Input/Output formatting

Formatted READ, WRITE and PRINT data transfer statements use formatting information to direct the conversion between internal data representations and character representations in a formatted record. You can control the conversion process, called editing, by using a formatting type. The Formatting and Access Types table details the access types that support each formatting type.

Table 20. Formatting and access types
Formatting Type Access Types
Format-directed sequential, direct, and stream
List-directed sequential and stream
Namelist sequential and stream

Editing occurs on all fields in a record. A field is the part of a record that is read on input or written on output when format control processes a data or character string edit descriptor. The field width is the size of that field in characters.