An implementation based on what M. S. B. pointed out. Quite late, but I guess it could be useful to someone.
Have an array of the type you expect to read ready:
double precision, dimension(MAX_NUM_OF_COLS) :: test_array
Read a line from your file:
READ(reading_unit,'(A)',iostat=io) line
Loop and try to read from the line a maximum quantity of numbers:
do i=1,MAX_NUM_OF_COLS
READ(line, *, iostat=io) test_array(1:i)
if(io==0) exit
enddo
write(*,*) 'number of columns = ', (i-1)
If needed, loop this over all the lines of your file, and keep the maximum or minimum number of columns.
Minimum example:
integer, parameter :: MAX_NUM_OF_COLS=30
integer, parameter :: MAX_LINE_LENGTH=1000
character(len=MAX_LINE_LENGTH) line
integer i, io, reading_unit
double precision, dimension(MAX_NUM_OF_COLS) :: test_array
reading_unit=100
OPEN(reading_unit, file='the_file')
! Get first line of file.
DO
READ(reading_unit,'(A)',iostat=io) line
IF (io/=0) then
write(*,*) "Error reading file."
stop
endif
exit ! Eventually, do not exit and put the DO loop below here.
ENDDO
CLOSE(reading_unit)
do i=1,MAX_NUM_OF_COLS
READ(line,*,iostat=io) test_array(1:i)
if(io==-1) exit
enddo
write(*,*) 'number of columns = ', (i-1)