function read_dat,inpath,maxrec=maxrec

;this function is in test to read the txt file
;----------------------------------------------------

if n_elements(maxrec) eq 0 then maxrec = 140000L

stru = {wv:0.0,percent:0.0}
;a structure to hold one line of the data file
record =replicate(stru,maxrec)
 ;hold all data

;filepath='H:\yiqun\class\605\SeminarExample.txt'
openr,lun,inpath,/get_lun

;need a container to hold one line of text
trash = 'garbage'
;let's skip the first four lines ;P
;readf,lun,trash
;readf,lun,trash
;readf,lun,trash
;readf,lun,trash

;fmt='(f6.0,f6.1)'

i=0L 

while(not eof(lun))   do begin
	readf,lun,stru;,format=fmt
	;put the line we ju st read into our arrays
	record(i) = stru
    i=i+1L
 	;Check to make sure maxrec isn't exceeded
        
 	if i ge maxrec then message,'WARNING: MAXREC TOO SMALL! Please increase.'
endwhile

record=record[0:i-1L]

free_lun,lun
return,record

end