Specification Expressions

A specification expression is a restricted expression that is of type integer and has a scalar value. This type of expression appears only in the declaration of array bounds and character lengths.

In a restricted expression, each operation is intrinsic and each operand is one of the following:

• A constant or subobject of a constant

• A variable that is one of the following:

  • A dummy argument that does not have the OPTIONAL or INTENT (OUT) attribute (or the subobject of such a variable)

  • In a common block (or the subobject of such a variable)

  • Made accessible by use or host association (or the subobject of such a variable)

• A structure constructor whose components are restricted expressions

• An implied-DO variable within an array constructor, where the bounds and strides of the corresponding implied-DO are restricted expressions

• A reference to one of the following inquiry functions:

  BIT_SIZE	MINEXPONENT
  DIGITS	PRECISION
  EPSILON	RADIX
  HUGE	RANGE
  ILEN	SHAPE
  KIND	SIZE
  LBOUND	SIZEOF
  LEN	TINY
  MAXEXPONENT	UBOUND

  Each function argument must be one of the following:

  • A restricted expression

  • A variable whose properties inquired about are not dependent on the upper bound of the last dimension of an assumed-size array, are not defined by an expression that is not a restricted expression, or are not definable by an ALLOCATE or pointer assignment statement.

• A reference to any other intrinsic function where each argument is a restricted expression.

• A reference to a specification function where each argument is a restricted expression

• An array constructor where each element and the bounds and strides of each implied-DO, are expressions whose primaries are restricted expressions

• Another restricted expression enclosed in parentheses

Each subscript, section subscript, and substring starting and ending point must be a restricted expression.

Specification functions can be used in specification expressions to indicate the attributes of data objects. A specification function is a pure function. It cannot have a dummy procedure argument or be any of the following:

• An intrinsic function

• An internal function

• A statement function

• Defined as RECURSIVE

A variable in a specification expression must have its type and type parameters (if any) specified in one of the following ways:

• By a previous declaration in the same scoping unit

• By the implicit typing rules currently in effect for the scoping unit

• By host or use association

If a variable in a specification expression is typed by the implicit typing rules, its appearance in any subsequent type declaration statement must confirm the implied type and type parameters.

If a specification expression invokes an inquiry function for a type parameter or an array bound of an object, the type parameter or array bound must be specified in a prior specification statement (or to the left of the inquiry function in the same statement).

In a specification expression, the number of arguments for a function reference is limited to 255.

See Also