during the reading phase. Each casereader has an
independent position in the casefile.
- Casereaders may only move forward. They cannot move
- backward to arbitrary records or seek randomly.
- Cloning casereaders is possible, but it is not yet
- implemented.
+ Ordinary casereaders may only move forward. They
+ cannot move backward to arbitrary records or seek
+ randomly. Cloning casereaders is possible, but it is
+ not yet implemented.
Use casefile_get_reader() to create a casereader for
use in phase 2. This also transitions from phase 1 to
a case from a casereader. Use casereader_destroy() to
discard a casereader when it is no longer needed.
+ "Random" casereaders, which support a seek operation,
+ may also be created. These should not, generally, be
+ used for statistical procedures, because random access
+ is much slower than sequential access. They are
+ intended for use by the GUI.
+
3. Destruction. This phase is optional. The casefile is
also read with casereaders in this phase, but the
ability to create new casereaders is curtailed.