NCL Home > Documentation > Functions > NCL object routines

NhlName

Retrieves the name of one or more NCL objects.

Prototype

	function NhlName (
		objects [*] : graphic   
	)

	return_val [dimsizes(objects)] :  string

Arguments

objects

An array of one or more instances of NCL objects. NCL objects are created by using one of the many gsn functions, or by calling the NCL create language construct.

Description

This function returns the individual name given to each object in objects. If the object was created using one of the GSN functions, this name is set internally. If the object was created by using the NCL create language construct, then the name is the one in double quotes.

If any item of objects is either missing or is an invalid object, the result is a missing value.

See Also

NhlClassName

Examples

Example 1

This example creates a workstation, an XY plot, and a text string, and prints the name of all of them using NhlName:

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_code.ncl"

begin
;
; Create workstation.
;
  wks = gsn_open_wks("x11","test")

;
; Create a data object.
;
  npts = 500
  x    = fspan(0,npts-1,npts)
  y    = 500.+ 0.9 * x * sin(0.031415926535898*x)
  xy   = gsn_xy(wks,x,y,False)

  print(NhlName((/wks,xy/)))   ; Should be (/"test_x11","test_xy"/).

;
; Use the "create" construct to create a text string.
; In this case, NhlName will return the name that
; follows the "create" keyword ("text1").
;
 text = create "text1" textItemClass wks
    "txString"      : "This is a string"
    "txPosYF"       : 0.5
    "txPosYF"       : 0.9
  end create

  print(NhlName(text))   ; Should be "text1".