# What does this data reference mean?

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/what-does-this-data-reference-mean/2059>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [October 12, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/what-does-this-data-reference-mean/2059 "2021-10-12T17:50:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Beliavsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/what-does-this-data-reference-mean/2059/13 "2021-10-19T14:23:56Z")

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> [@themos](#):
>
> Perhaps better is
> 
> `REAL :: thisvar=1. ! implicitly SAVEd`
> 
> which shows the last programmer was aware that thisvar has the SAVE attribute and the next programmer will have to learn what that means.

Many people, including me, expressed support for making implicit save obsolescent and eventually deleting it from Fortran, in the thread [Fortran function remembers values (newbie help)](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-function-remembers-values-newbie-help/2018), and I would not advise people to write code that could be declared obsolescent in the future. Since

`REAL, SAVE :: thisvar=1.`

is much less likely to be removed from Fortran, I suggest using that instead.

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