ThinningFilter

Description - This is a simple filter that is simply intended to cut down on the amount of data going through. This can be done on an element-by-element basis (i.e. take one in 10 elements) or on a group basis. The latter could be used in SWIFT to only take certain timesteps. This filter can be helpful to speed up the process of looking at large data files. It can do this both from the perspective that less has to be plotted and if the data file is bigger than what can go in memory it can let someone look at a fraction of the data without hitting disk regularly.

Inputs - This filter takes a single input.

Elements - The elements output by this filter look like those from the input. Only the specified fraction will be output.

Memory - Because this filter does not alter elements, it only has to keep references to the elements of the input that it is passing through. It also typically reduces the number of elements significantly. However, it should be noted that using this filter with a large source as the first input and accepting nearly all elements will negate the buffering that the large source might do.