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Some IDL_Number documentation quirks [message #93945]

Fri, 02 December 2016 11:14

wlandsman
Messages: 743
Registered: June 2000

Senior Member

A few quirks in the IDL documentation for IDL_Number

http://www.harrisgeospatial.com/docs/IDL_Number.html

1. The example for IDL_Number::Median method reads
*********
Print the median value of a number:

num = -24601

PRINT, num.Median( )

IDL prints:

24601
**********
Huh? The median of a negative scalar is its absolute value? I then realized that this example is probably an unfinished copy/paste from the IDL_Number:Signum method. But

2. The example for IDL Number::Signum is incorrect

*********************************
Print the signum value of a number:

num = -24601

PRINT, num.Signum( )

IDL prints:

24601
***********************************
This is closer but still incorrect. The value of num.signum() should be -1 (the sign of the number).

3. The documentation of IDL_Number::Total is incomplete.

**************
Arguments

None.
Keywords

None.
***********

But in fact, although not documented, the dimension argument and five keywords available to the TOTAL() function are also available to IDL_Number::Total. For example

IDL> a = indgen(3,3)
IDL> a
0 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8
IDL> a.total(1,/integer)
3 12 21

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[Message index]

		Some IDL_Number documentation quirks By: wlandsman on Fri, 02 December 2016 11:14
		Re: Some IDL_Number documentation quirks By: chris_torrence@NOSPAM on Wed, 07 December 2016 14:17
		Re: Some IDL_Number documentation quirks By: penteado on Wed, 07 December 2016 16:36

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