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6.2 The Iterator Driver Function

The iterator driver function must open the necessary FITS files and position them to the correct HDU. It must also initialize the following parameters in the iteratorCol structure (defined above) for each column or image before calling the CFITSIO iterator function. Several `constructor' routines are provided in CFITSIO for this purpose.

After the driver routine has initialized all these parameters, it can then call the CFITSIO iterator function:

  int fits_iterate_data(int narrays, iteratorCol *data, long offset,
      long nPerLoop, int (*workFn)( ), void *userPointer, int *status);

When fits_iterate_data is called it first allocates memory to hold all the requested columns of data or image pixel arrays. It then reads the input data from the FITS tables or images into the arrays then passes the structure with pointers to these data arrays to the work function. After the work function returns, the iterator function writes any output columns of data or images back to the FITS files. It then repeats this process for any remaining sets of rows or image pixels until it has processed the entire table or image or until the work function returns a non-zero status value. The iterator then frees the memory that it initially allocated and returns control to the driver routine that called it.


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Next: 6.3 Guidelines for Using Up: 6. The CFITSIO Iterator Previous: 6.1 The Iterator Work