J3/01-152r1
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Date:    22 March 2001
To:      J3
From:    John Reid/Rich Bleikamp
Subject: Interpretation 10 (Meaning of embedded blanks in namelist input name)

There is an ambiguity in the standard since the term 'name' is
sometimes used in the namelist part of the standard when 'name or
designator' is intended.  Are spaces allowed inside a subobject
designator in an input record such as

&ABC LONG__NAME % LEVEL1 ( 20:30 ) % string = '123' /

Here are two alternative draft answers corresponding to:

  Yes, but % is not allowed in a logical value
  No.

I sent earlier drafts to the WG5 list for comments and would like thank
those that helped me get to this version, specially Robert Corbett
and Makki Takata.
- - End of John Reid's comments - - -

Interp notes that there are two different meanings of "name" in section 10.9,
but believes that the usage of each "name" is consistent and clear.
..............................................................

NUMBER: 000010
TITLE: Meaning of embedded blanks in namelist input name
KEYWORDS: NAMELIST, optional qualification, name, input
DEFECT TYPE: Clarification
STATUS: J3 consideration in progress

BACKGROUND:
In running some older NAMELIST tests, a test case was encountered that has
embedded blanks within the "optional qualification" following a namelist group
object name:

    CHARACTER*10 string
    NAMELIST /junk/ string

    WRITE(9,*) ' $junk string(  :  ) = ''1234567890'' /'
    REWIND(9)
    READ(9,junk)
    ...
    END

While studying the standard to determine if the above program was standard-
conforming or not, some questions arose about the use of "name" and embedded
blanks in the namelist section 10.9.1.1.  Among them were: Since a blank is a
delimiter, should it be allowed to be embedded in a variety of places in a
namelist input record that are not currently described by the standard?  Do we
want to strain namelist input scanning more than a reasonable amount?

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In normal Fortran terminology, the term "name" does not include  subobject
qualification.  In section 2.5.1 Name and designator, lines 2 through 5, the
standard states:

  A name is used to identify a program constituent, such as a program unit,
  named variable, named constant, dummy argument, or derived type.  The rules
  governing the construction of names are given in 3.2.1.  A subobject
  designator is a name followed by one or more of the following: component
  selectors, array section, array element selectors, and substring selectors.

In section 10.9.1 Namelist Input, lines 13 to 16, the standard states:

  In each name-value subsequence, the name shall be the name of a namelist
  group list item with an optional qualification and the name with the optional
  qualification shall not be a zero-sized array, a zero-sized array section, or
  a zero-length character string.  The optional qualification, if any, shall
  not contain a vector subscript.

In section 10.9.1.1 Namelist group object names, lines 32 and 33, the
standard states:

  The name in the input record may be preceded and followed by one or more
  optional blanks but shall not contain embedded blanks.

QUESTION:

(1) Does Section 2.5.1 mean that the optional qualification described in the
    10.9.1 is not part of the name for namelist input?

    If the optional qualification is not part of the name, there seem to be no
    rules for where blanks and end-of-record may occur within the optional
    qualification.

    Also note that size of the name and the optional qualification together
    may be longer than the size of an input record if there are multiple levels
    of structure component qualification in a structure component reference.

(2) Are embedded blanks allowed within substring and subscript qualifications
    in the namelist input?  May an END-OF-RECORD occur in these same places?

(3) More specifically, are embedded blanks/END-OF-RECORD allowed in the
    following places in namelist input?

   a.  Between the name and the left parenthesis of either a substring or
       subscript qualification?

   b.  Between tokens within the parenthesized qualifier?

   c.  Between the two sets of parentheses for array and substring notation?

   d.  Within the two subscripts or start and end values themselves?

 (4) Are embedded blanks allowed within a reference to a structure?  May an
    END-OF-RECORD occur within this reference?

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ANSWER:

   The answer to all of the questions above is no.

   In section 10.9.1, the standard says "In each name-value subsequence, the
   name shall be ...".  This usage of "name" refers to the optionally qualified
   namelist group object list item; therefore, in this context, "name" refers
   to both the namelist group object name list item, and any following
   qualification.  In section 19.9.1.1, the standard says "The name in the
   input record may be preceded and followed by one or more optional blanks
   but shall not contain embedded blanks."  This usage of "name" also refers
   to optionally qualified namelist group object list item; therefore, no blanks
   are permitted anywhere within the "name" of a name-value subsequence.

   Since the end of a record has the same effect as a blank in namelist input
  (10.9), an end of record may not appear anywhere within the "name" of a
  name-value subsequence.

EDITS: None


SUBMITTED BY:  Joanne Brixius / Larry Rolison
HISTORY:  J3/97-253 m143 submitted
          J3/01-152r1 m156  Draft J3 Response