How to call a Macro inside a function

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Here is a Macro that I wrote. Inside this Macro,  It calls another macro named loadODMRtrace. But I would like to change this Macro into a Function, so that I could type the function in the commend window to load traces. I am wondering if there is anyway to modify this code, so that I could have a Function loadODMRtraces(pathname), and call the Macro loadODMRtrace inside the function. See the details of coding below. Much appreciated!

Macro loadODMRtraces(pathname)  
    // calls loadtrace on all files in folder called pathname
    // Load and process all files in a given folder.
    //   The folder is specified by pathName which becomes a dialog 
    //   if no input is given.
    //   YOU MUST INCLUDE #include <Strings as Lists>
    //   SOMEWHERE IN YOUR PROCEDURE, AS THIS MACRO
    //   CALLS SUBROUTINES FROM THAT INCLUDE FILE.
    String pathName //  name of symbolic path or "" to get dialog
    variable/d numfiles
    String filename
    PauseUpdate; Silent 1   // Processing files . . . 
    Variable index=0
    variable/d tracenum
    if (strlen(pathName)==0)            // if no path specified, create one
        NewPath/O temporaryPath     // this will put up a dialog
        pathName = "temporaryPath"
    endif
    print IndexedFile($pathName,-1,"????")
    do
        fileName = IndexedFile($pathName, index, ".csv")
        if (strlen(fileName)==0)
            break // break out of loop
        endif
//      Assume file name is of form mmddyyc.xxxx, where x is a number. Strip off the number.
        tracenum = str2num(filename[7,10])
        loadODMRtrace(tracenum,filename,pathname)
        print index,filename,tracenum
        index += 1
    while(1)
    if (Exists("temporaryPath"))            // kill temp path if it exists
        KillPath temporaryPath
    endif
EndMacro

 

Macros are ancient and should be avoided in most circumstances. Use functions instead.

In the case of the macro above, to convert it to a function, all you need to do is change "Macro" to "Function" and remove the PauseUpdate line. You don't have to but I would change "EndMacro" to "End".

If you do this, you will also need to change the loadODMRtrace subroutine to a function.

For further discussion, execute this:

DisplayHelpTopic "Converting Macros To Functions"

 

August 20, 2024 at 09:55 am - Permalink