General_Form

 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.

Additional information available:

Data_Edit_Format                Control_Edit_Format
Character_String_Format