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(g77-295.info)Adjustable Arrays

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Adjustable Arrays (DIMENSION)
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   Adjustable and automatic arrays in Fortran require the implementation
(in this case, the `g77' compiler) to "memorize" the expressions that
dimension the arrays each time the procedure is invoked.  This is so
that subsequent changes to variables used in those expressions, made
during execution of the procedure, do not have any effect on the
dimensions of those arrays.

   For example:

     REAL ARRAY(5)
     DATA ARRAY/5*2/
     CALL X(ARRAY, 5)
     END
     SUBROUTINE X(A, N)
     DIMENSION A(N)
     N = 20
     PRINT *, N, A
     END

Here, the implementation should, when running the program, print
something like:

     20   2.  2.  2.  2.  2.

Note that this shows that while the value of `N' was successfully
changed, the size of the `A' array remained at 5 elements.

   To support this, `g77' generates code that executes before any user
code (and before the internally generated computed `GOTO' to handle
alternate entry points, as described below) that evaluates each
(nonconstant) expression in the list of subscripts for an array, and
saves the result of each such evaluation to be used when determining
the size of the array (instead of re-evaluating the expressions).

   So, in the above example, when `X' is first invoked, code is
executed that copies the value of `N' to a temporary.  And that same
temporary serves as the actual high bound for the single dimension of
the `A' array (the low bound being the constant 1).  Since the user
program cannot (legitimately) change the value of the temporary during
execution of the procedure, the size of the array remains constant
during each invocation.

   For alternate entry points, the code `g77' generates takes into
account the possibility that a dummy adjustable array is not actually
passed to the actual entry point being invoked at that time.  In that
case, the public procedure implementing the entry point passes to the
master private procedure implementing all the code for the entry points
a `NULL' pointer where a pointer to that adjustable array would be
expected.  The `g77'-generated code doesn't attempt to evaluate any of
the expressions in the subscripts for an array if the pointer to that
array is `NULL' at run time in such cases.  (Don't depend on this
particular implementation by writing code that purposely passes `NULL'
pointers where the callee expects adjustable arrays, even if you know
the callee won't reference the arrays--nor should you pass `NULL'
pointers for any dummy arguments used in calculating the bounds of such
arrays or leave undefined any values used for that purpose in
COMMON--because the way `g77' implements these things might change in
the future!)