Operators and flow control

One of the powerful advantages of computer algorithms, compared to simple mathematical formulae, comes in the form of program branching whereby the program can decide which instructions to execute next based on a logical condition.

There are two main forms of controlling program flow:

• Conditional (if): choose program path based on a boolean (true or false) value

• Loop: repeat a portion of code multiple times

Logical operators

Before we use a conditional branching operator, we need to be able to form a logical expression.

To form a logical expression, the following set of relational operators are available:

Operator	Alternative	Description
==	.eq.	Tests for equality of two operands
/=	.ne.	Test for inequality of two operands
>	.gt.	Tests if left operand is strictly greater than right operand
<	.lt.	Tests if left operand is strictly less than right operand
>=	.ge.	Tests if left operand is greater than or equal to right operand
<=	.le.	Tests if left operand is less than or equal to right operand

as well as the following logical operators:

Operator	Description
.and.	TRUE if both left and right operands are TRUE
.or.	TRUE if either left or right or both operands are TRUE
.not.	TRUE if right operand is FALSE
.eqv.	TRUE if left operand has same logical value as right operand
.neqv.	TRUE if left operand has the opposite logical value as right operand

Conditional construct (if)

In the following examples, a conditional if construct is used to print out a message to describe the nature of the angle variable:

Example: single branch if

if (angle < 90.0) then
  print *, 'Angle is acute'
end if

In this first example, the code within the if construct is only executed if the test expression (angle < 90.0) is true.

Tip

It is good practice to indent code within constructs such as if and do to make code more readable.

We can add an alternative branch to the construct using the else keyword:

Example: two-branch if-else

if (angle < 90.0) then
  print *, 'Angle is acute'
else
  print *, 'Angle is obtuse'
end if

Now there are two branches in the if construct, but only one branch is executed depending on the logical expression following the if keyword.

We can actually add any number of branches using else if to specify more conditions:

Example: multi-branch if-else if-else

if (angle < 90.0) then
  print *, 'Angle is acute'
else if (angle < 180.0) then
  print *, 'Angle is obtuse'
else
  print *, 'Angle is reflex'
end if

When multiple conditional expressions are used, each conditional expression is tested only if none of the previous expressions have evaluated to true.

Loop constructs (do)

In the following example, a do loop construct is used to print out the numbers in a sequence. The do loop has an integer counter variable which is used to track which iteration of the loop is currently executing. In this example we use a common name for this counter variable: i.

When we define the start of the do loop, we use our counter variable name followed by an equals (=) sign to specify the start value and final value of our counting variable.

Example: do loop

integer :: i

do i = 1, 10
  print *, i
end do

Example: do loop with skip

integer :: i

do i = 1, 10, 2
  print *, i  ! Print odd numbers
end do

Conditional loop (do while)

A condition may be added to a do loop with the while keyword. The loop will be executed while the condition given in while() evaluates to .true..

Example: do while() loop

integer :: i

i = 1
do while (i < 11)
  print *, i
  i = i + 1
end do
! Here i = 11

Loop control statements (exit and cycle)

Most often than not, loops need to be stopped if a condition is met. Fortran provides two executable statements to deal with such cases.

exit is used to quit the loop prematurely. It is usually enclosed inside an if.

Example: loop with exit

integer :: i

do i = 1, 100
  if (i > 10) then
    exit  ! Stop printing numbers
  end if
  print *, i
end do
! Here i = 11

On the other hand, cycle skips whatever is left of the loop and goes into the next cycle.

Example: loop with cycle

integer :: i

do i = 1, 10
  if (mod(i, 2) == 0) then
      cycle  ! Don't print even numbers
  end if
  print *, i
end do

Note

When used within nested loops, the cycle and exit statements operate on the innermost loop.

Nested loop control: tags

A recurring case in any programming language is the use of nested loops. Nested loops refer to loops that exist within another loop. Fortran allows the programmer to tag or name each loop. If loops are tagged, there are two potential benefits:

1. The readability of the code may be improved (when the naming is meaningful).

2. exit and cycle may be used with tags, which allows for very fine-grained control of the loops.

Example: tagged nested loops

integer :: i, j

outer_loop: do i = 1, 10
  inner_loop: do j = 1, 10
    if ((j + i) > 10) then  ! Print only pairs of i and j that add up to 10
      cycle outer_loop  ! Go to the next iteration of the outer loop
    end if
    print *, 'I=', i, ' J=', j, ' Sum=', j + i
  end do inner_loop
end do outer_loop

Parallelizable loop (do concurrent)

The do concurrent loop is used to explicitly specify that the inside of the loop has no interdependencies; this informs the compiler that it may use parallelization/SIMD to speed up execution of the loop and conveys programmer intention more clearly. More specifically, this means that any given loop iteration does not depend on the prior execution of other loop iterations. It is also necessary that any state changes that may occur must only happen within each do concurrent loop. These requirements place restrictions on what can be placed within the loop body.

Simply replacing a do loop with a do concurrent does not guarantee parallel execution. The explanation given above does not detail all the requirements that need to be met in order to write a correct do concurrent loop. Compilers are also free to do as they see fit, meaning they may not optimize the loop (e.g., a small number of iterations doing a simple calculation, like the below example). In general, compiler flags are required to activate possible parallelization for do concurrent loops.

Example: do concurrent() loop

real, parameter :: pi = 3.14159265
integer, parameter :: n = 10
real :: result_sin(n)
integer :: i

do concurrent (i = 1:n)  ! Careful, the syntax is slightly different
  result_sin(i) = sin(i * pi/4.)
end do

print *, result_sin