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<h3 class="section">8.243 <code>TRANSFER</code> — Transfer bit patterns</h3>
<p><a name="index-TRANSFER-1080"></a><a name="index-bits_002c-move-1081"></a><a name="index-type-cast-1082"></a>
<dl>
<dt><em>Description</em>:<dd>Interprets the bitwise representation of <var>SOURCE</var> in memory as if it
is the representation of a variable or array of the same type and type
parameters as <var>MOLD</var>.
<p>This is approximately equivalent to the C concept of <em>casting</em> one
type to another.
<br><dt><em>Standard</em>:<dd>Fortran 95 and later
<br><dt><em>Class</em>:<dd>Transformational function
<br><dt><em>Syntax</em>:<dd><code>RESULT = TRANSFER(SOURCE, MOLD[, SIZE])</code>
<br><dt><em>Arguments</em>:<dd>
<p><table summary=""><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="15%"><var>SOURCE</var> </td><td valign="top" width="70%">Shall be a scalar or an array of any type.
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="15%"><var>MOLD</var> </td><td valign="top" width="70%">Shall be a scalar or an array of any type.
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="15%"><var>SIZE</var> </td><td valign="top" width="70%">(Optional) shall be a scalar of type
<code>INTEGER</code>.
<br></td></tr></table>
<br><dt><em>Return value</em>:<dd>The result has the same type as <var>MOLD</var>, with the bit level
representation of <var>SOURCE</var>. If <var>SIZE</var> is present, the result is
a one-dimensional array of length <var>SIZE</var>. If <var>SIZE</var> is absent
but <var>MOLD</var> is an array (of any size or shape), the result is a one-
dimensional array of the minimum length needed to contain the entirety
of the bitwise representation of <var>SOURCE</var>. If <var>SIZE</var> is absent
and <var>MOLD</var> is a scalar, the result is a scalar.
<p>If the bitwise representation of the result is longer than that of
<var>SOURCE</var>, then the leading bits of the result correspond to those of
<var>SOURCE</var> and any trailing bits are filled arbitrarily.
<p>When the resulting bit representation does not correspond to a valid
representation of a variable of the same type as <var>MOLD</var>, the results
are undefined, and subsequent operations on the result cannot be
guaranteed to produce sensible behavior. For example, it is possible to
create <code>LOGICAL</code> variables for which <var>VAR</var> and
<code>.NOT.</code><var>VAR</var> both appear to be true.
<br><dt><em>Example</em>:<dd>
<pre class="smallexample"> PROGRAM test_transfer
integer :: x = 2143289344
print *, transfer(x, 1.0) ! prints "NaN" on i686
END PROGRAM
</pre>
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