What Does This Fortran Statement Do?

[dibloff]

Hi Community!

I'm wondering what this Fortran statement does, per your opinion:

IF(PMAX-P(I))16,16,17
16 PMAX=P(I)
ICAMAX=I
17 CONTINUE

This was done in Fortran 77. I'm trying to convert it to VB, and I Google-d it, researched it, but it's hard to understand. The IF statement looks for PMAX-P(I) to be TRUE, which makes no sense cause the variable type for PMAX & P(I) are both REAL, therefore their difference will be REAL too, and not LOGICAL. Then there is this 16,16,17… I guess it’s checking if PMAX-P(I) is zero, if it not zero, then it’ll execute label 16, which will force their difference to be zero.
Does anybody know what 16,16,17 suppose to do? Maybe there is an hidden option for IF statement like this: IF(blablabla)>0,<0,0

Thank you

A.

 

[AlephZero]

This would be hard to find with google unless you knew it is called an arithmetic if statement. http://www-linac.kek.jp/cont/langinfo/web/Fortran/docs/lrm/lrm0128.htm

This was the only type of IF statement in early versions of Fortran, but after the IF/THEN/ ELSE statement was added, it is hardly ever used.

Your example means the same as

IF (PMAX .LE. P(I)) THEN
PMAX=P(I)
ICAMAX=I
ENDIF

 

[dibloff]

Alephzero

Thanks a lot. This makes completely perfect sense.

A.