
• Column 6 contains any character other than zero or a space. One practice is to number
continuation lines consecutively from 1.
• Columns 7 to 72 (optionally, to 254) contain the continuation of a statement.
The Standard specifies that a statement must not have more than 19 continuation lines. As
an extension to the Standard, HP Fortran allows as many as 99 continuation lines.
Comment line Comment lines may be included in a program. Comment lines do not affect
compilation in any way, but usually include explanatory notes. The letter C, or c , or an
asterisk (*) in column 1 of a line, designates that line as a comment line; the comment text is