using original datafile names when loading waves thru LoadWave

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Fri, 02/17/2012 - 10:17 am

Hello all, I am trying to name the waves created thru LoadWave using original names of the datafiles. I thought, I would use global $S_waveNames and $S_fileName in Duplicate to do so but it gives me an error Duplicate error: expected wave name. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Vishi

Function CustomWaveSelect(fileName, pathName)
    String pathName // Name of Igor symbolic path or ""
    String filePath     // Full path, partial path or file name

    if (V_Flag)
        return -1 // User canceled
    endif
    // Load the waves and set the local variables.
    LoadWave/M/J/D/O/P=$pathName fileName
    Duplicate/O $S_waveNames, $S_fileName
    if (V_flag==0) // No waves loaded. Perhaps user canceled.
        return -1
    endif
End
S_waveNames is a semicolon-separated list of waves loaded. So if LoadWave loaded one wave, S_waveNames would be something like "wave0;". Semicolon is not allowed in wave names. That is why you are getting this error.

Here is how I would do it:
Function CustomWaveLoad(pathName, filePath)
    String pathName // Name of Igor symbolic path or ""
    String filePath     // Full path, partial path or file name

    if (strlen(filePath) == 0)          // Want Open File dialog?
        Open/D/R/P=$pathName refNum as filePath
        if (strlen(S_fileName) == 0)
            return -1               // User canceled.
        endif
        filePath = S_fileName       // This is a full path.
    endif

    // Get just the fileName but with the extension remove.
    String wName = ParseFilePath(3, filePath, ":", 0, 0)
    wName = CleanupName(wName, 0)   // Change 0 to 1 if you want to allow liberal names
   
    // Get string to pass to LoadWave /B flag to set wave name
    String columnInfo
    sprintf columnInfo, "N='%s';", wName

    // Load the waves and set the local variables.
    LoadWave/M/J/D/O/B=columnInfo/P=$pathName filePath
   
    return V_flag       // Number of waves loaded
End


If your data contains just numbers (no NaNs, dates, text data), then I recommend using LoadWave/G instead of LoadWave/D. The reason is that LoadWave/G will find the data in the file, skipping any header information, whereas LoadWave/D needs to be told where (on what line) the data starts. However, if the file contains nothing but numbers, both LoadWave/G and LoadWave/D will work fine.

If you are not familiar with Igor symbolic paths, execute this to read the help:
DisplayHelpTopic "Symbolic Paths"

February 17, 2012 at 10:59 am - Permalink

 

 

Great! Thanks so much. I've commentized /if (strlen(filePath) == 0) because I want it to loop thru the number of files the user chooses to plot/analyze and it works. A separate thanks for your bonus tips on how to clean the file name and strip it off the extension. Thanks a lot!

Vishi

 

 

//if (strlen(filePath) == 0)            // Want Open File dialog?
        Open/D/R/P=$pathName refNum as filePath
        if (strlen(S_fileName) == 0)
            return -1               // User canceled.
        endif
        filePath = S_fileName       // This is a full path.
//  endif

 

 

 

February 17, 2012 at 11:40 am - Permalink