Routines (by topic) > Input/Output

# Input/Output

## General File Access

APP_USER_DIR - Provide access to the application user directory.

APP_USER_DIR_QUERY - Locate existing application user directories.

DIALOG_PICKFILE - Create a native file-selection dialog.

FILE_BASENAME - Return the final segment of a file path.

FILE_CHMOD - Change file or directory access permissions.

FILE_COPY - Copy files or directories to a new location.

FILE_DELETE - Remove files or empty directories.

FILE_DIRNAME - Return the directory name of a file path.

FILE_EXPAND_PATH - Return a fully-qualified path.

FILE_INFO - Return status information about a file.

FILE_LINES - Return the number of lines of text in a file.

FILE_LINK - Create Unix file links.

FILE_MKDIR - Create a new directory or directories.

FILE_MOVE - Rename files or directories.

FILE_POLL_INPUT - Block processing until it detects that a read operation will succeed.

FILE_READLINK - Return the path pointed to by a Unix symbolic link.

FILE_SAME - Determine if two different file names refer to the same file.

FILE_SEARCH - Return the names of all files matching an input path.

FILE_TEST - Test a file or directory for existence and other attributes.

FILE_WHICH - Return the first file found by searching a specified path.

FILEPATH - Return the full path to a file in the IDL distribution.

FSTAT - Return information about a specified file unit.

PATH_SEP - Return the file path separator character for the current operating system.

## Compressed File Formats

FILE_GZIP - Compress a file or files using the GZIP format.

FILE_GUNZIP - Uncompress a file or files using the GZIP format.

FILE_TAR - Create a TAR file from files and directories.

FILE_UNTAR - Untar a TAR file containing multiple files and directories.

FILE_ZIP - Create a ZIP file from files and directories.

FILE_UNZIP - Unzip a ZIP file containing multiple files and directories.

ZLIB_COMPRESS - Compress an in-memory array to a ZLIB stream.

ZLIB_UNCOMPRESS - Uncompress a ZLIB stream into an array.

## Image Data Formats

Note: Also see Query Routines.

DIALOG_READ_IMAGE - Present a dialog for reading image files.

DIALOG_WRITE_IMAGE - Present a dialog for writing image files.

GET_DXF_OBJECTS - Return an object containing graphics from a DXF file.

IDLffDICOM- An object that reads a DICOM part 10 file.

IDLffJPEG2000- An object that reads or writes JPEG2000 files.

IDLffMJPEG2000- Create and play Motion JPEG2000 files.

IDLffMrSID - Query and load image data from a MrSID image file.

IDLffVideoWrite - Write images and audio to a video file.

READ_BMP - Read Microsoft Windows bitmap files (.BMP).

READ_DICOM - Read DICOM image files.

READ_GIF - Read GIF files.

READ_IMAGE - Read an image from a file.

READ_INTERFILE - Read Interfile (v3.3) files.

READ_JPEG - Read JPEG files.

READ_JPEG2000 - Read JPEG 2000 files.

READ_MRSID - Read MrSID files.

READ_PICT - Read Macintosh PICT (version 2) files.

READ_PNG - Read Portable Network Graphics (PNG) files.

READ_PPM - Read PGM (gray scale) or PPM files.

READ_SRF - Read Sun Raster Format files.

READ_TIFF - Read TIFF files.

READ_VIDEO - Read video/audio files.

READ_X11_BITMAP - Read X11 bitmap files.

READ_XWD - Read X Windows Dump files.

WRITE_BMP - Write Microsoft Windows bitmap files (.BMP).

WRITE_GIF - Write GIF files.

WRITE_IMAGE - Write an image and its color table to a file.

WRITE_JPEG - Write JPEG files.

WRITE_JPEG2000 - Write JPEG 2000 files.

WRITE_NRIF - Write NCAR Raster Interchange Format rasterfiles.

WRITE_PICT - Write Macintosh PICT (version 2) files.

WRITE_PNG - Write Portable Network Graphics (PNG) files.

WRITE_PPM - Write PPM (true-color) or PGM (gray scale) files.

WRITE_SRF - Write Sun Raster File (SRF) files.

WRITE_TIFF - Write TIFF files.

WRITE_VIDEO - Write video and audio files.

## HDF, NetCDF, and CDF Formats

H5_BROWSER - Open a dialog to view an HDF5 file.

H5_PARSE - Return an IDL structure or ordered hash containing object information and data from an HDF5 file.

HDF_PARSE - Return an ordered hash containing object information and data from an HDF4 file.

HDF Routines - Hierarchical Data Format routines.

HDF5 Routines - Hierarchical Data Format routines (version 5).

HDF_BROWSER - Open a dialog to view an HDF, HDF-EOS, or NetCDF file.

EOS Routines - HDF-EOS (Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System) routines.

HDF_READ - Extract HDF, HDF-EOS, and NetCDF data and metadata into an output structure.

NetCDF Routines - Network Common Data Format routines.

CDF Routines - Common Data Format routines.

## GRIB Formats

GRIB Routines - Read and write GRIdded Binary (GRIB) 1 and GRIB 2 files.

## Video Input/Output

### Classes

IDLffVideoRead - Open and read video and audio files.

IDLffVideoWrite - Create a video and audio file.

### Functions

QUERY_VIDEO - Obtains information about a video/audio file.

READ_VIDEO - Read video/audio files.

WRITE_VIDEO - Create video/audio files.

## Other Data Formats

ASCII_TEMPLATE - A dialog that generates templates for reading ASCII files.

BINARY_TEMPLATE - A dialog that generates templates for reading binary files.

JSON_PARSE - Convert a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string.

JSON_SERIALIZE - Convert a HASH or LIST into a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string.

IDLffDXF- Object that contains geometry, connectivity, and attributes for graphics primitives.

IDLffShape - Contains geometry, connectivity and attributes for graphics primitives accessed from ESRI Shapefiles.

IDLffXMLDOM Classes* - Classes that provide support for IDL’s XML Document Object Model (DOM).

IDLffXMLSAX - Represents an XML SAX level 2 parser.

IDLgrVRML - Save the contents of an Object Graphics hierarchy into a VRML file.

READ_ASCII - Read data from an ASCII file.

READ_BINARY - Read data from a binary file.

READ_CSV - Read data from an comma-delimited text file.

READ_SYLK - Read data from a Symbolic Link file.

READ_WAV - Read audio stream from a WAV file.

READ_WAVE - Read a Wavefront Advanced Visualizer file.

WRITE_CSV - Write a comma-separated-values file.

WRITE_SYLK - Write a SYLK (Symbolic Link) file.

WRITE_WAV - Write an audio stream to a WAV file.

WRITE_WAVE - Write a Wavefront Advanced Visualizer file.

## General Input/Output

ASSOC - Associate an array structure with a file.

CLIPBOARD - Provide access to the system clipboard.

CLOSE - Close the specified file.

COPY_LUN - Copy data between two open files.

EOF - Test a file for the end-of-file condition.

FLUSH - Flush file unit buffers.

FREE_LUN - Free previously-reserved file units.

GET_KBRD - Get one input character.

GET_LUN - Reserve a logical unit number (file unit).

IOCTL - Perform special functions on UNIX files.

OPENR - Open a file for reading.

OPENU - Open a file for updating.

OPENW - Open a file for writing.

POINT_LUN - Set or get the current file pointer position.

PRINT - Write formatted output to the screen.

PRINTF - Write formatted output to a file.

READ - Read formatted input from the keyboard.

READF - Read formatted input from a file.

READS - Read formatted input from a string variable.

READU - Read unformatted binary data from a file.

SEM_CREATE - Create a semaphore in the current process.

SEM_DELETE - Destroy a semaphore.

SEM_LOCK - Attempt to gain the lock on an existing semaphore.

SEM_RELEASE - Release the lock on a semaphore.

SHMMAP - Map shared memory or local disk files into the memory address space.

SHMUNMAP - Remove a shared memory segment.

SHMVAR - Create an IDL array variable that uses shared memory.

SKIP_LUN - Read data in an open file and move the file pointer.

SOCKET - Open a client-side TCP/IP socket as an IDL file unit.

TRUNCATE_LUN - Truncate an open file at the current file pointer location.

WRITEU - Write unformatted binary data to a file.