The function KIND(var) returns the kind of the variable var. For example, the code
integer(kind=4) :: i4 k = kind(i4)returns the value k = 4.
Intrinsic types have a predetermined kind value. With the KIND function we can inquire about the default kinds,
integer :: i
real :: x
double precision :: y
ki = kind(i); kx = kind(x); ky = kind(y)
\end{stlisting}
%
On Alpha 21264 the results are {\tt ki} = 4, {\tt kx = 4} and
{\tt ky = 8}.
All type conversion functions have an optional {\tt KIND} argument
for specifying the kind of the result (recall that the type of the result
is given by the function itself).
For example,
%
\begin{verbatim}
real :: x
integer(kind=huge) :: i8
i8 = int(x,kind=huge) ! or i8 = int(x,kind=kind(i8))