In-Place Array Assignment - Legal In Fortran?

[ereisch]

In the C world, highly-optimized C-library functions (such as memcpy()) tend to use techniques that break down when the source and destination operands overlap.  The manual page on Linux even explicitly warns the user that this has been the source of significant bugs, and to ensure the areas do not overlap.

In Fortran, is an array assignment subject to the same restrictions?  In other words, is:

REAL*4  A(1024), B
[...]
A = A * B

safe programming practice, or will optimizations or vector operations inside the processor start to break things because this is effectively an in-place modify operation?  I tried to search the Language Reference for verbiage on this, but am struggling as to what to call this; "in-place array assignment"?  The Intel Fortran page on the Array Assignment Statement suggests that isn't a problem because they do an array reverse using "A(1:20) = A(20:1:-1)", but I can't find any explicit rules one way or another.

[andrew_4619]

That is not a problem if it is I have many broken codes!  The language rules are such the RHS is evaluated before the LHS is assigned, that could in some cases cause a temporary array I think but generally does not. 

[jimdempseyatthecove · Accepted solution]

In the specific case of A = A * B (vector * scalar), the compiler optimization "should" realize that there are no loop order dependencies, and result in not having to produce a temporary copy of the result for transfer to the LHS.  As to if it "does" eliminate the temporary, this is up to the compiler writer. The code generated must behave (results generated) as if a temporary was created.

In cases where there are loop order dependencies: A(2:20) = A(1:19) * B

The compiler would have to create a temporary result for the RHS before the copy (though advanced optimization techniques can work around this).

Note,  A(2:20) = A(1:19) * B is .NOT. equivalent to DO I=1,19; A(I+1) = A(I) * B; END DO

The former "requires" a temporary to avoid loop order dependencies (carry is not propagated), the latter requires no temporary and the carry is propagated.

Jim Dempsey