To be a little bit more precise than GerritGroot, even if his answer is in the same time short and correct, it exists three types of format when writing to (reading from) a formatted file :
- fmt=* : list directed format, which produces an output which is partly compiler dependent,
- fmt=label : the label is a integer value (10, 999 ...) which points to a specific FORMAT instruction associated to that label. In that case, the format is fixed (determined at compile time)
- fmt=variable_name : in that case, the format may be defined at run time and is represented by the contents of a CHARACTER variable.
Taking into account the instruction you have provided, it seems that you are using the third case.
Two additional remarks :
- the syntax 'fmt=' is optional if the format is provided in second position, like your example.
- a format follows rather complicated rules : you need to read the documentation before being able to create your own format.