J3/04-258 To: J3 From: Craig Dedo Date: February 16, 2004 Subject: Q Edit Descriptor (Input Character Count Editing) Number: Title: Q Edit Descriptor (Input Character Count Editing) Submitted By: Craig Dedo Status: For Consideration References: Basic Functionality: The Fortran standard should support the Q edit descriptor, as implemented as an extension in several Fortran compilers. This edit descriptor obtains the number of characters remaining in the current input record. Rationale: It is often very useful to obtain a count of the remaining characters in an input record, right in the middle of the input record. The support for the Q edit descriptors an extension in the CVF, IBM, Lahey, and Sun compilers attests to the popularity and usefulness of this feature. Estimated Impact: Since this is a popular extension, the algorithms are well known. Therefore, it should be fairly inexpensive to implement this feature. Detailed Specification: On input, if a Q edit descriptor corresponds to a scalar integer variable, the integer variable is set to the number of characters remaining in the input record. If the corresponding input variable is some other data type, an error occurs. On output, the corresponding output list element is ignored. History: