Internal files

An internal file is a character variable that is not an array section with a vector subscript. You do not need to create internal files. They always exist, and are available to the application.

If an internal file is a scalar character variable, the file consists of one record with a length equal to that of the scalar variable. If an internal file is a character array, each element of the array is a record of the file, with each record having the same length.

An internal file must contain only formatted records. READ and WRITE are the only statements that can specify an internal file. If a WRITE statement writes less than an entire record, blanks fill the remainder of that record.

An internal file is positioned at the beginning of the first record prior to data transfer, except for child data transfer statements. This record becomes the current record.