Associates a symbolic name with a constant value. The PARAMETER attribute can be specified in a type declaration statement or an PARAMETER statement, and takes one of the following forms: Type Declaration Statement: type, [att-ls,] PARAMETER [,att-ls] :: p=c [,p=c]... Statement: PARAMETER (p=c [,p=c]...) type Is a data type specifier. att-ls Is an optional list of attribute specifiers. p Is the symbolic name of the constant. c Is a constant, a compile-time expression, or the symbolic name of a constant. If the symbolic name is used as the length specifier in a CHARACTER declaration, it must be enclosed in parentheses. If the symbolic name is used as a numeric item in a FORMAT edit description, it must be enclosed in angle brackets. The symbolic name of a constant cannot appear as part of another constant, although it can appear as either the real or imaginary part of a complex constant. A symbolic name can be defined only once within the same program unit. You can only use a symbolic name defined to be a constant within the program unit containing the defining PARAMETER statement. The data type of a symbolic name associated with a constant is determined as follows: - By an explicit type declaration statement preceding the defining PARAMETER statement - By the same rules for implicit declarations that determine the data type of any other symbolic name For example, the following PARAMETER statement is interpreted as MU=1 (MU has an integer data type by implication): PARAMETER (MU=1.23) If the PARAMETER statement is preceded by an appropriate type declaration or IMPLICIT statement, it could be interpreted as MU=1.23; for example: REAL*8 MU PARAMETER (MU=1.23) Once a symbolic name is associated with a constant, it can appear anywhere in a program that any other constant can appear --- except in FORMAT statements (where constants can only be used in variable format expressions) and as the character count for Hollerith constants. For compilation purposes, writing the name is the same as writing the value. The PARAMETER attribute is compatible with the PRIVATE and PUBLIC attributes. For information on an alternate syntax for PARAMETER, see Help topic: COMPATIBILITY_FEATURES PARAMETER.