Interactive Data Language

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What Does Interactive Data Language Mean?

Interactive data language (IDL) is a programming language used to build applications performing data analysis. IDL is mostly utilized by astronomers and medical imaging experts.

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The typical IDL application is in the bulk interactive processing field, where digital image processing requires high speed in many applications, such as those in security and the monitoring of applications requiring real time analysis.

Techopedia Explains Interactive Data Language

IDL effectively processes data arrays of different dimensions, including vectors (single dimension arrays). IDL saves multiple programming codes required to perform repeated functions, thereby using single lines of code for such functions.

IDL is extremely useful when arithmetic overflow issues occur and store a NaN (Not a Number) value, rather than returning an exception, which could force a closed program if written in any other language.

IDL is not efficient during sequential element operations. Thus, if a program does not contain a sufficient number of arrays, IDL is not advised. (Using a language like C# is much more efficient.)

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.