an Example

The following simple Fortran program illustrates the messages given by ftnchek . The program is intended to accept an array of test scores and then compute the average for the series.

C       AUTHORS: MIKE MYERS AND LUCIA SPAGNUOLO
C       DATE:    MAY 8, 1989

C       Variables:
C               SCORE -> an array of test scores
C               SUM ->   sum of the test scores
C               COUNT -> counter of scores read in
C               I ->     loop counter

        REAL FUNCTION COMPAV(SCORE,COUNT)
            INTEGER SUM,COUNT,J,SCORE(5)

            DO 30 I = 1,COUNT
                SUM = SUM + SCORE(I)
30          CONTINUE
            COMPAV = SUM/COUNT
        END


        PROGRAM AVENUM
C
C                       MAIN PROGRAM
C
C       AUTHOR:   LOIS BIGBIE
C       DATE:     MAY 15, 1990
C
C       Variables:
C               MAXNOS -> maximum number of input values
C               NUMS    -> an array of numbers
C               COUNT   -> exact number of input values
C               AVG     -> average returned by COMPAV
C               I       -> loop counter
C

            PARAMETER(MAXNOS=5)
            INTEGER I, COUNT
            REAL NUMS(MAXNOS), AVG
            COUNT = 0
            DO 80 I = 1,MAXNOS
                READ (5,*,END=100) NUMS(I)
                COUNT = COUNT + 1
80          CONTINUE
100         AVG = COMPAV(NUMS, COUNT)
        END

The compiler gives no error messages when this program is compiled. Yet here is what happens when it is run:

$ run average 
 70 
 90 
 85 
 <EOF> 
$

What happened? Why didn't the program do anything? The following is the output from ftnchek when it is used to debug the above program:

$ ftnchek -list -symtab average 

FTNCHEK Version 2.12 March 2000

File average.f:

      1 C       AUTHORS: MIKE MYERS AND LUCIA SPAGNUOLO
      2 C       DATE:    MAY 8, 1989
      3 
      4 C       Variables:
      5 C               SCORE -> an array of test scores
      6 C               SUM ->   sum of the test scores
      7 C               COUNT -> counter of scores read in
      8 C               I ->     loop counter
      9 
     10         REAL FUNCTION COMPAV(SCORE,COUNT)
     11             INTEGER SUM,COUNT,J,SCORE(5)
     12 
     13             DO 30 I = 1,COUNT
     14                 SUM = SUM + SCORE(I)
     15 30          CONTINUE
     16             COMPAV = SUM/COUNT
                           ^
Warning near line 16 col 20: integer quotient expr converted to real
     17         END
     18 

Module COMPAV: func: real

Variables:
 
      Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims
    COMPAV real         COUNT intg             I intg*            J intg   
     SCORE intg  1        SUM intg   

* Variable not declared. Type has been implicitly defined.


Warning in module COMPAV: Variables declared but never referenced:
    J declared at line 11

Warning in module COMPAV: Variables may be used before set:
    SUM used at line 14
    SUM set at line 14

     19 
     20         PROGRAM AVENUM
     21 C
     22 C                       MAIN PROGRAM
     23 C
     24 C       AUTHOR:   LOIS BIGBIE
     25 C       DATE:     MAY 15, 1990
     26 C
     27 C       Variables:
     28 C               MAXNOS -> maximum number of input values
     29 C               NUMS    -> an array of numbers
     30 C               COUNT   -> exact number of input values
     31 C               AVG     -> average returned by COMPAV
     32 C               I       -> loop counter
     33 C
     34 
     35             PARAMETER(MAXNOS=5)
     36             INTEGER I, COUNT
     37             REAL NUMS(MAXNOS), AVG
     38             COUNT = 0
     39             DO 80 I = 1,MAXNOS
     40                 READ (5,*,END=100) NUMS(I)
     41                 COUNT = COUNT + 1
     42 80          CONTINUE
     43 100         AVG = COMPAV(NUMS, COUNT)
     44         END

Module AVENUM: prog

External subprograms referenced:

    COMPAV: real*  

Variables:
 
      Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims     Name Type Dims
       AVG real         COUNT intg             I intg        MAXNOS intg*  
      NUMS real  1

* Variable not declared. Type has been implicitly defined.


Warning in module AVENUM: Variables set but never used:
    AVG set at line 43


 0 syntax errors detected in file average.f
 6 warnings issued in file average.f

Warning: Subprogram COMPAV argument data type mismatch at position 1:
    Dummy arg SCORE in module COMPAV line 10 file average.f is type intg
    Actual arg NUMS in module AVENUM line 43 file average.f is type real

According to ftnchek , the program contains variables which may be used before they are assigned an initial value, and variables which are not needed. ftnchek also warns the user that an integer quotient has been converted to a real. This may assist the user in catching an unintended roundoff error. Since the -symtab flag was given, ftnchek prints out a table containing identifiers from the local module and their corresponding datatype and number of dimensions. Finally, ftnchek warns that the function COMPAV is not used with the proper type of arguments.

With ftnchek 's help, we can debug the program. We can see that there were the following errors:

SUM and COUNT should have been converted to real before doing the division.
SUM should have been initialized to 0 before entering the loop.
AVG was never printed out after being calculated.
NUMS should have been declared INTEGER instead of REAL .

We also see that I , not J , should have been declared INTEGER in function COMPAV . Also, MAXNOS was not declared as INTEGER , nor COMPAV as REAL , in program AVENUM . These are not errors, but they may indicate carelessness. As it happened, the default type of these variables coincided with the intended type.

Here is the corrected program, and its output when run:

C       AUTHORS: MIKE MYERS AND LUCIA SPAGNUOLO
C       DATE:    MAY 8, 1989
C
C       Variables:
C               SCORE -> an array of test scores
C               SUM ->   sum of the test scores
C               COUNT -> counter of scores read in
C               I ->     loop counter
C
       REAL FUNCTION COMPAV(SCORE,COUNT)
            INTEGER SUM,COUNT,I,SCORE(5)
C
            SUM = 0
            DO 30 I = 1,COUNT
                SUM = SUM + SCORE(I)
30          CONTINUE
            COMPAV = FLOAT(SUM)/FLOAT(COUNT)
        END
C
C
        PROGRAM AVENUM
C
C                       MAIN PROGRAM
C
C       AUTHOR:   LOIS BIGBIE
C       DATE:     MAY 15, 1990
C
C       Variables:
C               MAXNOS -> maximum number of input values
C               NUMS    -> an array of numbers
C               COUNT   -> exact number of input values
C               AVG     -> average returned by COMPAV
C               I       -> loop counter
C
C
            INTEGER MAXNOS
            PARAMETER(MAXNOS=5)
            INTEGER I, NUMS(MAXNOS), COUNT
            REAL AVG,COMPAV
            COUNT = 0
            DO 80 I = 1,MAXNOS
                READ (5,*,END=100) NUMS(I)
                COUNT = COUNT + 1
80          CONTINUE
100         AVG = COMPAV(NUMS, COUNT)
            WRITE(6,*) 'AVERAGE =',AVG
        END

$ run average 
 70 
 90 
 85 
 <EOF> 
 AVERAGE =   81.66666 
$

With ftnchek 's help, our program is a success!

Next: Interpreting the Output