Example: Overloading the Help and Print Procedures

In this example, we create the spaceCraftObject_doc class, which stores a spacecraft’s name and mass. We overload the class’s _overloadHelp, _overloadImpliedPrint, and _overloadPrint methods, so that calling the help or print procedures with this class of object results in the output we desire.

The spaceCraftObject_doc object definition and overloaded function method code listed in this section is contained in the procedure file spacecraftobject_doc__define.pro, and is located in the examples/doc/objects subdirectory of the IDL distribution. To view the file in an IDL editor window, enter .EDIT spacecraftobject_doc__define.pro at the IDL command line.

For more information, refer to

FUNCTION spaceCraftObject_doc::Init, type, mass

self.shipType = type

self.shipMass = mass

RETURN, 1

END

FUNCTION spaceCraftObject_doc::_overloadHelp, varname

tempString = varname + ' = ' + '{spaceCraftObject_doc: ' $

+ self.shipType + STRING(self.shipMass) + '}'

RETURN, tempString

END

FUNCTION spaceCraftObject_doc::_overloadPrint

tempString = self.shipType + ' ' + STRING(self.shipMass) $

+ ' kg'

RETURN, tempString

END

FUNCTION spaceCraftObject_doc::_overloadImpliedPrint, varname

return, self->spaceCraftObject_doc::_overloadPrint()

END

PRO spaceCraftObject_doc__define

struct = {spaceCraftObject_doc, INHERITS IDL_Object, $

shipType: '', $

shipMass: 0 }

END

Now enter the following commands in IDL:

IDL> a=SpaceCraftObject_doc('Soyuz', 6650)
IDL> HELP, a

IDL> PRINT, a

IDL> a

IDL prints:

A = {spaceCraftObject_doc: Soyuz 6650}

Soyuz 6650 kg

Notice that for the _overloadImpliedPrint method we called our _overloadPrint method. This ensures that we get the same output whether we are using Implied Print or the PRINT procedure.