What is * in FORTRAN 77

Question

I'm using Radau.f Fortran ode-solver and my gfortran complains about the use of *

For example in:

            FF(I)=TI711*Z1I+TI712*Z2I+TI713*Z3I+TI714*Z4I+TI715*Z5I
     *               +TI716*Z6I+TI717*Z7I

what is * standing for? Is it an & such that the line should be:

            FF(I)=TI711*Z1I+TI712*Z2I+TI713*Z3I+TI714*Z4I+TI715*Z5I+&
     &               +TI716*Z6I+TI717*Z7I

Or is it supposed to be a comment or something else?

Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10584561/ampersand-in-5th-column-and-at-the-end-of-the-line — Alexander Vogt, Mar 30 '15 at 18:58

Alexander Vogt · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-30T19:04:28.030

1

An asterisk in column 6 is a line continuation symbol and equivalent to & in fixed form. See here for details. In fact, "any character (except a zero or blank)" is valid to indicate a line continuation.

An ampersand at the last position (and optionally in the beginning of the next line) does the same for free form Fortran. For fixed form, the second ampersand is mandatory.

An asterisk in the first column, on the other hand, denotes a comment line (as do c and !).

edited Mar 30 '15 at 19:04

answered Mar 30 '15 at 18:53

Alexander Vogt

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Awww, many thanks! It sounds reasonable, it is just I couldn't find it written. Thanks again. – jane_xxx Mar 30 '15 at 18:55

What is * in FORTRAN 77

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