Danny Vanpoucke

In the previous tutorial, we created a constructor and destructor for our TTimer class.  Next, we extend our class with overloaded operators. Depending on the type of object your class represents, you may want to define an addition/subtraction/multiplication/… operator. In addition, the assignment operator deserves some extra attention as you may want to have a clear control over this operation  (e.g.,  deep copy vs shallow copy). The full source of this tutorial and the previous, can be downloaded from my github-page.

Let us start with the latter: the assignment operator. As with all other operators, it is possible to overload the assignment operator in modern fortran.

1. Assignment (=) operator overloading

When dealing with objects and classes—or extended data-structures in general—, their properties often are (implicit) pointers to the actual data-structure. This brings an interesting source of possible bugs due to shallow copies being made while deep copies are expected (although the problem may be less pronounced in Fortran than it is in Python).

In a fortran object, the assignment of a pointer component (i.e., an explicit pointer variable, or a component which is an object itself) happens via a shallow copy (or pointer assignment). In contrast, for an allocatable component, the assignment operation performs by default a deep copy (i.e., space is allocated, and values are copied). Shallow copies are very useful with regard to quickly creating new handles to the same data-structure. However, if you want to make a true copy, which you can modify without changing the original, then a deep copy is what you want. By implementing assignment overloading for your own classes, you have more control over the actual copying process, and you can make sure you are creating deep copies if those are preferred.

The implementation of overloading for the assignment operator is not too complicated. It requires two lines in your class definition:

type, public :: TTimer
        private
        ...
    contains
        private
        procedure, pass(this) :: Copy                   !< Make a copy of a timer object
        generic, public       :: assignment(=) => Copy  !< This is how copy is used.
        ...
end type TTimer

First, you need to define a class method which performs a copy-operation—which in a fit or original though we decided to call “copy” ;-).  As you can see this function is private, so it will not be accessible to the user of your class via a call like :

call MyTimer%Copy()

Secondly, you link this class method via the “=>” to the assignment-operator.  It is a generic interface, which means the assignment operator could be linked to different functions, of which the relevant one will be determined and used during run-time. This generic is also public  (otherwise you would not be able to use it).

The implementation of the class method follows the standard rules of any class method and could look like

pure subroutine Copy(this,from)
        class(TTimer), intent(inout) :: this
        class(TTimer), intent(in) :: from

    this%firstProperty = from%firstProperty
    ...
    !make explicit copies of all properties and components
    ...

end subroutine Copy

The “this” object which we passed to our class method is the object on the left side of the assignment operator, while the “from” object is the one on the right side. Note that both objects are defined as “class” and not as “type”. Within the body of this method you are in charge of copying the data from the “from”-object to the “this”-object, giving you control over deep/shallow copying.

In practice the overloaded operator is used as:

type(TTimer):: TimerThis, TimerFrom

TimerFrom = TTimer() ! initialization of the timers
TimerThis = TTimer() ! (cf., previous tutorial on constructors and destructors)
... 
! do stuff with TimerFrom
...
TimerThis = TimerFrom ! although you type "=", the overloading causes this to be implemented as-if you wrote
                      ! call TimerThis%copy(TimerFrom)

2. Operator (+,-,*,/,…) overloading

Just as you can overload the assignment operator above, you can also overload all other fortran operators. However, be careful to keep things intuitive.  For example, an addition operation on our TTimer class is strange. What would it mean to add one timer to another? How would you subtract one chronometer from another? In contrast, inside our TTimer class we have a list of TTime objects which can be used to represent a date and time, as-well-as a time interval.^[1]  For the remainder of this tutorial, we will assume the TTime class only represents time-intervals. For such a class, it makes sense to be able to add and subtract time intervals.

Let us start with the basic definition of our TTime-class:

type, public :: TTime
  private
   ...
   ! the properties of the TTime class
   ...
contains
  private
   ...
   ! the methods of the TTime class
   ... 
   procedure, pass(this)        :: copy          ! Copy content from other TTime instance,  
                                                 ! private, accessed via the assignment statement
   procedure, pass(this)        :: add           ! Add two TTime instances.
   procedure, pass(this)        :: subtract      ! subtract two TTime instances.
   generic, public :: assignment(=) => copy      ! This is how copy is used.
   generic, public :: operator(+)   => add       ! This is how add is used.
   generic, public :: operator(-)   => subtract  ! This is how subtract is used.
   final :: destructor
end type TTime

interface TTime
   module procedure constructor
end interface TTime

The TTime class has a constructor and destructor, implemented as we discussed before. The assignment operator is over-loaded as well. The overloading of the “+” and “–” operator follows the same setup as for the assignment operator. First, you define a class method where you will implement the addition or subtraction. Second, you link this class method to the operator as a generic. The main difference with overloading the assignment operator is that you need to use the keyword operator instead of assignment, during the second step. The class methods are private, while the generic link is public. The only thing left to do is to implement the class methods. In case of operator overloading, the class methods are functions.

pure function add(this,that) Result(Total)
     class(TTime), intent(in) :: this, that
     Type(TTime) :: total

total = TTime()
...
! implementation of the addition of the properties of 
! this to the properties of that, and storing them in 
! Total
! e.g.: Total%seconds = this%seconds + that%seconds        
...
end function add

The returned object need to be defined as a type, and the further implementation of the function follows the standard fortran rules. It is important to note that for a function-header like this one, the object to the left of the operator will be the one calling the overloaded operator function, so:

Total = this + that

and not

Total = that + this

This may not seem this important, as we are adding two objects of the same class, but that is not necessarily always the case. Imagine that you want to overload the multiplication operator, such that you could multiply your time-interval with any possible real value. On paper

Δt * 3.5 = 3.5 * Δt

but for the compiler in the left product “this” would be a TTime object and “that” would be a real, while in the right product “this” is the real, and “that” is the TTime object. To deal with such a situation, you need to implement two class methods, which in practice only differ in their header:

pure function MultLeft(this,that) Result(Total) 
    class(TTime), intent(in) :: this
    real, intent(in) :: that 
    Type(TTime) :: total

and

pure function MultRight(that, this) Result(Total) 
    class(TTime), intent(in) :: this
    real, intent(in) :: that 
    Type(TTime) :: total

In the class definition both functions are linked to the operator as

procedure, pass(this) ::  MultLeft
procedure, pass(this) ::  MultRight
generic, public :: operator(*) => MultLeft, MultRight

With this in mind, we could also expand our implementation of the “+” and “–” operator, by adding functionality that allows for the addition and subtraction of reals representing time-intervals. Also here, the left and right versions would need to be implemented.

As you can see, modern object oriented fortran provides you all the tools you need to create powerful classes capable of operator overloading using simple and straightforward implementations.

In our next Tutorial, we’ll look into data-hiding and private/public options in fortran classes.

^[1] You could argue that this is not an ideal choice and that it would be better to keep these two concepts ( absolute and relative time) separate through the use of different classes. 

In this tutorial on Object Oriented Programming in Fortran 2003, we are going to discuss how to create constructors and destructors for a Fortran class. During this tutorial, I assume that you know how to create a new project and what a class looks like in Fortran 2003.  This tutorial is build around a TimerClass, which I wrote as an upgrade for my initial timing module in HIVE-tools. The full source of this TimerClass can be found and downloaded from github.

Where the former two tutorials were aimed at translating a scientific model into classes within the confines of the Fortran programming language, this tutorial is aimed at consolidating a class using good practices: The creation a constructor and destructor. As the destructor in Fortran classes is most straight forward of the two, we’ll start with it.

1. The destructor.

A destructor is a method (i.e., a class subroutine) which is automatically invoked when the object is destroyed (e.g., by going out of scope).  In case of a Fortran class, this task is performed by the class-method(s) indicated as  final procedure. Hence such methods are also sometimes referred to as finalizers. Although in some languages destructors and finalizers are two distinctly different features (finalizers are then often linked to garbage collecting), within the Fortran context I consider them the same.

Within the definition of our TTimerClass the destructor is implemented as:

Destructor of the TTimerClass

1. module TimerClass
2. implicit none
3.  
4.     type, public :: TTimer
5.       private
6.       ! here come the properties
7.     contains
8.       private
9.       ! here come the methods
10.       final :: destructor
11.     end type TTimer
12.    
13. contains
14.  
15.     subroutine destructor(this)
16.     Type(TTimer) :: this
17.     ! Do whatever needs doing in the destructor
18.     end subroutine destructor
19.    
20. end module TimerClass

In contrast to a normal class-method, the destructor is called using the final keyword, instead of the usual procedure keyword. This method is private, as it is not intended to be used by the user anyway, only by the compiler upon cleanup of the instance of the class (i.e., the object). Furthermore, although defined as part of the class, a final subroutine is not type-bound, and can thus not be accessed through the type.

The destructor subroutine itself is a normal Fortran subroutine. There is, however, one small difference with a usual class-method, the parameter referring to the object (c.q. “this“) is indicated as a TYPE and not as a CLASS. This is because the destructor is only applicable to properties belonging to this “class” (Note that final subroutines are not inherited by the child-class). For a child-class (also called a derived class), the destructor of the child-class should deal with all the additional properties of the child-class, while the destructor of the parent-class is called to deal with its respective properties. In practice, the destructor of the child-class is called first, after which the destructor of the parent class is called (and recursively further along the class its family tree.)

So what do you put in such a destructor? Anything that needs to be done to allow the object to be gracefully terminated. Most obviously: deallocation of allocatable arrays, pointer components, closing file handles,…

2. The constructor.

Where other programming  languages may provide an initialization section or access to a key-worded constructor. Although Fortran allows for variables to be initialized upon definition, there is no constructor keyword available to be used in its classes. Of course, this does not prevent you from adding an “init()” subroutine which the user should call once the new object is allocated. You could even use a private Boolean property (initialized old style)  to keep track of the fact that an object was initialized when entering any of its methods, and if not, call the init() function there and then. There are many ways to deal with the initialization of a new object.  Furthermore, different approaches also put the burden of doing things right either with the programmer developing the class, or the user, applying the class and creating objects.

Here, I want to present an approach which allows you to present a clear set-up of your class and which resembles the instance creation approach also seen in other languages (and which implicitly shows the “pointer”-nature of objects ):

NewObject = TClass()

In case of our TTimer class this will look like:

Type(TTimer) :: MyTimer

MyTimer = TTimer()

This means we need to have a function with the exact same name as our class (cf., above), which is achieved through the use of an interface to a module procedure.  Just giving this name to the constructor function itself will cause your compiler to complain (“Name ttimer at (1)  is already defined as a generic interface“).  By using a different name for the  function, and wrapping it in an interface, this issue is avoided.

Class Constructor

1. module Timerclass
2.     implicit none
3.  
4.  
5.     type, public :: TTimer
6.         private
7.     ...
8.     contains
9.         private
10.         ...
11.     end type TTimer
12.    
13.     interface TTimer
14.         module procedure Constructor
15.     end interface TTimer
16.  
17. contains
18. function Constructor() Result(Timer)
19.     type(TTimer) :: Timer
20.    
21.     !initialize variables directly
22.     Timer%x=...
23.     ! or through method calls
24.     call Timer%setTime(now)
25.     ...
26.  
27. end function Constructor
28.  
29. end module TimerClass

Note that the constructor function is not part of the class definition, and as such the object is not passed to the constructor function. In addition, the Timer object being created is defined as a Type(TTimer) not Class(TTimer), also because this function is not part of the class definition.

That is all there is to it. Simple and elegant.

In our next Tutorial, we’ll have a look at operator and assignment overloading. Combined with a constructor and destructor as presented here, you are able to create powerful and intuitive classes (even in Fortran).