PARAMETER

 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.