F77_CREATE_CHARACTER_ARRAY - Create a FORTRAN CHARACTER array

Description:

Create a CHARACTER array that will be passed to a FORTRAN routine using the CHARACTER_ARRAY_ARG macro. Use this macro, in combination with the DECLARE_CHARACTER_ARRAY_DYN and F77_FREE_CHARACTER macros, where the size of the CHARACTER array is not known until run time. A pointer to the actual string of characters and an integer variable giving the length of the string are set.

Invocation:

F77_CREATE_CHARACTER_ARRAY(arg,length,nels)

Arguments:

arg

The variable being created.

length

The length of the character string. This will usually be a variable name or expression of type int.

nels

The number of elements.

Examples:

F77_CREATE_CHARACTER_ARRAY(fstring,strlen(cstring),nels)

will expand as follows:

All Unix:	{int f77dims[1];f77dims[0]=nels;
	fstring=cnfCrefa(strlen(cstring),1,f77dims);
	fstring_length=strlen(cstring);}
VAX/VMS:	{int f77dims[1];f77dims[0]=nels;
	fstring_arg = cnfCrefa(strlen(cstring),1,f77dims);
	fstring = fstring_arg->pointer;
	fstring_length = fstring_arg->length;}

Notes:

On VMS, the expansion of the macro is quite complex. A descriptor structure and a pointer to it are set up in addition to the pointer to the actual array of strings and the length of the strings. (The address of the descriptor is what is actually passed to the called FORTRAN routine.)