TRANSREAD - read ASCII tables

[Craig Markwardt <craigmnet(at)astrog.physics.wisc.edu>]

Please find TRANSREAD.PRO on my IDL web page:

http://astrog.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/idl/idl.html

TRANSREAD parses an ASCII table into IDL variables, one variable for
each column in the table. It can read general tabular data -- not just
numerical values -- as long as you can express it with an IDL FORMAT
expression.

Feature highlights include:

* FORMAT expression is optionally accepted. 
* Comment lines can optionally be recognized and ignored. 
* Standalone operation. No other IDL procedures are needed. 
* Input is either a file unit or a string array. 
* Start and Stop "Cue" Phrases can be used to begin and end the
  parsing operation.
* Extensive documentation is included in the header of TRANSREAD.PRO
  itself.

TRANSREAD behaves similarly to READF/READS in that it transfers ASCII
input data into IDL variables. The difference is that TRANSREAD reads
more than one row in one pass, and returns data by column. In a sense,
it forms the transpose of the typical output from READF or READS
(which returns data by row), hence the name TRANSREAD.


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Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D.         EMAIL: craigmnet@astrog.physics.wisc.edu
Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
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