.TH RDANN 1 "4 June 2010" "WFDB 10.5.3" "WFDB Applications Guide"
.SH NAME
rdann \- read a WFDB annotation file
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBrdann -r\fR \fIrecord\fR \fB-a\fR \fIannotator\fR [ \fIoptions ... \fR ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBrdann\fR reads the annotation file specified by \fIrecord\fR and
\fIannotator\fR, and writes a text-format translation of it on the standard
output, one annotation per line.  The output contains (from left to
right) the time of the annotation in hours, minutes, seconds, and
milliseconds; the time of the annotation in samples; a mnemonic for
the annotation type; the annotation \fBsubtyp\fR, \fBchan\fR, and
\fBnum\fR fields; and the auxiliary information string, if any
(assumed to be a null-terminated ASCII string).
.PP
\fIOptions\fR include:
.TP
\fB-c\fR \fIchan\fR
Print only those annotations with \fBchan\fR fields that match \fIchan\fR.
.TP
\fB-e\fR
Print annotation times as elapsed times from the beginning of the record
(default: \fBrdann\fR prints absolute times if the absolute time of the
beginning of the record is defined, and elapsed times otherwise, unless
the \fB-x\fR option has been given).
.TP
\fB-f\fR \fItime\fR
Begin at the specified \fItime\fR.  By default, \fBrdann\fR starts at the
beginning of the record;  if modification labels are present, they are not
printed unless \fB-f 0\fR is given explicitly, however.
.TP
\fB-h\fR
Print a usage summary.
.TP
\fB-n\fR \fInum\fR
Print only those annotations with \fBnum\fR fields that match \fInum\fR.
.TP
\fB-p\fR \fItype\fR [ \fItype\fR ... ]
Print annotations of the specified \fItypes\fR only.  The \fItype\fR arguments
should be annotation mnemonics (e.g., \fBN\fR) as normally printed by
\fBrdann\fR in the third column.  More than one \fB-p\fR option may be used
in a single command, and each \fB-p\fR option may have more than one \fItype\fR
argument following it.  If \fItype\fR begins with ``-'', however, it must
immediately follow \fB-p\fR (standard annotation mnemonics do not begin with
``-'', but modification labels in an annotation file may define such
mnemonics).
.TP
\fB-s\fR \fIsub\fR
Print only those annotations with \fBsubtyp\fR fields that match \fIsub\fR.
.TP
\fB-t\fR \fItime\fR
Stop at the specified \fItime\fR.
.TP
\fB-v\fR
Print column headings.
.TP
\fB-x\fR
Use an alternate time format for output (the first three columns are the
elapsed times in seconds, in minutes, and in hours, replacing the
\fIhh:mm:ss\fR and sample number columns in the default output).  Note
that this format is incompatible with \fBwrann\fR.
.PP
The \fB-f\fR and \fB-t\fR options may be used to select a portion of
an annotation file for printing.  Their arguments are usually given in
standard \fItime\fR (\fIhh:mm:ss\fR) format; see the description of
\fIstrtim\fR in the \fIWFDB Programmer's Guide\fR, as well as the
comments below, for other formats.
.PP
Annotation numbers beginning with 0 are implicitly assigned by
\fBrdann\fR to each annotation in an annotation file, and beat numbers
beginning with 0 are assigned to each QRS annotation.  If the argument
of the \fB-f\fR option begins with `a', it is taken to be the
annotation number of the first annotation to be printed; if it begins
with `b', it is taken to be the beat number of the first beat
annotation to be printed (any non-QRS annotations that immediately
precede this annotation are also printed).  Arguments of the \fB-t\fR
option beginning with `a' or `b' similarly specify the annotation number
or beat number following the last to be printed.  If the argument of the
\fB-t\fR option begins with `#', it is taken as the number of QRS
annotations to be processed; note that not all of those processed will
necessarily be printed, if the \fB-p\fR option is used to select only
a subset of annotation types to be printed.
.PP
Note that the \fB-e\fR and \fB-x\fR options are mutually exclusive;  if both
are given, only the last one is effective.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.PP
It may be necessary to set and export the shell variable \fBWFDB\fR (see
\fBsetwfdb\fR(1)).
.SS Example
.br
	\fBrdann -a atr -r 200 -f 0 -t 5:0 -p V\fR
.br
This command prints on the standard output all \fBV\fR (premature
ventricular contraction) annotations in the first five minutes of the
\fIatr\fR (reference annotation) file for record 200.
.SH CD-ROM Versions
The first edition of the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database CD-ROM, the first and
second editions of the European ST-T Database CD-ROM, and the first edition of
the MIT-BIH Polysomnographic Database CD-ROM contain versions of \fBrdann\fR
that use an older command syntax (still supported by the current version but
not described here).  Refer to \fIbin.doc\fR in the CD-ROM directory that
contains \fBrdann\fR for further information.

.SH AVAILABILITY
This program is provided in the \fIapp\fR directory of the WFDB Software
Package.  Run \fBmake\fR in that directory to compile and install it if it
have not been installed already.
.PP
The PhysioNet ATM (http://physionet.org/cgi-bin/ATM) provides web access to
\fBrdsamp\fR (select \fBShow annotations as text\fR from the Toolbox). 

.SH SEE ALSO
\fBrdsamp\fR(1), \fBsetwfdb\fR(1), \fBwrann\fR(1)
.SH AUTHOR
George B. Moody (george@mit.edu)
.SH SOURCE
http://www.physionet.org/physiotools/wfdb/app/rdann.c