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• an array of integrations,
• common header parameters, and
• any additional extensions.

The array of integrations stores the observed pulsar data, and is implemented as a vector of pointers to Pulsar::Integration instances, typically ordered as a function of observed epoch. Each Pulsar::Integration is in turn a two-dimensional container of pointers to Pulsar::Profile instances, typically ordered as a function of polarization and observed frequency. Each Pulsar::Profile is an array of floating point values, typically flux densities, stored as function of pulse phase.

The following example demonstrates this structure:

#include "Pulsar/Archive.h"
#include "Pulsar/Integration.h"
#include "Pulsar/Profile.h"

[...]

  Reference::To<Pulsar::Archive> archive;
  archive = Pulsar::Archive::load( filename );

  for (unsigned isub=0; isub < archive->get_nsubint(); isub++)
  {
    Pulsar::Integration* integration = archive->get_Integration(isub);

    for (unsigned ipol=0; ipol < integration->get_npol(); ipol++)
      for (unsigned ichan=0; ichan < integration->get_nchan(); ichan++)
      {
        Pulsar::Profile* profile = integration->get_Profile (ipol, ichan);
        float* amps = profile->get_amps();

        for (unsigned ibin=0; ibin < profile->get_nbin(); ibin++)
          cerr << amps[ibin] << endl;
      }
  }

The common header parameters include the minimal set of information required in order for the Pulsar::Archive, Pulsar::Integration, and Pulsar::Profile container classes to perform their functions. They include things such as the centre frequency of the observation, the dispersion measure, the epoch, etc.

Like most other class attributes, header parameters may be accessed via methods that start with set and get, as in the following example:

  // enable direct access to definitions in the Pulsar namespace ...
  using namespace Pulsar;

  // ... so that, for example, Pulsar::Archive -> Archive
  Reference::To<Archive> archive = Archive::load (filename);

  double RM = archive -> get_rotation_measure ();
  archive -> set_source ("0437-4715");

Any number of additional extensions may be used to supplement the information and/or functionality of the Pulsar::Archive container. Extensions are implemented as a class that inherits the Pulsar::Archive::Extension base class; they typically provide access to information not included in the common header parameters and/or implement algorithms not included in the container class definitions.

An example is the Pulsar::Receiver class, which stores information about the receiver used for the observation, such as its name and the polarization of its receptors. This class can also compute the Jones matrix that describes the polarimetric transformation introduced by the receiver feed. Access to Pulsar::Archive::Extension derived classes is provided by the Pulsar::Archive::get<NAME> template member function, where NAME is the name of the desired class, as demonstrated in the following example:

  using namespace Pulsar;

  Reference::To<Archive> archive = Archive::load (filename);

  Reference::To<Receiver> receiver = archive->get<Receiver>();

  if (receiver->get_basis() == Signal::Circular)
    cerr << "Receptors are circularly polarized" << endl;
  else if (receiver->get_basis() == Signal::Linear)
    cerr << "Receptors are linearly polarized" << endl;
  else
    cerr << "Receptors are elliptically polarized?" << endl;