To: J3                                                     J3/18-259r1
From: Dan Nagle
Subject: part 2 functions
Date: 2018-October-16



I Introduction

Part 2 of the Fortran standard, Varying Strings, has been
withdrawn.  When WG5 announced it would be withdrawn, promises
were made to the public that the functionality would be preserved
in the new allocatable character feature.

Note that Part 2 (1539-2) is also N1375, on the WG5 site.

However, there were several procedures of varying strings
that have not been incorporated into the standard.

This feature urges that they be included.



II Use-cases

The procedures are (see 1539-2 (2000) for complete descriptions)

EXTRACT() copies a substring from a string

INSERT() inserts a substring into a string at a location

REMOVE() removes a substring from a string

REPLACE() replace characters by a substring (which is specified variously)

SPLIT() split a string into two where a character from a set is found



III What I have in mind

I propose that these procedures be incorporated into the standard.
They may be either plain intrinsics or module intrinsics
in a standard module.  So that's the straw vote:

Straw Vote:
Should the procedures in part 2 be incorporated into the standard as
1. plain intrinsics
2. module procedures in an intrinsic module
3. Undecided

If the module wins the straw vote, perhaps the module
could be named "ISO_FORTRAN_STRING".



IV (Rough) Requirements

Incorporate the procedures from Part 2 as the straw vote above indicates.