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Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? [message #31670 is a reply to message #31669]

Tue, 13 August 2002 11:53

David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001

Senior Member

David Fanning (david@dfanning.com) writes:
>
> It's telling you the variable is an array, and it should
> be a scalar. It happens to be an array with only one element
> in it, however, so use it like this:
>
> data=read_ascii(lastfile[0],data_start=1)

Whoops, sorry. I hit that SEND button before I meant to.
I was going to tell you that it is not uncommon to get
arrays back from string routines, and often arrays of
a single element. This probably has to do with how
strings are stored internally in routines, but it's
mostly lazy programming, it seems to me. In *your* programs,
you are going to do something like this:

IF N_Elements(returnString) EQ 1 THEN RETURN, returnString[0] ELSE $
RETURN, returnString

Then your user won't have to worry about this perfectly
true, but less than illuminating error message. :-)

Cheers,

David
--
David W. Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
Phone: 970-221-0438, E-mail: david@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

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[Message index]

		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: Kolbjorn Bekkelund on Tue, 13 August 2002 12:40
		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: David Fanning on Tue, 13 August 2002 11:53
		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: David Fanning on Tue, 13 August 2002 11:47
		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: Kolbjorn Bekkelund on Tue, 13 August 2002 11:25
		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: David Fanning on Tue, 13 August 2002 10:09
		Re: Return the name of the last (newest) file ? By: Liam E. Gumley on Tue, 13 August 2002 10:05

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