## 8.1.1 Field Descriptor Syntax

A field descriptor takes one of the following forms:

    [r]c

    [r]cw

    [r]cw.m

    [r]cw.d [Ee]

r
  Is the optional repeat count. If it is omitted, the repeat count is assumed to be 1.
c
  Is a format code (I, O, Z, F, E, D, G, L, or A).
w
  Is the external field width, in characters. Each data item in the external medium is called an external field.
m
  Is the minimum number of characters that must appear within the field (including leading zeros).
d
  Is the number of characters to the right of the decimal point.
E
  In this context, identifies an exponent field.
e
  Is the number of characters in the exponent.

The terms r, w, m, d, and e must all be unsigned integer constants or variable format expressions. The following table shows the processor ranges for these values:

Term | VAX Range | Alpha Range
--- | --- | ---
r | 1 through 32767 (2**15-1) | 1 through 2147483647 (2**31-1)
w | 1 through 32767 | 1 through 2147483647
m | 0 through 255 (2**8-1) | 0 through 32767 (2**15-1)
d | 0 through 255 | 0 through 32767
e | 1 through 255 | 1 through 32767

PARAMETER constants cannot be used as values for r, w, m, d, or e.

The field descriptors are as follows:

- Integer - Iw, Iw.m, Ow, Ow.m, Zw, Zw.m

- Logical - Lw

- Real and complex - Fw.d, Ew.d, Ew.dEe, Dw.d, Gw.d, Gw.dEe

- Character - Aw

For More Information:

- On field descriptors, see Section 8.3.

- On a summary of field and edit descriptors, see Section 8.1.3.

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