Obtaining the Storage Form

The storage form of an NDF array component may be determined using the routine NDF_FORM. For instance:

      INCLUDE 'NDF_PAR'
      CHARACTER * ( NDF__SZFRM ) FORM

      ...

      CALL NDF_FORM( INDF, 'Data', FORM, STATUS )

will return the storage form of an NDF's data component as an upper-case character string via the FORM argument. Note how the symbolic constant NDF__SZFRM (defined in the include file NDF_PAR) should be used to declare the size of the character variable which is to receive the returned storage form information.

The storage form is established when an NDF is first created (see §). At present there is no way of explicitly changing it, but in some circumstances it may be changed implicitly (see §). At present, only three storage forms are supported, so only the values `SIMPLE', 'SCALED' and `PRIMITIVE' can be returned by NDF_FORM. These are described below.