comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive - RDF feed
type: channel
description: Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
items: Multiple saves/restores in a file.

Multiple saves/restores in a file.
type: item
description: Hello there, I am looking for a way to simply store multiple structures in a file. I know I can use READU and WRITEU etc, however, we all know the limitations of this method, particularly with regard to strings. Also, the program reading the structures does not necessarily know in advance the number size and type of the elements they contain. Now save and restore can basically do what I want, however, they are limited to reading or writing whole files. What I would be like to be able to do is something along the lines of. OPENW,unit,'test.dat',/GET_LUN . . SAVE,unit=unit,x . . - x changes in some way. . SAVE,unit=unit,x . . ... and so on. I would then like to be able to use POINT_LUN to restore the value of x at different times. Just to make the point again, the type size and format of x will be different each time, and I don't want to have to create a 'blank' x to READU into, or anything like that. Obviously I could just use save and restore as they stand and have incrementally named files, but I am wondering if anyone can think of a more elegant method. Also I could take the structure apart piece by piece and record it's format in painstaking detail, and then have my restore procedure piece it together using CREATE_STRUCT, but that would be slow and inefficient. Any ideas, Many thanks ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------- Nathaniel Livesey - Research Scientist - Microwave Limb Sounder group. Postal address: Mail Stop 183-701, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109. Telephone: [+1] (818) 354 4214 (+voice mail), fax: [+1] (818) 393 5065 Email: livesey@camel.jpl.nasa.gov ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------
creator: Nathaniel Livesey
date: 1997-01-23T08:00:00-00:00