ASSOCIATED (The GNU Fortran Compiler)

### 8.24 `ASSOCIATED` — Status of a pointer or pointer/target pair ¶

Synopsis:

  `RESULT = ASSOCIATED(POINTER [, TARGET])`

Description:

  `ASSOCIATED(POINTER [, TARGET])` determines the status of the pointer POINTER or if POINTER is associated with the target TARGET.

Class:

  Inquiry function

Arguments:

  POINTER | POINTER shall have the `POINTER` attribute and it can be of any type.
  TARGET | (Optional) TARGET shall be a pointer or a target. It must have the same type, kind type parameter, and array rank as POINTER.

  The association status of neither POINTER nor TARGET shall be undefined.

Return value:

  `ASSOCIATED(POINTER)` returns a scalar value of type `LOGICAL(4)`. There are several cases:

  (A) When the optional TARGET is not present then

    `ASSOCIATED(POINTER)` is true if POINTER is associated with a target; otherwise, it returns false.

  (B) If TARGET is present and a scalar target, the result is true if

    TARGET is not a zero-sized storage sequence and the target associated with POINTER occupies the same storage units. If POINTER is disassociated, the result is false.

  (C) If TARGET is present and an array target, the result is true if

    TARGET and POINTER have the same shape, are not zero-sized arrays, are arrays whose elements are not zero-sized storage sequences, and TARGET and POINTER occupy the same storage units in array element order. As in case(B), the result is false, if POINTER is disassociated.

  (D) If TARGET is present and an scalar pointer, the result is true

    if TARGET is associated with POINTER, the target associated with TARGET are not zero-sized storage sequences and occupy the same storage units. The result is false, if either TARGET or POINTER is disassociated.

  (E) If TARGET is present and an array pointer, the result is true if

    target associated with POINTER and the target associated with TARGET have the same shape, are not zero-sized arrays, are arrays whose elements are not zero-sized storage sequences, and TARGET and POINTER occupy the same storage units in array element order. The result is false, if either TARGET or POINTER is disassociated.

Example:

      program test_associated
         implicit none
         real, target  :: tgt(2) = (/1., 2./)
         real, pointer :: ptr(:)
         ptr => tgt
         if (associated(ptr)     .eqv. .false.) call abort
         if (associated(ptr,tgt) .eqv. .false.) call abort
      end program test_associated

Standard:

  Fortran 90 and later

See also:

  `NULL` — Function that returns an disassociated pointer