ABSTRACT
Besides doing arithmetic and logical operations, Fortran can manipulate letters, numerals, spaces, and punctuation. All sorts of programs for non-numerical processing have been written in Fortran by using this capability, including text formatters, compilers, and even operating systems, but there are other languages that are far better for those tasks. The first step in writing a program for any purpose is to pick the right language, and Fortran is the obvious choice only for projects that involve numerical calculations. In engineering and scientific applications, most uses of character variables have to do with
I/O. You already know quite a bit about doing I/O in Fortran, and many programmers get along fine using only the language features you have already learned. However, character variables can be extremely useful in preprocessing input data, formatting output, and making interactive programs easier to use. It is also possible to draw primitive graphs with programs written in Classical Fortran, even on an output device that is not capable of real graphics, by using character variables.
