The slash edit descriptor terminates data transfer for the current record and starts data transfer for a new record. It takes the following form:
[r]/
The r is a repeat specification. It must be a positive default integer literal constant; no kind parameter can be specified.
The range of r is 1 through 2147483647 (2**31-1) on Intel® 64 architecture and IA-64 architecture; 1 through 32767 (2**15-1) on IA-32 architecture. If r is omitted, it is assumed to be 1.
Multiple slashes cause the system to skip input records or to output blank records, as follows:
When n consecutive slashes appear between two edit descriptors, n - 1 records are skipped on input, or n - 1 blank records are output. The first slash terminates the current record. The second slash terminates the first skipped or blank record, and so on.
When n consecutive slashes appear at the beginning or end of a format specification, n records are skipped or n blank records are output, because the opening and closing parentheses of the format specification are themselves a record initiator and terminator, respectively. For example, suppose the following statements are specified:
WRITE (6,99)
99 FORMAT ('1',T51,'HEADING LINE'//T51,'SUBHEADING LINE'//)
The following lines are written:
Column 50, top of page | HEADING LINE
(blank line) SUBHEADING LINE
(blank line)
(blank line)
Note that the first character of the record printed was reserved as a control character (see Printing of Formatted Records).
! The following statements write spreadsheet column and row labels:
WRITE (*, 100)
100 FORMAT (' A B C D E' &
& /,' 1',/,' 2',/,' 3',/,' 4',/,' 5')
This example generates the following output:
A B C D E
1
2
3
4
5