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Reading from an example (created 2009), I have created a .dat file called temperature_vs_current.dat with 2 columns of data. The example says I should then read the file into IDL via 

IDL> iplot, temperature_vs_darkcurrent.dat

but this returns

% Expression must be a structure in this context: TEMPERATURE_VS_DARKCURRENT.
% Execution halted at: $MAIN$

how should I format my input, and what is the error here? This is IDL Version 6.0

sr_
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1 Answers1

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(It follows guesswork derived from this and this.) Apparently, iplot needs array argument(s), not files, so you could try something like this:

N = 10                ; number of data pairs in the .dat file
xy = fltarr(2,N)      ; create empty 2xN array
openr, 1, 'temperature_vs_darkcurrent.dat' ; open file
readf, 1, xy          ; file content ~~> array
close, 1              ; close file
x = xy(0,*)           ; separate pairs into x...
y = xy(1,*)           ; ...and y
iplot, x, y           ; iplot
end

This is just a starting point, there might be more convenient ways, I have no idea.

sr_
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