Built-in Interpolation, ( ) vs [ ]

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I noticed Igor returning values for waves in between the points where they were defined.

For example, take a wave called wave1 with 5 points (0,1,2,3,4). If you ask for print wave1(1.5), Igor looks like it will draw a line between points 1 and 2, and give you the value of the midpoint. Is this a general observation, and is there documentation about it anywhere?

Is there any difference between that and writing print wave1[1.5]? There doesn't seem to be in this context, but in the past I thought I had solved a problem by noting different uses between ( ) and [ ]. For example, assigning interpolated points (for which I used parentheses) to values in a wave (for which I used square brackets).

Specifically resultantwave[j] = wavetobeinterpolated(.732452*i)

The different indices were because I was taking data among many waves of a single value of "wavetobeinterpolated" (temporary name in a procedure) and assigning it to the points of resultant wave.

Thanks,
Matt
Actually there is a huge difference between () and [], and to be honest I am a bit surprised that you apparently have encountered rather few misbehaviors when using them interchangeably. I assume you don't use wave scaling so much then. So the difference is that [] takes the literal points of the waves. So wave1[1.5] will give you the value between point number 1 and 2 (note, this means NOT between point 1 and 2, since counting starts from zero). The () however will properly take the waves x scaling into account, so wave(1.5) may give you garbage if your wave happens to be scaled from, say, 200 to 900. You may want to read more about this by executing DisplayHelpTopic "Indexing and Subranges"

June 1, 2015 at 10:21 pm - Permalink

In addition I would recommend to have a look at
displayhelptopic "The Waveform Model of Data"
HJ

June 2, 2015 at 02:28 am - Permalink

Thank you both, that was helpful reading.

Yes, I'm also wondering how mixing ( ) and [ ] didn't get me into trouble. I do use wave scaling prior to my use of the parentheses and brackets.

June 2, 2015 at 07:31 am - Permalink

I think, looking back at my code, that I actually wound up using them correctly.

I took points from a scaled wave, which was a function of frequency, and assigned them to points on a different wave, which wasn't scaled. I then plotted the different wave vs. a wave of temperatures in non-uniform steps to obtain the plot I wanted.

June 2, 2015 at 07:42 am - Permalink