Can I create sub arrays in Fortran using pointers?

Question

I want to be able to have a large master array and refer to different parts of it using sub arrays. At the moment I'm using offset indices to do this, but it can get very complicated doing it this way.

Can I have a master array of dimension(9), and 3 sub arrays of dimension(3) such that sub_array1 points to the first 3 elements of the master_array, sub_array2 points to the next 3 elements and sub_array3 points to the last 3 elements?

For example, the arrays would be defined like so:

integer, dimension(9) :: master_array
integer, dimension(3) :: sub_array1, sub_array2, sub_array3

The relationship between the arrays would be:

sub_array1(1) -> master_array(1)
sub_array1(2) -> master_array(2)
sub_array1(3) -> master_array(3)

sub_array2(1) -> master_array(4)
sub_array2(2) -> master_array(5)
sub_array2(3) -> master_array(6)

sub_array3(1) -> master_array(7) 
sub_array3(2) -> master_array(8)
sub_array3(3) -> master_array(9)

Furthermore, is it possible to have mixed datatypes so that I have one sub array of reals within a larger master array of integers?

Thanks in advance for the help

Answer 1

Yes, you can use absolutely use pointers to point to subregions of an array. This can be very handy in a lot of situations, such as for stencil calculations for PDEs:

program pointerviews
    real, dimension(10), target :: alldata
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: left
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: centre
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: right

    alldata = (/ (i, i=1,10) /)

    left  => alldata(1:8)
    right => alldata(3:10)
    centre=> alldata(2:9)


    print *, alldata
    print *, left
    print *, centre
    print *, right
    print *, (left - 2*centre + right)
end program pointerviews

Array pointers in FORTRAN are more than just an address, they contain array size, stride, and type information, too. So you can do even crazier things like this (if you're used to C pointers) and include strides:

program pointerviews2
    real, dimension(10), target :: alldata
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: left
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: centre
    real, dimension(:), pointer :: right

    alldata = (/ (i, i=1,10) /)

    left  => alldata(1:8:2)
    right => alldata(3:10:2)
    centre=> alldata(2:9:2)

    print *, alldata
    print *, left
    print *, centre
    print *, right

    print *, 'Changing alldata(4) = 9999'
    alldata(4) = 9999.

    print *, alldata
    print *, left
    print *, centre
    print *, right

end program pointerviews2

You cannot, however, have regions of an array which are of a different type than the rest of the data, by definition. You'll have to use derived types, or polymorphism, if you want a variable which contains data of several types.