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Re: Simple questions [message #2848 is a reply to message #809]

Sat, 24 September 1994 09:56

thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991

Senior Member

mcook@mksol.dseg.ti.com (mark k cook) writes:

> ... can't
> IDL just take the single element value as the scalar?
> A 1-dim vector should be treated as a scalar. ...

Yes, most of the time IDL doesn't draw a distinction between scalars and arrays
with a single element in them. Generally, when you run into trouble is when
you try to use it in an IF statement.

The simple workaround is to reference the variable or expression with a (0) to
force it to be scalar, e.g.

IF (A(0) EQ 3) THEN ...

or for an expression, surround it with ( and ), e.g.

IF ( (A*B)(0) EQ 3) THEN ...

This works even if the variable or expression is already a scalar.

> The other recurrent problem is an out-of-space (memory)
> problem. How can I clear away any matrices I don't want
> around anymore to free up space?

You can use DELVAR to delete variables, but only at the main level. Within
procedures you can clear up the space taken up by a array by redefining it to
be a scalar. However, neither of these will help if your problem is with
memory fragmentation--see the FAQ for details.

Bill Thompson

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[Message index]

		simple questions: position and strings By: flatau on Sat, 15 May 1993 15:33
		Re: Simple questions By: landers on Tue, 27 September 1994 07:20
		Re: Simple questions By: amaravad on Mon, 26 September 1994 11:06
		Re: Simple questions By: rmm on Thu, 06 October 1994 08:37
		Re: Simple questions By: mcook on Sat, 24 September 1994 12:38
		Re: Simple questions By: thompson on Sat, 24 September 1994 09:56

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