Name

---

      RDFITS_STRUCT

Purpose

---

      Read an entire FITS file (all extensions) into a single IDL structure.

Explanation

---

      Each header, image or table array is placed in a separate structure
      tag.

Calling Sequence

---

      RDFITS_STRUCT, filename, struct, /SILENT, /HEADER_ONLY, EXTEN= ]

Input

---

      FILENAME = Scalar string giving the name of the FITS file.
                One can also specify a gzip (.gz) compressed file

Optional Keyword

---

      /HEADER_ONLY - If set, then only the FITS headers (and not the data)
                are read into the structure.
      /SILENT - Set this keyword to suppress informational displays at the
              terminal.

Output

---

      struct = structure into which FITS data is read. The primary header
            and image are placed into tag names HDR0 and IM0. The ith
            extension is placed into the tag names HDRi, and either TABi
            (if it is a binary or ASCII table) or IMi (if it is an image
            extension)
            If /HEADER_ONLY is set, then struct will contain tags HDR0, HDR1
            ....HDRn containing all the headers of a FITS file with n
            extensions

Optional Input Keyword

---

      EXTEN - positive integer array specifying which extensions to read.
            Default is to read all extensions.

Procedures Used

---

      FITS_OPEN, FITS_READ, FITS_CLOSE

Method

---

      The file is opened with FITS_OPEN which return information on the
      number and type of each extension. The CREATE_STRUCT() function
      is used iteratively, with FITS_READ calls to build the final structure.

Example

---

      Read the FITS file 'm33.fits' into an IDL structure, st
      IDL> rdfits_struct, 'm33.fits', st
      IDL> help, /str, st ;Display info about the structure
      To just read the second and fourth extensions
      IDL> rdfits_struct, 'm33.fits', st, exten=[2,4]

Restrictions

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      Does not handle random groups or variable length binary tables

Modification History

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      Written K. Venkatakrishna, STX April 1992
      Code cleaned up a bit W. Landsman STX October 92
      Modified for MacOS I. Freedman HSTX April 1994
      Work under Windows 95 W. Landsman HSTX January 1996
      Use anonymous structures, skip extensions without data WBL April 1998
      Converted to IDL V5.0, W. Landsman, April 1998
      OS-independent deletion of temporary file W. Landsman Jan 1999
      Major rewrite to use FITS_OPEN and CREATE_STRUCT() W. Landsman Sep 2002
      Added /HEADER_ONLY keyword W. Landsman October 2003
      Do not copy primary header into extension headers W. Landsman Dec 2004
      Do not modify NAXIS when using /HEADER_ONLY W. Landsman Jan 2005
      Added EXTEN keyword W. Landsman July 2009