NAME

       gd_nentries, gd_nfields, gd_nfields_by_type gd_nmfields, gd_nmfields_by_type, gd_nmvectors, gd_nvectors —
       count field entries in a Dirfile

SYNOPSIS

       #include <getdata.h>

       unsigned int gd_nentries(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *parent, unsigned int type, unsigned int flags);

       unsigned int gd_nfields(DIRFILE *dirfile);

       unsigned int gd_nfields_by_type(DIRFILE *dirfile, gd_entype_t type);

       unsigned int gd_nmfields(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *parent);

       unsigned int gd_nmfields_by_type(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *parent, gd_entype_t type);

       unsigned int gd_nmvectors(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *parent);

       unsigned int gd_nvectors(DIRFILE *dirfile);

DESCRIPTION

       The gd_nentries() function queries a dirfile(5) database specified by dirfile and counts  the  number  of
       metadata  entries  satisfying  the  provided criteria.  If parent is non-NULL, metafields under the field
       specified by parent are considered; otherwise, top-level fields are considered, and metafields ignored.

       The type argument should be one of the following symbols indicating an explicit entry type to count:

              GD_BIT_ENTRY, GD_CARRAY_ENTRY, GD_CONST_ENTRY, GD_DIVIDE_ENTRY, GD_INDEX_ENTRY, GD_INDIR_ENTRY,
              GD_LINCOM_ENTRY, GD_LINTERP_ENTRY, GD_MPLEX_ENTRY, GD_MULTIPLY_ENTRY, GD_PHASE_ENTRY,
              GD_POLYNOM_ENTRY, GD_RAW_ENTRY, GD_RECIP_ENTRY, GD_SARRAY_ENTRY, GD_SBIT_ENTRY, GD_SINDIR_ENTRY,
              GD_STRING_ENTRY, GD_WINDOW_ENTRY.

       (GD_INDEX_ENTRY  is  a  special  field  type  for  the implicit INDEX field) or else one of the following
       special symbols:

       GD_ALL_ENTRIES (=0)
               Count entries of all types.

       GD_ALIAS_ENTRIES
               Count only aliases.  This is the only way to get a count including aliases which do not point  to
               valid field codes.

       GD_SCALAR_ENTRIES
               Count only scalar field types (CONST, CARRAY, SARRAY, STRING).

       GD_VECTOR_ENTRIES
               Count  only numeric-valued vector field types (all field types except SINDIR and the scalar field
               types listed above).

       The flags argument should be zero or more of the following flags, bitwise or'd together:

       GD_ENTRIES_HIDDEN
               Include hidden entries (see gd_hidden(3)) in the count: normally hidden entries are skipped;

       GD_ENTRIES_NOALIAS
               Exclude aliases from the count: normally aliases are considered the same as  their  target  (that
               is: a field with n aliases, plus its canonical name, will be counted n+1 times).

       This function has a subset of the functionality of the gd_match_entries(3) function (q.v.).

   Special Cases
       The call
              gd_nfields(dirfile);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, NULL, GD_ALL_ENTRIES, 0);

       The call
              gd_nfields_by_type(dirfile, type);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, NULL, type, 0);

       The call
              gd_nmfields(dirfile, parent);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, parent, GD_ALL_ENTRIES, 0);

       The call
              gd_nmfields_by_type(dirfile, parent, type);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, parent, type, 0);

       The call
              gd_nmvectors(dirfile, parent);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, parent, GD_VECTOR_ENTRIES, 0);

       The call
              gd_nvectors(dirfile);

       is equivalent to
              gd_nentries(dirfile, NULL, GD_VECTOR_ENTRIES, 0);

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, these functions return an unsigned in indicating the number of entries in the
       database satisfying the supplied criteria.

       On error, these functions return zero and store a negative-valued error code in the DIRFILE object  which
       may be retrieved by a subsequent call to gd_error(3).  Possible error codes are:

       GD_E_BAD_CODE
               The supplied parent field code was not found, or referred to a metafield itself.

       GD_E_BAD_DIRFILE
               The supplied dirfile was invalid.

       GD_E_BAD_ENTRY
               The type parameter supplied was not one of the symbols listed above.

       A descriptive error string for the error may be obtained by calling gd_error_string(3).

HISTORY

       The get_nfields() function appeared in GetData-0.3.0.

       The  get_nfields_by_type(),  get_nmfields(),  get_nmfields_by_type(), get_nmvectors(), and get_nvectors()
       functions appeared in GetData-0.4.0.

       In GetData-0.7.0, these functions were  renamed  to  gd_nfields(),  gd_nfields_by_type(),  gd_nmfields(),
       gd_nmfields_by_type(), gd_nmvectors(), and gd_nvectors().

       The gd_nentries() function appeared in GetData-0.8.0.

SEE ALSO

       dirfile(5),     gd_open(3),     gd_entry_list(3),    gd_error(3),    gd_error_string(3),    gd_hidden(3),
       gd_match_entries(3)