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Formatted Input/Output

Using the write statement, we can output text to the screen:

! hello.f90
program main
    write (*, *) 'Hello, World!'
end program main

The two asterisks set the output unit and the format to default. The output unit can be either changed to standard output, a file, or a variable. The output format may be customised by a format list, similiar to printf in other programming languages. The above command is equal to write (unit=*, fmt=*) 'Hello, World!' and print *, 'Hello, World!'.

You can compile the example with the GNU Fortran:

$ gfortran13 -o hello hello.f90

Or, using the Flang compiler:

$ flang -o hello hello.f90

Then, execute the compiled binary to see the output:

$ ./hello
 Hello, World!

You may notice a space character before the printed text. In the old days, the first column of all output was reserved for carriage control. To remove the leading space, simply add a format specifier:

write (*, '(a)') 'Hello, World!'

Or, shorter:

print '(a)', 'Hello, World!'

Alternatively, as a format string:

print '("Hello, World!")'

Edit Descriptors

The input and output is formatted with edit descriptors.

Format	Description
"string"	Quotes edit specifier, inserts arbitrary characters.
Iw[.m]	Read/write w characters as integer number, with optional number of leading zeros m.
Bw[.m]	Read/write w characters as binary values, with optional number of leading zeros m.
Ow[.m]	Read/write w characters as octal values, with optional number of leading zeros m.
Zw[.m]	Read/write w characters as hexadecimal values, with optional number of leading zeros m.
Fw.d	Read/write floating-point number in decimal notation, with w digits, of which d is the number of decimal places. Sign and floating point must be regarded in w. F0.d allows a variable length.
Ew.d	Read/write floating-point number in exponential notation, with w characters and a mantissa of d digits..
EXw.d[Ee]	Read/write real value in hexadecimal, with field width w, the number of hexadecimal digits in d, and the optional exponent e (Fortran 2018).
Dw.d	Read/write Floating-point number, double precision.
A, Aw	Read/write arbitrary length string, or fixed string with w characters
AT	Write arbitrary length string trimmed (Fortran 2023).
Lw	Read/write w characters as logical.
nX	Read: Ignore the next n characters. Write: Print n spaces.
Tc	Puts next character at position c in line.
/	Line feed.

The Hollerith constant H is deprecated and should not be used anymore. Format specifiers can be written in upper or lower case. Multiple format specifiers are separated by comma, for example, (a, i3, a) to output 'total: ', 420, ' units'. Strings may be written inside the format specifier:

print '("total: ", i3, " units")', 420

Format specifiers can be grouped and repeated using parentheses:

print '(2(a, i2))', 'A: ', 10, 'B: ', 20

We can reuse format specifiers by storing them in a string:

character(len=*), parameter :: F = '(2(a, i2))'

print F, 'A: ', 10, 'B: ', 20
print F, 'A: ', 20, 'B: ', 40
print F, 'A: ', 30, 'B: ', 80

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< Fortran Standard Library

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