View source for Programming Reference:PhysicalUnit Class

==Location==
<tt>src/shared/types</tt>

==Synopsis==
An object of type <tt>PhysicalUnit</tt> represents a linear mapping from physical units to raw numbers, and an expected range of values.
Apart from its use in conjunction with signal values, this class is also used for element or channel indexing when appropriate, e.g. to map a frequency value to a spectral bin (element index).

==Methods==
===PhysicalUnit()===
The constructor initializes a <tt>PhysicalUnit</tt> object to the identity mapping.
===Clear()===
Resets the <tt>PhysicalUnit</tt> object to identity mapping.
===bool IsPhysical(string)===
Tests whether a string is valid as a physical value. This is the case if the string represents
*a plain number,
*a plain number followed with an optional magnitude prefix, and the physical unit's symbol, without separating white space, such as "10.3ms",
*an arithmetic expression involving numbers and arithmetic operators, optionally followed with a unit string, such as "(5/4)muV".
===number PhysicalToRaw(string)===
Transforms a physical value into a raw number as defined by the object's offset, gain, and symbol properties.
===string RawToPhysical(number)===
Transforms a raw number into a physical value as defined by the object's offset, gain, and symbol properties.
===InsertInto(std::ostream), ExtractFrom(std::istream)===
Writes/reads offset, gain, symbol, rawMin, and rawMax properties into/from the specified <tt>std::iostream</tt> objects in ASCII string representation, separated with space characters.

==Properties==
===number Offset (rw), Gain (rw)===
Offset and gain value defining the linear relation between raw and physical values.
Consistently with the definition of the [[User_Reference:DataIOFilter#SourceChOffset.2C_SourceChGain|SourceChOffset and SourceChGain
parameters]], the relation between raw and physical value is
 PhysicalValue = ( RawValue - Offset ) * Gain
===string Symbol (rw)===
The symbol of the physical unit, such as "s" for seconds, "V" for Volts, etc., without magnitude prefix. For signal visualizations, units are displayed in the visualization window.

===number RawMin, RawMax (rw)===
Minimum and maximum of an expected range of values. For [[Programming Reference:Signals|signals]], this is used to adapt ranges in [[Programming Reference:GenericVisualization Class|visualization windows]], with the <tt>ValueUnit</tt>'s range determining signal scaling, and the <tt>ElementUnit</tt>'s range determining the number of elements displayed in the visualization window.

==Magnitude Prefixes==
The <tt>PhysicalUnit</tt> class recognizes the following magnitude prefixes:
{|
!Recognized Prefix!!Name!!Value
|-
|p||pico||1e-12
|-
|n||nano||1e-9
|-
|u, mu||micro||1e-6
|-
|m||milli||1e-3
|-
|k||kilo||1e3
|-
|M||mega||1e6
|-
|G||giga||1e9
|-
|T||tera||1e12
|}

==See also==
[[Programming Reference:Signals]], [[Programming Reference:GenericVisualization Class]], [[Programming Reference:LabelIndex Class]]

[[Category:Framework API]][[Category:Development]]