typef
==============================================

Purpose
----------------

Returns the type of data (the number of bytes per element) in a GAUSS dataset.

Format
----------------
.. function:: y = typef(fp)

    :param fp: file handle of an open file.
    :type fp: scalar

    :return y: type of data in GAUSS dataset.

    :rtype y: scalar

Examples
----------------

::

    // Assign a variable to represent each of our file names
    infile = "dat1";
    outfile = "dat2";
    
    // Open the file "dat1" for reading.
    // Note: The ^ before 'infile' tells GAUSS to use the value
    // of the string variable 'infile' (which is 'dat1' in this 
    // case) rather than name of the variable.
    open fin = ^infile;
    
    // Get the names of the variables that are saved in the
    // dataset
    names = getname(infile);
    
    // Create a new dataset file using the same variable names
    // as 'dat1', with 1 column per data element and using the 
    // same size data, i.e. the number of bytes per element, as 
    // the data in 'dat1'
    create fout = ^outfile with ^names, 0, typef(fin);

In this example, a file :file:`dat2.dat` is created which has
the same variables and variable type as the input
file, :file:`dat1.dat`. :func:`typef` is used to return the type of
the input file data for the `create` statement.

Remarks
-------

If *fp* is a valid GAUSS file handle, then *y* will be set to the type of the data in the file as follows:

+--------+----------------------------+
|      2 | 2-byte signed integer      |
+--------+----------------------------+
|      4 | 4-byte IEEE floating point |
+--------+----------------------------+
|      8 | 8-byte IEEE floating point |
+--------+----------------------------+


.. seealso:: Functions :func:`colsf`, :func:`rowsf`