A record contains a sequence of characters or values. XL Fortran supports three record types:
A formatted record consists of a sequence of ASCII characters that can print in a readable format. Reading a formatted record converts the data values from readable characters into an internal representation. Writing a formatted record converts the data from the internal representation into characters.
An unformatted record contains a sequence of values in an internal representation that can contain both character and noncharacter data. An unformatted record can also contain no data. Reading or writing an unformatted record does not convert any data the record contains from the internal representation.
If it exists, an endfile record is the last record of a file. It has no length. It can be written explicitly by an ENDFILE statement. It can be written implicitly to a file connected for sequential access when the last data transfer statement was a WRITE statement, no intervening file positioning statement referring to the file has been executed, and the following is true: