Indicates whether a formatted input record is padded with blanks when an input list and format specification requires more data than the record contains. It takes the following form: PAD = pd pd Is a character expression with one of the following values: 'YES' Indicates the record will be padded with blanks when necessary (the default). 'NO' Indicates the record will not be padded with blanks. The input record must contain the data required by the input list and format specification. This behavior is different from FORTRAN 77, which never pads short records with blanks. For example, consider the following: READ (5,'(I5)') J If you enter 123 followed by a carriage return, FORTRAN 77 will turn the I5 into an I3 and J will be assigned 123. However, VSI Fortran pads the 123 with 2 blanks unless you explicitly open the unit with PAD='NO'. You can override blank padding by explicitly specifying the BN edit descriptor. The PAD specifier is ignored during output.