c     September 8th 2003
c
c     Version using ONLY Direct-Access file and NO recs buffer
c
c     This function replaces the direct array reference ie recs(i)(m:n)
c     -  extracts the appropriate string from the record-no'th record
c         of the direct-access file for ALL record numbers
c
c     Used in association with recs2 (for example) to get the specific
c     2-character returned string
c
c     Inputs - record number - irec
c            - start character position in record - ichar1
c            - end   character position in record - ichar2
c
c     Outputs - the function = the output record

      
      character*96 function recs(irec,ichar1,ichar2)
      
      include 'hold.inc'
      
      include 'basics.inc'
      
      character*96 tmprec
           
c      write(*,'(a,i3,a,i3,a,i6)') 'In recs-ichar1=',ichar1,' ichar2=',
c     1ichar2,'record no=',irec 

      
          read(ntemp,rec=irec) tmprec
          
          recs = tmprec(ichar1:ichar2)    
    
c guarantee rest of recs is blank

      len = len_trim (recs)
    
      do i=len+1,96
         recs(i:i) = " "
      end do
     
c      write(*,'(a/a)') 'At end of recs - recs=',recs
c      write(*,'(a/z)') 'At end of recs - recs=',recs
      
      return  
      end