IDL Overview

IDL, short for Interactive Data Language, is an interactive shell based data analysis programming language. Used vastly in medical imaging, it can quickly create visualizations and graphs
of large data sets in a few easy steps due to its vector nature. FORTRAN users would be familiar with the IDL syntax. IDL is not to be confused with
Java IDL or Microsoft IDL.

Basic IDL Usage

To start IDL, open a terminal window and type idl. This will start the interactive shell.

Variables in IDL

To initialize variables in IDL, type:

<variable_name> = <variable_value>

e.g.

x = 3

and hit Enter/Return

To print the variable, type

print, x

Arrays in IDL

To make arrays in IDL, follow the format below:

<array_name> = [val1, val2, val3,...,valx]

e.g.

myarray = [1,2,3,4]

Licensing

We have a limited number of IDL Licenses available, which are provided on a first-come-first-serve basis.
As a consequence, availability of IDL on your VM is not always guaranteed once a VM request is submitted.
Please consult with us before requesting IDL.

More Information

For more Information on IDL, please consult the IDL documentation on its [official website] (https://www.nv5geospatialsoftware.com/Products/IDL#language)