c, f and g are all invalid and produce compiler messages. If we put all of them in as successive statements, we get: NAG Fortran Compiler Release 5.2(668) Error: ex_10.1.2.f90, line 4: Syntax error detected at ,@* ***Malformed statement Error: ex_10.1.2.f90, line 8: Syntax error detected at ,@* ***Malformed statement [NAG Fortran Compiler pass 1 error termination, 2 errors] If we now remove c and g (lines 4 and 8), we get: NAG Fortran Compiler Release 5.2(668) Error: ex_10.1.2.f90, line 6: Unit-specifier occurs twice in io-control-spec-list [NAG Fortran Compiler error termination, 1 error] If we now remove f (line 6), we get: Abc 1.2300000E-06 -456 xyz Abc 1.2300000E-06 -456 xyz Abc 1.2300000E-06 -456 xyz Abc 1.2300000E-06 -456 xyz So the remainder are all equivalent to the PRINT statement.