Fortran continuation lines

Fortran Continuation Lines

In Fortran, a statement must start on a new line. If a statement is too long to fit on a line, it can be continued with the following methods:

If a line is ended with an ampersand, &, it will be continued on the next line.

Continuation is normally to the first character of the next non-comment line.

A = 174.5 * Year   &
    + Count / 100

The above is equivalent to the following

A = 174.5 * Year  + Count / 100

Note that & is not part of the statement.

A = 174.5 * Year   &
!  this is a comment line
    + Count / 100

The above is equivalent to the following, since the comment is ignored by the compiler:

A = 174.5 * Year  + Count / 100

If the first non-blank character of the continuation line is &, continuation is to the first character after the &:

A = 174.5 + ThisIsALong&
     &VariableName; * 123.45

is equivalent to

A = 174.5 + ThisIsALongVariableName * 123.45

In this case, there should be no spaces between the last character and the & on the first line. For example,

A = 174.5 + ThisIsALong   &
     &VariableName; * 123.45

is equivalent to

A = 174.5 + ThisIsALong   VariableName * 123.45

Note that there are spaces between ThisIsALong and VariableName. In this way, a token (name and number) can be split over two lines. However, this is not recommended

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