char-var = character-expression
There is one important restriction on character assignment
statements: none of the characters being referenced in the
expression on the right may be defined in char-var on the left, that
is to say there can be no overlap. Thus the assignment statement:
STRING(1:N) = STRING(10:)
is valid only as long as N is no higher than 9. It is, of course, easy
to get around this restriction by using a temporary character
variable with a suitable length.
Note when a value is assigned to a substring (as in the last example) the other characters in the parent string are not affected at all. If the string was previously undefined then the other character positions will still be undefined; otherwise they will retain their previous contents.
The expression and the character object to which its value is assigned may have different lengths: if the expression is longer then the excess characters on the right are lost; if it is shorter then blanks are appended. Care is needed to declare adequate lengths or else the results can be unexpected:
CHARACTER AUTHOR*30, SHORT*5, EXPAND*10 AUTHOR = 'SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM' SHORT = AUTHOR EXPAND = SHORTThe resulting value of EXPAND will be
'SHAKE '
where the
last five characters are blanks.