# Clarification: should namelist-group-name start in column one or column two on output? **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [July 5, 2026, 3:20pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/clarification-should-namelist-group-name-start-in-column-one-or-column-two-on-output/10992 "2026-07-05T15:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 13
**Author:** ![urbanjost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/0ea827/32.png) [@urbanjost](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/urbanjost)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/clarification-should-namelist-group-name-start-in-column-one-or-column-two-on-output/10992/13 "2026-07-09T17:08:42Z")
I am a bit more familiar with that than my comment implies I suppose; going back to fortran.lang.comp. There are a few related threads here in Discourse as well, such as [Why are parens required around format strings? - #3 by Carltoffel](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/why-are-parens-required-around-format-strings/8323/3). I agree with you that is a good way to write CSV for many simple cases. Reading the line back and maintaining the read and write arguments on the I/O statements and automatically generating a CSV title line are all issues that remain; which is why modules such as [GitHub - jacobwilliams/csv-fortran: Read and Write CSV Files Using Modern Fortran ยท GitHub](https://github.com/jacobwilliams/csv-fortran) exist. But you are right; for a good number of simple cases that WRITE statement will get you a far ways writing CSV although I would suggest it does not handle the issue of quoted strings on output. Between non-advancing I/O and field descriptors and list-directed and NAMELIST I/O and stream I/O , etc Fortran has a very extensive number of I/O capabilities. I think it mostly has a negative image regarding its I/O capabilities not because of a lack of capabilities but because of a lack of simple-to-use dedicated features that do nothing but some of the simple common tasks like writing a JSON/YAML/TOML/CSV file from a NAMELIST group. --- _[View the full topic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/clarification-should-namelist-group-name-start-in-column-one-or-column-two-on-output/10992)._