problem parsing WRITE format string with continuation

[Jean_U]

The problem is very similar to the one described in an earlier thread
http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=68767
except it now does not required fixed format and occurs with ifort Version 12.0.3.
Compiling the attached example produces:

ForTests/CompCheck> ifort formatString2.f90

formatString2.f90(2): error #5145: Invalid blank/tab

WRITE(*,'(10x,"**** CALCULATIO'//'N **** Num. of nuclides)&

---------------------------------------------------------^

formatString2.f90(3): error #5120: Unterminated character constant

&")')

--------------^

formatString2.f90(2): error #5082: Syntax error, found ''' when expecting one of: ( ...

WRITE(*,'(10x,"**** CALCULATIO'//'N **** Num. of nuclides)&

-----------------------------------------^

compilation aborted for formatString2.f90 (code 1)

Note that - as in the previous thread - the double quotes are just internal to the string and the // operator should concatenate the 2 strings delimited by single quotes. The placement of the concatenation and the line continuation in this particular output are the result of an automatic source transformation and I believe are syntactically correct. The attached file is formatString2.f90

[jimdempseyatthecove]

You have the continuation character (&) inside the quoted text token (which is not terminated on the line). Try:

[bash]WRITE(*,'(10x,"**** CALCULATIO'//'N **** Num. of nuclides)'&
&//'")')

[/bash]

[Steven_L_Intel1]

The code is legal and the compiler wrong in complaining. Here is what the standard says:

3 If a character context is to be continued, an & shall be the last nonblank character on the line and
4 shall not be followed by commentary. There shall be a later line that is not a comment; an & shall be
5 the first nonblank character on the next such line and the statement continues with the next character
6 following that &.

I will escalate this to the developers. - issue ID is DPD200169704. However, I personally find continued character constants distasteful and would suggest using concatenation as Jim suggests.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

This will be fixed for a compiler release later this year.