Re: Help with reading structure from file

[jeyadev(at)wrc.xerox.com (Surendar Jeyadev)]

In article <95q2fs$m1c$1@news.wrc.xerox.com>,
Surendar Jeyadev <jeyadev@wrc.xerox.com> wrote:
>In the loosing battle with the Excel users, the latest direct hit was reading
>in a file that contained strings and numeric data in each line. Having given
>up (and as the only hold out against Excel!), I need HEEELLLPPP.
>
>This is the simplified problem. I am trying to read data in the following
>format:
>
>    001a  312.194   76.922  296.301   21.462    0.453  289.515    0.957
>    001b  363.748  106.090  506.188   19.430    0.528  347.252    1.176
>    001c  398.248  138.541  724.470   17.152    0.578  383.534    1.701
>    002a  294.593   28.525  248.744    8.532    0.428  290.497    1.268
>    002b  353.415   46.290  449.015    7.974    0.513  349.565    2.011
>    002c  401.279   80.260  661.701    3.341    0.582  395.403    4.529
>    ....
>    ....
>
>i.e. in the format "(4x,a4,7f9.3)". I would like it to go into a 2 dimensional
>structure.
>
>I cannot find a way of reading it as a entire array. At present, all I can
>come up with is
>
>
>      nsets = 108               ; number of lines of data
>      f1 = "(4x,a4,7f9.3)"
>      a = string(4)
>      y = fltarr(7)
>      dpt = { fullrow, id: ' ', x: fltarr(7) }
>      fulldata = replicate( {fullrow}, nsets)
>
>      openr, 1, 'data'
>      for i=0,nsets-1 do begin
>          readf, 1, format = f1, a, y
>          fulldata(i).id = a
>          fulldata(i).x = y
>      endfor
>      close, 1
>
>Is there any way of avoiding the temporary variables and the loop? I am
>using PV-Wave CL, Ver 6.

Thanks to everyone for all the help. Just got a call from PV Wave support.
Looks like it *is* a Wave thing -- the man assures me that there is no
other way to do it. Now, one would expect them to document why that should
be so, wouldn't one? I asked if this was true for any kind of mixed record
but the man was not sure -- thought that it may be something limited to 
strings. So much for that.

Thanks again.
-- 

Surendar Jeyadev         jeyadev@wrc.xerox.com