.\" gd_put_carray_slice.3.  The gd_put_carray_slice man page.
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 2010, 2011, 2012 D. V. Wiebe
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.TH gd_put_carray_slice 3 "4 July 2012" "Version 0.8.0" "GETDATA"
.SH NAME
gd_put_carray, gd_put_carray_slice, gd_put_constant \(em write CONST or CARRAY
data to a dirfile database
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <getdata.h>
.HP
.nh
.ad l
.BI "int gd_put_carray_slice(DIRFILE *" dirfile ", const char *" field_code ,
.BI "unsigned int " start ", size_t " len ", gd_type_t " data_type ,
.BI "const void *" data_in );
.HP
.BI "int gd_put_carray(DIRFILE *" dirfile ", const char *" field_code ,
.BI "gd_type_t " data_type ", const void *" data_in );
.HP
.BI "int gd_put_constant(DIRFILE *" dirfile ", const char *" field_code ,
.BI "gd_type_t " data_type ", const void *" data_in );
.hy
.ad n
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR gd_put_carray_slice ()
function writes data to a dirfile(5) database specified by
.I dirfile
into the
.B CARRAY
scalar array
.IR field_code .
The data in the field is converted from the data type specified by
.IR data_type ,
and read from in the user-supplied buffer
.IR data_in .
The location of the first element of the field into which data is stored is
given by
.IR start ,
and the number of elements stored is given by
.IR len .

The
.BR gd_put_carray ()
function behaves similarly, except the whole scalar array is written, as if
.BR gd_put_carray_slice ()
were called with
.I start
equal zero and
.I len
equal to the value returned by
.BR gd_carray_len (3).
The
.BR gd_put_constant ()
function is equivalent to calling
.BR gd_put_carray_slice ()
with
.I start
equal to zero and
.I len
equal to one.  None of these interfaces can write to field representations.

The argument
.I data_in
must point to a valid memory location containing all the data to be written.
The number of elements which will be stored by
.BR gd_put_carray ()
may be obtained by calling
.BR gd_carray_len (3).
Unlike
.BR gd_putdata (3),
writing data past the end of the field is not permitted.  To add data to a
.BR CARRAY ,
first increase its length by calling
.BR gd_alter_carray (3),
or another equivalent function.

The 
.I data_type
argument should be one of the following symbols, which indicates the type
of the data pointed to by
.IR data_in :
.RS
.TP 11
.B GD_UINT8
unsigned 8-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_INT8
signed (two's complement) 8-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_UINT16
unsigned 16-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_INT16
signed (two's complement) 16-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_UINT32
unsigned 32-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_INT32
signed (two's complement) 32-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_UINT64
unsigned 64-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_INT64
signed (two's complement) 64-bit integer
.TP
.B GD_FLOAT32
IEEE-754 standard 32-bit single precision floating point number
.TP
.B GD_FLOAT64
IEEE-754 standard 64-bit double precision floating point number
.TP
.B GD_COMPLEX64
C99-conformant 64-bit single precision complex number
.TP
.B GD_COMPLEX128
C99-conformant 128-bit double precision complex number
.RE

The type of the input data need not be the same as the storage type of the
field.  Type conversion will be performed as necessary to return the requested
type.  The 
.I dirfile
argument must point to a valid DIRFILE object previously created by a call to
.BR gd_open (3).
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success,
.BR gd_put_carray (),
.BR gd_put_carray_slice ()
and
.BR gd_put_constant ()
return zero.  On error, they return -1 and set the dirfile error to a non-zero
value.  Possible error values are:
.TP 8
.B GD_E_ACCMODE
The specified
.I dirfile
was opened read-only.
.TP
.B GD_E_ALLOC
The library was unable to allocate memory.
.TP
.B GD_E_BAD_CODE
The field specified by
.I field_code
was not found in the database.
.TP
.B GD_E_BAD_DIRFILE
An invalid
.I dirfile
was supplied.
.TP
.B GD_E_BAD_FIELD_TYPE
The supplied
.I field_code
was not a
.B CONST
nor a
.BR CARRAY .
The caller should use
.BR gd_putdata (3),
.BR gd_put_constant (3),
or
.BR gd_put_string (3)
instead.
.TP
.B GD_E_BAD_TYPE
An invalid
.I data_type
was specified.
.TP
.B GD_E_BOUNDS
A request for data beyond the end of the field was made.
.TP
.B GD_E_INTERNAL_ERROR
An internal error occurred in the library while trying to perform the task.
This indicates a bug in the library.  Please report the incident to the
maintainer.
.TP
.B GD_E_PROTECTED
The fragment containing the constant was protected from change.
.PP
The dirfile error may be retrieved by calling
.BR gd_error (3).
A descriptive error string for the last error encountered may be obtained from
a call to
.BR gd_error_string (3).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR dirfile (5),
.BR gd_carray_len (3),
.BR gd_carrays (3),
.BR gd_error (3),
.BR gd_error_string (3),
.BR gd_get_carray_slice (3),
.BR gd_open (3),
.BR gd_put_constant (3)