typeof

Returns the string name of the type of the input variable.

Prototype

	function typeof (
		val       
	)

	return_val [1] :  string

Arguments

A variable of any type and dimensionality.

Description

This function returns the string name of the input type. This is especially useful when you need to create a new variable whose type is the same as an existing variable's type.

See Also

getfilevartypes, dimsizes, sizeof, default_fillvalue, set_default_fillvalue

Examples

Example 1

The following short code snippet shows how to use new, typeof and dimsizes to create a new variable "y" based on the size and type of another variable "x":

  y = new(dimsizes(x),typeof(x))

Example 2

This example shows how to use typeof to check the type of a variable passed to a function:

function calculate_something(x,delta)
begin
  valid_types = (/"integer","float","double"/)
  if(.not.any(typeof(x).eq.valid_types)) then
    print("calculate_something: Fatal error: x is not the correct type.")
    return(new(1,float))    ; return missing
  end if
. . .
end