4.  INTER-PROCEDURE INTERFACE

      To be able to write C procedures that call or are called by Fortran procedures, it is necessary to know the conventions for procedure names, data representation, return values, and argument lists that the compiled code obeys.

4.1.  Procedure Names

      On UNIXsystems, the name of a common block or a Fortran procedure has an underscore appended to it by the compiler to distinguish it from a C procedure or external variable with the same user-assigned name. Fortran library procedure names have embedded underscores to avoid clashes with user-assigned subroutine names.

4.2.  Data Representations

      The following is a table of corresponding Fortran and C declarations: 

	     Fortran			  C
	integer*2 x	     short int x;
	integer x	     long int x;
	logical x	     long int x;
	real x		     float x;
	double precision x   double x;
	complex x	     struct { float r, i; } x;
	double complex x     struct { double dr, di; } x;
	character*6 x	     char x[6];
(By the rules of Fortran, integer, logical, and real data occupy the same amount of memory).

4.3.  Return Values

      A function of type integer, logical, real, or double precision declared as a C function that returns the corresponding type. A complex or double complex function is equivalent to a C routine with an additional initial argument that points to the place where the return value is to be stored. Thus,

complex function f( . . . )
is equivalent to
f_(temp, . . .)
struct { float r, i; } *temp;
. . .
A character-valued function is equivalent to a C routine with two extra initial arguments: a data address and a length. Thus,
character*15 function g( . . . )
is equivalent to
g_(result, length, . . .)
char result[ ];
long int length;
. . .
and could be invoked in C by
char chars[15];
. . .
g_(chars, 15L, . . . );
Subroutines are invoked as if they were integer-valued functions whose value specifies which alternate return to use. Alternate return arguments (statement labels) are not passed to the function, but are used to do an indexed branch in the calling procedure. (If the subroutine has no entry points with alternate return arguments, the returned value is undefined.) The statement
call nret(*1, *2, *3)
is treated exactly as if it were the computed goto
goto (1, 2, 3), nret( )

4.4.  Argument Lists

      All Fortran arguments are passed by address. In addition, for every argument that is of type character or that is a dummy procedure, an argument giving the length of the value is passed. (The string lengths are long int quantities passed by value). The order of arguments is then:

Extra arguments for complex and character functions
Address for each datum or function
A long int for each character or procedure argument
Thus, the call in
external f
character*7 s
integer b(3)
. . .
call sam(f, b(2), s)
is equivalent to that in
int f();
char s[7];
long int b[3];
. . .
sam_(f, &b[1], s, 0L, 7L);
Note that the first element of a C array always has subscript zero, but Fortran arrays begin at 1 by default. Fortran arrays are stored in column-major order, C arrays are stored in row-major order.