Break a wave with $ reference?

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When I run the below function, to add points at the beginning or end of a wave (loading the waves via string references), a tempwave wave is created in the current data folder. It is the default make wave (128 rows, each 0). If I include killwaves tempwave, however, the wave with name: sample +"_"+ stringfromlist(i,templist) is deleted.

Can I sever the connection between the dummy tempwave name and the actual name of the wave?



function wavepadding(prefstartpoint,prefendpoint,actstartpoint,actendpoint,sample,templist)
variable prefstartpoint,prefendpoint,actstartpoint,actendpoint
 
 
string sample, templist
 
variable i
make/o tempwave
 
for(i=0;i<itemsinlist(templist);i+=1)
string tempstring = sample +"_"+ stringfromlist(i,templist)
 
wave tempwave = $tempstring
 
if(numpnts(tempwave)>3)
insertpoints actendpoint, prefendpoint-actendpoint, tempwave
else 
insertpoints prefstartpoint, actstartpoint-prefstartpoint, tempwave
endif
 
 
endfor
 
end
 
<pre><code class="language-igor">
In your sample you are not even using the made tempwave. But I suppose this is a test routine from something more complex.

To kill the actual tempwave rather than what the tempwave WAVE reference points to, you can do one of the following:

wave tempwave = $"tempwave" 
KillWaves tempwave


or just

KillWaves $"tempwave"


You could also use a free wave and not bother with a KillWaves like so
Make/FREE tempwave


Larry Hutchinson
WaveMetrics
support@WaveMetrics.com

January 25, 2015 at 09:41 am - Permalink

Hmm...I didn't think wave could actually create the label "tempwave," only load it or assign string names to it. Does it work differently when assigning a string reference to it?

January 25, 2015 at 11:14 am - Permalink

This makes a wave and also automatically makes a wave reference named temp wave which points to the wave just made:
make/o tempwave


This makes a wave reference named tempwave that points to an already-existing wave whose name is stored in a string:
string tempstring = sample +"_"+ stringfromlist(i,templist)
wave tempwave = $tempstring


I don't know why you are making a wave named tempwave. It seem more likely that you just need the wave reference.

For details execute:
DisplayHelpTopic "Wave References"

January 25, 2015 at 02:24 pm - Permalink

Yeah, I only need the wave reference. I was augmenting some old code for this purpose and copied the make command. But I felt it should be there, since I didn't think wave could create a new wave reference, but I see I was wrong.

Thanks for your help.

January 25, 2015 at 04:35 pm - Permalink