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## general

The binary keyword appearing alone indicates a binary data file that contains both coordinate information describing a non-uniform grid and the value of each grid point (see binary matrix). Binary data in any other format requires additional keywords to describe the layout of the data. Unfortunately the syntax of these required additional keywords is convoluted. Nevertheless the general binary mode is particularly useful for application programs sending large amounts of data to gnuplot.

Syntax:

          plot '<file_name>' {binary <binary list>} ...
          splot '<file_name>' {binary <binary list>} ...

General binary format is activated by keywords in <binary list> pertaining to information about file structure, i.e., array, record, format or filetype. Otherwise, non-uniform matrix binary format is assumed. (See binary matrix for more details.)

Gnuplot knows how to read a few standard binary file types that are fully self-describing, e.g. PNG images. Type show datafile binary at the command line for a list. Apart from these, you can think of binary data files as conceptually the same as text data. Each point has columns of information which are selected via the using specification. If no format string is specified, gnuplot will read in a number of binary values equal to the largest column given in the <using list>. For example, using 1:3 will result in three columns being read, of which the second will be ignored. Certain plot types have an associated default using specification. For example, with image has a default of using 1, while with rgbimage has a default of using 1:2:3.