Certain intrinsics return a value to the calling program
in functional returns. These routines return a specified value type
(for example, 16-bit signed integer, character, or 64-bit real) in
its name.
Functional returns are declared in an assignment statement,
where the value returned is assigned to some variable of the same
type as the functional return. The symbol := is the assignment
operator that is "assigned the value of" or "receives the value of".
The variable receiving the functional return appears on the
left-hand side of the assignment operator, while the call to the
intrinsic with a functional return appears on the right-hand side.
For example, an intrinsic call description format for functional returns
appears below with the READ intrinsic, which returns to a
16-bit signed integer indicating the length of the input read. The
data type of each variable is signified by a mnemonic above the variable
name:
I16 U16A I16V
length:=READ(message,expected);
|
The READ intrinsic is read as a 16-bit signed
integer procedure, where message is a required 16-bit
unsigned integer array passed by reference and expected is
a required 16-bit integer passed by value.
Other expressions that can contain calls to an intrinsic with a
functional return can appear in an output statement, the parameter
list of a procedure, or a conditional statement.
Refer to the individual programmer's language and reference manuals
for details on functional returns.
