output#

Purpose#

This command makes it possible to direct the output of print statements to two different places simultaneously. One output device is always the window or standard output. The other can be selected by the user to be any disk file or other suitable output device such as a printer.

Format#

output file=filename;
output file=filename [on|off|reset];

Parameters:

filename:

(literal or ^string)

The file=filename subcommand selects the file or device to which output is to be sent.

If the name of the file is to be taken from a string variable, the name of the string must be preceded by the ^ (caret) operator..

The default file name is output.out.

on, off, reset:

(literal) mode flag:

on

opens the auxiliary output file or device and causes the results of all print statements to be sent to that file or device. If the file already exists, it will be opened for appending. If the file does not already exist, it will be created.

off

closes the auxiliary output file and turns off the auxiliary output.

reset

similar to the on subcommand, except that it always creates a new file. If the file already exists, it will be destroyed and a new file by that name will be created. If it does not exist, it will be created.

Examples#

output file = out1.out on;

This statement will open the file out1.out and will cause the results of all subsequent print statements to be sent to that file. If out1.out already exists, the new output will be appended.

output file = out2.out;
output on;

This is equivalent to the previous example, with the exception that the file opened is named out2.out.

output reset;

This statement will create a new output file using the current filename. If the file already exists, any data in it will be lost.

output file = mydata.asc reset;
screen off;
format /m1/rz 1,8;
open fp = mydata;

do until eof(fp);
   print readr(fp, 200);;
endo;

fp = close(fp);
end;

The program above will write the contents of the GAUSS file mydata.dat into an ASCII file called mydata.asc. If there had been an existing file by the name of mydata.asc, it would have been overwritten.

The /m1 parameter in the format(keyword) statement in combination with the ;; at the end of the print statement will cause one carriage return/line feed pair to be written at the beginning of each row of the output file. There will not be an extra line feed added at the end of each 200 row block.

The end statement above will automatically perform output off and screen on.

Remarks#

After you have written to an output file you have to close the file before you can print it or edit it with the GAUSS editor. Use

output off;

The selection of the auxiliary output file or device remains in effect until a new selection is made, or until you get out of GAUSS. Thus, if a file is named as the output device in one program, it will remain the output device in subsequent programs until a new file=filename subcommand is encountered.

The command

output file=filename;

will select the file or device but will not open it. A subsequent output on or output reset will open it and turn on the auxiliary output.

The command output off will close the file and turn off the auxiliary output. The filename will remain the same. A subsequent output on will cause the file to be opened again for appending. A subsequent output reset will cause the existing file to be destroyed and then recreated and will turn on the auxiliary output.

The command output by itself will cause the name and status (i.e., open or closed) of the current auxiliary output file to be printed to the window.

The output to the console can be turned off and on using the screen off and screen on commands. Output to the auxiliary file or device can be turned off or on using the output off or output on command. The defaults are screen on and output off.

The auxiliary file or device can be closed by an explicit output off statement, by an end statement, or by an interactive new statement. However, a new statement at the beginning of a program will not close the file. This allows programs with new statements in them to be run without reopening the auxiliary output file.

If a program sends data to a disk file, it will execute much faster if the window is off.

The outwidth command will set the line width of the output file. The default is 80.

on	opens the auxiliary output file or device and causes the results of all print statements to be sent to that file or device. If the file already exists, it will be opened for appending. If the file does not already exist, it will be created.
off	closes the auxiliary output file and turns off the auxiliary output.
reset	similar to the on subcommand, except that it always creates a new file. If the file already exists, it will be destroyed and a new file by that name will be created. If it does not exist, it will be created.