LIST

LIST

Support Command

Lists (i.e., print) the contents of a mass storage file.

The file being listed can be any ASCII text file. For example, you may want to see the contents of a data file, a Dataplot macro or the output from the Dataplot CAPTURE command. However, you are not limited to Dataplot related files.

There are a number of special keywords that are recognized for the LIST command. Specifically,

DICTIONARY	-	lists the Dataplot dictionary file (dpdicf.tex)
DIRECTORY	-	lists the Dataplot directory file (dpdirf.tex)
MASTER	-	lists the Dataplot directory file (dpdirf.tex)
DEFINITIONS	-	lists any definitions that have been created with the DEFINE command
DATASETS	-	lists Dataplot datasets (datasets)
DESIGNS	-	lists a number of experimental designs (designs)
DISTRIBU	-	lists probability distributions supported in Dataplot (distribu)
COMMANDS	-	lists a number of Dataplot commands (commands)
SYNTAX	-	lists the syntax file (syntax)
FUNCTION	-	lists functions supported in Dataplot (function)
PROGRAMS	-	lists Dataplot programs (programs)
MACROS	-	lists Dataplot macros (macros)
CONCLUSIONS	-	lists the Dataplot conclusions file (dpconf.tex)
CLIPBOARD	-	the contents of the clipboard (operating system dependent)
FUNCTION BLOCK	-	lists functions defined by the FUNCTION BLOCK command
STATISTIC BLOCK	-	lists functions defined by the STATISTIC BLOCK command
LOOP LINES	-	lists the contents of the stored LOOP commands
COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS	-	lists the currently defined command line arguments

LIST
L


This lists the last 20 Dataplot commands. The SET LIST LINES command can be used to specify how many commands are listed (up to a maximum of 200). This command is typically used before a REPEAT or SAVE command to selectively re-execute recent Dataplot commands. Enter HELP REPEAT or HELP SAVE for details.

LIST <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a file.

This lists the entire contents of the specified file. The SET LIST LINES command can be used to specify the number of lines to print at a time (to print one screen at a time).

LIST <file name> FOR I = <start> <inc> <stop>
where <file name> is the file to list;
            <start> specifies the first line to list;
            <inc> specifies the increment between lines (this is almost always 1);
and <stop> specifies the last row to list.

This syntax is useful for listing out selected parts of long files.

LIST <keyword>
where <keyword> is one of DICTIONARY, DIRECTORY, MASTER, DEFINITIONS, DATASETS, PROGRAMS, MACROS, DESIGNS, DISTRIBU, COMMANDS, SYNTAX, FUNCTIONS, CONCLUSIONS, CLIPBOARD, FUNCTION BLOCK, STATISTIC BLOCK, LOOP LINES, or COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS.

LIST NEW WINDOW <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a file.

This syntax displays the LIST output in a separate window. See the Note section below for details.

LIST HEAD <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a file.

This syntax displays the first 10 lines of the file. To modify the number of lines LIST HEAD prints, enter

SET HEAD LINES <value>

where is a positive integer.

LIST TAIL <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a file.

This syntax displays the last 10 lines of the file. To modify the number of lines LIST TAIL prints, enter

SET TAIL LINES <value>

where <value> is a positive integer.

LIST EXCEL <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a spreadsheet file.

This syntax will display a spreadsheet file (not necessarily limited to Excel spreadsheets).

See the Note section below for further information.

LIST WORD <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a document file.

This syntax will display a document file (not necessarily limited to Word files).

See the Note section below for further information.

LIST POWER POINT <file name>
where <file name> is the name of a presentation file.

This syntax will display a presentation file (not necessarily limited to Power Point files).

See the Note section below for further information.

LIST PLOTCALIB.
LIST PROG.PLOTLAB
LIST
L
LIST PLOT.DAT FOR I = 1 1 50
LIST DATASETS
LIST CLIPBOARD

The LIST command lists 20 lines at a time. You are then prompted with a "MORE?". Enter <CR> to continue, NO to terminate the listing. You can use the SET LIST LINES command to specify how many lines are listed at a time.

The LIST command with a file name is often used to preview a file before carrying out a READ or a CALL--just to double-check the contents of the file.

File names are currently limited to a maximum of 80 characters. File names are case sensitive on Linux/Unix/MacOS platforms, but not on Windows platforms.

Dataplot will first try to open the file as given. If it cannot find the file, it will then try to match the file with all upper case characters and then with all lower case characters. If it still cannot match the file name, it will search the Dataplot directories for the file.

Currently, the maximum line length for the LIST command is 255 characters.

The CAT command is an alternative to the LIST command. The CAT command issues an operating system command (cat for Linux/Unix/MacOS, TYPE for Windows) to list the file.

The CAT command does not have the limits on the number of characters in the file name (the maximum number of characters on a command line is currently 255) and the limit on the number of characters on a single line. However, the CAT command does not support the keywords in Syntax 4 and does not automatically search the Dataplot directories.

The 2019/11 version of Dataplot added the following command
SET LIST NEW WINDOW

When this switch is set to ON, Dataplot will display the contents of the output from the LIST command in a separate window.

Under Windows, the following command is issued to the operating system to display the dpst1f.dat file

notepad dpst1f.dat

Under Linux/Unix/MacOS, the following command is issued to the operating system to display the dpst1f.dat file

gnome-terminal -e "vi dpst1f.dat"

You can specify a different viewer by entering the command

SET LIST VIEWER <name>

For example, you could enter the following

SET LIST VIEWER emacs; . Use emacs viewer for Linux


. Use Notepad++ for Windows
SET LIST VIEWER "C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"


. Use Wordpad for Windows
SET LIST VIEWER write.exe; . Use Wordpad


If <name> contains spaces or hypens, it should be enclosed in double quotes.

For Linux/Unix/MacOS, you may need to specify something other than gnome-terminal to launch the new window. We have tested the following

SET LIST LAUNCHER xterm -e
SET LIST LAUNCHER kconsole -e


For Linux, the appropriate choice may depend on which desktops and applications are installed on your system. The gnome-terminal should be available if you run the gnome desktop and kconsole should be available if you run the KDE desktop. Note that xterm is no longer installed by default on some newer Linux installations.

Control is returned to the Dataplot window after the operating system command is entered (i.e., you can leave the LIST window open while you enter new Dataplot commands).

To reset the default of LIST output appearing in the Dataplot window, enter

SET LIST NEW WINDOW OFF

For a single LIST command, you can enter

LIST NEW WINDOW

The 2019/12 version of Dataplot added the following commands
LIST EXCEL <file-name>
LIST WORD <file-name>
LIST POWER POINT <file-name>


These commands are used to view various types of office files such as spreadsheets and document files. Although we use EXCEL, WORD and POWER POINT in the command names, you are not limited to Microsoft Office files.

By default, under Windows these commands will issue the following command

SYSTEM <file-name>

By default, under Linux/Unix these commands will issue the following command

SYSTEM xdg-open <file-name>

By default, under MacOS these commands will issue the following command

SYSTEM open <file-name>

These defaults will use the file name extension to determine the application to view the file. This depends on an appropriate file association being defined on your system for a given file extension. There may be cases where you do not want to use the default application. For example, the default applications may be set by a system administrator and you prefer to use a different application. Also, you may have a file with an extension for which no file association has been created. Dataplot allows you to define a specific application to use for these types of files.

To specify specific applications to use, you can enter the following commands

SET EXCEL VIEWER "<application-name>"
SET WORD VIEWER "<application-name>"
SET POWER POINT VIEWER "<application-name>"


Dataplot does no error checking to see if <application-name> is in fact installed on your system.

For example, to explicitly use libreoffice applications under Linux, you could enter

SET EXCEL VIEWER "libreoffice --calc"
SET WORD VIEWER "libreoffice --writer"
SET POWER POINT VIEWER "libreoffice --impress"


A few comments on this.

1. The Dataplot LIST command does not check the file name extension. You need to explicitly use LIST EXCEL, LIST WORD, or LIST POWER POINT to invoke the application.

2. Once the application is invoked, control returns to the Dataplot window. So you can view the spreadsheet or document while still entering Dataplot commands.

3. There are a large number of spreadsheet and word processing programs each which tends to have their own file extensions. Although the Microsoft extensions (.xls, .xlsx, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx) are likely to have file associations defined on most systems, this is less likely to be true for other spreadsheet or word processing programs. In this case, you can either create the file association or use the SET EXCEL VIEWER, SET WORD VIEWER, or SET POWER POINT VIEWER commands to specify the desired application.

If a Dataplot command starts with a file name, Dataplot interprets this as a CALL command. For example, entering
test.dp

is equivalent to entering

call test.dp

Dataplot will now check the extension on the file name. Specifically

1. If the file has a ".dat", ".DAT", ".csv", ".CSV", ".out", or ".OUT" extension, the following will be done
   LIST NEW WINDOW <file-name>

2. If the file has a ".xls", ".XLS", ".xlsx", or ".XLSX" extension, the following will be done
   LIST EXCEL <file-name>

   If the file has a ".doc", ".DOC", ".docx", or ".DOCX" extension, the following will be done

   LIST WORD <file-name>

   If the file has a ".ppt", ".PPT", ".pptx", or ".PPTX" extension, the following will be done

   LIST POWER POINT <file-name>

If no file name or arguments are provided, then the last 20 entered Dataplot commands are listed.

L, VIEW, and PREVIEW are synonyms for LIST.

CAT	=	List a file using an appropriate operating system command.
NLIST	=	List a file with line numbers.
SEARCH	=	Search a file for a specified string.
REPEAT	=	Re-execute prior commands.
SAVE	=	= Re-execute prior saved commands.
READ	=	Reads data (column-wise) into variables.
WRITE	=	Writes variables, parameters, or functions to the screen or to a file.
CALL	=	Executes the commands in a "macro" file.

Interactive Usage

Pre-1987
1987/01: Support for DIRECTORY keyword
1988/08: Support for DICTIONARY keyword
1989/07: Support list output one page at a time
1993/11: Support for DATASETS, DESIGNS, DISTRIBUTIONS, COMMANDS, SYNTAX, FUNCTIONS, PROGRAMS, and MACROS keywords
2014/11: Support for CLIPBOARD keyword
2015/09: Support for FUNCTION BLOCK keyword
2016/08: Support for STATISTIC BLOCK keyword
2016/10: Support for LIST COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS keyword
2017/07: Support for LOOP LINES keyword
2018/06: Increase maximum line length from 80 to 255
2019/11: Added LIST HEAD syntax
2019/11: Added LIST TAIL syntax
2019/11: Added LIST NEW WINDOW syntax
2019/12: Added LIST EXCEL syntax
2019/12: Added LIST WORD syntax
2019/12: Added LIST POWER POINT syntax

 
SKIP 25
READ BERGER1.DAT Y X
.
SET WRITE DECIMALS 5
CAPTURE FIT.OUT
FIT Y X
END OF CAPTURE
.
LIST FIT.OUT