# This package is for handling rdb files
package READ_RDB;
use English;
use FileHandle;
use Exporter;
@ISA = qw(Exporter);
@EXPORT = qw(	read_rdb_header
	);

    
# prototypes
sub read_rdb_header(*);

# read in the header of an RDB file and store the column names in @::col_names
# with a reversed index in %::col_num.
sub read_rdb_header(*)
{   my ($FILE) = @_;
    # skip the comments at the beginning
    while (<$FILE> )
    {	last if !( /^\s*#/);
    }
    
    # read the column names
    chomp;
    @::col_names = split(/\t/);

    # index the column names
    undef(%::col_num);
    for($i = 0; $i<=$#::col_names; $i++)
    {   $::col_num{$::col_names[$i]} = $i;
        # print STDERR "column $i is $::col_names[$i]\n";
    }
    
    
    
    # skip the field-length definitions
    <$FILE>;

}


# packages must end with a true value---a restriction that seems
# to be poorly documented.
1;