Portable file management system in FORTRAN. II. The input/output routine for free-format text

A software tool for inputing and outputing patient data (1/O routine) has been developed. Since this I/O routine is programmed exclusively in FORTRAN77, it will make a powerful tool for constructing a portable database system. Basically the routine manipulates an ASCII-coded text string that consists of lines demarcated by the CR code (13) and is terminated by the null code (0). The editing commands are preceded by one of the following ASCII characters: @, !, ], [, *, and _, and all the strings with an initial character other than these are interpreted as data to be inserted into the text. Since the routine uses two FORTRAN tools already reported, i.e. the subroutines to manipulate key files and the subroutines to manage variable length records, character strings can be stored without any restrictions in format or in size, and can be retrieved either sequentially or in an indexed manner.