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 16. 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.