Getting Started with IDL: Reading and Writing Data

Reading and Writing Binary Data

Reading data files into IDL is easy if you know the format in which the data is stored. Often, images are stored as arrays of bytes instead of a known format like JPEG or TIFF. These files we'll refer to as "Binary" files. You can import binary data into IDL directly at the command line or also using the iTools if you need to visualize data in plot, surface, contour, image or volume form. Whether reading in directly or through the iTools you will need to read the binary data in using IDL's interactive wizard for importing binary data, known as the Binary Template.

For information on the various ways you can read binary data using IDL, see Reading Binary Data.

  IDL Online Help (March 06, 2007)