%REF

Built-in Function: Changes the form of an actual argument. Passes the argument by reference. In Visual Fortran, passing by reference is the default.

Syntax

result = %REF (a)

a
(Input) An expression, record name, procedure name, array, character array section, or array element.

You must specify %REF in the actual argument list of a CALL statement or function reference. You cannot use it in any other context.

The following table lists the Compaq Fortran defaults for argument passing, and the allowed uses of %REF:

Actual Argument Data Type	Default	%REF
Expressions:
Logical	REF	Yes
Integer	REF	Yes
REAL(4)	REF	Yes
REAL(8)	REF	Yes
REAL(16) ¹	REF	Yes
COMPLEX(4)	REF	Yes
COMPLEX(8)	REF	Yes
COMPLEX(16) ¹	REF	Yes
Character	See table note ²	Yes
Hollerith	REF	No
Aggregate ³	REF	Yes
Derived	REF	Yes
Array Name:
Numeric	REF	Yes
Character	See table note ²	Yes
Aggregate ³	REF	Yes
Derived	REF	Yes
Procedure Name:
Numeric	REF	Yes
Character	See table note ²	Yes
¹ VMS, U*X ² On Tru64 UNIX, Linux, and Windows systems, a character argument is passed by address and hidden length. ³ In Compaq Fortran record structures

The %REF, %VAL, and %DESCR functions override related cDEC$ ATTRIBUTE settings.

See Also: CALL, %VAL, %DESCR

Example

  CHARACTER(LEN=10) A, B
  CALL SUB(A, %REF(B))

Variable A is passed by address and hidden length. Variable B is passed by reference.

Note that on Windows systems, the option /iface determines how the character argument for variable B is passed.