RDFLOAT

      Quickly read a numeric ASCII data file into IDL floating/double vectors.

      Columns of data may be separated by tabs or spaces.      This
      program is fast but is restricted to data files where all columns can
      be read as floating point (or all double precision).
      Use READCOL if  greater flexibility is desired.   Use READFMT to read a
      fixed-format ASCII file.   Use FORPRINT to print columns of data.

      RDFLOAT, name, v1, [ v2, v3, v4, v5, ...  v19]
                         COLUMNS, /DOUBLE, SKIPLINE = , NUMLINE = ]

      NAME - Name of ASCII data file, scalar string.  In VMS, an extension of
              .DAT is assumed, if not supplied.

      COLUMNS - Numeric scalar or vector specifying which columns in the file
               to read.    For example, if COLUMNS = [3,7,11] then the first
               output variable (v1) would contain column 3, the second would
               contain column 7 and the third would contain column 11.   If
               the number of elements in the COLUMNS vector is less than the
               number of output parameters, then consecutive columns are
               implied.    For example, if 3 output parameters are supplied
               (v1,v2,v3) and COLUMNS = 3, then columns 3,4, and 5 will be
               read.
      SKIPLINE - Integer scalar specifying number of lines to skip at the top
              of file before reading.   Default is to start at the first line.
      NUMLINE - Integer scalar specifying number of lines in the file to read.
             Default is to read the entire file
      /DOUBLE - If this keyword is set, then all variables are read in as
              double precision.
      /SILENT - Set this keyword to suppress any informative messages

      V1,V2,V3,...V19 - IDL vectors to contain columns of data.
               Up to 19 columns may be read.  All output vectors are of type
               float, unless the /DOUBLE keyword is set,

      Each row in a file 'position.dat' contains a star number and 6 columns
      of data giving an RA and Dec in sexigesimal format.   Read into IDL
      variables.
       IDL> rdfloat,'position.dat',ID,hr,min,sec,deg,dmin,dsec
       All output vectors will be floating point.    To only read the
       declination vectors (Deg,dmin,dsec)
       IDL> rdfloat,'position.dat',deg,dmin,dsec,col=4

      (1) All rows in the file must be formatted identically (except for
          those skipped by SKIPLINE).    RDFLOAT reads the first line of
          the data (after SKIPLINE) to determine the number of columns of
          data.
      (2) Cannot be used to read strings

      NUMLINES()

      V5.3 (uses STRSPLIT() )

      Written         W. Landsman                 September 1995
      Call NUMLINES() function                    February 1996
      Read up to 19 columns                       August 1997
      Converted to IDL V5.0   W. Landsman         September 1997
      Allow to skip more than 32767 lines  W. Landsman  June 2001
      Added /SILENT keyword   W. Landsman         March 2002
      Added COLUMNS keyword, use STRSPLIT    W. Landsman May 2002
      Use SKIP_LUN if V5.6 or later    W. Landsman Nov 2002

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