Variables

Last updated on 2026-02-21 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

What are some basic types of numeric variables in Fortran?
How are variables declared and defined?
How do I create constants?

Objectives

Understand how to create variables and assign values to them.
Specify the representation in memory of variables independently of the implementation.
Store constant values.

Numeric variables of intrinsic type

The following program declares a variable with each of the three intrinsic numeric types, and provides an initial value in each case.

FORTRAN

program example1

   implicit none

   integer :: i = 1            ! A default integer kind
   real    :: a = 2.0          ! A default floating point kind
   complex :: z = (0.0, 1.0)   ! A complex kind with (real-part, imag-part)

end program example1

Initial values are optional. If a declaration does not specify an initial value, the variable is said to be undefined.

Variable names

The valid Fortran character set for names is a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and the underscore _. Valid names must begin with a character. The maximum length of a name is 63 characters (F2003) with no spaces allowed. This includes names for programs, and names for variables.

Other special characters recognised by Fortran are:

Character	Name	Character	Name
	Blank	`;`	Semi-colon
`=`	Equals	`!`	Exclamation mark
`+`	Plus	`"`	Double quote
`-`	Minus	`%`	Percent
`*`	Asterick	`&`	Ampersand
`/`	Slash	`~`	Tilde
`\`	Backslash	`<`	Less than
`(`	Left parenthesis	`>`	Greater than
`)`	Right parenthesis	`?`	Question mark
`[`	Left square bracket	`'`	Apostrophe
`]`	Right square bracket	`	Grave accent
`{`	Left curly brace	`^`	Circumflex
`}`	Right curly brace	`\|`	Pipe
`,`	Comma	`$`	Dollar sign
`.`	Decimal point	`#`	Hash
`:`	Colon	`@`	At

Other characters may appear in comments.

`implicit` statement

The implicit statement defines a type for variable names not explicitly declared. So, the default situation can be represented by

FORTRAN

  implicit integer (i-n), real (a-h, o-z)

that is, variables with names beginning with letters i-n are implicitly of type integer, while anything else is of type real (unless explicitly declared otherwise).

By modern standards this is tantamount to recklessness. The general solution to prevent errors involving undeclared variables (usually arising from typos) is to declare that no names have implicit type via

FORTRAN

implicit none

In this case, all variable names must be declared explicitly before they are referenced.

However, it is still common to see the idiom that variables beginning with i-n are integers and so on, albeit declared explicitly.

Callout

Using `implicit none`

To reiterate – all modern Fortran code really should use implicit none. Failing to do so will almost certainly lead to bugs and hence time spent debugging!

Exercise (1 minute)

Challenge

The importance of being explicit

Compile and run the accompanying program exercise1.f90. What’s the problem and how should we avoid it? Check the compiler can trap the problem.

Show me the solution

The issue is that the variable we declare is initialise is ll, but the variable we print is l1. Look closely at these names: the latter mistakenly uses a digit one 1 where it should be the letter l. When we print the hitherto unmentioned l1, the compiler implicitly creates it as a new integer.

Add implicit none to the top of the code

FORTRAN

program exercise1

  implicit none

  integer :: ll = 1

  print *, "The value of ll is: ", l1

end program exercise1

which then produces an error at compile time, e.g. with the Cray compiler:

OUTPUT


  print *, "The value of ll is: ", l1
                                   ^
ftn-113 ftn: ERROR EXERCISE1, File = exercise1.f90, Line = 7, Column = 36
  IMPLICIT NONE is specified in the local scope, therefore an explicit type must be specified for data object "L1".

Cray Fortran : Version 15.0.0 (20221026200610_324a8e7de6a18594c06a0ee5d8c0eda2109c6ac6)
Cray Fortran : Compile time:  0.0024 seconds
Cray Fortran : 9 source lines
Cray Fortran : 1 errors, 0 warnings, 0 other messages, 0 ansi
Cray Fortran : "explain ftn-message number" gives more information about each message.

`kind` of type

The declarations above give us variables of some (implementation-defined) default type (typically 4-byte integers, 4-byte reals). A mechanism to control the exact kind, or representation, is provided. For example (see example2.f90),

FORTRAN

  use iso_fortran_env, only : int64, real64
  implicit none

  integer (kind = int64)   :: i = 100
  real    (kind = real64)  :: a = 1.0
  complex (kind = real64)  :: z = (0.0, 1.0)

Here we use kind type parameters int64 and real64 to specify that we require 64-bit integers and 64-bit floating point storage, respectively.

A standard conforming Fortran implementation must provide at least one integer precision with a decimal exponent range of at least 18 (experience suggests all provide at least two kinds). Note that Fortran does not have any equivalent of C/C++ unsigned integer types.

An implementation must provide at least two real precisions, one default precision, and one extended precision (sometimes referenced as double precision).

Formally, the numeric types are introduced

FORTRAN

  numeric-type-spec [kind-selector] ...

where the numeric-type-spec is one of integer, real, or complex. The optional kind selector is

FORTRAN

  ([kind = ] scalar-integer-initialisation-expr)

The upshot of this is that the syntax of declarations is quite elastic, and you may see a number of different styles. A reasonable form of concise declaration with an explicit kind type parameter is:

FORTRAN

  integer (int32)  :: i
  real    (real32) :: a
  complex (real32) :: z

Example (2 minutes)

Take a moment to compare the output of the programs example1.f90 and example2.f90, which declare and initialise a variable of each type and print out their values to the screen.

Numeric literal constants

One may (optionally) specify the kind of an integer literal by appending the kind type parameter with an underscore _, e.g.:

FORTRAN

123
+123
-123
12345678910_int64

Floating point literal constants can take a number of forms. Examples are:

FORTRAN

-3.14
.314
1.0e0             ! default precision
1.0d0             ! extended (double) precision
3.14_real128      ! may be available
3.14e-1           ! Scientific notation
3.14d+1           ! Scientific notation extended precision

Complex literals are constructed with real and imaginary parts, with each part real.

FORTRAN

(0.0, 1.0)        ! square root of -1

Parameters

Suppose we did not want to hardwire our kind type parameters throughout the code. Consider:

FORTRAN

program example3

  implicit none

  integer, parameter :: my_e_k = kind(1.e0)
  integer, parameter :: my_d_k = kind(1.d0)

  real (my_e_k) :: a
  real (my_d_k) :: b

  ! ...

end program example3

Here we have introduced an integer with the parameter attribute. This is an instruction to the compiler that the associated name should be a constant (similar to a const declaration in C). Any subsequent attempt to assign a value to a parameter will result in a compile time error.

The value specified in the parameter declaration must be a constant expression (which the compiler may be able to evaluate at compile time). Here we have made use of the intrinsic function kind(). The kind() function returns an integer which is the kind type parameter of the argument. In this context a constant expression is one in which all parts are intrinsic.

Note we have not included anything or use’d anything to make this kind() function available. It is an intrinsic function and part of the language itself.

Using a parameter provides a degree of abstraction for the real data type. Other examples might include:

FORTRAN

  integer, parameter :: nmax = 32              ! A constant
  real,    parameter :: pi = 4.0*atan(1.e0)    ! A well-known constant
  complex, parameter :: zi = (0.0, 1.0)        ! square root of -1

The intrinsic function atan() returns the inverse tangent (as a value in radians) of the argument.

Exercise (2 minutes)

Discussion

Challenge

Consider further the accompanying example3.f90, where we have introduced another intrinsic function storage_size() (roughly equivalent to C’s sizeof() although it returns a size in bits rather than bytes). Run the program and check the actual values of the kind type parameters and associated storage sizes. Speculate on the portability of a program declaring, e.g.:

FORTRAN

  integer (4) :: i32
  integer (8) :: i64

Exercise (2 minutes)

Challenge

Parameters

Consider the accompanying exercise2.f90. Check the compiler error emitted and remove the offending line.

Show me the solution

The problem is that nmax is created with the parameter attribute and given a value of 32, but that later on an attempt is made to assign a new value of 33.

FORTRAN

nmax = 33

to resolve the issue.

Arithmetic operations on numeric types

For all intrinsic numeric types, standard arithmetic operations, addition (+), subtraction (-), multplication (*) and division (/) are defined, along with exponents (**) and negation (-).

In order of increasing precedence these are -, +, /, *, and ** (otherwise left-to-right). In particular

FORTRAN

   a = b*c**2    ! is evaluated as b*(c**2)
   a = b*c*d     ! evaluated left-to-right (b*c)*d

Use parentheses to avoid ambiguity if necessary.

A large number of intrinsic functions exist for basic mathematical operations and are relevant for all numeric types. A simple example is sqrt(). Some are specific to particular types, e.g., conjg() for complex conjugate.

Broadly, assignments featuring different data types will cause promotion to a “wider” type or cause truncation to a “narrower” type. If one wants to be explicit, the equivalent of the cast mechanism in C is via intrinsic functions, e.g.,

FORTRAN

   integer          :: i = 1
   complex (real64) :: z = (1.0, 1.0)
   real    (real64) :: a, b

   a = real(i, real64)          ! a should be 1.d0
   a = real(z, real64)          ! imaginary part is ignored

   b = real(i)                  ! return default real kind

   z = cmplx(a, b)              ! (sic) Form complex number from two reals

The second argument of the real() function is optional, and specifies the kind type parameter of the desired result. If the optional argument is not present, then a real value of the default kind is returned.

Note here the token real has been used in two different contexts: as a statement in the declaration of variables a and b, and as a function. There is not quite the same concept of “reserved words” (cf C/C++); lines are split into tokens based on spaces, and tokens are parsed in context.

Complex real and imaginary parts

The real and imaginary parts of a complex variable may be accessed

FORTRAN

  complex :: z

  z%re = 0.0     ! real part
  z%im = 1.0     ! imaginary part

where the % symbol is referred to as the component selector. The real and imaginary parts are also available via the real() and aimag() intrinsic functions, respectively.

Exercise (2 minutes)

Challenge

Using `sqrt()`

By using variables of complex type, check that you can use the intrinsic function srqt() to confirm that the square root of -1 is i. What happens if you try to try to take the square root of a negative value stored as a real variable?

Show me the solution

If you call sqrt() on a complex variable z%re = -1.0 and z%im = 0.0 then a result will be returned with a real part of 0 and an imaginary part of 1.

If you call sqrt() on a real number -1 then the compiler will exit with an error and a message explaining why this is not valid. If sqrt() is called on a variable with the value -1 it will return NaN.

Exercise (5 minutes)

Challenge

Calculating pi

The accompanying template exercise3.f90 provides instructions for an exercise which involves the approximation to the constant pi computed via a Gauss-Legendre algorithm. Some background can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss-Legendre_algorithm.

Use the instructions in the template to calculate an estimate of pi by creating an appropriate parameter to store a kind, declaring the appropriate variables, then performing the calculation and printing the values of pi.

Show me the solution

A solution to this problem appears as the template for the first exercise in the episode on loops.

Exercise (5 minutes)

Challenge

Calculating the conductance in a narrow channel

A second exercise in a similar vein looks at an approximation to the conductance of a rectangular channel subject to a constant flow. Instructions are in exercise4.f90.

As with the previous exercise, create a kind, the variables, then perform the necessary arithmetic to calculate C_1.

Show me the solution

A solution to this problem appears as the template for the second exercise in the episode on loops.

Key Points

Fortran provides the intrinsic numeric types of integer, real and complex.
Without a kind, these types are implementation-defined. Use kind to specify the representation of variables.
The iso_fortran_env intrinsic module provides standard kinds such as real32 and real64.
Always use implicit none to prevent the accidental implicit declaration of new variables.
Use the parameter attribute to make the value associated with the name constant.

Variables

Overview

Questions

Objectives

Numeric variables of intrinsic type

FORTRAN

Variable names

implicit statement

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

Using implicit none

Exercise (1 minute)

The importance of being explicit

Show me the solution

FORTRAN

OUTPUT

kind of type

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

Example (2 minutes)

Numeric literal constants

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

Parameters

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

Exercise (2 minutes)

Challenge

FORTRAN

Exercise (2 minutes)

Parameters

Show me the solution

FORTRAN

Arithmetic operations on numeric types

FORTRAN

FORTRAN

Complex real and imaginary parts

FORTRAN

Exercise (2 minutes)

Using sqrt()

Show me the solution

Exercise (5 minutes)

Calculating pi

Show me the solution

Exercise (5 minutes)

Calculating the conductance in a narrow channel

Show me the solution

`implicit` statement

Using `implicit none`

`kind` of type

Using `sqrt()`