comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive - RDF feed
type: channel
description: Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
items: can i read multiple files?
items: Re: can i read multiple files?

can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: hi..i am relatively new to idl. i got to this newsgroup through dfanning website..now i was thinking if i can read multiple files at the same time in one procedure. can this be done in idl? thanks
creator: zircola
date: 2006-09-19T00:46:19-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: zircola wrote: > hi..i am relatively new to idl. i got to this newsgroup through > dfanning website..now i was thinking if i can read multiple files at > the same time in one procedure. can this be done in idl? > thanks An addendum to David's post, setting the multiple keyword in dialog_pickfile will return a string array of all the selected files, then it's just a matter of for looping through the array and opening each one, such as: files=dialog_pickfile(/multi, filter=filter, path=path, title=title) n_files=n_elements(files) for i=0, n_files-1 do begin ;Read the file. In this case, we'll say it's one line of ASCII openr, lun, /get_lun, files[i] readf, lun, data data=fix(data) free_lun, lun ;Perform the remainder of the analysis for this data endfor It's probably not a good idea to load every file into a variable at once unless each file is small and uniform, as that can quickly take up memory.
creator: Braedley
date: 2006-09-19T12:08:26-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: thanks david and braedley...works great...this group is really amazing...
creator: zircola
date: 2006-09-20T03:18:40-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: it is fine, but i wanted to do it automatically not that i have to select the file individually. I want to read the file do the action and again read another file do the same action and read another file and do the same action and so on in the same procedure. My files are in same format and same data attributes but different data set. How can this be done?
creator: zircola
date: 2006-09-20T03:38:51-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: zircola writes: > it is fine, but i wanted to do it automatically not that i have to > select the file individually. I want to read the file do the action and > again read another file do the same action and read another file and do > the same action and so on in the same procedure. My files are in same > format and same data attributes but different data set. How can this be > done? I'm not sure what you are after here. Do you want FILE_SEARCH instead of DIALOG_PICKFILE? Otherwise, it seems your question has pretty much been answered. Cheers, David -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
creator: David Fanning
date: 2006-09-20T04:22:30-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: zircola wrote: > it is fine, but i wanted to do it automatically not that i have to > select the file individually. I want to read the file do the action and > again read another file do the same action and read another file and do > the same action and so on in the same procedure. My files are in same > format and same data attributes but different data set. How can this be > done? My appologies if this caused confusion. Dialog_Pickfile should be used when the you want the user to select a file (or directory) to open. If there is a need to get the user to open more than one file, then include the multiple keyword. If instead you don't want the user to have any choice in the matter, you can either hard code the files into the code (in your case, in the form of an array) or use file_search like David suggested to find files in a directory that match a certain criterion. In either case, you'll still probably use a loop to keep your code more flexible. I only suggested using dialog_pickfile because often use it during development stages so I can test many different data files without changing the program. It's only after I've added a shell program to do batch processing (once I know the main program is working) that I stop making calls to dialog_pickfile.
creator: Braedley
date: 2006-09-21T18:31:41-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: Braedley wrote: > zircola wrote: >> it is fine, but i wanted to do it automatically not that i have to >> select the file individually. I want to read the file do the action and >> again read another file do the same action and read another file and do >> the same action and so on in the same procedure. My files are in same >> format and same data attributes but different data set. How can this be >> done? > > My appologies if this caused confusion. Dialog_Pickfile should be used > when the you want the user to select a file (or directory) to open. If > there is a need to get the user to open more than one file, then > include the multiple keyword. If instead you don't want the user to > have any choice in the matter, you can either hard code the files into > the code (in your case, in the form of an array) or use file_search > like David suggested to find files in a directory that match a certain > criterion. In either case, you'll still probably use a loop to keep > your code more flexible. Or you could generate your filenames on the fly if they follow some sort of pattern (like file001.dat, file002.dat, etc...)e.g.: for i=1, 100 do begin filename=string(i,format='("file",i3.3,".dat")') .... open filename, read, write, etc... .... endfor paulv -- Paul van Delst Ride lots. CIMSS @ NOAA/NCEP/EMC Eddy Merckx Ph: (301)763-8000 x7748 Fax:(301)763-8545
creator: Paul Van Delst[1]
date: 2006-09-21T19:53:44-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: Thanks every one, i am learning a lot, i tried all of them. using file search i put all the files in the array but didn't know how to invoke it with for loop, i tried like this file_array=file_search('filepath', '*.dat', count=num_file) for i=0,num_file-1 do begin file=file_array(i) openr, lun, /get_lun, file (read file here) free_lun, lun (do all the stuffs like plotting etc here) endfor is this how i use the file stored in the array? for the similar named files, the one suggested by paul works great,..thanks i just hope my question is not so stupid
creator: zircola
date: 2006-09-22T01:05:12-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: zircola writes: > Thanks every one, i am learning a lot, i tried all of them. using file > search i put all the files in the array but didn't know how to invoke > it with for loop, i tried like this > > file_array=file_search('filepath', '*.dat', count=num_file) > for i=0,num_file-1 do begin > file=file_array(i) > > openr, lun, /get_lun, file > > (read file here) > free_lun, lun > (do all the stuffs like plotting etc here) > > endfor > > is this how i use the file stored in the array? > > for the similar named files, the one suggested by paul works > great,..thanks > i just hope my question is not so stupid Humm. Questions are rarely stupid. I think the problem here is that we are assuming you know a bit more about this than I suspect you do. Most of the people who come to IDL come having written some kind of computer program before. I get the impression you have not. If this is so, I would HIGHLY recommend Ken Bowman's book _An Introduction to Programming with IDL_. It's great for teaching you what a FOR loop is, etc. You have mostly the right idea here, but I don't think you have really tried this code out. For example, this code is not likely to work: file_array=file_search('filepath', '*.dat', count=num_file) To see if it worked you could test how many files you found: IDL> Print, num_file Or, you could see how big your file_array variable is: IDL> Help, file_array The reason it doesn't work is that 'filepath' is not likely to be the path to YOUR files. Your path is going to look more like "C:\RSI\ZIRCOLA\DATA" or "/usr/zircola/data", or something. We can't help you with this because you haven't told us anything about what machine you are running IDL on, etc. The syntax 'filepath' is what we refer to as "pseudo code". We mean you will have to replace that with what is right for YOUR situation. As a beginning user, it is often difficult to tell pseudo code from real code. Then, if you put all your plotting stuff inside the loop, you are going to have some trouble…
creator: David Fanning
date: 2006-09-22T02:46:14-00:00

Re: can i read multiple files?
type: item
description: Thanks David. :)
creator: zircola
date: 2006-09-25T07:07:41-00:00