The general form of a FORMAT statement follows:

     FORMAT (q1 f1s1 f2s2 ... fnsn qn)

     qn   Is zero or more slash (/) record terminators.

     fn   Is a data edit descriptor, a control edit descriptor, or
          a group of data or control edit descriptors enclosed
          in parentheses.

     sn   Is a field separator (a comma or slash).  A
          comma can be omitted in the following cases:

          o Between a P edit descriptor and an immediately
            following F, E, EN, ES, D, or G edit descriptor.

          o Before a slash (/) record terminator (if there is
            no optional repeat specification)

          o After a slash (/) record terminator.

          o Before or after a colon (:) edit descriptor.

  In data transfer I/O statements, a format specifier ([FMT=]format)
  can be a character expression that is a character array, character
  array element, or character constant.  This type of format is also
  called a run-time format because it can be constructed or altered
  during program execution.

  The expression must evaluate to a character string whose leading
  part is a valid format specification (including the enclosing
  parentheses).  Variable format expressions must not appear in this
  kind of format specification.

1  –  Data Edit Format

  A data edit descriptor takes one of the following forms:

     [r]c  [r]cw  [r]cw.m  [r]cw.d [r]cw.d[Ee]

     r    Is an optional repeat count.  (If you omit "r",
          the repeat count is assumed to be 1.)

     c    Is a format code (I,B,O,Z,F,E,EN,ES,D,G,L, or A).

     w    Is the total number of digits in the field (the
          field width).

     m    Is the minimum number of digits that must appear
          in the field (including leading zeros).

     d    Is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point.

     E    Identifies an exponent field.

     e    Is the number of digits in the exponent.

  The ranges for "r", "w", "m", "d", and "e" are as follows:

  Term      Range
  ----      __________
   r        1 to 2147483647 (2**31-1)
   w        1 to 2147483647
   m        0 to 32767 (2**15-1)
   d        0 to 32767
   e        1 to 32767

  The terms must all be positive, unsigned, integer constants or
  variable format expressions.

  You cannot use PARAMETER constants for "r", "w", "m", "d", or "e".

2  –  Control Edit Format

  A control edit descriptor takes one of the following forms:

     c  nc  cn

     c     Is a format code (X, T, TL, TR, SP, SS, S, BN, BZ,
           P, /, '...', "...", Q, \, $, or :).

     n     Is an optional number of character positions.

  The term "n" must be a positive, unsigned, integer constant or a
  variable format expression.

  For all format codes (except P), the value of "n" must be within
  the range 1 through 2147483647 (2**31-1); actual useful ranges may
  be constrained by record sizes (RECL) and the file system.

  The P edit descriptor is an exception to the general control edit
  descriptor syntax.  It is preceded by a scale factor, rather than a
  character position specifier.  The value of "n" for P must be
  within the range -128 to 127.

  Control edit descriptors can be grouped in parentheses and preceded
  by a group repeat specification.

3  –  Character String Format

  The character string edit descriptors are the character constant
  and H edit descriptor.

  The character constant edit descriptor ('string' or "string")
  causes string to be output to an external record.  (For more
  information on the H edit descriptor, see FORMAT H in online Help.)

  Although no string edit descriptor can be preceded by a repeat
  specification, a parenthesized group of string edit descriptors can
  be preceded by a repeat specification.