PETSc version 3.17.0
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# VecView

Views a vector object.

### Synopsis

    #include "petscvec.h"
    PetscErrorCode  VecView(Vec vec,PetscViewer viewer)

Collective on Vec

### Input Parameters

| vec | - the vector
| viewer | - an optional visualization context

### Notes

The available visualization contexts include

| PETSC_VIEWER_STDOUT_SELF | - for sequential vectors
| PETSC_VIEWER_STDOUT_WORLD | - for parallel vectors created on PETSC_COMM_WORLD
| PETSC_VIEWER_STDOUT_(comm) | - for parallel vectors created on MPI communicator comm

You can change the format the vector is printed using the option PetscViewerPushFormat().

The user can open alternative viewers with

| PetscViewerASCIIOpen() | - Outputs vector to a specified file
| PetscViewerBinaryOpen() | - Outputs vector in binary to a specified file; corresponding input uses VecLoad()
| PetscViewerDrawOpen() | - Outputs vector to an X window display
| PetscViewerSocketOpen() | - Outputs vector to Socket viewer
| PetscViewerHDF5Open() | - Outputs vector to HDF5 file viewer

The user can call PetscViewerPushFormat() to specify the output format of ASCII printed objects (when using PETSC_VIEWER_STDOUT_SELF, PETSC_VIEWER_STDOUT_WORLD and PetscViewerASCIIOpen). Available formats include

| PETSC_VIEWER_DEFAULT | - default, prints vector contents
| PETSC_VIEWER_ASCII_MATLAB | - prints vector contents in MATLAB format
| PETSC_VIEWER_ASCII_INDEX | - prints vector contents, including indices of vector elements
| PETSC_VIEWER_ASCII_COMMON | - prints vector contents, using a format common among all vector types

### Notes

You can pass any number of vector objects, or other PETSc objects to the same viewer.

In the debugger you can do "call VecView(v,0)" to display the vector. (The same holds for any PETSc object viewer).

### Notes for binary viewer

If you pass multiple vectors to a binary viewer you can read them back in in the same order with VecLoad().

If the blocksize of the vector is greater than one then you must provide a unique prefix to the vector with PetscObjectSetOptionsPrefix((PetscObject)vec,"uniqueprefix"); BEFORE calling VecView() on the vector to be stored and then set that same unique prefix on the vector that you pass to VecLoad(). The blocksize information is stored in an ASCII file with the same name as the binary file plus a ".info" appended to the filename. If you copy the binary file, make sure you copy the associated .info file with it.

See the manual page for VecLoad() on the exact format the binary viewer stores the values in the file.

### Notes for HDF5 Viewer

The name of the Vec (given with PetscObjectSetName() is the name that is used for the object in the HDF5 file. If you wish to store the same Vec into multiple datasets in the same file (typically with different values), you must change its name each time before calling the VecView(). To load the same vector, the name of the Vec object passed to VecLoad() must be the same.

If the block size of the vector is greater than 1 then it is used as the first dimension in the HDF5 array. If the function PetscViewerHDF5SetBaseDimension2()is called then even if the block size is one it will be used as the first dimension in the HDF5 array (that is the HDF5 array will always be two dimensional) See also PetscViewerHDF5SetTimestep() which adds an additional complication to reading and writing Vecs with the HDF5 viewer.

### See Also

PetscViewerASCIIOpen(), PetscViewerDrawOpen(), PetscDrawLGCreate(),
PetscViewerSocketOpen(), PetscViewerBinaryOpen(), VecLoad(), PetscViewerCreate(), PetscRealView(), PetscScalarView(), PetscIntView(), PetscViewerHDF5SetTimestep()

### Level

beginner

### Location

src/vec/vec/interface/vector.c

### Examples

src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex2.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex3.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex5.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex6.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex7.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex8.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex10.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex12.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex15.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex16.c.html
src/vec/vec/tutorials/ex19.c.html

### Implementations

VecView_DMComposite in src/dm/impls/composite/pack.c
VecView_pforest in src/dm/impls/forest/p4est/pforest.h
VecView_Network in src/dm/impls/network/networkcreate.c
VecView_Plex in src/dm/impls/plex/plex.c
VecView_Swarm in src/dm/impls/swarm/swarm.c
VecView_MPI in src/vec/vec/impls/mpi/pdvec.c
VecView_Nest in src/vec/vec/impls/nest/vecnest.c
VecView_Seq in src/vec/vec/impls/seq/bvec2.c
Index of all Vec routines
Table of Contents for all manual pages
Index of all manual pages