J3/99-191

Date:    August 4, 1999
To:      J3
From:    Keith Bierman
Subject: What is a numeric character?


NUMBER: temp CORB-2
TITLE:  What is a numeric character?
KEYWORDS:  list-directed input
DEFECT TYPE:
STATUS:  submitted

QUESTION:

What is a numeric character?  Section 10.8.1 of
the Fortran 95 standard states

   If the next effective item is of type default
   character and ...

      (4)  The leading characters are not
           numeric followed by an asterisk, ...

The standard does not define what a numeric
character is.

ANSWER:

A numeric character is a digit.

Discussion:

A user thought that any character that could appear in
an integer or real constant was a numeric characters.
As a result, she thought

      CHARACTER*80 STRING
      READ (*, *) STRING

should fail when presented with the input

      -1*'A'

Of course, even under her interpretation, the standard
would not require a processor to signal an error
condition.

REFERENCES:  ISO/IEC 1539-1:1997(E), Section 10.8.1

EDITS:

Replace the text

      (4) The leading characters are not numeric
          followed by an asterisk

with

      (4) The leading characters are not digits
          followed by an asterisk

SUBMITTED BY:  Robert Corbett
HISTORY: