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Abteilung Astronomie

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DB_ITEM Source code in db_item.pro

DB_ITEM

Name
       DB_ITEM
Purpose
       Returns the item numbers and other info. for an item name.
Explanation
       Procedure to return the item numbers and other information
       of a specified item name
Calling Sequence
       db_item, items, itnum, ivalnum, idltype, sbyte, numvals, nbytes
Input Parameters
       items - item name or number
               form 1  scalar string giving item(s) as list of names
                       separated by commas
               form 2  string array giving list of item names
               form 3  string of form '$filename' giving name
                       of text file containing items (one item per
                       line)
               form 4  integer scalar giving single item number or
                         integer vector list of item numbers
               form 5  Null string specifying interactive selection
                       Upon return items will contain selected items
                       in form 1
               form 6  '*'     select all items
Output Parameters
       itnum - item number
       ivalnum - value(s) number from multiple valued item
       idltype - data type(s) (1=string,2=byte,4=i*4,...)
       sbyte - starting byte(s) in entry
       numvals - number of data values for item(s)
               It is the full length of a vector item unless
               a subscript was supplied
       nbytes - number of bytes for each value
    All outputs are vectors even if a single item is requested
Optional Input Keywords
       ERRMSG   = If defined and passed, then any error messages will
               be returned to the user in this parameter rather than depending
               on the MESSAGE routine in IDL.  If no errors are encountered,
               then a null string is returned.  In order to use this feature,
               ERRMSG must be defined first, e.g.
                               ERRMSG = ''
                               DB_ITEM, ERRMSG=ERRMSG, ...
                               IF ERRMSG NE '' THEN ...
Procedures Used
       DB_INFO, GETTOK, SCREEN_SELECT, SPEC_DIR
Revision History
       Written:   D. Lindler, GSFC/HRS, October 1987
       Version 2, William Thompson, GSFC, 17-Mar-1997
                       Added keyword ERRMSG
       Converted to IDL V5.0   W. Landsman   October 1997
       Use STRSPLIT instead of GETTOK to parse form 1, W. Landsman July 2002

Last modified by pro2html on 2004 February 26 at 04:44 UTC

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Jörn Wilms (wilms@astro.uni-tuebingen.de)
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