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Enumerated data types

Enumerated data types assign a symbolic name to each legal value taken by the datatype. The most obvious application of this feature is for so- called ``labelled'' images, for example, the output of tissue classification algorithms.

This feature will be implemented using the native support for enumerated datatypes in the HDF5 library. The HDF5 library allows any integer type, signed or unsigned, to be used as the base type of an enumeration.

The MINC 2.0 library provides only minimal support for range checking and conversion between standard integer and custom enumerated data types.

At this time, no standard enumerated data types are defined by this specification. An programmer may define custom enumerations in whatever manner best suits the application. In future versions of this specification we may define the implementation and interpretation of some common enumerations (for tissue types, e.g.).



Robert VINCENT 2005-05-10