This is a family of functions which return a specified attribute value for an Object using one of several different data types. The type is selected by replacing $<$X$>$ in the function name by C, D, I, L or R, to obtain a result in Character, Double precision, Integer, Logical or Real format, respectively.

If possible, the attribute value is converted to the type you request. If conversion is not possible, an error will result.

RESULT = AST_GET$<$X$>$( THIS, ATTRIB, STATUS )

THIS = INTEGER (Given)

ATTRIB = CHARACTER $\ast$ ( $\ast$ ) (Given)

STATUS = INTEGER (Given and Returned)

Object

AST_GET$<$X$>$ = $<$X$>$type

WRITE( $\ast$, ’ (’’RefCount = ’’ , A10 )’ ) AST_GETC( Z, ’ RefCount’ , STATUS )

Prints the RefCount attribute value for Object Z as a character string.

NAXES = AST_GETI( FRAME, ’Naxes’ , STATUS )

Obtains the value of the Naxes attribute for Object FRAME as an integer.

• Attribute names are not case sensitive and may be surrounded by white space.

• An appropriate " null" value will be returned if this function is invoked with STATUS set to an error value, or if it should fail for any reason. This null value is zero for numeric values, .FALSE. for logical values, and blank for character values.

• Numerical attribute values of zero translate to logical value .FALSE. and all other numerical values translate to .TRUE..