# Add descriptors to I/O best practice documentation

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/add-descriptors-to-i-o-best-practice-documentation/6117>\
**Category:** Meta\
**Created:** [July 8, 2023, 10:13pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/add-descriptors-to-i-o-best-practice-documentation/6117 "2023-07-08T22:13:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fortran4r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fortran4r](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/fortran4r)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:13pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/add-descriptors-to-i-o-best-practice-documentation/6117/1 "2023-07-08T22:13:15Z")

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Could someone please add descriptors to the I/O best practice documentation at [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org)? I sometimes forget them and need to search online.

> **[File Input/Output — Fortran Programming Language](https://fortran-lang.org/learn/best_practices/file_io/)**
>
> Fortran : High-performance parallel programming language

> **[Fortran - Basic Input Output](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/fortran/fortran_basic_input_output.htm)**
>
> Fortran Basic Input Output - We have so far seen that we can read data from keyboard using the read \* statement, and display output to the screen using the print\* statement, respectively. This form of input-output is free format I/O, and it is called...

[https://fortranwiki.org/fortran/show/Edit+descriptors](https://fortranwiki.org/fortran/show/Edit+descriptors)

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**Author:** ![Chuckyvt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@Chuckyvt](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Chuckyvt)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/add-descriptors-to-i-o-best-practice-documentation/6117/2 "2023-07-10T02:32:49Z")

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I second this! I’ve been learning fortran over the last couple months coming form mostly a Python background. Getting the format descriptors right has been one of the points of frustration. Could also add some best practices as well. G, I0 for integers, etc. ‘(\*(G0.7,:,“,”))’ is format code to generate CSV files that is really handy. (This came from a Steve Lionel post somewhere iirc…I’m not even 100% sure how it works but it works great!)

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**Author:** ![certik](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/certik/32/4_2.png) [@certik](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/certik)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/add-descriptors-to-i-o-best-practice-documentation/6117/3 "2023-07-10T05:08:01Z")

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@fortran4r The edit descriptors are here: [Python Fortran Rosetta Stone — Fortran Programming Language](https://fortran-lang.org/learn/rosetta_stone/#strings-and-formatting). You can add them to the “best practices” guide as well. Can you please send a PR?