ROOT Users Guide

May 2013

Contents
Preface

21

1 Introduction

23

1.1

The ROOT Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

1.2

Contact Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

1.3

Conventions Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

1.4

The Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

1.4.1

What Is a Framework? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

1.4.2

Why Object-Oriented? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

1.5

Installing ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

1.6

The Organization of the ROOT Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

1.6.1

$ROOTSYS/bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

1.6.2

$ROOTSYS/lib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28

1.6.3

$ROOTSYS/tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30

1.6.4

$ROOTSYS/test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

1.6.5

$ROOTSYS/include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

1.6.6

$ROOTSYS/<library> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

How to Find More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

1.7.1

31

1.7

Class Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 Getting Started

35

2.1

Setting the Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

2.2

Start and Quit a ROOT Session

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

2.3

Using the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

2.3.1

Main Menus and Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38

2.3.2

The Editor Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42

2.3.3

Classes, Methods and Constructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42

2.3.4

User Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

2.3.5

Building a Multi-pad Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

2.3.6

Saving the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

2.3.7

Printing the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

The ROOT Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

2.4.1

Multi-line Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

2.4.2

CINT Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

2.4.3

Helpful Hints for Command Line Typing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

2.4

CONTENTS
2.4.4
2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

Regular Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

2.5.1

Coding Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

2.5.2

Machine Independent Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

2.5.3

TObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

Global Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

2.6.1

gROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.6.2

gFile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.6.3

gDirectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.6.4

gPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.6.5

gRandom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.6.6

gEnv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52

Environment Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52

2.7.1

Logon and Logoff Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

2.7.2

History File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

2.7.3

Tracking Memory Leaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

2.7.4

Memory Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

Converting from PAW to ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54

2.8.1

54

Converting HBOOK/PAW Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 Histograms

55

3.1

The Histogram Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

3.2

Creating Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

3.2.1

Constant or Variable Bin Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

56

Bin Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

3.3.1

Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

3.3.2

Re-binning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

Filling Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

3.4.1

Automatic Re-binning Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

3.5

Random Numbers and Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

3.6

Adding, Dividing, and Multiplying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

3.7

Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

3.8

Drawing Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

3.8.1

Setting the Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

3.8.2

Draw Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

3.8.3

Drawing a Sub-range of a 2-D Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

3.8.4

Superimposing Histograms with Different Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

3.8.5

Statistics Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

3.8.6

Setting Line, Fill, Marker, and Text Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

3.8.7

Setting Tick Marks on the Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

3.8.8

Giving Titles to the X, Y and Z Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

Making a Copy of an Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

3.10 Normalizing Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

3.3

3.4

3.9

CONTENTS

3.11 Saving/Reading Histograms to/from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

3.12 Miscellaneous Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

3.13 Alphanumeric Bin Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

82

3.13.1 Option 1: SetBinLabel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

82

3.13.2 Option 2: Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

3.13.3 Option 3: TTree::Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

3.13.4 Sort Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

3.14 Histogram Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

84

3.15 TH2Poly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

3.16 Profile Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

3.16.1 Build Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

86

3.16.2 Drawing a Profile without Error Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

3.16.3 Create a Profile from a 2D Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

3.16.4 Create a Histogram from a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

3.16.5 Generating a Profile from a TTree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

3.16.6 2D Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

3.17 Iso Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

3.18 3D Implicit Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

3.19 TPie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

3.20 The User Interface for Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

3.20.1 TH1Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

3.20.2 TH2Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

95

4 Graphs
4.1

99

TGraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

99

4.1.1

99

Graph Draw Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2

Superimposing Two Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

4.3

Graphs with Error Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.4

Graphs with Asymmetric Error Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

4.5

Graphs with Asymmetric Bent Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

4.6

TGraphPolar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.7

TGraph Exclusion Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

4.8

TGraphQQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

4.9

104

107

4.8.1

Two Datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

4.8.2

One Dataset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

TMultiGraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

4.10 TGraph2D

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

4.11 TGraph2DErrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

114

4.12 Fitting a Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

114

4.13 Setting the Graphs Axis Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

4.14 Zooming a Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.15 The User Interface for Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

117

CONTENTS

5 Fitting Histograms

119

5.1

The Fit Method

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

5.2

Fit with a Predefined Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3

Fit with a User-Defined Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3.1

Creating a TF1 with a Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3.2

Creating a TF1 with Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3.3

Creating a TF1 with a User Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

121

5.4

Fixing and Setting Parameters Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

5.5

Fitting Sub Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.6

The Fit Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.6.1

Function Choice and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.6.2

Fitter Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.6.3

Draw Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.6.4

Print Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.6.5

Command Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.7

Fitting Multiple Sub Ranges

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.8

Adding Functions to the List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

5.9

Combining Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

5.10 Associated Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

5.11 Access to the Fit Parameters and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.12 Associated Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.13 Fit Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.14 The Minimization Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.14.1 Basic Concepts of Minuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.14.2 The Transformation of Limited Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.14.3 How to Get the Right Answer from Minuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131

5.14.4 Reliability of Minuit Error Estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131

5.15 FUMILI Minimization Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

5.16 Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.16.2 The MLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

134

5.16.3 Learning Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

134

5.16.4 Using the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

5.16.5 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6 A Little C++

139

6.1

Classes, Methods and Constructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

6.2

Inheritance and Data Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

6.3

6.2.1

Method Overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

6.2.2

Data Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Creating Objects on the Stack and Heap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141

CONTENTS

7 CINT the C++ Interpreter

145

7.1

What is CINT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

7.2

The ROOT Command Line Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

7.3

The ROOT Script Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

7.3.1

Un-named Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

7.3.2

Named Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

7.3.3

Executing a Script from a Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

7.4

Resetting the Interpreter Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

7.5

A Script Containing a Class Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.6

Debugging Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

7.7

Inspecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

7.8

ROOT/CINT Extensions to C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

7.9

ACLiC - The Automatic Compiler of Libraries for CINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

151

7.9.1

Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

7.9.2

Setting the Include Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

157

7.9.3

Dictionary Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

157

7.9.4

Intermediate Steps and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

7.9.5

Moving between Interpreter and Compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

7.10 Reflex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

7.10.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
7.10.2 Selecting Types And Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
7.10.3 Genreflex and Templates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

7.10.4 GCCXML Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

7.10.5 Reflex API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

7.10.6 Cintex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

164

8 Object Ownership

165

8.1

Ownership by Current Directory (gDirectory) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

8.2

Ownership by the Master TROOT Object (gROOT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

8.2.1

The Collection of Specials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

8.2.2

Access to the Collection Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

8.3

Ownership by Other Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

167

8.4

Ownership by the User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

167

8.4.1

The kCanDelete Bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

167

8.4.2

The kMustCleanup Bit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

9 Graphics and the Graphical User Interface

169

9.1

Drawing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

9.2

Interacting with Graphical Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

9.2.1

Moving, Resizing and Modifying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

9.2.2

Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

171

9.2.3

Context Menus: the Right Mouse Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

171

9.2.4

Executing Events when a Cursor Passes on Top of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

CONTENTS
9.3

9.4

9.5

9.6

9.7

9.8

9.9

Graphical Containers: Canvas and Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

174

9.3.1

The Global Pad: gPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

9.3.2

The Coordinate Systems of a Pad

9.3.3

Converting between Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

9.3.4

Dividing a Pad into Sub-pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

9.3.5

Updating the Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

9.3.6

Making a Pad Transparent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

9.3.7

Setting the Log Scale

9.3.8

WaitPrimitive method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

181

9.3.9

Locking the Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

181

Graphical Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

181

9.4.1

Lines, Arrows and Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

181

9.4.2

Circles and Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

9.4.3

Rectangles

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

184

9.4.4

Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

184

9.4.5

Curly and Wavy Lines for Feynman Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

9.4.6

Text and Latex Mathematical Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9.4.7

Greek Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

9.4.8

Mathematical Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

9.4.9

Text in a Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

177

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

187

9.4.10 The TeX Processor TMathText . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

194

Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

194

9.5.1

Axis Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

9.5.2

Axis Options and Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

9.5.3

Setting the Number of Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

197

9.5.4

Zooming the Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

197

9.5.5

Drawing Axis Independently of Graphs or Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

197

9.5.6

Orientation of Tick Marks on Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

9.5.7

Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

9.5.8

Axis with Time Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

9.5.9

Axis Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

204

Graphical Objects Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

9.6.1

Text Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

9.6.2

Line Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9.6.3

Fill Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

9.6.4

Color and Color Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

211

The Graphics Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

9.7.1

TAxisEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

9.7.2

TPadEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Copy and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

9.8.1

Using the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

9.8.2

Programmatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

CONTENTS

9.10 The PostScript Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

9.10.1 Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
9.10.2 Writing Several Canvases to the Same PostScript File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
9.10.3 The Color Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

224

9.11 The PDF Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

224

9.12 Create or Modify a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

9.13 3D Viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

227

9.13.1 Invoking a 3D viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

227

9.13.2 The GL Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

9.13.3 The X3D Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
9.13.4 Common 3D Viewer Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
10 Folders and Tasks

243

10.1 Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

10.2 Why Use Folders? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.3 How to Use Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.3.1 Creating a Folder Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.3.2 Posting Data to a Folder (Producer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.3.3 Reading Data from a Folder (Consumer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.4 Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

247

10.5 Execute and Debug Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

11 Input/Output

251

11.1 The Physical Layout of ROOT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

251

11.1.1 The File Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

11.1.2 The Top Directory Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
11.1.3 The Histogram Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
11.1.4 The Class Description List (StreamerInfo List) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

254

11.1.5 The List of Keys and the List of Free Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11.1.6 File Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11.2 The Logical ROOT File: TFile and TKey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11.2.1 Viewing the Logical File Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.2.2 The Current Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
11.2.3 Objects in Memory and Objects on Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
11.2.4 Saving Histograms to Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

261

11.2.5 Histograms and the Current Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

11.2.6 Saving Objects to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
11.2.7 Saving Collections to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
11.2.8 A TFile Object Going Out of Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

264

11.2.9 Retrieving Objects from Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

264

11.2.10 Subdirectories and Navigation

264

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11.3 Streamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

11.3.1 Automatically Generated Streamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

267

10

CONTENTS
11.3.2 Transient Data Members (//!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

267

11.3.3 The Pointer to Objects (//->) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

11.3.4 Variable Length Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
11.3.5 Double32_t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
11.3.6 Prevent Splitting (//|| ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
11.3.7 Streamers with Special Additions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
11.3.8 Writing Objects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

11.3.9 Ignore Object Streamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

271

11.3.10 Streaming a TClonesArray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

271

11.4 Pointers and References in Persistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

271

11.4.1 Streaming C++ Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

11.4.2 Motivation for the TRef Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
11.4.3 Using TRef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
11.4.4 How Does It Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
11.4.5 Action on Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

274

11.4.6 Array of TRef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

11.5 Schema Evolution

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

11.5.1 The TStreamerInfo Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

11.5.2 The TStreamerElement Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

277

11.5.3 Example: TH1 StreamerInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

277

11.5.4 Optimized StreamerInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

11.5.5 Automatic Schema Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
11.5.6 Manual Schema Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
11.5.7 Building Class Definitions with the StreamerInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
11.5.8 Example: MakeProject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
11.6 Migrating to ROOT 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.7 Compression and Performance

281

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

11.8 Remotely Access to ROOT Files via a rootd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

11.8.1 TNetFile URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
11.8.2 Remote Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.8.3 A Simple Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.8.4 The rootd Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.8.5 Starting rootd via inetd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

284

11.8.6 Command Line Arguments for rootd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

284

11.9 Reading ROOT Files via Apache Web Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

284

11.9.1 Using the General Open Function of TFile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

11.10XML Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

CONTENTS

11

12 Trees

287

12.1 Why Should You Use a Tree? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

287

12.2 A Simple TTree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

287

12.3 Show an Entry with TTree::Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

12.4 Print the Tree Structure with TTree::Print

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

12.5 Scan a Variable the Tree with TTree::Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

12.6 The Tree Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
12.7 Creating and Saving Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

291

12.7.1 Creating a Tree from a Folder Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

291

12.7.2 Tree and TRef Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

12.7.3 Autosave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.7.4 Trees with Circular Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.7.5 Size of TTree in the File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.7.6 User Info Attached to a TTree Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

294

12.7.7 Indexing a Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

294

12.8 Branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

294

12.9 Adding a Branch to Hold a List of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

12.10Adding a TBranch to Hold an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
12.10.1 Setting the Split-level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
12.10.2 Exempt a Data Member from Splitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.10.3 Adding a Branch to Hold a TClonesArray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.10.4 Identical Branch Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.11Adding a Branch with a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.12Adding a Branch with a Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.13Examples for Writing and Reading Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.14Example 1: A Tree with Simple Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.14.1 Writing the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
12.14.2 Viewing the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
12.14.3 Reading the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
12.15Example 2: A Tree with a C Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
12.15.1 Writing the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
12.15.2 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
12.16Example 3: Adding Friends to Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
12.16.1 Adding a Branch to an Existing Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
12.16.2 TTree::AddFriend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
12.17Example 4: A Tree with an Event Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

311

12.17.1 The Event Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

311

12.17.2 The EventHeader Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

311

12.17.3 The Track Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

12.17.4 Writing the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
12.17.5 Reading the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
12.18Example 5: Import an ASCII File into a TTree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
12.19Trees in Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

12

CONTENTS
12.20Simple Analysis Using TTree::Draw

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

12.20.1 Using Selection with TTree:Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

317

12.20.2 Using TCut Objects in TTree::Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

317

12.20.3 Accessing the Histogram in Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

12.20.4 Using Draw Options in TTree::Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
12.20.5 Superimposing Two Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
12.20.6 Setting the Range in TTree::Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
12.20.7 TTree::Draw Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
12.20.8 Multiple variables visualisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

327

12.20.9 Using TTree::Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

12.20.10TEventList and TEntryList . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
12.20.11Filling a Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
12.21Using TTree::MakeClass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

341

12.21.1 Creating a Class with MakeClass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

341

12.21.2 MyClass.h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

12.21.3 MyClass.C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
12.21.4 Modifying MyClass::Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
12.21.5 Loading MyClass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

344

12.22Using TTree::MakeSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

12.22.1 Performance Benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
12.23Impact of Compression on I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
12.24Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

347

12.24.1 TChain::AddFriend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

13 Math Libraries in ROOT

349

13.1 TMath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

13.2 Random Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
13.2.1 TRandom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
13.2.2 TRandom1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
13.2.3 TRandom2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
13.2.4 TRandom3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
13.2.5 Seeding the Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

351

13.2.6 Examples of Using the Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

351

13.2.7 Random Number Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

351

13.2.8 UNURAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

13.2.9 Performances of Random Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
13.3 MathCore Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
13.4 Generic Vectors for 2, 3 and 4 Dimensions (GenVector) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

354

13.4.1 Main Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

354

13.4.2 Example: 3D Vector Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

13.4.3 Example: 3D Point Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
13.4.4 Example: LorentzVector Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
13.4.5 Example: Vector Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

CONTENTS

13

13.4.6 Example with External Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

13.5 MathMore Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
13.6 Mathematical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
13.6.1 Special Functions in MathCore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
13.6.2 Special Functions in MathMore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6.3 Probability Density Functions (PDF)

367

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

13.6.4 Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

13.7 Linear Algebra: SMatrix Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
13.7.1 Example: Vector Class (SVector) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
13.7.2 Example: Matrix Class (SMatrix) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

371

13.7.3 Example: Matrix and Vector Functions and Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

374

13.7.4 Matrix and Vector Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

13.8 Minuit2 Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
13.9 ROOT Statistics Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
13.9.1 Classes for Computing Limits and Confidence Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
13.9.2 Specialized Classes for Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
13.9.3 Multi-variate Analysis Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14 Linear Algebra in ROOT

377
379

14.1 Overview of Matrix Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

14.2 Matrix Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

381

14.2.1 Accessing Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

381

14.2.2 Setting Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

381

14.3 Creating and Filling a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

14.4 Matrix Operators and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
14.4.1 Arithmetic Operations between Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

384

14.4.2 Arithmetic Operations between Matrices and Real Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

384

14.4.3 Comparisons and Boolean Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

384

14.4.4 Matrix Norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

384

14.4.5 Miscellaneous Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

14.5 Matrix Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
14.5.1 View Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
14.5.2 View Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

387

14.6 Matrix Decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

387

14.6.1 Tolerances and Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

14.6.2 Condition number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
14.6.3 LU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
14.6.4 Bunch-Kaufman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
14.6.5 Cholesky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

391

14.6.6 QRH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

391

14.6.7 SVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

391

14.7 Matrix Eigen Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

14.8 Speed Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

14

CONTENTS

15 Adding a Class

395

15.1 The Role of TObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

15.1.1 Introspection, Reflection and Run Time Type Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
15.1.2 Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
15.1.3 Input/Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.1.4 Paint/Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.1.5 Clone/DrawClone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.1.6 Browse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

15.1.7 SavePrimitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

15.1.8 GetObjectInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.1.9 IsFolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.1.10 Bit Masks and Unique ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.2 Motivation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

397

15.2.1 Template Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

15.3 The Default Constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
15.4 rootcint: The CINT Dictionary Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
15.4.1 Dictionaries for STL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
15.5 Adding a Class with a Shared Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
15.5.1 The LinkDef.h File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
15.6 Adding a Class with ACLiC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
16 Collection Classes

411

16.1 Understanding Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

411

16.1.1 General Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

411

16.1.2 Determining the Class of Contained Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

16.1.3 Types of Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
16.1.4 Ordered Collections (Sequences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
16.2 Iterators: Processing a Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
16.3 Foundation Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
16.4 A Collectable Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

414

16.5 The TIter Generic Iterator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

16.6 The TList Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
16.6.1 Iterating Over a TList . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
16.7 The TObjArray Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

417

16.8 TClonesArray An Array of Identical Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

16.8.1 The Idea Behind TClonesArray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
16.9 Template Containers and STL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

CONTENTS

15

17 Physics Vectors

421

17.1 The Physics Vector Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

421

17.2 TVector3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

421

17.2.1 Declaration / Access to the Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

17.2.2 Other Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
17.2.3 Arithmetic / Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.4 Related Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.5 Scalar and Vector Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.6 Angle between Two Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.7 Rotation around Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.8 Rotation around a Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
17.2.9 Rotation by TRotation Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

424

17.2.10 Transformation from Rotated Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

424

17.3 TRotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

424

17.3.1 Declaration, Access, Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

424

17.3.2 Rotation around Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

424

17.3.3 Rotation around Arbitrary Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

17.3.4 Rotation of Local Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
17.3.5 Inverse Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
17.3.6 Compound Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
17.3.7 Rotation of TVector3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
17.4 TLorentzVector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
17.4.1 Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
17.4.2 Access to Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
17.4.3 Vector Components in Non-Cartesian Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

427

17.4.4 Arithmetic and Comparison Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

427

17.4.5 Magnitude/Invariant mass, beta, gamma, scalar product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

427

17.4.6 Lorentz Boost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

17.4.7 Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
17.4.8 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
17.5 TLorentzRotation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

17.5.1 Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

17.5.2 Access to the Matrix Components/Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
17.5.3 Transformations of a Lorentz Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
17.5.4 Transformation of a TLorentzVector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
17.5.5 Physics Vector Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
18 The Geometry Package

431

18.1 Quick Start: Creating the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

431

18.1.1 Example 1: Creating the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

431

18.1.2 Example 2: A Geometrical Hierarchy Look and Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

18.2 Materials and Tracking Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

434

18.2.1 Elements, Materials and Mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

434

16

CONTENTS
18.2.2 Radionuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
18.2.3 Tracking Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
18.2.4 User Interface for Handling Materials and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
18.3 Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
18.3.1 Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
18.3.2 Primitive Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
18.3.3 Composite Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
18.3.4 Navigation Methods Performed By Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

457

18.3.5 Creating Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

18.3.6 Dividing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
18.3.7 Parametric Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
18.4 Geometry Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
18.4.1 The Volume Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
18.4.2 Creating and Positioning Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
18.4.3 Geometrical Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
18.4.4 Ownership of Geometry Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

471

18.5 Navigation and Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

18.5.1 TGeoNavigator Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
18.5.2 Initializing the Starting Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
18.5.3 Initializing the Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
18.5.4 Initializing the State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
18.5.5 Checking the Current State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
18.5.6 Saving and Restoring the Current State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
18.5.7 Navigation Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
18.5.8 Creating and Visualizing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
18.6 Checking the Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
18.6.1 The Overlap Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
18.6.2 Graphical Checking Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
18.7 The Drawing Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
18.7.1 Drawing Volumes and Hierarchies of Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
18.7.2 Visualization Settings and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
18.7.3 Ray Tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

487

18.8 Representing Misalignments of the Ideal Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

18.8.1 Physical Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
18.9 Geometry I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
18.9.1 GDML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

491

18.10Navigation Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

491

18.10.1 Finding the State Corresponding to a Location (x,y,z) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

491

18.10.2 Finding the Distance to Next Crossed Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

18.11Geometry Graphical User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
18.11.1 Editing a Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
18.11.2 The Geometry Manager Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
18.11.3 Editing Existing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

CONTENTS

17

18.11.4 Creation of New Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

18.11.5 Editing Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
18.11.6 How to Create a Valid Geometry with Geometry Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19 Python and Ruby Interfaces

507
509

19.1 PyROOT Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

19.1.1 Glue-ing Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
19.1.2 Access to ROOT from Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
19.1.3 Access to Python from ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
19.1.4 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

511

19.1.5 Using PyROOT

511

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.1.6 Memory Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

19.1.7 Performance

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

19.1.8 Use of Python Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

19.1.9 Working with Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
19.1.10 Using Your Own Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
19.2 How to Use ROOT with Ruby

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

19.2.1 Building and Installing the Ruby Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20 The Tutorials and Tests

521
523

20.1 $ROOTSYS/tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

20.2 $ROOTSYS/test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
20.2.1 Event - An Example of a ROOT Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
20.2.2 stress - Test and Benchmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

527

20.2.3 guitest - A Graphical User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

531

21 Example Analysis

533

21.1 Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

21.2 Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
22 Networking

541

22.1 Setting-up a Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

541

22.2 Sending Objects over the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

541

22.3 Closing the Connection

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

22.4 A Server with Multiple Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

23 Threads

545

23.1 Threads and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

23.1.1 Process Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
23.1.2 Thread Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
23.1.3 The Initial Thread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
23.2 Implementation of Threads in ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
23.2.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
23.2.2 Classes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

23.2.3 TThread for Pedestrians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

18

CONTENTS
23.2.4 TThread in More Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

547

23.3 Advanced TThread: Launching a Method in a Thread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

23.3.1 Known Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

551

23.4 The Signals of ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

551

23.5 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

24 PROOF: Parallel Processing

555

25 Writing a Graphical User Interface

557

25.1 The ROOT GUI Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

557

25.2 Widgets and Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

557

25.3 TVirtualX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

25.4 A Simple Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
25.4.1 A Standalone Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
25.5 Widgets Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

564

25.5.1 TGObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

564

25.5.2 TGWidget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

564

25.5.3 TGWindow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

25.5.4 Frames

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

25.6 Layout Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

25.7 Event Processing: Signals and Slots

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

25.8 Widgets in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

25.8.1 Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
25.8.2 Text Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
25.8.3 Number Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
25.8.4 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

581

25.8.5 Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

25.8.6 List Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

584

25.8.7 Combo Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

25.8.8 Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
25.8.9 Triple Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

587

25.8.10 Progress Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

587

25.8.11 Static Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

25.8.12 Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
25.8.13 Splitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
25.8.14 TGCanvas, ViewPort and Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

591

25.8.15 Embedded Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

591

25.9 The ROOT Graphics Editor (GED) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

25.9.1 Object Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
25.9.2 Editor Design Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
25.10Drag and Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

594

25.10.1 Drag and Drop Data Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

25.10.2 Handling Drag and Drop Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

CONTENTS

19

26 ROOT/Qt Integration Interfaces

597

26.1 Qt-ROOT Implementation of TVirtualX Interface (BNL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

597

26.1.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

597

26.1.2 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

26.1.3 TQtWidget Class, Qt Signals / Slots and TCanvas Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
26.2 GSI QtROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

607

26.2.1 Create a New Project in the Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

26.2.2 main() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
27 Automatic HTML Documentation
27.1 Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

611
611

27.1.1 Product and Module Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

27.2 Converting Sources (and Other Files) to HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
27.3 Special Documentation Elements: Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
27.3.1 Latex Directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
27.3.2 Macro Directive

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

27.4 Customizing HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

27.4.1 Referencing Documentation for other Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

27.4.2 Search Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

27.4.3 ViewCVS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

27.4.4 Wiki Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

27.5 Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

614

28 Appendix A: Install and Build ROOT

615

28.1 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

28.2 Installing ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
28.3 Choosing a Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
28.4 Installing Precompiled Binaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
28.5 Installing the Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
28.5.1 Installing and Building the Source from a Compressed File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
28.5.2 More Build Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
28.6 File system.rootrc

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

617

28.6.1 TCanvas Specific Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

28.6.2 THtml Specific Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
28.6.3 GUI Specific Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

621

28.6.4 TBrowser Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

28.6.5 TRint Specific Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

28.6.6 ACLiC Specific Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

28.6.7 PROOF Related Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
28.7 Documentation to Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

627

20

CONTENTS

Preface
Draft, November 2000 - version 0.6.2In late 1994, we decided to learn and investigate Object Oriented programming
and C++ to better judge the suitability of these relatively new techniques for scientific programming. We knew that
there is no better way to learn a new programming environment than to use it to write a program that can solve a real
problem. After a few weeks, we had our first histogramming package in C++. A few weeks later we had a rewrite of
the same package using the, at that time, very new template features of C++. Again, a few weeks later we had another
rewrite of the package without templates since we could only compile the version with templates on one single platform
using a specific compiler. Finally, after about four months we had a histogramming package that was faster and more
efficient than the well-known FORTRAN based HBOOK histogramming package. This gave us enough confidence in
the new technologies to decide to continue the development. Thus was born ROOT. Since its first public release at the
end of 1995, ROOT has enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity. Currently it is being used in all major High Energy
and Nuclear Physics laboratories around the world to monitor, to store and to analyse data. In the other sciences as
well as the medical and financial industries, many people are using ROOT. We estimate the current user base to be
around several thousand people. In 1997, Eric Raymond analysed in his paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar the
development method that makes Linux such a success. The essence of that method is: release early, release often
and listen to your customers. This is precisely how ROOT is being developed. Over the last five years, many of our
customers became co-developers. Here we would like to thank our main co-developers and contributors:
Masaharu Goto wrote the CINT C++ interpreter that became an essential part of ROOT. Despite being 8 time
zones ahead of us, we have the feeling he has been sitting in the room next door since 1995.
Andrei and Mihaela Gheata (Alice collaboration) are co-authors of the ROOT geometry classes and Virtual
Monte-Carlo. They have been working with the ROOT team since 2000.
Olivier Couet, who after a successful development and maintenance of PAW, has joined the ROOT team in 2000 and
has been working on the graphics sub-system.
Ilka Antcheva has been working on the Graphical User Interface classes. She is also responsible for this latest edition
of the Users Guide with a better style, improved index and several new chapters (since 2002).
Bertrand Bellenot has been developing and maintaining the Win32GDK version of ROOT. Bertrand has also many
other contributions like the nice RootShower example (since 2001).
Valeriy Onoutchin has been working on several ROOT packages, in particular the graphics sub-system for Windows
and the GUI Builder (since 2000).
Gerri Ganis has been working on the authentication procedures to be used by the root daemons and the PROOF
system (since 2002).
Maarten Ballintijn (MIT) is one of the main developers of the PROOF sub-system (since 1995).
Valeri Fine (now at BNL) ported ROOT to Windows and contributed largely to the 3-D graphics. He is currently
working on the Qt layer of ROOT (since 1995).
Victor Perevoztchikov (BNL) worked on key elements of the I/O system, in particular the improved support for
STL collections (1997-2001).
Nenad Buncic developed the HTML documentation generation system and integrated the X3D viewer inside ROOT
(1995-1997).
Suzanne Panacek was the author of the first version of this Users Guide and very active in preparing tutorials and
giving lectures about ROOT (1999-2002).
Axel Naumann has been developing further the HTML Reference Guide and helps in porting ROOT under Windows
(cygwin/gcc implementation) (since 2000).
Anna Kreshuk has developed the Linear Fitter and Robust Fitter classes as well as many functions in TMath, TF1,
TGraph (since 2005).
Richard Maunder has contributed to the GL viewer classes (since 2004).
21

22

CONTENTS

Timur Pocheptsov has contributed to the GL viewer classes and GL in pad classes (since 2004).
Sergei Linev has developed the XML driver and the TSQLFile classes (since 2003).
Stefan Roiser has been contributing to the reflex and cintex packages (since 2005).
Lorenzo Moneta has been contributing the MathCore, MathMore, Smatrix & Minuit2 packages (since 2005).
Wim Lavrijsen is the author of the PyRoot package (since 2004).
Further we would like to thank all the people mentioned in the $ROOTSYS/README/CREDITS file for their contributions,
and finally, everybody who gave comments, reported bugs and provided fixes.
Happy ROOTing!
Rene Brun & Fons Rademakers
Geneva, July 2007

Chapter 1

Introduction
In the mid 1990s, Ren Brun and Fons Rademakers had many years of experience developing interactive tools and
simulation packages. They had lead successful projects such as PAW, PIAF, and GEANT, and they knew PAW the
twenty-year-old FORTRAN libraries had reached their limits. Although still very popular, these tools could not scale
up to the challenges offered by the Large Hadron Collider, where the data is a few orders of magnitude larger than
anything seen before.
At the same time, computer science had made leaps of progress especially in the area of Object Oriented Design, and
Ren and Fons were ready to take advantage of it.
ROOT was developed in the context of the NA49 experiment at CERN. NA49 has generated an impressive amount of
data, around 10 Terabytes per run. This rate provided the ideal environment to develop and test the next generation
data analysis.
One cannot mention ROOT without mentioning CINT, its C++ interpreter. CINT was created by Masa Goto in
Japan. It is an independent product, which ROOT is using for the command line and script processor.
ROOT was, and still is, developed in the Bazaar style, a term from the book The Cathedral and the Bazaar by
Eric S. Raymond. It means a liberal, informal development style that heavily relies on the diverse and deep talent of
the user community. The result is that physicists developed ROOT for themselves; this made it specific, appropriate,
useful, and over time refined and very powerful. The development of ROOT is a continuous conversation between users
and developers with the line between the two blurring at times and the users becoming co-developers.
When it comes to storing and mining large amount of data, physics plows the way with its Terabytes, but other fields
and industry follow close behind as they acquiring more and more data over time. They are ready to use the true and
tested technologies physics has invented. In this way, other fields and industries have found ROOT useful and they
have started to use it also.
In the bazaar view, software is released early and frequently to expose it to thousands of eager co-developers to pound
on, report bugs, and contribute possible fixes. More users find more bugs, because they stress the program in different
ways. By now, after ten years, the age of ROOT is quite mature. Most likely, you will find the features you are looking
for, and if you have found a hole, you are encouraged to participate in the dialog and post your suggestion or even
implementation on roottalk, the ROOT mailing list.

1.1

The ROOT Mailing Lists

The roottalk was the very first active ROOT mailing list. mailing list People can subscribe to it by registering at the
ROOT web site: http://root.cern.ch/root/Registration.phtml. The RootTalk Forum http://root.cern.ch/phpBB3/ has
been gradually replaced this mailing list since September 2003. The RootTalk Forum is a web-based news group with
about 10 discussion sub-units.
If you have a question, it is likely that it has been asked, answered, and stored in the roottalk or RootTalk Forum
archives. Please use the search engine to see if your question has already been answered before sending a mail to the
roottalk list or post a topic in the Forum.
You can browse the roottalk archives at: http://root.cern.ch/root/roottalk/AboutRootTalk.html. You can send your
question without subscribing to: roottalk@cern.ch
23

24

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.2

Contact Information

Several authors wrote this book and you may see a change of voice from one chapter to the next. We felt we could
accept this in order to have the expert explain what they know best. If you would like to contribute a chapter or
add to a section, please contact rootdoc@cern.ch. We count on you to send us suggestions on additional topics or on
the topics that need more documentation. Please send your comments, corrections, questions, and suggestions to the
rootdoc list: rootdoc@cern.ch
We attempt to give the user insight into the many capabilities of ROOT. The book begins with the elementary
functionality and progresses in complexity reaching the specialized topics at the end. The experienced user looking for
special topics may find these chapters useful: see Networking, Writing a Graphical User Interface, Threads, and
PROOF: Parallel Processing.

1.3

Conventions Used in This Book

We tried to follow a style convention for the sake of clarity. The styles in used are described below.
To show source code in scripts or source files:
{

cout << " Hello" << endl;

float x = 3.;
float y = 5.;
int
i = 101;
cout <<" x = "<<x<<" y = "<<y<<" i = "<<i<< endl;

To show the ROOT command line, we show the ROOT prompt without numbers. In the interactive system, the ROOT
prompt has a line number (root[12]); for the sake of simplicity, the line numbers are left off.
root[] TLine l
root[] l.Print()
TLine X1=0.000000 Y1=0.000000 X2=0.000000 Y2=0.000000
Italic bold monotype font indicates a global variable, for example gDirectory .
When a variable term is used, it is shown between angled brackets. In the example below the variable term <library>
can be replaced with any library in the $ROOTSYS directory: $ROOTSYS/<library>/inc.

1.4

The Framework

ROOT is an object-oriented framework aimed at solving the data analysis challenges of high-energy physics. There are
two key words in this definition, object oriented and framework. First, we explain what we mean by a framework and
then why it is an object-oriented framework.

1.4.1

What Is a Framework?

Programming inside a framework is a little like living in a city. Plumbing, electricity, telephone, and transportation are
services provided by the city. In your house, you have interfaces to the services such as light switches, electrical outlets,
and telephones. The details, for example, the routing algorithm of the phone switching system, are transparent to you
as the user. You do not care; you are only interested in using the phone to communicate with your collaborators to
solve your domain specific problems.
Programming outside of a framework may be compared to living in the country. In order to have transportation and
water, you will have to build a road and dig a well. To have services like telephone and electricity you will need to
route the wires to your home. In addition, you cannot build some things yourself. For example, you cannot build a
commercial airport on your patch of land. From a global perspective, it would make no sense for everyone to build his
or her own airport. You see you will be very busy building the infrastructure (or framework) before you can use the
phone to communicate with your collaborators and have a drink of water at the same time. In software engineering,
it is much the same way. In a framework, the basic utilities and services, such as I/O and graphics, are provided.

1.5. INSTALLING ROOT

25

In addition, ROOT being a HEP analysis framework, it provides a large selection of HEP specific utilities such as
histograms and fitting. The drawback of a framework is that you are constrained to it, as you are constraint to use the
routing algorithm provided by your telephone service. You also have to learn the framework interfaces, which in this
analogy is the same as learning how to use a telephone.
If you are interested in doing physics, a good HEP framework will save you much work. Next is a list of the more
commonly used components of ROOT: Command Line Interpreter, Histograms and Fitting, Writing a Graphical User
Interface, 2D Graphics, Input/Output , Collection Classes, Script Processor.
There are also less commonly used components, as: 3D Graphics, Parallel Processing (PROOF), Run Time Type
Identification (RTTI), Socket and Network Communication, Threads.
1.4.1.1

Advantages of Frameworks

The benefits of frameworks can be summarized as follows:

Less code to write - the programmer should be able to use and reuse the majority of the existing code. Basic
functionality, such as fitting and histogramming are implemented and ready to use and customize.
More reliable and robust code - the code inherited from a framework has already been tested and integrated with
the rest of the framework.
More consistent and modular code - the code reuse provides consistency and common capabilities between
programs, no matter who writes them. Frameworks make it easier to break programs into smaller pieces.
More focus on areas of expertise - users can concentrate on their particular problem domain. They do not have to
be experts at writing user interfaces, graphics, or networking to use the frameworks that provide those services.

1.4.2

Why Object-Oriented?

Object-Oriented Programming offers considerable benefits compared to Procedure-Oriented Programming:

Encapsulation enforces data abstraction and increases opportunity for reuse.
Sub classing and inheritance make it possible to extend and modify objects.
Class hierarchies and containment containment hierarchies provide a flexible mechanism for modeling real-world
objects and the relationships among them.
Complexity is reduced because there is little growth of the global state, the state is contained within each object,
rather than scattered through the program in the form of global variables.
Objects may come and go, but the basic structure of the program remains relatively static, increases opportunity
for reuse of design.

1.5

Installing ROOT

To install ROOT you will need to go to the ROOT website at: http://root.cern.ch/root/Availability.html. You have
a choice to download the binaries or the source. The source is quicker to transfer since it is only ~22 MB, but you
will need to compile and link it. The binaries compiled with no degug information range from ~35 MB to ~45 MB
depending on the target platform.
The installation and building of ROOT is described in Appendix A: Install and Build ROOT. You can download the
binaries, or the source. The GNU g++ compiler on most UNIX platforms can compile ROOT.
Before downloading a binary version make sure your machine contains the right run-time environment. In most cases it
is not possible to run a version compiled with, e.g., gcc4.0 on a platform where only gcc 3.2 is installed. In such cases
youll have to install ROOT from source.
ROOT is currently running on the following platforms: supported platforms
GNU/Linux x86-32 (IA32) and x86-64 (AMD64)(GCC,Intel/icc, Portland/PGCC,KAI/KCC)
Intel Itanium (IA64) GNU/Linux (GCC, Intel/ecc, SGI/CC)

26

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
FreeBSD and OpenBSD (GCC)
GNU/Hurd (GCC)
HP HP-UX 10.x (IA32) and 11 (IA64) (HP CC, aCC, GCC)
IBM AIX 4.1 (xlC compiler, GCC)
Sun Solaris for SPARC (SUN C++ compiler, GCC)
Sun Solaris for x86 (SUN C++ compiler, KAI/KCC)
Compaq Alpha (GCC, KAI/KCC, DEC/CXX)
SGI Irix 32 and 64 bits (GCC, KAI/KCC, SGI C++ compiler)
Windows >= 95 (Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, Cygwin/GCC)
MacOS X PPC, x86-32, x86-64 (GCC, Intel/ICC, IBM/xl)
PowerPC with GNU/Linux and GCC, Debian v2
PowerPC64 with GNU/Linux and GCC
ARM with GNU/Linux and GCC
LynxOS

1.6

The Organization of the ROOT Framework

Now after we know in abstract terms what the ROOT framework is, let us look at the physical directories and files
that come with the ROOT installation. You may work on a platform where your system administrator has already
installed ROOT. You will need to follow the specific development environment for your setup and you may not have
write access to the directories. In any case, you will need an environment variable called ROOTSYS, which holds the
path of the top ROOT directory.
> echo $ROOTSYS
/opt/root
In the ROOTSYS directory are examples, executables, tutorials, header tutorials files, and, if you opted to download
it, the source is here. The directories of special interest to us are bin, tutorials, lib, test, andinclude. The next
figure shows the contents of these directories.

1.6.1

$ROOTSYS/bin

The bin directory contains several executables.

root
root.exe
rootcint
rmkdepend
root-config
cint
makecint
proofd
proofserv
rootd

shows the ROOT splash screen and calls root.exe

the executable that root calls, if you use a debugger such as gdb, you will need to run
root.exe directly CINTdebugger
is the utility ROOT uses to create a class dictionary for CINT
a modified version of makedepend that is used by the ROOT build system
a script returning the needed compile flags and libraries for projects that compile and
link with ROOT
the C++ interpreter executable that is independent of ROOT
the pure CINT version of rootcint, used to generate a dictionary; It is used by some of
CINT install scripts to generate dictionaries for external system libraries
a small daemon used to authenticate a user of ROOT parallel processing capability
(PROOF)
the actual PROOF process, which is started by proofd after a user, has successfully
been authenticated
is the daemon for remote ROOT file access (see the TNetFile)

1.6. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ROOT FRAMEWORK

Figure 1.1: ROOT framework directories

27

28

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.6.2

$ROOTSYS/lib

There are several ways to use ROOT, one way is to run the executable by typing root at the system prompt another
way is to link with the ROOT libraries and make the ROOT classes available in your own program.
Here is a short description of the most relevant libraries, the ones marked with a * are only installed when the options
specified them.
libAsImage is the image manipulation library
libCint is the C++ interpreter (CINT)
libCore is the Base classes
libEG is the abstract event generator interface classes
*libEGPythia is the Pythia5 event generator interface
*libEGPythia6 is the Pythia6 event generator interface
libFitPanel contains the GUI used for fitting
libGed contains the GUI used for editing the properties of histograms, graphs, etc.
libGeom is the geometry package (with builder and painter)
libGpad is the pad and canvas classes which depend on low level graphics
libGraf is the 2D graphics primitives (can be used independent of libGpad)
libGraf3d is the 3D graphics primitives
libGui is the GUI classes (depend on low level graphics)
libGuiBld is the GUI designer
libGuiHtml contains the embedded HTML browser
libGX11 is the low level graphics interface to the X11 system
*libGX11TTF is an add-on library to libGX11 providing TrueType fonts
libHbook is for interface ROOT - HBOOK
libHist is the histogram classes (with accompanying painter library)
libHtml is the HTML documentation generation system
libMatrix is the matrix and vector manipulation
libMathCore contains the core mathematics and physics vector classes
libMathMore contains additional functions, interfacing the GSL math library
libMinuit is the MINUIT fitter
libNet contains functionality related to network transfer
libNew is the special global new/delete, provides extra memory checking and interface for shared memory
(optional)
libPhysics contains the legacy physics classes (TLorentzVector, etc.)
libPostscript is the PostScript interface
libProof is the parallel ROOT Facility classes
libPython provides the interface to Python
*libRFIO is the interface to CERN RFIO remote I/O system.
*libRGL is the interface to OpenGL.
libReflex is the runtime type database library used by CINT

1.6. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ROOT FRAMEWORK

29

libRint is the interactive interface to ROOT (provides command prompt)

libRIO provides the functionality to write and read objects to and from ROOT files
libRooFit is the RooFit fitting framework
libRuby is the interface to Ruby
libSpectrum provides functionality for spectral analysis
*libThread is the interface to TThread classes
libTMVA contains the multivariate analysis toolkit
libTree is the TTree object container system
libTreePlayer is the TTree drawing classes
libTreeViewer is the graphical TTree query interface
1.6.2.1

Library Dependencies

Figure 1.2: ROOT libraries dependencies

The libraries are designed and organized to minimize dependencies, such that you can load just enough code for the
task at hand rather than having to load all libraries or one monolithic chunk. The core library (libCore.so) contains
the essentials; it is a part of all ROOT applications. In the Figure 1-2 you see that libCore.so is made up of base
classes, container classes, meta information classes, operating system specific classes, and the ZIP algorithm used for
compression of the ROOT files.
The CINT library (libCint.so) is also needed in all ROOT applications, and even by libCore. It can be used
independently of libCore, in case you only need the C++ interpreter and not ROOT. A program referencing only
TObject only needs libCore and libCint. To add the ability to read and write ROOT objects one also has to load
libRIO. As one would expect, none of that depends on graphics or the GUI.

30

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Library dependencies have different consequences; depending on whether you try to build a binary, or you just try to
access a class that is defined in a library.
1.6.2.2

Linktime Library Dependencies

When building your own executable you will have to link against the libraries that contain the classes you use. The
ROOT reference guide states the library a class is reference guide defined in. Almost all relevant classes can be found
in libraries returned by root-config -glibs; the graphics libraries are retuned by root-config --libs. These
commands are commonly used in Makefiles. Using root-config instead of enumerating the libraries by hand allows
you to link them in a platform independent way. Also, if ROOT library names change you will not need to change your
Makefile.
A batch program that does not have a graphic display, which creates, fills, and saves histograms and trees, only needs
to link the core libraries (libCore, libCint, libRIO), libHist and libTree. If ROOT needs access to other libraries,
it loads them dynamically. For example, if the TreeViewer is used, libTreePlayer and all libraries libTreePlayer
depends on are loaded also. The dependent libraries are shown in the ROOT reference guides library dependency
graph. The difference between reference guide libHist and libHistPainter is that the former needs to be explicitly
linked and the latter will be loaded automatically at runtime when ROOT needs it, by means of the Plugin Manager.
plugin manager
In the Figure 1-2, the libraries represented by green boxes outside of the core are loaded via the plugin manager plugin
manager or equivalent techniques, while the white ones are not. Of course, if one wants to access a plugin library
directly, it has to be explicitly linked. An example of a plugin library is libMinuit. To create and fill histograms you
need to link libHist.so. If the code has a call to fit the histogram, the fitter will dynamically load libMinuit if it is
not yet loaded.
1.6.2.3

Plugins: Runtime Library Dependencies for Linking

plugin manager The Plugin Manager TPluginManager allows postponing library dependencies to runtime: a plugin library will only be loaded when it is needed. Non-plugins will need to be linked, and are thus loaded at
start-up. Plugins are defined by a base class (e.g. TFile) that will be implemented in a plugin, a tag used to
identify the plugin (e.g. rfio: as part of the protocol string), the plugin class of which an object will be created
(e.g. TRFIOFile), the library to be loaded (in short libRFIO.so to RFIO), and the constructor to be called (e.g.
TRFIOFile()). This can be specified in the .rootrc which already contains many plugin definitions, or by calls to
gROOT->GetPluginManager()->AddHandler().
1.6.2.4

Library Autoloading

When using a class in CINT, e.g. in an interpreted source file, ROOT will automatically load the library that defines
this class. On start-up, ROOT parses all files ending on .rootmap rootmap that are in one of the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
(or $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for MacOS, or $PATH for Windows). They contain class names and the library names that the
class depends on. After reading them, ROOT knows which classes are available, and which libraries to load for them.
When TSystem::Load("ALib") is called, ROOT uses this information to determine which libraries libALib.so depends
on. It will load these libraries first. Otherwise, loading the requested library could cause a system (dynamic loader)
error due to unresolved symbols.

1.6.3

$ROOTSYS/tutorials

tutorials The tutorials directory contains many example example scripts. They assume some basic knowledge of
ROOT, and for the new user we recommend reading the chapters: Histograms and Input/Output before trying the
examples. The more experienced user can jump to chapter The Tutorials and Tests to find more explicit and specific
information about how to build and run the examples.
The $ROOTSYS/tutorials/ directory include the following sub-directories:
fft: Fast Fourier Transform with the fftw package fit: Several examples illustrating minimization/fitting foam:
Random generator in multidimensional space geom: Examples of use of the geometry package (TGeo classes) gl:
Visualisation with OpenGL graphics: Basic graphics graphs: Use of TGraph, TGraphErrors, etc. gui: Scripts to
create Graphical User Interface hist: Histograming image: Image Processing io: Input/Output math: Maths and
Statistics functions matrix: Matrices (TMatrix) examples mlp: Neural networks with TMultiLayerPerceptron net:
Network classes (client/server examples) physics: LorentzVectors, phase space pyroot: Python tutorials pythia:
Example with pythia6 quadp: Quadratic Programming ruby: ruby tutorials smatrix: Matrices with a templated

1.7. HOW TO FIND MORE INFORMATION

31

package spectrum: Peak finder, background, deconvolutions splot: Example of the TSplot class (signal/background
estimator) sql: Interfaces to SQL (mysql, oracle, etc) thread: Using Threads tmva: Examples of the MultiVariate
Analysis classes tree: Creating Trees, Playing with Trees unuran: Interface with the unuram random generator library
xml: Writing/Reading xml files
You can execute the scripts in $ROOTSYS/tutorials (or sub-directories) by setting your current directory in the script
directory or from any user directory with write access. Several tutorials create new files. If you have write access to the
tutorials directory, the new files will be created in the tutorials directory, otherwise they will be created in the user
directory.

1.6.4

$ROOTSYS/test

The test directory contains a set of examples example that represent all areas of the framework. When a new release is
cut, the examples in this directory are compiled and run to test the new releases backward compatibility. The list of
source files is described in chapter The Tutorials and Tests.
The $ROOTSYS/test directory is a gold mine of ROOT-wisdom nuggets, and we encourage you to explore and exploit
it. We recommend the new users to read the chapter Getting Started. The chapter The Tutorials and Tests has
instructions on how to build all the programs and it goes over the examples Event and stress.

1.6.5

$ROOTSYS/include

The include directory contains all header files. It is especially important because the header files contain the class
definitions.

1.6.6

$ROOTSYS/<library>

The directories we explored above are available when downloading the binaries. When downloading the source you also
get a directory for each library with the corresponding header and source files, located in the inc and src subdirectories.
To see what classes are in a library, you can check the <library>/inc directory for the list of class definitions. For
example, the physics library libPhysics.so contains these class definitions:
> ls -m $ROOTSYS/math/physics/inc/
LinkDef.h, TFeldmanCousins.h, TGenPhaseSpace.h, TLorentzRotation.h,
TLorentzVector.h, TQuaternion.h, TRobustEstimator.h, TRolke.h,
TRotation.h, TVector2.h, TVector3.h

1.7

How to Find More Information

website The ROOT web site has up to date documentation. The ROOT source code automatically generates this
documentation, so each class is explicitly documented on its own web page, which is always up to date with the latest
official release of ROOT.
The ROOT Reference Guide web pages can be found at class index reference guide http://root.cern.ch/root/html/
ClassIndex.html. Each page contains a class description, and an explanation of each method. It shows the class
inheritance tree and lets you jump to the parent class page by clicking on the class name. If you want more details,
you can even see the source. There is a help page available in the little box on the upper right hand side of each class
documentation page. You can see on the next page what a typical class documentation web page looks like. The ROOT
web site also contains in addition to this Reference Guide, How Tos, a list of publications and example applications.

1.7.1

Class Reference Guide

The top of any class reference page lets you jump to different parts of the documentation. The first line links to the
class index and the index for the current module (a group of classes, often a library). The second line links to the
ROOT homepage and the class overviews. The third line links the source information - a HTML version of the source
and header file as well as the CVS (the source management system used for the ROOT development) information of
the files. The last line links the different parts of the current pages.

32

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Figure 1.3: Example of function documentation, with automatically generated LaTeX-like graphics

Figure 1.4: Inheritance tree, showing what the current class derives from, and which classes inherit from it

1.7. HOW TO FIND MORE INFORMATION

Figure 1.5: HTML version of the source file linking all types and most functions

33

34

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2

Getting Started
We begin by showing you how to use ROOT interactively. There are two examples to click through and learn how to
use the GUI. We continue by using the command line, and explaining the coding conventions, global variables and the
environment setup. If you have not installed ROOT, you can do so by following the instructions in the appendix, or on
the ROOT web site: http://root.cern.ch/root/Availability.html

2.1

Setting the Environment Variables

Before you can run ROOT you need to set the environment variable ROOTSYS and change your path to include root/bin
and library path variables to include root/lib. Please note: the syntax is for bash, if you are running tcsh you will
have to use setenv instead of export.
1. Define the variable $ROOTSYS to the directory where you unpacked the ROOT:
$ export ROOTSYS=$HOME/root
2. Add ROOTSYS/bin to your PATH:
$ export PATH=$PATH:$ROOTSYS/bin
3. Setting the Library Path
On HP-UX, before executing the interactive module, you must set the library path:
$ export SHLIB_PATH=$SHLIB_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib
On AIX, before executing the interactive module, you must set the library path:
$ [ -z "$LIBPATH" ] && export LIBPATH=/lib:/usr/lib
$ export LIBPATH=$LIBPATH:$ROOTSYS/lib
On Linux, Solaris, Alpha OSF and SGI, before executing the interactive module, you must set the library path:
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib
On Solaris, in case your LD_LIBRARY_PATH is empty, you should set it:
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib:/usr/dt/lib
If you use the afs version you should set (vers = version number, arch = architecture):
$ export ROOTSYS=/afs/cern.ch/sw/lcg/external/root/vers/arch/root
If ROOT was installed in $HOME/myroot directory on a local machine, one can do:
cd $HOME/myroot
. bin/thisroot.sh

// or source bin/thisroot.sh

The new $ROOTSYS/bin/thisroot.[c]sh scripts will set correctly the ROOTSYS, LD_LIBRARY_PATH or other paths
depending on the platform and the MANPATH. To run the program just type: root.
35

36

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

2.2

Start and Quit a ROOT Session

% root
*******************************************
*
*
*
W E L C O M E to R O O T
*
*
*
*
Version
5.34/07
26 April 2013
*
*
*
* You are welcome to visit our Web site *
*
http://root.cern.ch
*
*
*
*******************************************
ROOT 5.34/07 (v5-34-07@c1f030b, May 13 2013, 16:42:38 on macosx64)
CINT/ROOT C/C++ Interpreter version 5.18.00, July 2, 2010
Type ? for help. Commands must be C++ statements.
Enclose multiple statements between { }.
root [0]
To start ROOT you can type root at the system prompt. This starts up CINT, the ROOT command line C/C++
interpreter, and it gives you the ROOT prompt (root[0]).
It is possible to launch ROOT with some command line options, as shown below:
% root -?
Usage: root [-l] [-b] [-n] [-q] [dir] [[file:]data.root]
[file1.C ... fileN.C]
Options:
-b : run in batch mode without graphics
-n : do not execute logon and logoff macros as specified in .rootrc
-q : exit after processing command line macro files
-l : do not show splash screen
-x : exit on exception
dir : if dir is a valid directory cd to it before executing
-?
-h
--help
-config
-memstat

:
:
:
:
:

print usage
print usage
print usage
print ./configure options
run with memory usage monitoring

-b ROOT session runs in batch mode, without graphics display. This mode is useful in case one does not want to
set the DISPLAY or cannot do it for some reason.
-n usually, launching a ROOT session will execute a logon script and quitting will execute a logoff script. This
option prevents the execution of these two scripts.
it is also possible to execute a script without entering a ROOT session. One simply adds the name of the script(s)
after the ROOT command. Be warned: after finishing the execution of the script, ROOT will normally enter a
new session.
-q process command line script files and exit.
For example if you would like to run a script myMacro.C in the background, redirect the output into a file myMacro.log,
and exit after the script execution, use the following syntax:
root -b -q myMacro.C > myMacro.log
If you need to pass a parameter to the script use:
root -b -q 'myMacro.C(3)' > myMacro.log

2.3. USING THE GUI

37

Be mindful of the quotes, i.e. if you need to pass a string as a parameter, the syntax is:
root -b -q 'myMacro.C("text")' > myMacro.log
You can build a shared library with ACLiC and then use this shared library on the command line for a quicker execution
(i.e. the compiled speed rather than the interpreted speed). See also CINT the C++ Interpreter.
root -b -q myMacro.so > myMacro.log
ROOT has a powerful C/C++ interpreter giving you access to all available ROOT classes, global variables, and
functions via the command line. By typing C++ statements at the prompt, you can create objects, call functions,
execute scripts, etc. For example:
root[] 1+sqrt(9)
(const double)4.00000000000000000e+00
root[] for (int i = 0; i<4; i++) cout << "Hello" << i << endl
Hello 0
Hello 1
Hello 2
Hello 3
root[] .q
To exit the ROOT session, type .q.
root[] .q

2.3

Using the GUI

The basic whiteboard on which an object is drawn in ROOT is called a canvas (defined by the class TCanvas). Every
object in the canvas is a graphical object in the sense that you can grab it, resize it, and change some characteristics
using the mouse. The canvas area can be divided in several sub areas, so-called pads (the class TPad). A pad is a
canvas sub area that can contain other pads or graphical objects. At any one time, just one pad is the so-called active
pad. Any object at the moment of drawing will be drawn in the active pad. The obvious question is: what is the
relation between a canvas and a pad? In fact, a canvas is a pad that spans through an entire window. This is nothing
else than the notion of inheritance. The TPad class is the parent of the TCanvas class. In ROOT, most objects derive
from a base class TObject. This class has a virtual method Draw() such as all objects are supposed to be able to be
drawn. If several canvases are defined, there is only one active at a time. One draws an object in the active canvas by
using the statement:
object.Draw()
This instructs the object object to draw itself. If no canvas is opened, a default one (named c1) is created. In the
next example, the first statement defines a function and the second one draws it. A default canvas is created since
there was no opened one. You should see the picture as shown in the next figure.
root[] TF1 f1("func1","sin(x)/x",0,10)
root[] f1.Draw()
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
The following components comprise the canvas window:
Menu bar - contains main menus for global operations with files, print, clear canvas, inspect, etc.
Tool bar - has buttons for global and drawing operations; such as arrow, ellipse, latex, pad, etc.
Canvas - an area to draw objects.
Status bar - displays descriptive messages about the selected object.
Editor frame - responds dynamically and presents the user interface according to the selected object in the canvas.

38

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

Figure 2.1: A canvas with drawing

2.3.1

Main Menus and Toolbar

At the top of the canvas window are File, Edit, View, Options, Inspect, Classes and Help menus.

2.3.1.1

File Menu

New Canvas: creates a new canvas window in the current ROOT session.
Open. . . : popup a dialog to open a file.
Close Canvas: close the canvas window.
Save: save the drawing of the current canvas in a format selectable from the submenu. The current canvas name
is used as a file name for various formats such as PostScript, GIF, JPEG, C macro file, root file.
Save As. . . : popup a dialog for saving the current canvas drawing in a new filename.
Print: popup a dialog to print the current canvas drawing
Quit ROOT : exit the ROOT session

2.3. USING THE GUI

2.3.1.2

39

Edit Menu

There is only one active menu entry in the Edit menu. The others menu entries will be implemented and will become
active in the near future.
Clear: delete all objects in the canvas or in the selected pad according to the selected entry in the submenu.
2.3.1.3

View Menu

Editor: toggles the view of the editor. If it is selected activates and shows up the editor on the left side of the
canvas window. According to the selected object, the editor loads the corresponding user interface for easy change
of the objects attributes.
Toolbar: toggles the view of the toolbar. If it is selected activates and shows up the toolbar. It contains buttons
for easy and fast access to most frequently used commands and for graphics primitive drawing. Tool tips are
provided for helping users.
Status Bar: toggles the view of the status bar. If it is selected, the status bar below the canvas window shows
up. There the identification of the objects is displayed when moving the mouse (such as the objects name, the
objects type, its coordinates, etc.).
Colors: creates a new canvas showing the color palette.
Markers: creates a new canvas showing the various marker styles.
Iconify: create the canvas window icon, does not close the canvas
View With. . . : If the last selected pad contains a 3-d structure, a new canvas is created with a 3-D picture
according to the selection made from the cascaded menu: X3D or OpenGL. The 3-D image can be interactively
rotated, zoomed in wire-frame, solid, hidden line or stereo mode.

2.3.1.4

Options Menu

Auto Resize Canvas: turns auto-resize of the canvas on/off :

on - the canvas fits to the window when changing the window size;
off - the canvas stays fixed when changing the window size.
Resize Canvas: resizes and fits the canvas to the window size.
Move Opaque: if selected, graphics objects are moved in opaque mode; otherwise, only the outline of objects
is drawn when moving them. The option opaque produces the best effect but it requires a reasonably fast
workstation or response time.
Resize Opaque: if selected, graphics objects are resized in opaque mode; otherwise, only the outline of objects is
drawn when resizing them.
Interrupt: interrupts the current drawing process.
Refresh: redraws the canvas contents.

40

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

Pad Auto Exec: executes the list of TExecs in the current pad.
Statistics: toggles the display of the histogram statistics box.
Histogram Title: toggles the display of the histogram title.
Fit Parameters: toggles the display of the histogram or graph fit parameters.
Can Edit Histogram: enables/disables the possibility to edit histogram bin contents.

2.3.1.5

Inspect Menu

ROOT : inspects the top-level gROOT object (in a new canvas).

Start Browser: starts a new object browser (in a separate window).
GUI Builder: starts the GUI builder application (in a separate window).

2.3.1.6

Help Menu

Canvas: help on canvas as a whiteboard area for drawing.

Menus: help on canvas menus.
Graphics Editor: help on primitives drawing and objects editor.
Browser: help on the ROOT objects and files browser.
Objects: help on DrawClass, Inspect and Dump context menu items.
PostScript: help on how to print a canvas to a PostScript file format.
About ROOT : pops up the ROOT Logo with the version number.

2.3.1.7

Classes Menu

Classes: starts the ClassTree viewer that draws inheritance tree for a list of classes.

2.3. USING THE GUI

2.3.1.8

41

Toolbar

The following menu shortcuts and utilities are available from the toolbar:
Create a new canvas window.
Popup the Open File dialog.
Popup the Save As. . . dialog.
Popup the Print dialog.
Interrupts the current drawing process.
Redraw the canvas.
Inspect the gROOT object.
Create a new objects browser.
You can create the following graphical objects using the toolbar buttons for primitive drawing. Tool tips are provided
for helping your choice.
An Arc or circle: Click on the center of the arc, and then move the mouse. A rubber band circle is shown. Click
again with the left button to freeze the arc.
A Line: Click with the left button at the point where you want to start the line, then move the mouse and click
again with the left button to freeze the line.
An Arrow:Click with the left button at the point where you want to start the arrow, then move the mouse and
click again with the left button to freeze the arrow.
A Diamond: Click with the left button and freeze again with the left button. The editor draws a rubber band
box to suggest the outline of the diamond.
An Ellipse: Proceed like for an arc. You can grow/shrink the ellipse by pointing to the sensitive points. They
are highlighted. You can move the ellipse by clicking on the ellipse, but not on the sensitive points. If, with the ellipse
context menu, you have selected a fill area color, you can move a filled-ellipse by pointing inside the ellipse and dragging
it to its new position.
A Pad: Click with the left button and freeze again with the left button. The editor draws a rubber band box to
suggest the outline of the pad.
A PaveLabel: Proceed like for a pad. Type the text of label and finish with a carriage return. The text will
appear in the box.
A Pave Text: Proceed like for a pad. You can then click on the TPaveText object with the right mouse button
and select the option InsertText.

42

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

Paves Text: Proceed like for a TPaveText.

A Poly Line: Click with the left button for the first point, move the moose, click again with the left button for a
new point. Close the poly-line with a double click. To edit one vertex point, pick it with the left button and drag to
the new point position.
A Curly Line: Proceed as for the arrow or line. Once done, click with the third button to change the characteristics
of the curly line, like transform it to wave, change the wavelength, etc.
A Curly Arc: Proceed like for an ellipse. The first click is located at the position of the center, the second click
at the position of the arc beginning. Once done, one obtains a curly ellipse, for which one can click with the third
button to change the characteristics, like transform it to wavy, change the wavelength, set the minimum and maximum
angle to make an arc that is not closed, etc.
A Text/Latex string: Click with the left button where you want to draw the text and then type in the text
terminated by carriage return. All TLatex expressions are valid. To move the text or formula, point on it keeping the
left mouse button pressed and drag the text to its new position. You can grow/shrink the text if you position the
mouse to the first top-third part of the string, then move the mouse up or down to grow or shrink the text respectively.
If you position the mouse near the bottom-end of the text, you can rotate it.
A Marker: Click with the left button where to place the marker. The marker can be modified by using the
method SetMarkerStyle() of TSystem.
A Graphical Cut: Click with the left button on each point of a polygon delimiting the selected area. Close the
cut by double clicking on the last point. A TCutG object is created. It can be used as a selection for a TTree::Draw.
You can get a pointer to this object with:
TCutG cut = (TCutG*)gPad->GetPrimitive("CUTG")
Once you are happy with your picture, you can select the Save as canvas.C item in the canvas File menu. This will
automatically generate a script with the C++ statements corresponding to the picture. This facility also works if you
have other objects not drawn with the graphics editor (histograms for example).

2.3.2

The Editor Frame

The ROOT graphics editor loads the corresponding object editor objEditor according to the selected object obj in
the canvas respecting the class inheritance. An object in the canvas is selected after the left mouse click on it. For
example, if the selected object is TAxis, the TAxisEditor will shows up in the editor frame giving the possibility for
changing different axis attributes. The graphics editor can be:
Embedded - connected only with the canvas in the application window that appears on the left of the canvas window
after been activated via View menu / Editor. It appears on the left side if the canvas window allowing users to edit the
attributes of the selected object via provided user interface. The name of the selected object is displayed on the top of
the editor frame in red color. If the user interface needs more space then the height of the canvas window, a vertical
scroll bar appears for easer navigation.
Global - has own application window and can be connected to any created canvas in a ROOT session. It can be
activated via the context menu entries for setting line, fill, text and marker attributes for backward compatibility, but
there will be a unique entry in the near future.
The user interface for the following classes is available since ROOT v.4.04: TAttLine, TAttFill, TAttMarker, TAttText,
TArrow, TAxis, TCurlyArc, TCurlyLine, TFrame, TH1, TH2, TGraph, TPad, TCanvas, TPaveStats. For more details,
see The Graphics Editor, The User Interface for Histograms, The User Interface for Graphs.

2.3.3

Classes, Methods and Constructors

Object oriented programming introduces objects, which have data members and methods. The next line creates an
object named f1 of the class TF1 that is a one-dimensional function. The type of an object is called a class. The object
itself is called an instance of a class. When a method builds an object, it is called a constructor.
TF1 f1("func1","sin(x)/x",0,10)

2.3. USING THE GUI

43

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CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

In our constructor the function sin(x)/x is defined for use, and 0 and 10 are the limits. The first parameter, func1 is
the name of the object f1. Most objects in ROOT have a name. ROOT maintains a list of objects that can be searched
to find any object by its given name (in our example func1).
The syntax to call an objects method, or if one prefers, to make an object to do something is:
object.method_name(parameters)
The dot can be replaced by -> if object is a pointer. In compiled code, the dot MUST be replaced by a -> if
object is a pointer.
object_ptr->method_name(parameters)
So now, we understand the two lines of code that allowed us to draw our function. f1.Draw() stands for call the
method Draw() associated with the object f1 of the class TF1. Other methods can be applied to the object f1 of the
class TF1. For example, the evaluating and calculating the derivative and the integral are what one would expect from
a function.
root[] f1.Eval(3)
(Double_t)4.70400026866224020e-02
root[] f1.Derivative(3)
(Double_t)(-3.45675056671992330e-01)
root[] f1.Integral(0,3)
(Double_t)1.84865252799946810e+00
root[] f1.Draw()
By default the method TF1::Paint(), that draws the function, computes 100 equidistant points to draw it. The
number of points can be set to a higher value with:
root[] f1.SetNpx(2000);
Note that while the ROOT framework is an object-oriented framework, this does not prevent the user from calling
plain functions.

2.3.4

User Interaction

Now we will look at some interactive capabilities. Try to draw the function sin(x)/x again. Every object in a window
(which is called a canvas) is, in fact, a graphical object in the sense that you can grab it, resize it, and change its
characteristics with a mouse click. For example, bring the cursor over the x-axis. The cursor changes to a hand with a
pointing finger when it is over the axis. Now, left click and drag the mouse along the axis to the right. You have a very
simple zoom.
When you move the mouse over any object, you can get access to selected methods by pressing the right mouse button
and obtaining a context menu. If you try this on the function TF1, you will get a menu showing available methods. The
other objects on this canvas are the title, a TPaveText object; the x and y-axis, TAxis objects, the frame, a TFrame
object, and the canvas a TCanvas object. Try clicking on these and observe the context menu with their methods.
For example try selecting the SetRange() method and putting -10, 10 in the dialog box fields. This is equivalent to
executing f1.SetRange(-10,10) from the command line, followed by f1.Draw(). Here are some other options you
can try.
Once the picture suits your wishes, you may want to see the code you should put in a script to obtain the same result.
To do that, choose Save / canvas.C entry of the File menu. This will generate a script showing the options set in
the current canvas. Notice that you can also save the picture into various file formats such as PostScript, GIF, etc.
Another interesting possibility is to save your canvas into the native ROOT format (.rootfile). This will enable you to
open it again and to change whatever you like. All objects associated to the canvas (histograms, graphs) are saved at
the same time.

2.3. USING THE GUI

45

Figure 2.2: A context menu

46

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

2.3.5

Building a Multi-pad Canvas

Let us now try to build a canvas with several pads.

root[] TCanvas *MyC = new TCanvas("MyC","Test canvas",1)
root[] MyC->Divide(2,2)
Once again, we call the constructor of a class, this time the class TCanvas. The difference between this and the previous
constructor call (TF1) is that here we are creating a pointer to an object. Next, we call the method Divide() of the
TCanvas class (that is TCanvas::Divide()), which divides the canvas into four zones and sets up a pad in each of
them. We set the first pad as the active one and than draw the functionf1there.
root[] MyC->cd(1)
root[] f1->Draw()
All objects will be drawn in that pad because it is the active one. The ways for changing the active pad are:
Click the middle mouse button on a pad will set this pad as the active one.
Use the method TCanvas::cd() with the pad number, as was done in the example above:
root[] MyC->cd(3)
Pads are numbered from left to right and from top to bottom. Each new pad created by TCanvas::Divide() has a
name, which is the name of the canvas followed by _1, _2, etc. To apply the method cd() to the third pad, you would
write:
root[] MyC_3->cd()
Third pad will be selected since you called TPad::cd() for the object MyC_3. ROOT will find the pad that was
namedMyC_3when you typed it on the command line (see ROOT/CINT Extensions to C++).

2.3.6

Saving the Canvas

Figure 2.3: The SaveAs. . . dialog

Using the File menu / Save cascade menu users can save the canvas as one of the files from the list. Please note that
saving the canvas this way will overwrite the file with the same name without a warning.

2.4. THE ROOT COMMAND LINE

47

All supported file types can be saved via File menu / SaveAs. . . This dialog gives a choice to show or suppress the
confirmation message for overwriting an existing file.
If the Ovewrite check box is not selected, a message dialog appears asking the user to overwrite the file (Yes/No). The
user choice is saved for the next time the Save As. . . dialog shows up.

2.3.7

Printing the Canvas

The Print command in the canvas File menu pops-up a print dialog where the user can specify a preferred print
command and the printer name.

Both print parameters can be set via the new Print.Command and Print.Printer rootrc resources as follows:
# Printer settings.
WinNT.*.Print.Command:
Unix.*.Print.Command:
Print.Printer:
Print.Directory:

AcroRd32.exe
xprint -P%p %f
32-rb205-hp
.

If the %p and %f are specified as a part of the print command, they will be replaced by the specified printer name and
the file name. All other parameters will be kept as they are written. A print button is available in the canvas toolbar
(activated via View menu/Toolbar).

2.4

The ROOT Command Line

We have briefly touched on how to use the command line. There are different types of commands.
1. CINT commands start with .
root[] .? //this command will list all the CINT commands
root[] .L <filename> //load [filename]
root[] .x <filename> //load and execute [filename]
2. SHELL commands start with .! for example:
root[] .! ls
3. C++ commands follow C++ syntax (almost)
root[] TBrowser *b = new TBrowser()

2.4.1

Multi-line Commands

You can use the command line to execute multi-line commands. To begin a multi-line command you must type a single
left curly bracket {, and to end it you must type a single right curly bracket }. For example:

48

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

root[] {
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with
i = 0, j
i = 1, j
i = 2, j

'}'>
'}'>
'}'>
'}'>
'}'>
'}'>
'}'>
= 0
= 1
= 3

Int_t j = 0;
for (Int_t i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
j= j + i;
cout << "i = " << i << ", j = " << j << endl;
}
}

It is more convenient to edit a script than the command line, and if your multi line commands are getting unmanageable,
you may want to start with a script instead.

2.4.2

CINT Extensions

We should say that some things are not standard C++. The CINT interpreter has several extensions. See ROOT/CINT
Extensions to C++.

2.4.3

Helpful Hints for Command Line Typing

The interpreter knows all the classes, functions, variables, and user defined types. This enables ROOT to help users to
complete the command line. For example, if we do not know anything about the TLine class, the Tab feature helps us
to get a list of all classes starting with TL(where <TAB> means type the Tab key).
root[] l = new TLi<TAB>
TList
TListIter
TLink
TLine
TLimitDataSource
TLimit
To list the different constructors and parameters for TLine use the <TAB> key as follows:
root[] l = new TLine(<TAB>
TLine TLine()
TLine TLine(Double_t x1,Double_t y1,Double_t x2,Double_t y2)
TLine TLine(const TLine& line)

2.4.4

Regular Expression

The meta-characters below can be used in a regular expression:

start-of-line anchor
$ end-of-line anchor
. matches any character
[ start a character class
]end a character class
negates character class if first character
*Kleene closure (matches 0 or more)
+Positive closure (1 or more)
? Optional closure (0 or 1)

2.5. CONVENTIONS

49

When using wildcards the regular expression is assumed to be preceded by a (BOL) and terminated by $ (EOL).
All * (closures) are assumed to be preceded by a ., i.e. any character, except slash _/_. Its special treatment allows
the easy matching of pathnames. For example, _*.root_ will match _aap.root_, but not _pipo/aap.root_.
The escape characters are:
\ backslash
b backspace
f form feed
n new line
r carriage return
s space
t tab
e ASCII ESC character (033)
DDD number formed of 1-3 octal digits
xDD number formed of 1-2 hex digits
C C = any letter. Control code
The class TRegexp can be used to create a regular expression from an input string. If wildcard is true then the input
string contains a wildcard expression.
TRegexp(const char *re, Bool_t wildcard)
Regular expression and wildcards can be easily used in methods like:
Ssiz_t Index(const TString& string,Ssiz_t* len,Ssiz_t i) const
The method finds the first occurrence of the regular expression in the string and returns its position.

2.5

Conventions

In this paragraph, we will explain some of the conventions used in ROOT source and examples.

2.5.1

Coding Conventions

From the first days of ROOT development, it was decided to use a set of coding conventions. This allows a consistency
throughout the source code. Learning these will help you identify what type of information you are dealing with and
enable you to understand the code better and quicker. Of course, you can use whatever convention you want but if you
are going to submit some code for inclusion into the ROOT sources, you will need to use these.
These are the coding conventions:
Classes begin with T: TLine, TTree
Non-class types end with _t: Int_t
Data members begin with f: fTree
Member functions begin with a capital: Loop()
Constants begin with k: kInitialSize, kRed
Global variables begin with g: gEnv
Static data members begin with fg: fgTokenClient
Enumeration types begin with E: EColorLevel
Locals and parameters begin with a lower case: nbytes
Getters and setters begin with Get and Set: SetLast(), GetFirst()

50

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

2.5.2

Machine Independent Types

Different machines may have different lengths for the same type. The most famous example is the int type. It may
be 16 bits on some old machines and 32 bits on some newer ones. To ensure the size of your variables, use these pre
defined types in ROOT:
Char_t Signed Character 1 byte
UChar_t Unsigned Character 1 byte
Short_t Signed Short integer 2 bytes
UShort_t Unsigned Short integer 2 bytes
Int_t Signed integer 4 bytes
UInt_tUnsigned integer 4 bytes
Long64_t Portable signed long integer 8 bytes
ULong64_t Portable unsigned long integer 8 bytes
Float_t Float 4 bytes
Double_t Float 8 bytes
Double32_t Double 8 bytes in memory, written as a Float 4 bytes
Bool_t Boolean (0=false, 1=true)
If you do not want to save a variable on disk, you can use int or Int_t, the result will be the same and the interpreter
or the compiler will treat them in exactly the same way.

2.5.3

TObject

In ROOT, almost all classes inherit from a common base class called TObject. This kind of architecture is also used in
the Java language. The TObject class provides default behavior and protocol for all objects in the ROOT system. The
main advantage of this approach is that it enforces the common behavior of the derived classes and consequently it
ensures the consistency of the whole system. See The Role of TObject.
TObject provides protocol, i.e. (abstract) member functions, for:
Object I/O (Read(), Write())
Error handling (Warning(), Error(), SysError(), Fatal())
Sorting (IsSortable(), Compare(), IsEqual(), Hash())
Inspection (Dump(), Inspect())
Printing (Print())
Drawing (Draw(), Paint(), ExecuteEvent())
Bit handling (SetBit(), TestBit())
Memory allocation (operatornew and delete, IsOnHeap())
Access to meta information (IsA(), InheritsFrom())
Object browsing (Browse(), IsFolder())

2.6

Global Variables

ROOT has a set of global variables that apply to the session. For example, gDirectory always holds the current
directory, and gStyle holds the current style.
All global variables begin with g followed by a capital letter.

2.6. GLOBAL VARIABLES

2.6.1

51

gROOT

The single instance of TROOT is accessible via the global gROOT and holds information relative to the current session.
By using the gROOT pointer, you get the access to every object created in a ROOT program. The TROOT object has
several lists pointing to the main ROOT objects. During a ROOT session, the gROOT keeps a series of collections to
manage objects. They can be accessed via gROOT ::GetListOf... methods.
gROOT->GetListOfClasses()
gROOT->GetListOfColors()
gROOT->GetListOfTypes()
gROOT->GetListOfGlobals()
gROOT->GetListOfGlobalFunctions()
gROOT->GetListOfFiles()
gROOT->GetListOfMappedFiles()
gROOT->GetListOfSockets()
gROOT->GetListOfCanvases()
gROOT->GetListOfStyles()
gROOT->GetListOfFunctions()
gROOT->GetListOfSpecials()
gROOT->GetListOfGeometries()
gROOT->GetListOfBrowsers()
gROOT->GetListOfMessageHandlers()
These methods return a TSeqCollection, meaning a collection of objects, and they can be used to do list operations
such as finding an object, or traversing the list and calling a method for each of the members. See the TCollection
class description for the full set of methods supported for a collection. For example, to find a canvas called c1you can
do:
root[] gROOT->GetListOfCanvases()->FindObject("c1")
This returns a pointer to a TObject, and before you can use it as a canvas you need to cast it to a TCanvas*.

2.6.2

gFile

gFile is the pointer to the current opened file in the ROOT session.

2.6.3

gDirectory

gDirectory is a pointer to the current directory. The concept and role of a directory is explained in the chapter
Input/Output.

2.6.4

gPad

A graphic object is always drawn on the active pad. It is convenient to access the active pad, no matter what it is. For
that, we have gPad that is always pointing to the active pad. For example, if you want to change the fill color of the
active pad to blue, but you do not know its name, you can use gPad .
root[] gPad->SetFillColor(38)
To get the list of colors, if you have an open canvas, click in the View menu, selecting the Colors entry.

2.6.5

gRandom

gRandom is a pointer to the current random number generator. By default, it points to a TRandom3 object,
based on the Mersenne-Twister generator. This generator is very fast and has very good random proprieties
(a very long period of 10600 ). Setting the seed to 0 implies that the seed will be uniquely generated using
the TUUID. Any other value will be used as a constant. The following basic random distributions are provided:
Rndm() or Uniform(min,max), Gaus(mean,sigma), Exp(tau), BreitWigner(mean,sigma), Landau(mean,sigma),
Poisson(mean), Binomial(ntot,prob). You can customize your ROOT session by replacing the random number
generator. You can delete gRandom and recreate it with your own. For example:

52

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

root[] delete gRandom;

root[] gRandom = new TRandom2(0); //seed=0
TRandom2 is another generator, which is also very fast and uses only three words for its state.

2.6.6

gEnv

gEnv is the global variable (of type TEnv) with all the environment settings for the current session. This variable is set
by reading the contents of a .rootrc file (or $ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc) at the beginning of the root session. See
Environment Setup below for more information.

2.7

Environment Setup

The behavior of a ROOT session can be tailored with the options in the .rootrc file. At start-up, ROOT looks for a
.rootrc file in the following order:
./.rootrc //local directory
$HOME/.rootrc //user directory
$ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc //global ROOT directory
If more than one .rootrc files are found in the search paths above, the options are merged, with precedence local,
user, global. While in a session, to see current settings, you can do:
root[] gEnv->Print()
The rootrc file typically looks like:
# Path used by dynamic loader to find shared libraries
Unix.*.Root.DynamicPath: .:~/rootlibs:$(ROOTSYS)/lib
Unix.*.Root.MacroPath:
.:~/rootmacros:$(ROOTSYS)/macros
# Path where to look for TrueType fonts
Unix.*.Root.UseTTFonts:
true
Unix.*.Root.TTFontPath:
...
# Activate memory statistics
Rint.Root.MemStat:
1
Rint.Load:
rootalias.C
Rint.Logon:
rootlogon.C
Rint.Logoff:
rootlogoff.C
...
Rint.Canvas.MoveOpaque: false
Rint.Canvas.HighLightColor: 5
The various options are explained in $ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc. The .rootrc file contents are combined. For
example, if the flag to use true type fonts is set to true in the system.rootrc file, you have to set explicitly it false in
your local .rootrc file if you do not want to use true type fonts. Removing the UseTTFontsstatement in the local
.rootrc file will not disable true fonts. The value of the environment variable ROOTDEBUG overrides the value in the
.rootrc file at startup. Its value is used to set gDebug and helps for quick turn on debug mode in TROOT startup.
ROOT looks for scripts in the path specified in the .rootrc file in the Root.Macro.Path variable. You can expand
this path to hold your own directories.

2.7. ENVIRONMENT SETUP

2.7.1

53

Logon and Logoff Scripts

The rootlogon.C and rootlogoff.C files are scripts loaded and executed at start-up and shutdown. The rootalias.C
file is loaded but not executed. It typically contains small utility functions. For example, the rootalias.C script
that comes with the ROOT distributions (located in $ROOTSYS/tutorials) defines the function edit(char *file).
This allows the user to call the editor from the command line. This particular function will start the VI editor if the
environment variable EDITOR is not set.
root[0] edit("c1.C")
For more details, see $ROOTSYS/tutorials/rootalias.C.

2.7.2

History File

You can use the up and down arrow at the command line, to access the previous and next command. The commands
are recorded in the history file $HOME/.root_hist. It is a text file, and you can edit, cut, and paste from it. You
can specify the history file in the system.rootrc file, by setting the Rint.Historyoption. You can also turn off the
command logging in the system.rootrc file with the option: Rint.History: The number of history lines to be kept can be set also in .rootrc by:
Rint.HistSize:
Rint.HistSave:

500
400

The first value defines the maximum of lines kept; once it is reached all, the last HistSave lines will be removed.
One can set HistSize to 0 to disable history line management. There is also implemented an environment variable
called ROOT_HIST. By setting ROOT_HIST=300:200 the above values can be overriden - the first value corresponds to
HistSize, the (optional) second one to HistSave. You can set ROOT_HIST=0 to disable the history.

2.7.3

Tracking Memory Leaks

You can track memory usage and detect leaks by monitoring the number of objects that are created and deleted (see
TObjectTable). To use this facility, edit the file $ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc or .rootrc if you have this file and
add the two following lines:
Root.MemStat:
Root.ObjectStat:

1
1

In your code or on the command line you can type the line:
gObjectTable->Print();
This line will print the list of all active classes and the number of instances for each class. By comparing consecutive
print outs, you can see objects that you forgot to delete. Note that this method cannot show leaks coming from the
allocation of non-objects or classes unknown to ROOT.

2.7.4

Memory Checker

A memory checking system was developed by D.Bertini and M.Ivanov and added in ROOT version 3.02.07. To activate
the memory checker you can set the resource Root.MemCheck to 1 (e.g.: Root.MemCheck: 1 in the .rootrc file). You
also have to link with libNew.so (e.g. use root-config --new --libs) or to use rootn.exe. When these settings
are in place, you will find a file memcheck.out in the directory where you started your ROOT program after the
completion of the program execution. You can also set the resource Root.MemCheckFile to the name of a file. The
memory information will be written to that file. The contents of this memcheck.out can be analyzed and transformed
into printable text via the memprobe program (in $ROOTSYS/bin).

54

2.8

CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED

Converting from PAW to ROOT

The web page at: http://root.cern.ch/root/HowtoConvertFromPAW.html#TABLE gives the translation table

of some commonly used PAW commands into ROOT. If you move the mouse cursor over the picture at: http:
//root.cern.ch/root/HowtoConvertFromPAW.html#SET, you will get the corresponding ROOT commands as tooltips.

2.8.1

Converting HBOOK/PAW Files

ROOT has a utility called h2root that you can use to convert your HBOOK/PAW histograms or ntuple files into
ROOT files. To use this program, you type the shell script command:
h2root

<hbookfile>

<rootfile>

If you do not specify the second parameter, a file name is automatically generated for you. If hbookfile is of the
form file.hbook, then the ROOT file will be called file.root. This utility converts HBOOK histograms into ROOT
histograms of the class TH1F. HBOOK profile histograms are converted into ROOT profile histograms (see class
TProfile). HBOOK row-wise and column-wise ntuples are automatically converted to ROOT Trees. See Trees.
Some HBOOK column-wise ntuples may not be fully converted if the columns are an array of fixed dimension (e.g.
var[6]) or if they are a multi-dimensional array.
HBOOK integer identifiers are converted into ROOT named objects by prefixing the integer identifier with the letter h
if the identifier is a positive integer and by "h_" if it is a negative integer identifier. In case of row-wise or column-wise
ntuples, each column is converted to a branch of a tree. Note that h2root is able to convert HBOOK files containing
several levels of sub-directories. Once you have converted your file, you can look at it and draw histograms or process
ntuples using the ROOT command line. An example of session is shown below:
// this connects the file hbookconverted.root
root[] TFile f("hbookconverted.root");
// display histogram named h10 (was HBBOK id 10)
root[] h10.Draw();
// display column "var" from ntuple h30
root[] h30.Draw("var");
You can also use the ROOT browser (see TBrowser) to inspect this file.
The chapter on trees explains how to read a tree. ROOT includes a function TTree::MakeClass to generate
automatically the code for a skeleton analysis function. See Example Analysis.
In case one of the ntuple columns has a variable length (e.g. px(ntrack)), h.Draw("px") will histogram the px column
for all tracks in the same histogram. Use the script quoted above to generate the skeleton function and create/fill the
relevant histogram yourself.

Chapter 3

Histograms
This chapter covers the functionality of the histogram classes. We begin with an overview of the histogram classes,
after which we provide instructions and examples on the histogram features.
We have put this chapter ahead of the graphics chapter so that you can begin working with histograms as soon as
possible. Some of the examples have graphics commands that may look unfamiliar to you. These are covered in the
chapter Input/Output.

3.1

The Histogram Classes

ROOT supports histograms up to three dimensions. Separate concrete classes are provided for one-dimensional,
two-dimensional and three-dimensional classes. The histogram classes are split into further categories, depending on
the set of possible bin values:
TH1C, TH2C and TH3C contain one byte per bin (maximum bin content = 255)
TH1S, TH2S and TH3S contain one short per bin (maximum bin content = 65 535).
TH1I, TH2I and TH3I contain one integer per bin (maximum bin content = 2 147 483 647).
TH1F, TH2F and TH3F contain one float per bin (maximum precision = 7 digits).
TH1D, TH2D and TH3D contain one double per bin (maximum precision = 14 digits).
ROOT also supports profile histograms, which constitute an elegant replacement of two-dimensional histograms in
many cases. The inter-relation of two measured quantities X and Y can always be visualized with a two-dimensional
histogram or scatter-plot. Profile histograms, on the other hand, are used to display the mean value of Y and its RMS
for each bin in X. If Y is an unknown but single-valued approximate function of X, it will have greater precision in a
profile histogram than in a scatter plot.
TProfile : one dimensional profiles
TProfile2D : two dimensional profiles
All ROOT histogram classes are derived from the base class TH1 (see figure above). This means that two-dimensional
and three-dimensional histograms are seen as a type of a one-dimensional histogram, in the same way in which
multidimensional C arrays are just an abstraction of a one-dimensional contiguous block of memory.

3.2

Creating Histograms

There are several ways in which you can create a histogram object in ROOT. The straightforward method is to use
one of the several constructors provided for each concrete class in the histogram hierarchy. For more details on the
constructor parameters, see the subsection Constant or Variable Bin Width below. Histograms may also be created
by:
Calling the Clone() method of an existing histogram
55

56

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.1: The class hierarchy of histogram classes

Making a projection from a 2-D or 3-D histogram
Reading a histogram from a file (see Input/Output chapter)
// using various constructors
TH1* h1 = new TH1I("h1", "h1 title", 100, 0.0, 4.0);
TH2* h2 = new TH2F("h2", "h2 title", 40, 0.0, 2.0, 30, -1.5, 3.5);
TH3* h3 = new TH3D("h3", "h3 title", 80, 0.0, 1.0, 100, -2.0, 2.0,
50, 0.0, 3.0);
// cloning a histogram
TH1* hc = (TH1*)h1->Clone();
// projecting histograms
// the projections always contain double values !
TH1* hx = h2->ProjectionX(); // ! TH1D, not TH1F
TH1* hy = h2->ProjectionY(); // ! TH1D, not TH1F

3.2.1

Constant or Variable Bin Width

The histogram classes provide a variety of ways to construct a histogram, but the most common way is to provide the
name and title of histogram and for each dimension: the number of bins, the minimum x (lower edge of the first bin)
and the maximum x (upper edge of the last bin).
TH2* h = new TH2D(
/* name */ "h2",
/* title */ "Hist with constant bin width",
/* X-dimension */ 100, 0.0, 4.0,
/* Y-dimension */ 200, -3.0, 1.5);
When employing his constructor, you will create a histogram with constant (fixed) bin width on each axis. For the
example above, the interval [0.0, 4.0] is divided into 100 bins of the same width w X = 4.0 - 0.0 100 = 0.04 for
the X axis (dimension). Likewise, for the Y axis (dimension), we have bins of equal width w Y = 1.5 - (-3.0) 200 =
0.0225.
If you want to create histograms with variable bin widths, ROOT provides another constructor suited for this purpose.
Instead of passing the data interval and the number of bins, you have to pass an array (single or double precision) of
bin edges. When the histogram has n bins, then there are n+1 distinct edges, so the array you pass must be of size n+1.
const Int_t NBINS = 5;
Double_t edges[NBINS + 1] = {0.0, 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0};
// Bin 1 corresponds to range [0.0, 0.2]
// Bin 2 corresponds to range [0.2, 0.3] etc...
TH1* h = new TH1D(
/* name */ "h1",

3.3. BIN NUMBERING

);

57

/* title */ "Hist with variable bin width",

/* number of bins */ NBINS,
/* edge array */ edges

Each histogram object contains three TAxis objects: fXaxis , fYaxis, and fZaxis, but for one-dimensional histograms
only the X-axis is relevant, while for two-dimensional histograms the X-axis and Y-axis are relevant. See the class
TAxis for a description of all the access methods. The bin edges are always stored internally in double precision.
You can examine the actual edges / limits of the histogram bins by accessing the axis parameters, like in the example
below:
const Int_t XBINS = 5; const Int_t YBINS = 5;
Double_t xEdges[XBINS + 1] = {0.0, 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0};
Double_t yEdges[YBINS + 1] = {-1.0, -0.4, -0.2, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0};
TH2* h = new TH2D("h2", "h2", XBINS, xEdges, YBINS, yEdges);
TAxis* xAxis = h->GetXaxis(); TAxis* yAxis = h->GetYaxis();
cout << "Third bin on Y-dimension: " << endl; // corresponds to
// [-0.2, 0.5]
cout << "\tLower edge: " << yAxis->GetBinLowEdge(3) << endl;
cout << "\tCenter: " << yAxis->GetBinCenter(3) << endl;
cout << "\tUpper edge: " << yAxis->GetBinUpEdge(3) << endl;

3.3

Bin Numbering

All histogram types support fixed or variable bin sizes. 2-D histograms may have fixed size bins along X and variable
size bins along Y or vice-versa. The functions to fill, manipulate, draw, or access histograms are identical in both cases.

3.3.1

Convention

For all histogram types: nbins , xlow , xup

Bin# 0 contains the underflow.
Bin# 1 contains the first bin with low-edge ( xlow INCLUDED).
The second to last bin (bin# nbins) contains the upper-edge (xup EXCLUDED).
The Last bin (bin# nbins+1) contains the overflow.
In case of 2-D or 3-D histograms, a global bin number is defined. For example, assuming a 3-D histogram h with
binx, biny, binz, the function returns a global/linear bin number.
Int_t bin = h->GetBin(binx, biny, binz);
This global bin is useful to access the bin information independently of the dimension.

3.3.2

Re-binning

At any time, a histogram can be re-binned via the TH1::Rebin() method. It returns a new histogram with the
re-binned contents. If bin errors were stored, they are recomputed during the re-binning.

3.4

Filling Histograms

A histogram is typically filled with statements like:

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
h1->Fill(x);
h1->Fill(x,w); // with weight
h2->Fill(x,y);
h2->Fill(x,y,w);
h3->Fill(x,y,z);
h3->Fill(x,y,z,w);

The Fill method computes the bin number corresponding to the given x, y or z argument and increments this bin by
the given weight. The Fill() method returns the bin number for 1-D histograms or global bin number for 2-D and
3-D histograms. If TH1::Sumw2() has been called before filling, the sum of squares is also stored. One can increment a
bin number directly by calling TH1::AddBinContent(), replace the existing content via TH1::SetBinContent() , and
access the bin content of a given bin via TH1::GetBinContent() .
Double_t binContent = h->GetBinContent(bin);

3.4.1

Automatic Re-binning Option

By default, the number of bins is computed using the range of the axis. You can change this to re-bin automatically by
setting the automatic re-binning option:
h->SetBit(TH1::kCanRebin);
Once this is set, the Fill() method will automatically extend the axis range to accommodate the new value specified
in the Fill() argument. The used method is to double the bin size until the new value fits in the range, merging bins
two by two. The TTree::Draw() method extensively uses this automatic binning option when drawing histograms of
variables in TTree with an unknown range. The automatic binning option is supported for 1-D, 2-D and 3-D histograms.
During filling, some statistics parameters are incremented to compute the mean value and root mean square with the
maximum precision. In case of histograms of type TH1C, TH1S, TH2C, TH2S, TH3C, TH3S a check is made that the bin
contents do not exceed the maximum positive capacity (127 or 65 535). Histograms of all types may have positive
or/and negative bin contents.

3.5

Random Numbers and Histograms

TH1::FillRandom() can be used to randomly fill a histogram using the contents of an existing TF1 function or another
TH1 histogram (for all dimensions). For example, the following two statements create and fill a histogram 10 000 times
with a default Gaussian distribution of mean 0 and sigma 1 :
root[] TH1F h1("h1","Histo from a Gaussian",100,-3,3);
root[] h1.FillRandom("gaus",10000);
TH1::GetRandom() can be used to get a random number distributed according the contents of a histogram. To fill a
histogram following the distribution in an existing histogram you can use the second signature of TH1::FillRandom().
Next code snipped assumes that h is an existing histogram (TH1 ).
root[] TH1F h2("h2","Histo from existing histo",100,-3,3);
root[] h2.FillRandom(&h1, 1000);
The distribution contained in the histogram h1 ( TH1 ) is integrated over the channel contents. It is normalized to one.
The second parameter (1000) indicates how many random numbers are generated.
Getting 1 random number implies:
Generating a random number between 0 and 1 (say r1 )
Find the bin in the normalized integral for r1
Fill histogram channel
You can see below an example of the TH1::GetRandom() method which can be used to get a random number distributed
according the contents of a histogram.

3.6. ADDING, DIVIDING, AND MULTIPLYING

59

void getrandomh() {
TH1F *source = new TH1F("source","source hist",100,-3,3);
source->FillRandom("gaus",1000);
TH1F *final = new TH1F("final","final hist",100,-3,3);
// continued...

for (Int_t i=0;i<10000;i++) {

final->Fill(source->GetRandom());
}
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","c1",800,1000);
c1->Divide(1,2);
c1->cd(1);
source->Draw();
c1->cd(2);
final->Draw();
c1->cd();

3.6

Adding, Dividing, and Multiplying

Many types of operations are supported on histograms or between histograms:

Addition of a histogram to the current histogram
Additions of two histograms with coefficients and storage into the current histogram
Multiplications and divisions are supported in the same way as additions.
The Add , Divide and Multiply methods also exist to add, divide or multiply a histogram by a function.
Histograms objects (not pointers) TH1F h1 can be multiplied by a constant using:
h1.Scale(const)
A new histogram can be created without changing the original one by doing:
TH1F h3 = 8*h1;
To multiply two histogram objects and put the result in a 3rd one do:
TH1F h3 = h1*h2;
The same operations can be done with histogram pointers TH1F *h1, *h2 following way:
h1->Scale(const) TH1F h3 = 8*(*h1); TH1F h3 = (*h1)*(*h2);
Of course, the TH1 methods Add , Multiply and Divide can be used instead of these operators.
If a histogram has associated error bars ( TH1::Sumw2() has been called), the resulting error bars are also computed
assuming independent histograms. In case of divisions, binomial errors are also supported.

3.7

Projections

One can make:

a 1-D projection of a 2-D histogram or profile. See TH2::ProfileX, TH2::ProfileY,TProfile::ProjectionX,
TProfile2D::ProjectionXY, TH2::ProjectionX, TH2::ProjectionY .
a 1-D, 2-D or profile out of a 3-D histogram see TH3::ProjectionZ, TH3::Project3D.
These projections can be fit via: TH2::FitSlicesX, TH2::FitSlicesY, TH3::FitSlicesZ.

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3.8

Drawing Histograms

When you call the Draw method of a histogram ( TH1::Draw ) for the first time, it creates a THistPainter object and
saves a pointer to painter as a data member of the histogram. The THistPainter class specializes in the drawing of
histograms. It allows logarithmic axes (x, y, z) when the CONT drawing option is using. The THistPainter class is
separated from the histogram so that one can have histograms without the graphics overhead, for example in a batch
program. The choice to give each histogram has its own painter rather than a central singleton painter, allows two
histograms to be drawn in two threads without overwriting the painters values. When a displayed histogram is filled
again, you do not have to call the Draw method again. The image is refreshed the next time the pad is updated. A pad
is updated after one of these three actions:
A carriage control on the ROOT command line
A click inside the pad
A call to TPad::Update()
By default, the TH1::Draw clears the pad before drawing the new image of the histogram. You can use the "SAME"
option to leave thevprevious display in tact and superimpose the new histogram. The same histogram can be drawn
with different graphics options in different pads. When a displayed histogram is deleted, its image is automatically
removed from the pad. To create a copy of the histogram when drawing it, you can use TH1::DrawClone(). This will
clone the histogram and allow you to change and delete the original one without affecting the clone. You can use
TH1::DrawNormalized() to draw a normalized copy of a histogram.
TH1 *TH1::DrawNormalized(Option_t *option,Double_t norm) const
A clone of this histogram is normalized to norm and drawn with option. A pointer to the normalized histogram is
returned. The contents of the histogram copy are scaled such that the new sum of weights (excluding under and
overflow) is equal to norm .
Note that the returned normalized histogram is not added to the list of histograms in the current directory in memory.
It is the users responsibility to delete this histogram. The kCanDelete bit is set for the returned object. If a pad
containing this copy is cleared, the histogram will be automatically deleted. See Draw Options for the list of options.

3.8.1

Setting the Style

Histograms use the current style gStyle , which is the global object of class TStyle. To change the current style for
histograms, the TStyle class provides a multitude of methods ranging from setting the fill color to the axis tick marks.
Here are a few examples:
void
void
void
void
void

SetHistFillColor(Color_t
SetHistFillStyle(Style_t
SetHistLineColor(Color_t
SetHistLineStyle(Style_t
SetHistLineWidth(Width_t

color = 1)
styl = 0)
color = 1)
styl = 0)
width = 1)

When you change the current style and would like to propagate the change to a previously created histogram you can
call TH1::UseCurrentStyle(). You will need to call UseCurrentStyle() on each histogram. When reading many
histograms from a file and you wish to update them to the current style, you can use gROOT ::ForceStyle and all
histograms read after this call will be updated to use the current style. See Graphics and the Graphical User Interface.
When a histogram is automatically created as a result of a TTree::Draw , the style of the histogram is inherited from
the tree attributes and the current style is ignored. The tree attributes are the ones set in the current TStyle at the time
the tree was created. You can change the existing tree to use the current style, by calling TTree::UseCurrentStyle()
.

3.8.2

Draw Options

The following draw options are supported on all histogram classes:

AXIS: Draw only the axis.

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

61

HIST: When a histogram has errors, it is visualized by default with error bars. To visualize it without errors
use HIST together with the required option (e.g. HIST SAME C).
SAME: Superimpose on previous picture in the same pad.
CYL: Use cylindrical coordinates.
POL: Use polar coordinates.
SPH: Use spherical coordinates.
PSR: Use pseudo-rapidity/phi coordinates.
LEGO: Draw a lego plot with hidden line removal.
LEGO1: Draw a lego plot with hidden surface removal.
LEGO2: Draw a lego plot using colors to show the cell contents.
SURF: Draw a surface plot with hidden line removal.
SURF1: Draw a surface plot with hidden surface removal.
SURF2: Draw a surface plot using colors to show the cell contents.
SURF3: Same as SURF with a contour view on the top.
SURF4: Draw a surface plot using Gouraud shading.
SURF5: Same as SURF3 but only the colored contour is drawn. Used with option CYL , SPH or PSR it allows to
draw colored contours on a sphere, a cylinder or in a pseudo rapidly space. In Cartesian or polar coordinates,
option SURF3 is used.
The following options are supported for 1-D histogram classes:
AH: Draw the histogram, but not the axis labels and tick marks
B: Draw a bar chart
C: Draw a smooth curve through the histogram bins
E: Draw the error bars
E0: Draw the error bars including bins with 0 contents
E1: Draw the error bars with perpendicular lines at the edges
E2: Draw the error bars with rectangles
E3: Draw a fill area through the end points of the vertical error bars
E4: Draw a smoothed filled area through the end points of the error bars
L: Draw a line through the bin contents
P: Draw a (poly)marker at each bin using the histograms current marker style
P0: Draw current marker at each bin including empty bins
PIE: Draw a Pie Chart
*H: Draw histogram with a * at each bin
LF2: Draw histogram as with option L but with a fill area. Note that L also draws a fill area if the histogram
fill color is set but the fill area corresponds to the histogram contour.
9: Force histogram to be drawn in high resolution mode. By default, the histogram is drawn in low resolution
in case the number of bins is greater than the number of pixels in the current pad
][: Draw histogram without the vertical lines for the first and the last bin. Use it when superposing many
histograms on the same picture.
The following options are supported for 2-D histogram classes:

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
ARR: Arrow mode. Shows gradient between adjacent cells
BOX: Draw a box for each cell with surface proportional to contents
BOX1: A sunken button is drawn for negative values, a raised one for positive values
COL: Draw a box for each cell with a color scale varying with contents
COLZ: Same as COL with a drawn color palette
CONT: Draw a contour plot (same as CONT0 )
CONTZ: Same as CONT with a drawn color palette
CONT0: Draw a contour plot using surface colors to distinguish contours
CONT1: Draw a contour plot using line styles to distinguish contours
CONT2: Draw a contour plot using the same line style for all contours
CONT3: Draw a contour plot using fill area colors
CONT4: Draw a contour plot using surface colors (SURF2 option at theta = 0)
"CONT5": Use Delaunay triangles to compute the contours
LIST: Generate a list of TGraph objects for each contour
FB: To be used with LEGO or SURFACE , suppress the Front-Box
BB: To be used with LEGO or SURFACE , suppress the Back-Box
A: To be used with LEGO or SURFACE , suppress the axis
SCAT: Draw a scatter-plot (default)
SPEC: Use TSpectrum2Painter tool for drawing
TEXT: Draw bin contents as text (format set via gStyle->SetPaintTextFormat) .
TEXTnn: Draw bin contents as text at angle nn ( 0<nn<90 ).
[cutg]: Draw only the sub-range selected by the TCutG name cutg.
Z: The Z option can be specified with the options: BOX, COL, CONT, SURF, and LEGO to display the color palette
with an axis indicating the value of the corresponding color on the right side ofthe picture.

The following options are supported for 3-D histogram classes:

" " : Draw a 3D scatter plot.
BOX: Draw a box for each cell with volume proportional to contents
LEGO: Same as BOX
ISO: Draw an iso surface
FB: Suppress the Front-Box
BB: Suppress the Back-Box
A: Suppress the axis
Most options can be concatenated without spaces or commas, for example, if h is a histogram pointer:
h->Draw("E1SAME");
h->Draw("e1same");
The options are not case sensitive. The options BOX , COL and COLZ use the color palette defined in the current style
(see TStyle::SetPalette). The options CONT , SURF , and LEGO have by default 20 equidistant contour levels, you can
change the number of levels with TH1::SetContour. You can also set the default drawing option with TH1::SetOption
. To see the current option use TH1::GetOption . For example:
h->SetOption("lego");
h->Draw(); // will use the lego option
h->Draw("scat") // will use the scatter plot option

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

3.8.2.1

63

The SCATter Plot Option

By default, 2D histograms are drawn as scatter plots. For each cell (i,j) a number of points proportional to the cell
content are drawn. A maximum of 500 points per cell are drawn. If the maximum is above 500 contents are normalized
to 500.

3.8.2.2

The ARRow Option

The ARR option shows the gradient between adjacent cells. For each cell (i,j) an arrow is drawn. The orientation of
the arrow follows the cell gradient.

3.8.2.3

The BOX Option

For each cell (i,j) a box is drawn with surface proportional to contents. The size of the box is proportional to the
absolute value of the cell contents. The cells with negative contents are drawn with an X on top of the boxes. With
option BOX1 a button is drawn for each cell with surface proportional to contents absolute value. A sunken button is
drawn for negative values, a raised one for positive values.

3.8.2.4

The ERRor Bars Options

"E" Default. Draw only error bars, without markers

"E0" Draw also bins with 0 contents (turn off the symbols clipping).
"E1" Draw small lines at the end of error bars
"E2" Draw error rectangles
"E3" Draw a fill area through the end points of vertical error bars
"E4" Draw a smoothed filled area through the end points of error bars
Note that for all options, the line and fill attributes of the histogram are used for the errors or errors contours. Use
gStyle->SetErrorX(dx) to control the size of the error along x. The parameter dx is a percentage of bin width for
errors along X. Set dx=0 to suppress the error along X. Use gStyle->SetEndErrorSize(np) to control the size of the
lines at the end of the error bars (when option 1 is used). By default np=1 (np represents the number of pixels).

3.8.2.5

The Color Option

For each cell (i,j) a box is drawn with a color proportional to the cell content. The color table used is defined in the
current style (gStyle ). The color palette in TStyle can be modified with TStyle::SetPalette .

3.8.2.6

The TEXT Option

For each cell (i,j) the cell content is printed. The text attributes are:
Text font = current font set by TStyle
Text size= 0.02 * pad-height * marker-size
Text color= marker color

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.2: The E1 bars option

3.8.2.7

The CONTour Options

The following contour options are supported:

"CONT": Draw a contour plot (same as CONT0)
"CONT0": Draw a contour plot using surface colors to distinguish contours
"CONT1": Draw a contour plot using line styles to distinguish contours
"CONT2": Draw a contour plot using the same line style for all contours
"CONT3": Draw a contour plot using fill area colors
"CONT4":Draw a contour plot using surface colors (SURF2 option at theta = 0); see also options AITOFF,
MERCATOR, etc. below
"CONT5": Use Delaunay triangles to compute the contours
The default number of contour levels is 20 equidistant levels. It can be changed with TH1::SetContour. When option
LIST is specified together with option CONT, all points used for contour drawing, are saved in the TGraph object
and are accessible in the following way:
TObjArray *contours =
gROOT->GetListOfSpecials()->FindObject("contours");
Int_t ncontours = contours->GetSize(); TList *list =
(TList*)contours->At(i);
Where i is a contour number and list contains a list of TGraph objects. For one given contour, more than one disjoint
poly-line may be generated. The TGraph numbers per contour are given by list->GetSize(). Here we show how to
access the first graph in the list.

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

65

Figure 3.3: Different draw options

66

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.4: The TEXT option

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

67

Figure 3.5: Different contour options

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
TGraph *gr1 = (TGraph*)list->First();
AITOFF: Draw a contour via an AITOFF projection
MERCATOR: Draw a contour via a Mercator projection
SINUSOIDAL: Draw a contour via a Sinusoidal projection
PARABOLIC: Draw a contour via a Parabolic projection

The tutorial macro earth.C uses these four options and produces the following picture:

Figure 3.6: The earth.C macro output

3.8.2.8

The LEGO Options

In a lego plot, the cell contents are drawn as 3D boxes, with the height of the box proportional to the cell content.
LEGO: Draw a lego plot with hidden line removal
LEGO1: Draw a lego plot with hidden surface removal
LEGO2: Draw a lego plot using colors to show the cell contents
A lego plot can be represented in several coordinate systems; the default system is Cartesian coordinates. Other
possible coordinate systems are CYL , POL , SPH , and PSR .

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

69

Figure 3.7: LEGO and SURF options

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
CYL: Cylindrical coordinates: x-coordinate is mapped on the angle; y-coordinate - on the cylinder length.
POL: Polar coordinates: x-coordinate is mapped on the angle; y-coordinate - on the radius.
SPH: Spherical coordinates: x-coordinate is mapped on the latitude; y-coordinate - on the longitude.
PSR: PseudoRapidity/Phi coordinates: x-coordinate is mapped on Phi.

With TStyle::SetPalette the color palette can be changed. We suggest you use palette 1 with the call:
gStyle->SetPalette(1);
3.8.2.9

The SURFace Options

In a surface plot, cell contents are represented as a mesh. The height of the mesh is proportional to the cell content. A
surface plot can be represented in several coordinate systems. The default is Cartesian coordinates, and the other
possible systems are CYL, POL, SPH, and PSR . The following picture uses SURF1 . With TStyle::SetPalette the color
palette can be changed. We suggest you use palette 1 with the call:
gStyle->SetPalette(1);

Figure 3.8: Different surface options

SURF: Draw a surface plot with hidden line removal

SURF1: Draw a surface plot with hidden surface removal
SURF2: Draw a surface plot using colors to show the cell contents
SURF3: Same as SURF with a contour view on the top

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

71

SURF4: Draw a surface plot using Gouraud shading

SURF5: Same as SURF3 but only the colored contour is drawn. Used with options CYL , SPH or PSR it allows to
draw colored contours on a sphere, a cylinder or in a pseudo rapidly space. In Cartesian or polar coordinates,
option SURF3 is used.
3.8.2.10

The BAR Options

When the option bar or hbar is specified, a bar chart is drawn.

The options for vertical bar chart are bar, bar0, bar1, bar2, bar3, bar4.

Figure 3.9: Vertical bar charts

The
The
The
The

bar is filled with the histogram fill color.

left side of the bar is drawn with a light fill color.
right side of the bar is drawn with a dark fill color.
percentage of the bar drawn with either the light or dark color is:
0 per cent for option "bar" or "bar0"
10 per cent for option "bar1"
20 per cent for option "bar2"
30 per cent for option "bar3"
40 per cent for option "bar4"

Use TH1::SetBarWidth() to control the bar width (default is the bin width). Use TH1::SetBarOffset to control the
bar offset (default is 0). See the example $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hist/hbars.C
The options for the horizontal bar chart are hbar, hbar0, hbar1, hbar2, hbar3, and hbar4.

A horizontal bar is drawn for each bin.

The bar is filled with the histogram fill color.
The bottom side of the bar is drawn with a light fill color.
The top side of the bar is drawn with a dark fill color.
The percentage of the bar drawn with either the light or dark color is:
0 per cent for option hbar or hbar0

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

10
20
30
40

per
per
per
per

cent
cent
cent
cent

for
for
for
for

option
option
option
option

hbar1
hbar2
hbar3
hbar4

Use TH1::SetBarWidth to control the bar width (default is the bin width). Use TH1::SetBarOffset to control the
bar offset (default is 0). See the example $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hist/hbars.C

Figure 3.10: Horizontal bar charts

3.8.2.11

The Z Option: Display the Color Palette on the Pad

The Z option can be specified with the options: COL, CONT, SURF, and LEGO to display the color palette with an axis
indicating the value of the corresponding color on the right side of the picture. If there is not enough space on the right
side, you can increase the size of the right margin by calling TPad::SetRightMargin(). The attributes used to display
the palette axis values are taken from the Z axis of the object. For example, you can set the labels size on the palette
axis with:
hist->GetZaxis()->SetLabelSize();
3.8.2.12

Setting the Color Palette

You can set the color palette with TStyle::SetPalette , e.g.

gStyle->SetPalette(ncolors,colors);
For example, the option COL draws a 2-D histogram with cells represented by a box filled with a color index, which is a
function of the cell content. If the cell content is N, the color index used will be the color number in colors[N] . If
the maximum cell content is greater than ncolors , all cell contents are scaled to ncolors. If ncolors<=0, a default
palette of 50 colors is defined. This palette is recommended for pads, labels. It defines:

Index
Index
Index
Index

0 to 9: shades of gray
10 to 19:shades of brown
20 to 29:shades of blue
30 to 39: shades of red

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

73

Index 40 to 49:basic colors

The color numbers specified in this palette can be viewed by selecting the menu entry Colors in the View menu of the
canvas menu bar. The colors red, green, and blue values can be changed via TColor::SetRGB.
If ncolors == 1 && colors == 0, then a Pretty Palette with a spectrum violet to red is created with 50 colors.
Thats the default rain bow palette.
Other prefined palettes with 255 colors are available when colors == 0. The following value of ncolors (with colors
= 0) give access to:

ncolors
ncolors
ncolors
ncolors
ncolors
ncolors

=
=
=
=
=
=

51
52
53
54
55
56

:
:
:
:
:
:

Deep Sea palette.

Grey Scale palette.
Dark Body Radiator palette.
Two-color hue palette palette. (dark blue through neutral gray to bright yellow)
Rain Bow palette.
Inverted Dark Body Radiator palette.

The color numbers specified in the palette can be viewed by selecting the item colors in the VIEW menu of the
canvas toolbar. The color parameters can be changed via TColor::SetRGB.
Note that when drawing a 2D histogram h2 with the option COL or COLZ or with any CONT options using the
color map, the number of colors used is defined by the number of contours n specified with: h2->SetContour(n)
3.8.2.13

TPaletteAxis

A TPaletteAxisobject is used to display the color palette when drawing 2D histograms. The object is automatically
created when drawing a 2D histogram when the option z is specified. It is added to the histogram list of functions.
It can be retrieved and its attributes can be changed with:
TPaletteAxis *palette=(TPaletteAxis*)h->FindObject("palette");
The palette can be interactively moved and resized. The context menu can be used to set the axis attributes. It is
possible to select a range on the axis, to set the min/max in z.
3.8.2.14

The SPEC Option

The SPEC option offers a large set of options/attributes to visualize 2D histograms thanks to operators following
the SPEC keyword. For example, to draw the 2-D histogram h2 using all default attributes except the viewing angles,
one can do:
h2->Draw("SPEC a(30,30,0)");
The operators names are case unsensitive (i.e. one can use a or A) and their parameters are seperated by coma ,.
Operators can be put in any order in the option and must be separated by a space " . No space characters should be
put in an operator. All the available operators are described below.
The way how a 2D histogram will be painted is controled by two parameters: the Display modes groups and the
Display Modes. Display modes groups can take the following values:

0 = Simple - simple display modes using one color only

1 = Light - the shading is carried out according to the position of the fictive light source
2 = Height - the shading is carried out according to the channel contents
3 = LightHeight - combination of two previous shading algorithms (one can control the weight between both
algorithms).

Display modes can take the following values:

1 = Points
2 = Grid

74

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

3 = Contours
4 = Bars
5 = LinesX
6 = LinesY
7 = BarsX
8 = BarsY
9 = Needles
10 = Surface
11 = Triangles

These parameters can be set by using the dm operator in the option.

h2->Draw("SPEC dm(1,2)");
The above example draws the histogram using the Light Display mode group and the Grid Display mode. The
following tables summarize all the possible combinations of both groups:

Simple
Light
Height
LightHeight

Points
x
x
x
x

Simple
Light
Height
LightHeight

BarsX
x

Grid
x
x
x
x

Contours
x

BarsY
x

Needles
x

Bars
x

LinesX
x
x
x
x

Surface

x
x
x

LinesY
x
x
x
x

Triangles
x
x
x
x

The Pen Attributes can be changed using pa(color,style,width). Next example sets line color to 2, line type to 1
and line width to 2. Note that if pa() is not specified, the histogram line attributes are used:
h2->Draw("SPEC dm(1,2) pa(2,1,2)");
The number of Nodes can be changed with n(nodesx,nodesy). Example:
h2->Draw("SPEC n(40,40)");
Sometimes the displayed region is rather large. When displaying all channels the pictures become very dense and
complicated. It is very difficult to understand the overall shape of data. n(nx,ny) allows to change the density of
displayed channels. Only the channels coinciding with given nodes are displayed.
The visualization Angles can be changed with a(alpha,beta,view): alpha is the angle between the bottom
horizontal screen line and the displayed space on the right side of the picture and beta on the left side, respectively.
One can rotate the 3-d space around the vertical axis using the view parameter. Allowed values are 0, 90, 180 and
270 degrees.
h2->Draw("SPEC n(40,40) dm(0,1) a(30,30,0)");
The operator zs(scale) changes the scale of the Z-axis. The possible values are:
0 = Linear (default),
1 = Log,
2 = Sqrt.
If gPad->SetLogz() has been set, the log scale on Z-axis is set automatically, i.e. there is no need for using the zs()
operator. Note that the X and Y axis are always linear.

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

75

The operator ci(r,g,b) defines the colors increments (r, g and b are floats). For sophisticated shading (Light, Height
and LightHeight Display Modes Groups) the color palette starts from the basic pen color (see pa() function). There is
a predefined number of color levels (256). Color in every level is calculated by adding the increments of the r , g , b
components to the previous level. Using this function one can change the color increments between two neighboring
color levels. The function does not apply on the Simple Display Modes Group. The default values are: (1,1,1).
The operator ca(color_algorithm) allows to choose the Color Algorithm. To define the colors one can use one of
the following color algorithms (RGB, CMY, CIE, YIQ, HVS models). When the level of a component reaches the limit
value one can choose either smooth transition (by decreasing the limit value) or a sharp modulo transition (continuing
with 0 value). This allows various visual effects. One can choose from the following set of the algorithms:

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

RGB Smooth,
RGB Modulo,
CMY Smooth,
CMY Modulo,
CIE Smooth
CIE Modulo,
YIQ Smooth,
YIQ Modulo,
HVS Smooth,
HVS Modulo

This function does not apply on Simple display modes group. Default value is 0. Example choosing CMY Modulo to
paint the 2D histogram:
h2->Draw("SPEC c1(3) dm(0,1) a(30,30,0)");
The operator lp(x,y,z) sets the light position. In Light and LightHeight display modes groups the color palette is
calculated according to the fictive light source position in 3-d space. Using this function one can change the sources
position and thus achieve various graphical effects. This function does not apply for Simple and Height display modes
groups. Default is: lp(1000,1000,100) .
The operator s(shading,shadow) allows to set the shading. The surface picture is composed of triangles. The edges
of the neighboring triangles can be smoothed (shaded). The shadow can be painted as well. The function does not
apply on Simple display modes group. The possible values for shading are:
0 = Not Shaded,
1 = Shaded.
The possible values for shadow are:
0 = Shadows are not painted,
1 = Shadows are painted.
Default values: s(1,0) .
The operator b(bezier) sets the Bezier smoothing. For Simple display modes group and for Grid, LinesX and
LinesY display modes one can smooth data using Bezier smoothing algorithm. The function does not apply on other
display modes groups and display modes. Possible values are: 0 = No bezier smoothing, 1 = Bezier smoothing. Default
value is: b(0).
The operator cw(width) sets the contour width. This function applies only on for the Contours display mode. One
can change the width between horizontal slices and thus their density. Default value: cw(50) .
The operator lhw(weight) sets the light height weight. For LightHeight display modes group one can change the
weight between both shading algorithms. The function does not apply on other display modes groups. Default value is
lhw(0.5) .
The operator cm(enable,color,width,height,style) allows to draw a marker on each node. In addition to the
surface drawn using any above given algorithm one can display channel marks. One can control the color as well as the
width, height (in pixels) and the style of the marks. The parameter enable can be set to 0 = Channel marks are not
drawn or 1 = Channel marks drawn. The possible styles are:

76

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

=
=
=
=
=
=
=

Dot,
Cross,
Star,
Rectangle,
X,
Diamond,
Triangle.

The operator cg(enable,color) channel grid. In addition to the surface drawn using any above given algorithm
one can display grid using the color parameter. The parameter enable can be set to:
0 = Grid not drawn,
1 = Grid drawn.
See the example in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/spectrum/spectrumpainter.C .

Figure 3.11: The picture produced by spectrumpainter.C macro

3.8.2.15

3-D Histograms

By default a 3D scatter plot is drawn. If the BOX option is specified, a 3D box with a volume proportional to the
cell content is drawn.

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

77

Figure 3.12: The picture produced by fit2a.C macro

3.8.3

Drawing a Sub-range of a 2-D Histogram

Using a TCutG object, it is possible to draw a 2D histogram sub-range. One must create a graphical cut (mouse or
C++) and specify the name of the cut between [ and ] in the Draw option.
For example, with a TCutGnamed cutg, one can call:
myhist->Draw("surf1 [cutg]");
Or, assuming two graphical cuts with name cut1 and cut2, one can do:
h1.Draw("lego");
h2.Draw("[cut1,-cut2],surf,same");
The second Draw will superimpose on top of the first lego plot a subset of h2using the surf option with:
all the bins inside cut1
all the bins outside cut2
Up to 16 cuts may be specified in the cut string delimited by "[..]". Currently only the following drawing options are
sensitive to the cuts option: col , box , scat , hist , lego , surf and cartesian coordinates only. See a complete
example in the tutorial $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/fit2a.C .

3.8.4

Superimposing Histograms with Different Scales

The following script creates two histograms; the second histogram is the bins integral of the first one. It shows a
procedure to draw the two histograms in the same pad and it draws the scale of the second histogram using a new
vertical axis on the right side.

78

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.13: Superimposed histograms with different scales

void twoscales() {
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","different scales hists",600,400);
//create, fill and draw h1
gStyle->SetOptStat(kFALSE);
TH1F *h1 = new TH1F("h1","my histogram",100,-3,3);
for (Int_t i=0;i<10000;i++) h1->Fill(gRandom->Gaus(0,1));
h1->Draw();
c1->Update();
//create hint1 filled with the bins integral of h1
TH1F *hint1 = new TH1F("hint1","h1 bins integral",100,-3,3);
Float_t sum = 0;
for (Int_t i=1;i<=100;i++) {
sum += h1->GetBinContent(i);
hint1->SetBinContent(i,sum);
}
//scale hint1 to the pad coordinates
Float_t rightmax = 1.1*hint1->GetMaximum();
Float_t scale
= gPad->GetUymax()/rightmax;
hint1->SetLineColor(kRed);
hint1->Scale(scale);
hint1->Draw("same");
//draw an axis on the right side
TGaxis*axis = new TGaxis(gPad->GetUxmax(),gPad->GetUymin(),
gPad->GetUxmax(),gPad->GetUymax(),
0,rightmax,510,"+L");
axis->SetLineColor(kRed);
axis->SetLabelColor(kRed);
axis->Draw();
}

3.8. DRAWING HISTOGRAMS

3.8.5

79

Statistics Display

By default, a histogram drawing includes the statistics box. Use TH1::SetStats(kFALSE) to eliminate the statistics
box. If the statistics box is drawn, gStyle->SetOptStat(mode) allow you to select the type of displayed information .
The parameter mode has up to nine digits that can be set OFF (0) or ON as follows:
mode = ksiourmen (default =000001111)

n
e
m
m
r
r
u
o
i
s
s
k
k

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

1
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
2

the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the

name of histogram is printed

number of entries
mean value
mean and mean error values
root mean square (RMS)
RMS and RMS error
number of underflows
number of overflows
integral of bins
skewness
skewness and the skewness error
kurtosis
kurtosis and the kurtosis error

Never call SetOptStat(0001111) , but SetOptStat(1111) , because 0001111 will be taken as an octal number.
The method TStyle::SetOptStat(Option_t*option) can also be called with a character string as a parameter. The
parameter option can contain:

n
e
m
M
r
R
u
o
i
s
S
k
K

for printing the name of histogram

the number of entries
the mean value
the mean and mean error values
the root mean square (RMS)
the RMS and RMS error
the number of underflows
the number of overflows
the integral of bins
the skewness
the skewness and the skewness error
the kurtosis
the kurtosis and the kurtosis error

gStyle->SetOptStat("ne");

//
//
gStyle->SetOptStat("n");
//
gStyle->SetOptStat("nemr"); //

prints the histogram name and number

of entries
prints the histogram name
the default value

With the option "same", the statistic box is not redrawn. With the option "sames", it is re-drawn. If it hides the
previous statistics box, you can change its position with the next lines (where h is the histogram pointer):
root[] TPaveStats *s =
(TPaveStats*)h->GetListOfFunctions()->FindObject("stats");
root[] s->SetX1NDC (newx1); // new x start position
root[] s->SetX2NDC (newx2); // new x end position

3.8.6

Setting Line, Fill, Marker, and Text Attributes

The histogram classes inherit from the attribute classes: TAttLine, TAttFill, TAttMarker and TAttText. See the
description of these classes for the list of options.

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

3.8.7

Setting Tick Marks on the Axis

The TPad::SetTicks() method specifies the type of tick marks on the axis.
ty=gPad->GetTicky().

Let tx=gPad->GetTickx() and

tx = 1; tick marks on top side are drawn (inside)

tx = 2; tick marks and labels on top side are drawn
ty = 1; tick marks on right side are drawn (inside)
ty = 2; tick marks and labels on right side are drawn
tx=ty=0 by default only the left Y axis and X bottom axis are drawn

Use TPad::SetTicks(tx,ty) to set these options. See also the methods of TAxis that set specific axis attributes. If
multiple color-filled histograms are drawn on the same pad, the fill area may hide the axis tick marks. One can force
the axis redrawing over all the histograms by calling:
gPad->RedrawAxis();

3.8.8

Giving Titles to the X, Y and Z Axis

Because the axis title is an attribute of the axis, you have to get the axis first and then call TAxis::SetTitle.
h->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("X axis title");
h->GetYaxis()->SetTitle("Y axis title");
h->GetZaxis()->SetTitle("Z axis title");
The histogram title and the axis titles can be any TLatex string. The titles are part of the persistent histogram. For
example if you wanted to write E with a subscript (T) you could use this:
h->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("E_{T}");
For a complete explanation of the Latex mathematical expressions, see Graphics and the Graphical User Interface. It
is also possible to specify the histogram title and the axis titles at creation time. These titles can be given in the title
parameter. They must be separated by ;:
TH1F* h=new TH1F("h","Histogram title;X Axis;Y Axis;Z Axis",
100,0,1);
Any title can be omitted:
TH1F* h=new TH1F("h","Histogram title;;Y Axis",100,0,1);
TH1F* h=new TH1F("h",";;Y Axis",100,0,1);
The method SetTitle has the same syntax:
h->SetTitle("Histogram title;An other X title Axis");

3.9

Making a Copy of an Histogram

Like for any other ROOT object derived from TObject , the Clone method can be used. This makes an identical copy
of the original histogram including all associated errors and functions:
TH1F *hnew = (TH1F*)h->Clone(); // renaming is recommended,
hnew->SetName("hnew");
// because otherwise you will have
// two histograms with the same
// name

3.10. NORMALIZING HISTOGRAMS

3.10

81

Normalizing Histograms

You can scale a histogram ( TH1 *h ) such that the bins integral is equal to the normalization parameter norm:
Double_t scale = norm/h->Integral();
h->Scale(scale);

3.11

Saving/Reading Histograms to/from a File

The following statements create a ROOT file and store a histogram on the file. Because TH1 derives from TNamed , the
key identifier on the file is the histogram name:
TFile f("histos.root","new");
TH1F h1("hgaus","histo from a gaussian",100,-3,3);
h1.FillRandom("gaus",10000);
h1->Write();
To read this histogram in another ROOT session, do:
TFile f("histos.root");
TH1F *h = (TH1F*)f.Get("hgaus");
One can save all histograms in memory to the file by:
file->Write();
For a more detailed explanation, see Input/Output.

3.12

Miscellaneous Operations

TH1::KolmogorovTest( TH1* h2,Option_t *option) is statistical test of compatibility in shape between two
histograms. The parameter option is a character string that specifies:
U include Underflows in test (also for 2-dim)
O include Overflows (also valid for 2-dim)
N include comparison of normalizations
D put out a line of Debug printout
M return the maximum Kolmogorov distance instead of prob
X run the pseudo experiments post-processor with the following procedure: it makes pseudo experiments based
on random values from the parent distribution and compare the KS distance of the pseudo experiment to the
parent distribution. Bin the KS distances in a histogram, and then take the integral of all the KS values above the
value obtained from the original data to Monte Carlo distribution. The number of pseudo-experiments NEXPT
is currently fixed at 1000. The function returns the integral. Note that this option X is much slower.
TH1::Smooth - smoothes the bin contents of a 1D histogram.
TH1::Integral(Option_t *opt)-returns the integral of bin contents in a given bin range. If the option width
is specified, the integral is the sum of the bin contents multiplied by the bin width in x .
TH1::GetMean(int axis) - returns the mean value along axis.
TH1::GetRMS(int axis) - returns the Root Mean Square along axis.
TH1::GetEntries() - returns the number of entries.
TH1::GetAsymmetry(TH1 *h2,Double_t c2,Double_tdc2)

82

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
returns an histogram containing the asymmetry of this histogram with h2, where the asymmetry is defined
as:
Asymmetry = (h1 - h2)/(h1 + h2); //where h1 = this
It works for 1D , 2D , etc. histograms. The parameter c2 is an optional argument that gives a relative weight
between the two histograms, and dc 2 is the error on this weight. This is useful, for example, when forming an
asymmetry between two histograms from two different data sets that need to be normalized to each other in
some way. The function calculates the errors assuming Poisson statistics on h1 and h2 (that is, dh=sqrt(h)). In
the next example we assume that h1 and h2 are already filled:
h3 = h1->GetAsymmetry(h2);
Then h3 is created and filled with the asymmetry between h1 and h2 ; h1 and h2 are left intact.
Note that the users responsibility is to manage the created histograms.
TH1::Reset() - resets the bin contents and errors of a histogram

3.13

Alphanumeric Bin Labels

By default, a histogram axis is drawn with its numeric bin labels. One can specify alphanumeric labels instead.

3.13.1

Option 1: SetBinLabel

To set an alphanumeric bin label call:

TAxis::SetBinLabel(bin,label);
This can always be done before or after filling. Bin labels will be automatically drawn with the histogram.

Figure 3.14: Histograms with alphanumeric bin labels

See example in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hist/hlabels1.C , hlabels2.C

3.13. ALPHANUMERIC BIN LABELS

3.13.2

83

Option 2: Fill

You can also call a Fill() function with one of the arguments being a string:
hist1->Fill(somename,weigth);
hist2->Fill(x,somename,weight);
hist2->Fill(somename,y,weight);
hist2->Fill(somenamex,somenamey,weight);

3.13.3

Option 3: TTree::Draw

You can use a char* variable type to histogram strings with TTree::Draw().
// here "Nation" and "Division" are two char* branches of a Tree
tree.Draw("Nation::Division", "", "text");

Figure 3.15: Using a *char variable type in TTree::Draw

There is an example in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/cernstaff.C.
If a variable is defined as char* it is drawn as a string by default. You change that and draw the value of char[0] as
an integer by adding an arithmetic operation to the expression as shown below.
// draw the integer value of MyChar[0] where "MyChar" is char[5]
tree.Draw("MyChar + 0");

3.13.4

Sort Options

When using the options 2 or 3 above, the labels are automatically added to the list (THashList) of labels for a given
axis. By default, an axis is drawn with the order of bins corresponding to the filling sequence. It is possible to reorder
the axis alphabetically or by increasing or decreasing values. The reordering can be triggered via the TAxis context
menu by selecting the menu item LabelsOption or by calling directly.

84

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
TH1::LabelsOption(option,axis);

Here axis may be X, Y, or Z. The parameter option may be:

a
>
<
h
v
u
d

sort by alphabetic order

sort by decreasing values
sort by increasing values
draw labels horizontal
draw labels vertical
draw labels up (end of label right adjusted)
draw labels down (start of label left adjusted)

When using the option second above, new labels are added by doubling the current number of bins in case one label
does not exist yet. When the filling is terminated, it is possible to trim the number of bins to match the number of
active labels by calling:
TH1::LabelsDeflate(axis);
Here axis may be X, Y, or Z. This operation is automatic when using TTree::Draw . Once bin labels have been created,
they become persistent if the histogram is written to a file or when generating the C++ code via SavePrimitive .

3.14

Histogram Stacks

A THStack is a collection of TH1 (or derived) objects. Use THStack::Add( TH1 *h) to add a histogram to the stack.
The THStack does not own the objects in the list.

Figure 3.16: Stacked histograms

By default, THStack::Draw draws the histograms stacked as shown in the left pad in the picture above. If the option
"nostack" is used, the histograms are superimposed as if they were drawn one at a time using the "same" draw option
. The right pad in this picture illustrates the THStack drawn with the "nostack" option.
hs->Draw("nostack");
Next is a simple example, for a more complex one see $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hist/hstack.C.

3.15. TH2POLY
{

85

THStack hs("hs","test stacked histograms");

TH1F *h1 = new TH1F("h1","test hstack",100,-4,4);
h1->FillRandom("gaus",20000);
h1->SetFillColor(kRed);
hs.Add(h1);
TH1F *h2 = new TH1F("h2","test hstack",100,-4,4);
h2->FillRandom("gaus",15000);
h2->SetFillColor(kBlue);
hs.Add(h2);
TH1F *h3 = new TH1F("h3","test hstack",100,-4,4);
h3->FillRandom("gaus",10000);
h3->SetFillColor(kGreen);
hs.Add(h3);
TCanvas c1("c1","stacked hists",10,10,700,900);
c1.Divide (1,2);
c1.cd(1);
hs.Draw();
c1.cd(2);
hs->Draw("nostack");

3.15

TH2Poly

TH2Poly is a 2D Histogram class allowing to define polygonal bins of arbitary shape.

Each bin in the TH2Poly histogram is a TH2PolyBin object. TH2PolyBin is a very simple class containing the vertices
and contents of the polygonal bin as well as several related functions.
Bins are defined using one of the AddBin() methods. The bin definition should be done before filling.
The following very simple macro shows how to build and fill a TH2Poly:
{

TH2Poly *h2p = new TH2Poly();

Double_t x1[] = {0, 5, 5};
Double_t y1[] = {0, 0, 5};
Double_t x2[] = {0, -1, -1, 0};
Double_t y2[] = {0, 0, -1, -1};
Double_t x3[] = {4, 3, 0, 1, 2.4};
Double_t y3[] = {4, 3.7, 1, 4.7, 3.5};
h2p->AddBin(3, x1, y1);
h2p->AddBin(3, x2, y2);
h2p->AddBin(3, x3, y3);
h2p->Fill( 3, 1, 3);
// fill bin 1
h2p->Fill(-0.5, -0.5, 7); // fill bin 2
h2p->Fill(-0.7, -0.5, 1); // fill bin 2
h2p->Fill( 1, 3, 5);
// fill bin 3

More examples can bin found in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hist/th2poly*.C

3.16

Profile Histograms

Profile histograms are in many cases an elegant replacement of two-dimensional histograms. The relationship of
two quantities X and Y can be visualized by a two-dimensional histogram or a scatter-plot; its representation is not
particularly satisfactory, except for sparse data. If Y is an unknown [but single-valued] function of X, it can be displayed
by a profile histogram with much better precision than by a scatter-plot. Profile histograms display the mean value
of Y and its RMS for each bin in X. The following shows the contents [capital letters] and the values shown in the
graphics [small letters] of the elements for bin j. When you fill a profile histogram with TProfile.Fill(x,y) :

86

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.17: A TH2Poly histogram example

H[j] will contain for each bin j the sum of the y values for this bin
L[j] contains the number of entries in the bin j
e[j] or s[j] will be the resulting error depending on the selected option. See Build Options.
E[j]
L[j]
H[j]
h[j]
s[j]
e[j]

=
=
=
=
=
=

sum Y**2
number of entries in bin J
sum Y
H[j] / L[j]
sqrt[E[j] / L[j] - h[j]**2]
s[j] / sqrt[L[j]]

In the special case where s[j] is zero, when there is only one entry per bin, e[j] is computed from the average of the
s[j] for all bins. This approximation is used to keep the bin during a fit operation. The TProfile constructor takes
up to eight arguments. The first five parameters are similar to TH1D constructor.
TProfile(const char *name,const char *title,Int_t nbinsx,
Double_t xlow, Double_t xup, Double_t ylow, Double_t yup,
Option_t *option)
All values of y are accepted at filling time. To fill a profile histogram, you must use TProfile::Fill function. Note
that when filling the profile histogram the method TProfile::Fill checks if the variable y is between fYmin and
fYmax. If a minimum or maximum value is set for the Y scale before filling, then all values below ylow or above yup
will be discarded. Setting the minimum or maximum value for the Y scale before filling has the same effect as calling
the special TProfile constructor above where ylow and yup are specified.

3.16.1

Build Options

The last parameter is the build option. If a bin has N data points all with the same value Y, which is the case when
dealing with integers, the spread in Y for that bin is zero, and the uncertainty assigned is also zero, and the bin is
ignored in making subsequent fits. If SQRT(Y) was the correct error in the case above, then SQRT(Y)/SQRT(N) would
be the correct error here. In fact, any bin with non-zero number of entries N but with zero spread (spread = s[j])

3.16. PROFILE HISTOGRAMS

87

should have an uncertainty SQRT(Y)/SQRT(N). Now, is SQRT(Y)/SQRT(N) really the correct uncertainty ? That it is
only in the case where the Y variable is some sort of counting statistics, following a Poisson distribution. This is
the default case. However, Y can be any variable from an original NTUPLE, and does not necessarily follow a Poisson
distribution. The computation of errors is based on Y = values of data points; N = number of data points.
- the default is blank, the errors are:
spread/SQRT(N) for a non-zero spread
SQRT(Y)/SQRT(N) for a spread of zero and some data points
0 for no data points
s - errors are:
spread for a non-zero spread
SQRT(Y) for a Spread of zero and some data points
0 for no data points
i - errors are:
spread/SQRT(N) for a non-zero spread
1/SQRT(12*N) for a Spread of zero and some data points
0 for no data points
G - errors are:
spread/SQRT(N) for a non-zero spread
sigma/SQRT(N) for a spread of zero and some data points
0 for no data points
The option i is used for integer Y values with the uncertainty of 0.5, assuming the probability that Y takes any
value between Y-0.5 and Y+0.5 is uniform (the same argument for Y uniformly distributed between Y and Y+1).
An example is an ADC measurement. The G option is useful, if all Y variables are distributed according to some
known Gaussian of standard deviation Sigma. For example when all Ys are experimental quantities measured with the
same instrument with precision Sigma. The next figure shows the graphic output of this simple example of a profile
histogram.
{

// Create a canvas giving the coordinates and the size

TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1", "Profile example",200,10,700,500);
// Create a profile with the name, title, the number of bins,
// the low and high limit of the x-axis and the low and high
// limit of the y-axis.
// No option is given so the default is used.
hprof = new TProfile("hprof",
"Profile of pz versus px",100,-4,4,0,20);

// Fill the profile 25000 times with random numbers

Float_t px, py, pz;
for ( Int_t i=0; i<25000; i++) {
// Use the random number generator to get two numbers following
// a gaussian distribution with mean=0 and sigma=1
gRandom->Rannor(px,py);
pz = px*px + py*py;
hprof->Fill(px,pz,1);
}
hprof->Draw();

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.18: A profile histogram example

3.16.2

Drawing a Profile without Error Bars

To draw a profile histogram and not show the error bars use the HIST option in the TProfile::Draw method. This
will draw the outline of the TProfile.

3.16.3

Create a Profile from a 2D Histogram

You can make a profile from a histogram using the methods TH2::ProfileX and TH2::ProfileY.

3.16.4

Create a Histogram from a Profile

To create a regular histogram from a profile histogram, use the method TProfile::ProjectionX .This example
instantiates a TH1D object by copying the TH1D piece of TProfile.
TH1D *sum = myProfile.ProjectionX();
You can do the same with a 2D profile using the method TProfile2D::ProjectionXY .

3.16.5

Generating a Profile from a TTree

The prof and profs options in the TTree::Draw method generate a profile histogram ( TProfile ), given a two
dimensional expression in the tree, or a TProfile2D given a three dimensional expression. See Trees. Note that you
can specify prof or profs : prof generates a TProfile with error on the mean, profs generates a TProfile
with error on the spread.

3.16. PROFILE HISTOGRAMS

3.16.6

89

2D Profiles

The class for a 2D Profile is called TProfile2D . It is in many cases an elegant replacement of a three-dimensional
histogram. The relationship of three measured quantities X, Y and Z can be visualized by a three-dimensional histogram
or scatter-plot; its representation is not particularly satisfactory, except for sparse data. If Z is an unknown (but
single-valued) function of (X,Y), it can be displayed with a TProfile2D with better precision than by a scatter-plot.
A TProfile2D displays the mean value of Z and its RMS for each cell in X, Y. The following shows the cumulated
contents (capital letters) and the values displayed (small letters) of the elements for cell i,j.
When you fill a profile histogram with TProfile2D.Fill(x,y,z):
E[i,j] contains for each bin i,j the sum of the z values for this bin
L[i,j] contains the number of entries in the bin j
e[j] or s[j] will be the resulting error depending on the selected option. See Build Options.
E[i,j]
L[i,j]
h[i,j]
s[i,j]
e[i,j]

=
=
=
=
=

sum z
sum l
H[i,j ] / L[i,j]
sqrt[E[i,j] / L[i,j]- h[i,j]**2]
s[i,j] / sqrt[L[i,j]]

In the special case where s[i,j] is zero, when there is only one entry per cell, e[i,j] is computed from the average of
the s[i,j] for all cells. This approximation is used to keep the cell during a fit operation.

Figure 3.19: A TProfile2D histogram example

{

// Creating a Canvas and a TProfile2D

TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1",
"Profile histogram example",
200, 10,700,500);

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS
hprof2d = new TProfile2D("hprof2d",
"Profile of pz versus px and py",
40,-4,4,40,-4,4,0,20);

// Filling the TProfile2D with 25000 points

Float_t px, py, pz;
for (Int_t i=0; i<25000; i++) {
gRandom->Rannor(px,py);
pz = px*px + py*py;
hprof2d->Fill(px,py,pz,1);
}
hprof2d->Draw();

3.17

Iso Surfaces

Paint one Gouraud shaded 3d iso surface though a 3d histogram at the value computed as follow: SumOfWeights/(NbinsX*NbinsY*N
void hist3d() {
TH3D *h3 = new TH3D("h3", "h3", 20, -2, 2, 20, -2, 2, 20, 0, 4);
Double_t x,y,z;
for (Int_t i=0; i<10000; i++) {
gRandom->
Rannor(x,y);
z=x*x+y*y;
h3->Fill(x,y,z);
}
h3->Draw("iso");
}

3.18

3D Implicit Functions

TF3 *fun3 = new TF3("fun3","sin(x*x+y*y+z*z-36)",-2,2,-2,2,-2,2);

fun3->Draw();

3.19

TPie

The TPie class allows to create a Pie Chart representation of a one dimensional data set. The data can come from an
array of Double_t (or Float_t ) or from a 1D-histogram. The possible options to draw a TPie are:
R Paint the labels along the central Radius of slices.
T Paint the labels in a direction Tangent to circle that describes the TPie.
3D Draw the pie-chart with a pseudo 3D effect.
NOL No OutLine: do not draw the slices outlines; any property over the slices line is ignored.
The method SetLabelFormat() is used to customize the label format. The format string must contain one of these
modifiers:

%txt : to print the text label associated with the slice

%val : to print the numeric value of the slice

%frac : to print the relative fraction of this slice

%perc : to print the % of this slice

mypie->SetLabelFormat("%txt (%frac)");
See the macro $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/piechart.C .

3.19. TPIE

91

Figure 3.20: Iso surfaces

Figure 3.21: 3D implicit function

92

CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Figure 3.22: The picture generated by tutorial macro piechart.C

3.20. THE USER INTERFACE FOR HISTOGRAMS

3.20

93

The User Interface for Histograms

The classes T H1 Editor and T H2 Editor provides the user interface for setting histograms attributes and rebinning
interactively.

3.20.1

TH1Editor

3.20.1.1

The Style Tab

3.20.1.1.1

Title sets the title of the histogram.

3.20.1.1.2

Plot draw a 2D or 3D plot; according to the dimension, different drawing possibilities can be set.

3.20.1.1.3

Error add different error bars to the histogram (no errors, simple, etc.).

3.20.1.1.4

Add further things which can be added to the histogram (None, simple/smooth line, fill area, etc.)

3.20.1.2

2-D Plot

3.20.1.2.1 Simple Drawing draw a simple histogram without errors (= HIST draw option). In combination
with some other draw options an outer line is drawn on top of the histogram

3.20.1.2.2

Show markers

3.20.1.2.3

Draw bar chart draw a bar chart (=B draw option).

draw a marker on to of each bin (=P draw option).

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3.20.1.2.4 Bar option draw a bar chart (=BAR draw option); if selected, it will show an additional interface
elements for bars: width, offset, percentage and the possibility to draw horizontal bars.

3.20.1.3

3-D Plot

3.20.1.3.1

Add set histogram type Lego-Plot or Surface draw (Lego, Lego1.2, Surf, Surf1. . . 5).

3.20.1.3.2

Coords set the coordinate system (Cartesian, Spheric, etc.).

3.20.1.3.3

Error same as for 2D plot.

3.20.1.3.4

Bar set the bar attributes: width and offset.

3.20.1.3.5

Horizontal Bar

3.20.1.4

draw a horizontal bar chart.

The Binning tab

The binning tab has two different layouts. One is for a histogram, which is not drawn from an ntuple. The other one
is available for a histogram, which is drawn from an ntuple. In this case, the rebin algorithm can create a rebinned
histogram from the original data i.e. the ntuple.

To see the differences do:

TFile f("hsimple.root");
hpx->Draw("BAR1"); // non ntuple histogram
ntuple->Draw("px");// ntuple histogram

3.20. THE USER INTERFACE FOR HISTOGRAMS

3.20.1.5

95

Non ntuple histogram

Rebin with a slider and the number of bins (shown in the field below the slider). The number of bins can be changed
to any number, which divides the number of bins of the original histogram. A click on the Apply button will delete the
origin histogram and will replace it by the rebinned one on the screen. A click on the Ignore button will restore the
origin histogram.
3.20.1.6

Histogram drawn from an ntuple

3.20.1.6.1 Rebin with the slider, the number of bins can be enlarged by a factor of 2, 3, 4, 5 (moving to the right)
or reduced by a factor of 12 , 13 , 41 , 15 .
3.20.1.6.2 BinOffset with a BinOffset slider the origin of the histogram can be changed within one binwidth.
Using this slider the effect of binning the data into bins can be made visible (statistical fluctuations).
3.20.1.6.3 Axis Range with a double slider it is possible to zoom into the specified axis range. It is also possible
to set the upper and lower limit in fields below the slider.
3.20.1.6.4 Delayed drawing all the Binning sliders can set to delay draw mode. Then the changes on the
histogram are only updated, when the Slider is released. This should be activated if the redrawing of the histogram is
time consuming.

3.20.2

TH2Editor

3.20.2.1

Style Tab:

3.20.2.1.1

Title set the title of the histogram

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

3.20.2.1.2

Histogram change the draw options of the histogram.

3.20.2.1.3
different.

Plot draw a 2D or 3D plot of the histogram; according to the dimension, the drawing possibilities are

3.20.2.2

2-D Plot

3.20.2.2.1

Contour draw a contour plot (None, Cont0. . . 5)

3.20.2.2.2

Cont #

3.20.2.2.3

Arrow set the arrow mode and shows the gradient between adjacent cells;

3.20.2.2.4

Col a box is drawn for each cell with a color scale varying with contents;

3.20.2.2.5

Text draw bin contents as text;

3.20.2.2.6

Box a box is drawn for each cell with surface proportional to contents;

3.20.2.2.7

Scat draw a scatter-plot (default);

3.20.2.2.8

Palette the color palette is drawn.

3.20.2.3

set the number of Contours;

3-D Plot

3.20.2.3.1

Type set histogram type to Lego or surface plot; draw (Lego, Lego1.2, Surf, Surf1. . . 5)

3.20.2.3.2

Coords set the coordinate system (Cartesian, Spheric, etc.);

3.20.2.3.3

Cont #

3.20.2.3.4

Errors draw errors in a Cartesian lego plot;

3.20.2.3.5

Palette draw the color palette;

3.20.2.3.6

Front

3.20.2.3.7

Back draw the back box of a Cartesian lego plot;

3.20.2.3.8

Bar change the bar attributes: the width and offset.

3.20.2.4

set the number of Contours (for e.g. Lego2 draw option);

draw the front box of a Cartesian lego plot;

Rebinning Tab

The Rebinning tab has two different layouts. One is for a histogram that is not drawn from an ntuple; the other one
is available for a histogram, which is drawn from an ntuple. In this case, the rebin algorithm can create a rebinned
histogram from the original data i.e. the ntuple. To see the differences do for example:
TFile f ("hsimple.root");
hpxpy->Draw("Lego2"); // non ntuple histogram
ntuple->Draw("px:py","","Lego2"); // ntuple histogram

3.20. THE USER INTERFACE FOR HISTOGRAMS

3.20.2.5

97

Non-ntuple histogram:

Rebin with sliders (one for the x, one for the y-axis) and the number of bins (shown in the field below them can
be changed to any number, which divides the number of bins of the original histogram. Selecting the Apply button
will delete the origin histogram and will replace it by the rebinned one on the screen. Selecting the Ignore the origin
histogram will be restored.

3.20.2.6

Histogram drawn from an ntuple

3.20.2.6.1 Rebin with the sliders the number of bins can be enlarged by a factor of 2,3,4,5 (moving to the right)
or reduced by a factor of 12 , 13 , 41 , 15 .
3.20.2.6.2 BinOffset with the BinOffset slider the origin of the histogram can be changed within one binwidth.
Using this slider the effect of binning the data into bins can be made visible (=> statistical fluctuations).
3.20.2.6.3 Axis Range with a double slider that gives the possibility for zooming. It is also possible to set the
upper and lower limit in fields below the slider.
3.20.2.6.4 Delayed drawing all the binning sliders can be set to delay draw mode. Then the changes on the
histogram are only updated, when the Slider is released. This should be activated if the redrawing of the histogram is
too time consuming.

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CHAPTER 3. HISTOGRAMS

Chapter 4

Graphs
A graph is a graphics object made of two arrays X and Y, holding the x,y coordinates of n points. There are several
graph classes; they are TGraph, TGraphErrors, TGraphAsymmErrors, and TMultiGraph.

4.1

TGraph

The TGraph class supports the general case with non-equidistant points, and the special case with equidistant points.
Graphs are created with the TGraph constructor. First, we define the arrays of coordinates and then create the graph.
The coordinates can be arrays of doubles or floats.
Int_t n = 20;
Double_t x[n], y[n];
for (Int_t i=0; i<n; i++) {
x[i] = i*0.1;
y[i] = 10*sin(x[i]+0.2);
}
TGraph *gr1 = new TGraph (n, x, y);
An alternative constructor takes only the number of points n. It is expected that the coordinates will be set later.
TGraph *gr2 = new TGraph(n);
The default constructor can also be used. Further calls to SetPoint() will extend the internal vectors.
TGraph *gr3 = new TGraph();

4.1.1

Graph Draw Options

The various drawing options for a graph are explained in TGraph::PaintGraph. They are:
L A simple poly-line between every points is drawn
F A fill area is drawn
F1 Idem as F but fill area is no more repartee around X=0 or Y=0
F2 draw a fill area poly line connecting the center of bins
A Axis are drawn around the graph
C A smooth curve is drawn
* A star is plotted at each point
P The current marker of the graph is plotted at each point
B A bar chart is drawn at each point
99

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS

[] Only the end vertical/horizontal lines of the error bars are drawn. This option only applies to the
TGraphAsymmErrors.
1 ylow = rwymin
The options are not case sensitive and they can be concatenated in most cases. Let us look at some examples.
4.1.1.1

Continuous Line, Axis and Stars (AC*)

Figure 4.1: A graph drawn with axis, * markers and continuous line (option AC*)
{

Int_t n = 20;
Double_t x[n], y[n];
for (Int_t i=0;i<n;i++) {
x[i] = i*0.1;
y[i] = 10*sin(x[i]+0.2);
}
// create graph
TGraph *gr = new TGraph(n,x,y);
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","Graph Draw Options",
200,10,600,400);

// draw the graph with axis, continuous line, and put

// a * at each point
gr->Draw("AC*");

4.1.1.2

Bar Graphs (AB)

root[] TGraph *gr1 = new TGraph(n,x,y);

root[] gr1->SetFillColor(40);
root[] gr1->Draw("AB");

4.1. TGRAPH

101

Figure 4.2: A graph drawn with axis and bar (option AB)
This code will only work if n, x, and y is defined. The previous example defines these. You need to set the fill color,
because by default the fill color is white and will not be visible on a white canvas. You also need to give it an axis, or
the bar chart will not be displayed properly.
4.1.1.3

Filled Graphs (AF)

root[] TGraph *gr3 = new TGraph(n,x,y);

root[] gr3->SetFillColor(45);
root[] gr3->Draw("AF")
This code will only work if n, x, yare defined. The first example defines them. You need to set the fill color, because by
default the fill color is white and will not be visible on a white canvas. You also need to give it an axis, or the filled
polygon will not be displayed properly.
4.1.1.4
{

Marker Options

Int_t n = 20;
Double_t x[n], y[n];
// build the arrays with the coordinate of points
for (Int_t i=0; i<n; i++) {
x[i] = i*0.1;
y[i] = 10*sin(x[i]+0.2);
}
// create graphs
TGraph *gr3 = new TGraph(n,x,y);
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas ("c1","Graph Draw Options",
200,10,600,400);

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS

Figure 4.3: A graph drawn with axis and fill (option AF)

Figure 4.4: Graph markers created in different ways

4.2. SUPERIMPOSING TWO GRAPHS

103

// draw the graph with the axis,contineous line, and put

// a marker using the graph's marker style at each point
gr3->SetMarkerStyle(21);
c1->cd(4);
gr3->Draw("APL");
// get the points in the graph and put them into an array
Double_t *nx = gr3->GetX();
Double_t *ny = gr3->GetY();

// create markers of different colors

for (Int_t j=2; j<n-1; j++) {
TMarker *m = new TMarker(nx[j], 0.5*ny[j], 22);
m->SetMarkerSize(2);
m->SetMarkerColor(31+j);
m->Draw();
}

4.2

Superimposing Two Graphs

To super impose two graphs you need to draw the axis only once, and leave out the A in the draw options for the
second graph. Next is an example:

Figure 4.5: Superimposing two graphs

{

Int_t n = 20;
Double_t x[n], y[n], x1[n], y1[n];
// create a blue graph with a cos function

104

CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS
gr1->SetLineColor(4);
gr1->Draw("AC*");

// superimpose the second graph by leaving out the axis option "A"
gr2->SetLineWidth(3);
gr2->SetMarkerStyle(21);
gr2->SetLineColor(2);
gr2->Draw("CP");

4.3

Graphs with Error Bars

A TGraphErrors is a TGraph with error bars. The various draw format options of TGraphErrors::Paint() are derived
from TGraph.
void TGraphErrors::Paint(Option_t *option)

Figure 4.6: Graphs with different draw options of error bars

In addition, it can be drawn with the Z option to leave off the small lines at the end of the error bars. If option
contains >, an arrow is drawn at the end of the error bars. If option contains |>, a full arrow is drawn at the end
of the error bars. The size of the arrow is set to 2/3 of the marker size.
The option [] is interesting to superimpose systematic errors on top of the graph with the statistical errors. When it
is specified, only the end vertical/horizontal lines of the error bars are drawn.
To control the size of the lines at the end of the error bars (when option 1 is chosen) use SetEndErrorSize(np). By
default np=1; np represents the number of pixels.
gStyle->SetEndErrorSize(np);

4.4. GRAPHS WITH ASYMMETRIC ERROR BARS

105

The four parameters of TGraphErrors are: X, Y (as in TGraph), X-errors, and Y-errors - the size of the errors in the x
and y direction. Next example is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphs/gerrors.C.
{

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","A Simple Graph with error bars",200,10,700,500);

c1->SetGrid();
// create the coordinate arrays
Int_t n = 10;
Float_t x[n] = {-.22,.05,.25,.35,.5,.61,.7,.85,.89,.95};
Float_t y[n] = {1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};
// create the error arrays
Float_t ex[n] = {.05,.1,.07,.07,.04,.05,.06,.07,.08,.05};
Float_t ey[n] = {.8,.7,.6,.5,.4,.4,.5,.6,.7,.8};

// create the TGraphErrors and draw it

gr = new TGraphErrors(n,x,y,ex,ey);
gr->SetTitle("TGraphErrors Example");
gr->SetMarkerColor(4);
gr->SetMarkerStyle(21);
gr->Draw("ALP");
c1->Update();

4.4

Graphs with Asymmetric Error Bars

Figure 4.7: A graph with asymmetric error bars

A TGraphAsymmErrors is a TGraph with asymmetric error bars. It inherits the various draw format options from
TGraph. Its method Paint(Option_t *option) paints the TGraphAsymmErrors with the current attributes. You can
set the following additional options for drawing:

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS

z or Zthe horizontal and vertical small lines are not drawn at the end of error bars
>an arrow is drawn at the end of the error bars
|>a full arrow is drawn at the end of the error bar; its size is

2
3

of the marker size

[]only the end vertical/horizontal lines of the error bars are drawn; this option is interesting to superimpose
systematic errors on top of a graph with statistical errors.
The constructor has six arrays as parameters: X and Y as TGraph and low X-errors and high X-errors, low Y-errors
and high Y-errors. The low value is the length of the error bar to the left and down, the high value is the length of the
error bar to the right and up.
{

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","A Simple Graph with error bars",

200,10,700,500);
c1->SetGrid();
// create the arrays for the points
Int_t n = 10;
Double_t x[n] = {-.22,.05,.25,.35,.5, .61,.7,.85,.89,.95};
Double_t y[n] = {1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};
// create the arrays with high and low errors
Double_t exl[n] = {.05,.1,.07,.07,.04,.05,.06,.07,.08,.05};
Double_t eyl[n] = {.8,.7,.6,.5,.4,.4,.5,.6,.7,.8};
Double_t exh[n] = {.02,.08,.05,.05,.03,.03,.04,.05,.06,.03};
Double_t eyh[n] = {.6,.5,.4,.3,.2,.2,.3,.4,.5,.6};

// create TGraphAsymmErrors with the arrays

gr = new TGraphAsymmErrors(n,x,y,exl,exh,eyl,eyh);
gr->SetTitle("TGraphAsymmErrors Example");
gr->SetMarkerColor(4);
gr->SetMarkerStyle(21);
gr->Draw("ALP");

4.5

Graphs with Asymmetric Bent Errors

A TGraphBentErrors is a TGraph with bent, asymmetric error bars. The various format options to draw a
TGraphBentErrors are explained in TGraphBentErrors::Paint method. The TGraphBentErrors is drawn by
default with error bars and small horizontal and vertical lines at the end of the error bars. If option z or Z is
specified, these small lines are not drawn. If the option X is specified, the errors are not drawn (the TGraph::Paint
method equivalent).
if option contains >, an arrow is drawn at the end of the error bars
if option contains |>, a full arrow is drawn at the end of the error bars
the size of the arrow is set to 2/3 of the marker size
if option [] is specified, only the end vertical/horizontal lines of the error bars are drawn. This option is
interesting to superimpose systematic errors on top of a graph with statistical errors.
This figure has been generated by the following macro:
{

Int_t n = 10;
Double_t x[n] =
Double_t y[n] =
Double_t exl[n]
Double_t eyl[n]

{-0.22,0.05,0.25,0.35,0.5,0.61,0.7,0.85,0.89,0.95};
{1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};
= {.05,.1,.07,.07,.04,.05,.06,.07,.08,.05};
= {.8,.7,.6,.5,.4,.4,.5,.6,.7,.8};

4.6. TGRAPHPOLAR

107

Figure 4.8: A graph with asymmetric bent error bars

Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
gr = new

exh[n] = {.02,.08,.05,.05,.03,.03,.04,.05,.06,.03};
eyh[n] = {.6,.5,.4,.3,.2,.2,.3,.4,.5,.6};
exld[n] = {.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0};
eyld[n] = {.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0};
exhd[n] = {.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0};
eyhd[n] = {.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.0,.05,.0};
TGraphBentErrors(n,x,y,
exl,exh,eyl,eyh,exld,exhd,eyld,eyhd);
gr->SetTitle("TGraphBentErrors Example");
gr->SetMarkerColor(4);
gr->SetMarkerStyle(21);
gr->Draw("ALP");

4.6

TGraphPolar

The TGraphPolar class creates a polar graph (including error bars). A TGraphPolar is a TGraphErrors represented in
polar coordinates. It uses the class TGraphPolargram to draw the polar axis.
{

TCanvas *CPol = new TCanvas("CPol","TGraphPolar Examples",700,700);

Double_t rmin=0;
Double_t rmax=TMath::Pi()*2;
Double_t r[1000];
Double_t theta[1000];
TF1 * fp1 = new TF1("fplot","cos(x)",rmin,rmax);
for (Int_t ipt = 0; ipt < 1000; ipt++) {
r[ipt] = ipt*(rmax-rmin)/1000+rmin;
theta[ipt] = fp1->Eval(r[ipt]);

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS
}
TGraphPolar * grP1 = new TGraphPolar(1000,r,theta);
grP1->SetLineColor(2);
grP1->Draw("AOL");

The TGraphPolar drawing options are:

O Polar labels are paint orthogonally to the polargram radius.
P Polymarker are paint at each point position.
E Paint error bars.
F Paint fill area (closed polygon).
AForce axis redrawing even if a polagram already exists.

Figure 4.9: A polar graph

4.7. TGRAPH EXCLUSION ZONE

4.7

109

TGraph Exclusion Zone

When a graph is painted with the option C or L, it is possible to draw a filled area on one side of the line. This is
useful to show exclusion zones. This drawing mode is activated when the absolute value of the graph line width (set
thanks to SetLineWidth) is greater than 99. In that case the line width number is interpreted as 100*ff+ll = ffll.
The two-digit numbers ll represent the normal line width whereas ff is the filled area width. The sign of ffll
allows flipping the filled area from one side of the line to the other. The current fill area attributes are used to draw
the hatched zone.

Figure 4.10: Graphs with exclusion zones

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","Exclusion graphs examples",200,10,700,500);

c1->SetGrid();
// create the multigraph
TMultiGraph *mg = new TMultiGraph();
mg->SetTitle("Exclusion graphs");
// create the graphs points
const Int_t n = 35;
Double_t x1[n], x2[n], x3[n], y1[n], y2[n], y3[n];
for (Int_t i=0;i<n;i++) {
x1[i] = i*0.1; y1[i] = 10*sin(x1[i]);
x2[i] = x1[i]; y2[i] = 10*cos(x1[i]);
x3[i] = x1[i]+.5; y3[i] = 10*sin(x1[i])-2;
}
// create the 1st TGraph
gr1 = new TGraph(n,x1,y1);
gr1->SetLineColor(2);
gr1->SetLineWidth(1504);
gr1->SetFillStyle(3005);
// create the 2nd TGraph

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS
gr2 = new TGraph(n,x2,y2);
gr2->SetLineColor(4);
gr2->SetLineWidth(-2002);
gr2->SetFillStyle(3004);
gr2->SetFillColor(9);
// create the 3rd TGraph
gr3 = new TGraph(n,x3,y3);
gr3->SetLineColor(5);
gr3->SetLineWidth(-802);
gr3->SetFillStyle(3002);
gr3->SetFillColor(2);
// put the graphs in the multigraph
mg->Add(gr1);
mg->Add(gr2);
mg->Add(gr3);

// draw the multigraph

mg->Draw("AC");

4.8

TGraphQQ

A TGraphQQ allows drawing quantile-quantile plots. Such plots can be drawn for two datasets, or for one dataset and a
theoretical distribution function.

4.8.1

Two Datasets

Figure 4.11: Examples of qq-plots of 2 datasets

Quantile-quantile plots are used to determine whether two samples come from the same distribution. A qq-plot draws
the quantiles of one dataset against the quantile of the other. The quantiles of the dataset with fewer entries are on
Y-axis, with more entries - on X-axis. A straight line, going through 0.25 and 0.75 quantiles is also plotted for reference.
It represents a robust linear fit, not sensitive to the extremes of the datasets. If the datasets come from the same
distribution, points of the plot should fall approximately on the 45 degrees line. If they have the same distribution
function, but different parameters of location or scale, they should still fall on the straight line, but not the 45 degrees
one.

4.9. TMULTIGRAPH

111

The greater their departure from the straight line, the more evidence there is that the datasets come from different
distributions. The advantage of qq-plot is that it not only shows that the underlying distributions are different,
but, unlike the analytical methods, it also gives information on the nature of this difference: heavier tails, different
location/scale, different shape, etc.

4.8.2

One Dataset

Figure 4.12: Examples of qq-plots of 1 dataset

Quantile-quantile plots are used to determine if the dataset comes from the specified theoretical distribution, such as
normal. A qq-plot draws quantiles of the dataset against quantiles of the specified theoretical distribution. Note, that
density, not CDF should be specified a straight line, going through 0.25 and 0.75 quantiles could also be plotted for
reference. It represents a robust linear fit, not sensitive to the extremes of the dataset. As in the two datasets case,
departures from straight line indicate departures from the specified distribution. Next picture shows an example of a
qq-plot of a dataset from N(3, 2) distribution and TMath::Gaus(0, 1) theoretical function. Fitting parameters are
estimates of the distribution mean and sigma.

4.9

TMultiGraph

A TMultiGraph is a collection of TGraph (or derived) objects. Use TMultiGraph::Addto add a new graph to the list.
The TMultiGraph owns the objects in the list. The drawing and fitting options are the same as for TGraph.
{

// create the points

Int_t n = 10;
Double_t x[n] = {-.22,.05,.25,.35,.5,.61,.7,.85,.89,.95};
Double_t y[n] = {1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};
Double_t x2[n] = {-.12,.15,.35,.45,.6,.71,.8,.95,.99,1.05};

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Figure 4.13: A multigraph example

Double_t y2[n]

= {1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};

// create the width of errors in x and y direction

Double_t ex[n] = {.05,.1,.07,.07,.04,.05,.06,.07,.08,.05};
Double_t ey[n] = {.8,.7,.6,.5,.4,.4,.5,.6,.7,.8};
// create two graphs
TGraph *gr1 = new TGraph(n,x2,y2);
TGraphErrors *gr2 = new TGraphErrors(n,x,y,ex,ey);

// create a multigraph and draw it

TMultiGraph *mg = new TMultiGraph();
mg->Add(gr1);
mg->Add(gr2);
mg->Draw("ALP");

4.10

TGraph2D

This class is a set of N points x[i], y[i], z[i] in a non-uniform grid. Several visualization techniques are implemented,
including Delaunay triangulation. Delaunay triangulation is defined as follow: for a set S of points in the Euclidean
plane, the unique triangulation DT(S) of S such that no point in S is inside the circum-circle of any triangle in DT(S).
DT(S) is the dual of the Voronoi diagram of S. If n is the number of points in S, the Voronoi diagram of S is the
partitioning of the plane containing S points into n convex polygons such that each polygon contains exactly one point
and every point in a given polygon is closer to its central point than to any other. A Voronoi diagram is sometimes
also known as a Dirichlet tessellation.
The TGraph2D class has the following constructors:
With an arrays dimension n and three arrays x, y, and z (can be arrays of doubles, floats, or integers):

4.10. TGRAPH2D

113

Figure 4.14: Delaunay triangles and Voronoi diagram

TGraph2D *g = new TGraph2D(n,x,y,z);
With an array dimension only:
TGraph2D *g = new TGraph2D(n);
Internal arrays are filled with the method SetPoint at the position i with the values x, y, z:
g->SetPoint(i,x,y,z);
Without parameters; the method SetPoint must be used to fill the internal arrays.
TGraph2D *g = new TGraph2D();
From a file:
TGraph2D *g = new TGraph2D("graph.dat");
The arrays are read from the ASCII file graph.dat according to a specified format. The formats default value is
%lg %lg %lg. Note that in any of last three cases, the SetPoint method can be used to change a data point or to add
a new one. If the data point index (i) is greater than the size of the internal arrays, they are automatically extended.
Specific drawing options can be used to paint a TGraph2D:
TRI the Delaunay triangles are drawn using filled area. A hidden surface drawing technique is used. The surface
is painted with the current fill area color. The edges of the triangles are painted with the current line color;
TRIWthe Delaunay triangles are drawn as wire frame;
TRI1 the Delaunay triangles are painted with color levels. The edges of the triangles are painted with the
current line color;
TRI2 the Delaunay triangles are painted with color levels;
Pdraws a marker at each vertex;
P0 draws a circle at each vertex. Each circle background is white.
A TGraph2D can be also drawn with ANY options valid for 2D histogram drawing. In this case, an intermediate 2D
histogram is filled using the Delaunay triangles technique to interpolate the data set. TGraph2D linearly interpolate a Z
value for any (X,Y) point given some existing (X,Y,Z) points. The existing (X,Y,Z) points can be randomly scattered.
The algorithm works by joining the existing points to make Delaunay triangles in (X,Y). These are then used to define
flat planes in (X,Y,Z) over which to interpolate. The interpolated surface thus takes the form of tessellating triangles
at various angles. Output can take the form of a 2D histogram or a vector. The triangles found can be drawn in 3D.
This software cannot be guaranteed to work under all circumstances. It was originally written to work with a few
hundred points in anXY space with similar X and Y ranges.

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS

Figure 4.15: Graph2D drawn with option surf1 and tri1 p0

{

TCanvas *c = new TCanvas("c","Graph2D example",0,0,700,600);

Double_t x, y, z, P = 6.;
Int_t np = 200;
TGraph2D *dt = new TGraph2D();
TRandom *r = new TRandom();
for (Int_t N=0; N<np; N++) {
x = 2*P*(r->Rndm(N))-P;
y = 2*P*(r->Rndm(N))-P;
z = (sin(x)/x)*(sin(y)/y)+0.2;
dt->SetPoint(N,x,y,z);
}
gStyle->SetPalette(55);
dt->Draw("surf1");
// use "surf1" to generate the left picture
// use "tri1 p0" to generate the right one

A more complete example is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/graph2dfit.C that produces the next figure.

4.11

TGraph2DErrors

A TGraph2DErrors is a TGraph2D with errors. It is useful to perform fits with errors on a 2D graph. An example is
the macro $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphs/graph2derrorsfit.C.

4.12

Fitting a Graph

The graph Fit method in general works the same way as the TH1::Fit. See Fitting Histograms.

4.12. FITTING A GRAPH

115

Figure 4.16: Output of macro graph2dfit.C

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS

4.13

Setting the Graphs Axis Title

To give the axis of a graph a title you need to draw the graph first, only then does it actually have an axis object.
Once drawn, you set the title by getting the axis and calling the TAxis::SetTitle method, and if you want to center
it, you can call the TAxis::CenterTitle method.
Assuming that n, x, and y are defined. Next code sets the titles of the x and y axes.
root[] gr5 = new TGraph(n,x,y)
root[] gr5->Draw()
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
root[] gr5->Draw("ALP")
root[] gr5->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("X-Axis")
root[] gr5->GetYaxis()->SetTitle("Y-Axis")
root[] gr5->GetXaxis()->CenterTitle()
root[] gr5->GetYaxis()->CenterTitle()
root[] gr5->Draw("ALP")
For more graph examples see the scripts: $ROOTSYS/tutorials directory graph.C, gerrors.C, zdemo.C, and
gerrors2.C.

Figure 4.17: A graph with axis titles

4.14

Zooming a Graph

To zoom a graph you can create a histogram with the desired axis range first. Draw the empty histogram and then
draw the graph using the existing axis from the histogram.
{

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","A Zoomed Graph",200,10,700,500);

hpx = new TH2F("hpx","Zoomed Graph Example",10,0,0.5,10,1.0,8.0);

4.15. THE USER INTERFACE FOR GRAPHS

hpx->SetStats(kFALSE);
// no statistics
hpx->Draw();
Int_t n = 10;
Double_t x[n] = {-.22,.05,.25,.35,.5,.61,.7,.85,.89,.95};
Double_t y[n] = {1,2.9,5.6,7.4,9,9.6,8.7,6.3,4.5,1};
gr = new TGraph(n,x,y);
gr->SetMarkerColor(4);
gr->SetMarkerStyle(20);
gr->Draw("LP");// and draw it without an axis

The next example is the same graph as above with a zoom in the x and y directions.

Figure 4.18: A zoomed graph

4.15

The User Interface for Graphs

The class TGraphEditor provides the user interface for setting the following graph attributes interactively:
Title text entry field . . . sets the title of the graph.
Shape radio button group - sets the graph shapes:

No Line: draw unconnected points;

Smooth Line: a smooth curve;
Simple Line: a simple poly-line;
Bart Chart: a bar chart at each point.
Fill Area: a fill area is drawn.

Show Marker - sets markers as visible or invisible.

Exclusion Zone - specifies the exclusion zone parameters :

117

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CHAPTER 4. GRAPHS
+- check button: sets on which side of the line the exclusion zone will be drawn;
Width combo box: defines the width of the zone.

Chapter 5

Fitting Histograms
To fit a histogram you can use the Fit Panel on a visible histogram via the context menu, or you can use the TH1::Fit
method. The Fit Panel, which is limited, is best for prototyping. The histogram needs to be drawn in a pad before the
Fit Panel is invoked. The method TH1::Fit is more powerful and is used in scripts and programs.

5.1

The Fit Method

To fit a histogram programmatically, you can use the TH1::Fit method. Here is the signature of TH1::Fit and an
explanation of the parameters:
void Fit(const char *fname, Option_t *option, Option_t *goption,
Axis_t xxmin, Axis_t xxmax)
*fname:The name of the fitted function (the model) is passed as the first parameter. This name may be one of
ROOT pre-defined function names or a user-defined function. The functions below are predefined, and can be
used with the TH1::Fit method:
gaus Gaussian function with 3 parameters: f(x) = p0*exp(-0.5*((x-p1)/p2)2)
expoAn Exponential with 2 parameters: f(x) = exp(p0+p1*x)
polN A polynomial of degree N : f(x) = p0 + p1*x + p2*x2 +...
landau Landau function with mean and sigma. This function has been adaptedfrom the CERNLIB routine G110
denlan.
*option:The second parameter is the fitting option. Here is the list of fitting options:
W Set all weights to 1 for non empty bins; ignore error bars
WW Set all weights to 1 including empty bins; ignore error bars
I Use integral of function in bin instead of value at bin center
L Use log likelihood method (default is chi-square method)
U Use a user specified fitting algorithm
Q Quiet mode (minimum printing)
V Verbose mode (default is between Q and V)
E Perform better errors estimation using the Minos technique
M Improve fit results
R Use the range specified in the function range
N Do not store the graphics function, do not draw
0 Do not plot the result of the fit. By default the fitted function is drawn unless the option N above is
specified.
119

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

+ Add this new fitted function to the list of fitted functions (by default, the previous function is deleted and
only the last one is kept)
BUse this option when you want to fix one or more parameters and the fitting function is like polN, expo,
landau, gaus.
LLAn improved Log Likelihood fit in case of very low statistics and when bincontentsare not integers. Do not
use this option if bin contents are large (greater than 100).
CIn case of linear fitting, dont calculate the chisquare (saves time).
FIf fitting a polN, switch to Minuit fitter (by default, polN functions are fitted by the linear fitter).
*goption:The third parameter is the graphics option that is the same as in the TH1::Draw (see the chapter
Draw Options).
xxmin, xxmax:Thee fourth and fifth parameters specify the range over which to apply the fit.
By default, the fitting function object is added to the histogram and is drawn in the current pad.

5.2

Fit with a Predefined Function

To fit a histogram with a predefined function, simply pass the name of the function in the first parameter of TH1::Fit.
For example, this line fits histogram object hist with a Gaussian.
root[] hist.Fit("gaus");
The initial parameter values for pre-defined functions are set automatically.

5.3

Fit with a User-Defined Function

You can create a TF1 object and use it in the call the TH1::Fit. The parameter in to the Fit method is the NAME of
the TF1 object. There are three ways to create a TF1.
Using C++ expression using x with a fixed set of operators and functions defined in TFormula.
Same as first one, with parameters
Using a function that you have defined

5.3.1

Creating a TF1 with a Formula

Lets look at the first case. Here we call the TF1 constructor by giving it the formula: sin(x)/x.
root[] TF1

*f1 = new TF1("f1","sin(x)/x",0,10)

You can also use a TF1 object in the constructor of another TF1.
root[] TF1

5.3.2

*f2 = new TF1("f2","f1*2",0,10)

Creating a TF1 with Parameters

The second way to construct a TF1 is to add parameters to the expression. Here we use two parameters:
root[] TF1 *f1 = new TF1("f1","[0]*x*sin([1]*x)",-3,3);
The parameter index is enclosed in square brackets. To set the initial parameters explicitly you can use:
root[] f1->SetParameter(0,10);

5.3. FIT WITH A USER-DEFINED FUNCTION

121

Figure 5.1: The function x*sin(x)

This sets parameter 0 to 10. You can also use SetParameters to set multiple parameters at once.
root[] f1->SetParameters(10,5);
This sets parameter 0 to 10 and parameter 1 to 5. We can now draw the TF1:
root[] f1->Draw()

5.3.3

Creating a TF1 with a User Function

The third way to build a TF1 is to define a function yourself and then give its name to the constructor. A function for
a TF1 constructor needs to have this exact signature:
Double_t fitf(Double_t *x,Double_t *par)
The two parameters are:
x a pointer to the dimension array. Each element contains a dimension. For a 1D histogram only x[0] is used, for
a 2D histogram x[0] and x[1] is used, and for a 3D histogram x[0], x[1], and x[2] are used. For histograms,
only 3 dimensions apply, but this method is also used to fit other objects, for example an ntuple could have 10
dimensions.
par a pointer to the parameters array. This array contains the current values of parameters when it is called by
the fitting function.
The following script $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/myfit.C illustrates how to fit a 1D histogram with a user-defined
function. First we declare the function.

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

// define a function with 3 parameters
Double_t fitf(Double_t *x,Double_t *par) {
Double_t arg = 0;
if (par[2]!=0) arg = (x[0] - par[1])/par[2];
Double_t fitval = par[0]*TMath::Exp(-0.5*arg*arg);
return fitval;
}

Now we use the function:

// this function used fitf to fit a histogram
void fitexample() {
// open a file and get a histogram
TFile *f = new TFile("hsimple.root");
TH1F *hpx = (TH1F*)f->Get("hpx");
// Create a TF1 object using the function defined above.
// The last three parameters specify the number of parameters
// for the function.
TF1 *func = new TF1("fit",fitf,-3,3,3);
// set the parameters to the mean and RMS of the histogram
func->SetParameters(500,hpx->GetMean(),hpx->GetRMS());
// give the parameters meaningful names
func->SetParNames ("Constant","Mean_value","Sigma");

5.4

// call TH1::Fit with the name of the TF1 object

hpx->Fit("fit");

Fixing and Setting Parameters Bounds

Parameters must be initialized before invoking the Fit method. The setting of the parameter initial values is automatic
for the predefined functions: poln, exp, gaus, and landau. You can fix one or more parameters by specifying the B
option when calling the Fit method. When a function is not predefined, the fit parameters must be initialized to some
value as close as possible to the expected values before calling the fit function.
To set bounds for one parameter, use TF1::SetParLimits:
func->SetParLimits(0,-1,1);
When the lower and upper limits are equal, the parameter is fixed. Next two statements fix parameter 4 at 10.
func->SetParameter(4,10);
func->SetParLimits(4,10,10);
However, to fix a parameter to 0, one must call the FixParameter function:
func->SetParameter(4,0);
func->FixParameter(4,0);
Note that you are not forced to set the limits for all parameters. For example, if you fit a function with 6 parameters,
you can:
func->SetParameters(0,3.1,1.e-6,-1.5,0,100);
func->SetParLimits(3,-10,4);
func->FixParameter(4,0);
With this setup, parameters 0->2 can vary freely, parameter 3 has boundaries [-10, 4] with initial value -1.5, and
parameter 4 is fixed to 0.

5.5. FITTING SUB RANGES

5.5

123

Fitting Sub Ranges

By default, TH1::Fit will fit the function on the defined histogram range. You can specify the option R in the second
parameter of TH1::Fit to restrict the fit to the range specified in the TF1 constructor. In this example, the fit will be
limited to -3 to 3, the range specified in the TF1 constructor.
root[] TF1 *f1 = new TF1("f1","[0]*x*sin([1]*x)",-3,3);
root[] hist->Fit("f1","R");
You can also specify a range in the call to TH1::Fit:
root[] hist->Fit("f1","","",-2,2)
See macros $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/myfit.C and multifit.C as more completed examples.

5.6

The Fit Panel

To display the Fit Panel right click on a histogram to pop up the context menu, and then select the menu entry Fit
Panel.
The new Fit Panel GUI is available in ROOT v5.14. Its goal is to replace the old Fit Panel and to provide more user
friendly way for performing, exploring and comparing fits.
By design, this user interface is planned to contain two tabs: General and Minimization. Currently, the General
tab provides user interface elements for setting the fit function, fit method and different fit, draw, print options.
The new fit panel is a modeless dialog, i.e. when opened, it does not prevent users from interacting with other windows.
Its first prototype is a singleton application. When the Fit Panel is activated, users can select an object for fitting in
the usual way, i.e. by left-mouse click on it. If the selected object is suitable for fitting, the fit panel is connected with
this object and users can perform fits by setting different parameters and options.

5.6.1

Function Choice and Settings

Predefined combo box - contains a list of predefined functions in ROOT. You have a choice of several polynomials, a
Gaussian, a Landau, and an Exponential function. The default one is Gaussian.
Operation radio button group defines the selected operational mode between functions:
Nop - no operation (default);
Add - addition;
Conv - convolution (will be implemented in the future).
Users can enter the function expression into the text entry field below the Predefined combo box. The entered string
is checked after the Enter key was pressed and an error message shows up, if the function string is not accepted.
Set Parameters button opens a dialog for parameters settings, which will be explaned later.

5.6.2

Fitter Settings

Method combo box currently provides only two fit model choices: Chi-square and Binned Likelihood. The default one
is Chi-square. The Binned Likelihood is recomended for bins with low statistics.
Linear Fit check button sets the use of Linear fitter when is selected. Otherwise the minimization is done by Minuit,
i.e. fit option F is applied. The Linear fitter can be selected only for functions linears in parameters (for example polN).
Robust number entry sets the robust value when fitting graphs.
No Chi-square check button switch On/Off the fit option C - do not calculate Chi-square (for Linear fitter).
Integral check button switch On/Off the option I - use integral of function instead of value in bin center.
Best Errors sets On/Off the option E - better errors estimation by using Minos technique.

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

Figure 5.2: The Fit Panel

5.7. FITTING MULTIPLE SUB RANGES

125

All weights = 1 sets On/Off the option W- all weights set to 1 excluding empty bins; error bars ignored.
Empty bins, weights=1 sets On/Off the option WW - all weights equal to 1 including empty bins; error bars ignored.
Use range sets On/Off the option R - fit only data within the specified function range. Sliders settings are used if
this option is set to On. Users can change the function range values by pressing the left mouse button near to the
left/right slider edges. It is possible to change both values simultaneously by pressing the left mouse button near to the
slider center and moving it to a new position.
Improve fit results sets On/Off the option M- after minimum is found, search for a new one.
Add to list sets On/Off the option +- add function to the list without deleting the previous one. When fitting a
histogram, the function is attached to the histograms list of functions. By default, the previously fitted function is
deleted and replaced with the most recent one, so the list only contains one function. Setting this option to On will
add the newly fitted function to the existing list of functions for the histogram. Note that the fitted functions are
saved with the histogram when it is written to a ROOT file. By default, the function is drawn on the pad displaying
the histogram.

5.6.3

Draw Options

SAME sets On/Off function drawing on the same pad. When a fit is executed, the image of the function is drawn on
the current pad.
No drawing sets On/Off the option 0- do not draw the fit results.
Do not store/draw sets On/Off option N- do not store the function and do not draw it.

5.6.4

Print Options

This set of options specifies the amount of feedback printed on the root command line after performed fits.
Verbose - prints fit results after each iteration.
Quiet - no fit information is printed.
Default - between Verbose and Quiet.

5.6.5

Command Buttons

Fit button - performs a fit taking different option settings via the Fit Panel interface.
Reset - sets the GUI elements and related fit settings to the default ones.
Close - closes the Fit panel window.

5.7

Fitting Multiple Sub Ranges

The script for this example is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/multifit.C. It shows how to use several Gaussian functions
with different parameters on separate sub ranges of the same histogram. To use a Gaussian, or any other ROOT built
in function, on a sub range you need to define a new TF1. Each is derived from the canned function gaus.
First, four TF1 objects are created - one for each sub-range:
g1 = new TF1("m1","gaus",85,95);
g2 = new TF1("m2","gaus",98,108);
g3 = new TF1("m3","gaus",110,121);
// The total is the sum of the three, each has 3 parameters
total = new TF1("mstotal","gaus(0)+gaus(3)+gaus(6)",85,125);
Next, we fill a histogram with bins defined in the array x.

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

Figure 5.3: Fitting a histogram with several Gaussian functions

// Create a histogram and set it's contents
h = new TH1F("g1","Example of several fits in subranges",
np,85,134);
h->SetMaximum(7);
for (int i=0; i<np; i++) {
h->SetBinContent(i+1,x[i]);
}
// Define the parameter array for the total function
Double_t par[9];

When fitting simple functions, such as a Gaussian, the initial values of the parameters are automatically computed by
ROOT. In the more complicated case of the sum of 3 Gaussian functions, the initial values of parameters must be set.
In this particular case, the initial values are taken from the result of the individual fits. The use of the + sign is
explained below:

// Fit each function and add it to the list of functions

h->Fit(g1,"R");
h->Fit(g2,"R+");
h->Fit(g3,"R+");
// Get the parameters from the fit
g1->GetParameters(&par[0]);
g2->GetParameters(&par[3]);
g3->GetParameters(&par[6]);
// Use the parameters on the sum
total->SetParameters(par);
h->Fit(total,"R+");

5.8. ADDING FUNCTIONS TO THE LIST

5.8

127

Adding Functions to the List

The example $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/multifit.C also illustrates how to fit several functions on the same histogram.
By default a Fit command deletes the previously fitted function in the histogram object. You can specify the option
+ in the second parameter to add the newly fitted function to the existing list of functions for the histogram.
root[] hist->Fit("f1","+","",-2,2)
Note that the fitted function(s) are saved with the histogram when it is written to a ROOT file.

5.9

Combining Functions

You can combine functions to fit a histogram with their sum as it is illustrated in the macro FitDemo.C
($ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit/FittingDemo.C). We have a function that is the combination of a background and
Lorentzian peak. Each function contributes 3 parameters:

y(E) = a1 + a2 E + a3 E 2 +

G
Ap ( 2p
)
2
(E m)2 + ( G
2)

BackgroundLorentzian Peak
par[0] = a1 par[0] = Ap
par[1] = a2 par[1] = G
par[2] = a3 par[2] = m
The combination function (fitFunction) has six parameters:
fitFunction = background(x,par) + LorentzianPeak(x,&par[3])
par[0]=a1 par[1]=a2 par[2]=a3 par[3]=Ap par[4]=G par[5]=m
This script creates a histogram and fits it with the combination of two functions. First we define the two functions and
the combination function:
// Quadratic background function
Double_t background(Double_t *x, Double_t *par) {
return par[0] + par[1]*x[0] + par[2]*x[0]*x[0];
}
// Lorentzian Peak function
Double_t lorentzianPeak(Double_t *x, Double_t *par) {
return (0.5*par[0]*par[1]/TMath::Pi()) / TMath::Max(1.e-10,
(x[0]-par[2])*(x[0]-par[2])+ .25*par[1]*par[1]);
}
// Sum of background and peak function
Double_t fitFunction(Double_t *x, Double_t *par) {
return background(x,par) + lorentzianPeak(x,&par[3]);
}
void FittingDemo() {
// bevington exercise by P. Malzacher, modified by R. Brun
const int nBins = 60;
Stat_t data[nBins] = { 6, 1,10,12, 6,13,23,22,15,21,
23,26,36,25,27,35,40,44,66,81,
75,57,48,45,46,41,35,36,53,32,
40,37,38,31,36,44,42,37,32,32,
43,44,35,33,33,39,29,41,32,44,
26,39,29,35,32,21,21,15,25,15};
TH1F *histo = new TH1F("example_9_1",
"Lorentzian Peak on Quadratic Background",60,0,3);

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

for(int i=0; i < nBins; i++) {

// we use these methods to explicitly set the content
// and error instead of using the fill method.
histo->SetBinContent(i+1,data[i]);
histo->SetBinError(i+1,TMath::Sqrt(data[i]));
}
// create a TF1 with the range from 0 to 3 and 6 parameters
TF1 *fitFcn = new TF1("fitFcn",fitFunction,0,3,6);
// first try without starting values for the parameters
// this defaults to 1 for each param.
histo->Fit("fitFcn");
// this results in an ok fit for the polynomial function however
// the non-linear part (Lorentzian

Figure 5.4: The output of the FittingDemo() example

5.10

Associated Function

One or more objects (typically a TF1*) can be added to the list of functions (fFunctions) associated to each histogram.
A call to TH1::Fit adds the fitted function to this list. Given a histogram h, one can retrieve the associated function
with:
TF1 *myfunc = h->GetFunction("myfunc");

5.11

Access to the Fit Parameters and Results

If the histogram (or graph) is made persistent, the list of associated functions is also persistent. Retrieve a pointer to the
function with the TH1::GetFunction()method. Then you can retrieve the fit parameters from the function

5.12. ASSOCIATED ERRORS

129

(**TF1**) with calls such as:

root[] TF1 *fit
root[] Double_t
// value of the
root[] Double_t
// error of the
root[] Double_t

5.12

= hist->GetFunction(function_name);
chi2 = fit->GetChisquare();
first parameter
p1 = fit->GetParameter(0);
first parameter
e1 = fit->GetParError(0);

Associated Errors

By default, for each bin, the sum of weights is computed at fill time. One can also call TH1::Sumw2 to force the storage
and computation of the sum of the square of weights per bin. If Sumw2 has been called, the error per bin is computed
as the sqrt(sum of squares of weights); otherwise, the error is set equal to the sqrt(bin content). To return
the error for a given bin number, do:
Double_t error = h->GetBinError(bin);
Empty bins are excluded in the fit when using the Chi-square fit method. When fitting the histogram with the low
statistics, it is recommended to use the Log-Likelihood method (option L or LL).

5.13

Fit Statistics

You can change the statistics box to display the fit parameters with the TStyle::SetOptFit(mode) method. This
parameter has four digits: mode = pcev (default = 0111)

p
c
e
v

=
=
=
=

1
1
1
1

print
print
print
print

probability
Chi-square/number of degrees of freedom
errors (if e=1, v must be 1)
name/values of parameters

For example, to print the fit probability, parameter names/values, and errors, use:
gStyle->SetOptFit(1011);

5.14

The Minimization Package

This package was originally written in FORTRAN by Fred James and part of PACKLIB (patch D506). It has been
converted to a C++ class by Ren Brun. The current implementation in C++ is a straightforward conversion of the
original FORTRAN version. The main changes are:
The variables in the various Minuit labeled common blocks have been changed to the TMinuit class data members
The internal arrays with a maximum dimension depending on the maximum number of parameters are now data
members arrays with a dynamic dimension such that one can fit very large problems by simply initializing the
TMinuit constructor with the maximum number of parameters
The include file Minuit.h has been commented as much as possible using existing comments in the code or the
printed documentation
The original Minuit subroutines are now member functions
Constructors and destructor have been added
Instead of passing the FCN function in the argument list, the addresses of this function is stored as pointer in the
data members of the class. This is by far more elegant and flexible in an interactive environment. The member
function SetFCN can be used to define this pointer

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

The ROOT static function Printf is provided to replace all format statements and to print on currently defined
output file
The derived class TMinuitOld contains obsolete routines from the FORTRAN based version
The functions SetObjectFit/GetObjectFit can be used inside the FCN function to set/get a referenced object
instead of using global variables
By default fGraphicsMode is true. When calling the Minuit functions such as mncont, mnscan, or any Minuit
command invoking mnplot, TMinuit::mnplot() produces a TGraph object pointed by fPlot. One can retrieve
this object with TMinuit::GetPlot(). For example:
h->Fit("gaus");
gMinuit->Command("SCAn 1");
TGraph *gr = (TGraph*)gMinuit->GetPlot();
gr->SetMarkerStyle(21);
gr->Draw("alp");
To set Minuit in no graphics mode, call
gMinuit->SetGraphicsMode(kFALSE);

5.14.1

Basic Concepts of Minuit

The Minuit package acts on a multi parameter FORTRAN function to which one must give the generic name FCN. In
the ROOT implementation, the function FCN is defined via the Minuit SetFCN member function when a HistogramFit
command is invoked. The value of FCN will in general depend on one or more variable parameters.
To take a simple example, in case of ROOT histograms (classes TH1C, TH1S, TH1F, TH1D) the Fit function defines the Minuit fitting function as being H1FitChisquare or H1FitLikelihood depending on the options selected.
H1FitChisquare calculates the chi-square between the user fitting function (Gaussian, polynomial, user defined, etc)
and the data for given values of the parameters. It is the task of Minuit to find those values of the parameters which
give the lowest value of chi-square.

5.14.2

The Transformation of Limited Parameters

For variable parameters with limits, Minuit uses the following transformation:
Pint = arcsin(2((Pext-a)/(b-a))-1)
Pext = a+((b-a)/(2))(sinPint+1)
so that the internal value Pint can take on any value, while the external value Pext can take on values only between
the lower limit a and the ext upper limit b. Since the transformation is necessarily non-linear, it would transform
a nice linear problem into a nasty non-linear one, which is the reason why limits should be avoided if not necessary.
In addition, the transformation does require some computer time, so it slows down the computation a little bit, and
more importantly, it introduces additional numerical inaccuracy into the problem in addition to what is introduced in
the numerical calculation of the FCN value. The effects of non-linearity and numerical round off both become more
important as the external value gets closer to one of the limits (expressed as the distance to nearest limit divided by
distance between limits). The user must therefore be aware of the fact that, for example, if he puts limits of (0, 1010)
on a parameter, then the values 0.0 and 1. 0 will be indistinguishable to the accuracy of most machines.
The transformation also affects the parameter error matrix, of course, so Minuit does a transformation of the error
matrix (and the parabolic parameter errors) when there are parameter limits. Users should however realize that the
transformation is only a linear approximation, and that it cannot give a meaningful result if one or more parameters is
ext
very close to a limit, where P
P int 6= 0. Therefore, it is recommended that:
Limits on variable parameters should be used only when needed in order to prevent the parameter from taking
on unphysical values
When a satisfactory minimum has been found using limits, the limits should then be removed if possible, in order
to perform or re-perform the error analysis without limits

5.14. THE MINIMIZATION PACKAGE

5.14.3

131

How to Get the Right Answer from Minuit

Minuit offers the user a choice of several minimization algorithms. The MIGRAD algorithm is in general the best
minimized for nearly all functions. It is a variable-metric method with inexact line search, a stable metric updating
scheme, and checks for positive-definiteness. Its main weakness is that it depends heavily on knowledge of the first
derivatives, and fails miserably if they are very inaccurate.
If parameter limits are needed, in spite of the side effects, then the user should be aware of the following techniques to
alleviate problems caused by limits:
5.14.3.1

Getting the Right Minimum with Limits

If MIGRAD converges normally to a point where no parameter is near one of its limits, then the existence of limits has
probably not prevented Minuit from finding the right minimum. On the other hand, if one or more parameters is
near its limit at the minimum, this may be because the true minimum is indeed at a limit, or it may be because the
minimized has become blocked at a limit. This may normally happen only if the parameter is so close to a limit
(internal value at an odd multiple of 2 that Minuit prints a warning to this effect when it prints the parameter
values. The minimized can become blocked at a limit, because at a limit the derivative seen by the minimized PFint is
zero no matter what the real derivative PFext is.


5.14.3.2

F
P int


=

F
P ext



P ext
P int


=

F
P ext


=0

Getting the Right Parameter Errors with Limits

In the best case, where the minimum is far from any limits, Minuit will correctly transform the error matrix, and the
parameter errors it reports should be accurate and very close to those you would have got without limits. In other
cases (which should be more common, since otherwise you would not need limits), the very meaning of parameter
errors becomes problematic. Mathematically, since the limit is an absolute constraint on the parameter, a parameter
at its limit has no error, at least in one direction. The error matrix, which can assign only symmetric errors, then
becomes essentially meaningless.
5.14.3.3

Interpretation of Parameter Errors

There are two kinds of problems that can arise: the reliability of Minuits error estimates, and their statistical
interpretation, assuming they are accurate.
5.14.3.4

Statistical Interpretation

For discussion of basic concepts, such as the meaning of the elements of the error matrix, or setting of exact confidence
levels see the articles:
F.James. Determining the statistical Significance of experimental Results. Technical Report DD/81/02 and
CERN Report 81-03, CERN, 1981
W.T.Eadie, D.Drijard, F.James, M.Roos, and B.Sadoulet. Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics. NorthHolland, 1971

5.14.4

Reliability of Minuit Error Estimates

Minuit always carries around its own current estimates of the parameter errors, which it will print out on request, no
matter how accurate they are at any given point in the execution. For example, at initialization, these estimates are just
the starting step sizes as specified by the user. After a HESSE step, the errors are usually quite accurate, unless there
has been a problem. Minuit, when it prints out error values, also gives some indication of how reliable it thinks they
are. For example, those marked CURRENT GUESS ERROR are only working values not to be believed, and APPROXIMATE
ERROR means that they have been calculated but there is reason to believe that they may not be accurate.
If no mitigating adjective is given, then at least Minuit believes the errors are accurate, although there is always a
small chance that Minuit has been fooled. Some visible signs that Minuit may have been fooled:

132

CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

Warning messages produced during the minimization or error analysis

Failure to find new minimum
Value of EDM too big (estimated Distance to Minimum)
Correlation coefficients exactly equal to zero, unless some parameters are known to be uncorrelated with the
others
Correlation coefficients very close to one (greater than 0.99). This indicates both an exceptionally difficult
problem, and one which has been badly parameterized so that individual errors are not very meaningful because
they are so highly correlated
Parameter at limit. This condition, signaled by a Minuit warning message, may make both the function minimum
and parameter errors unreliable. See the discussion above Getting the right parameter errors with limits
The best way to be absolutely sure of the errors is to use independentcalculations and compare them, or compare
the calculated errors with a picture of the function. Theoretically, the covariance matrix for aphysical function must
be positive-definite at the minimum, although it may not be so for all points far away from the minimum, even for a
well-determined physical problem. Therefore, if MIGRAD reports that it has found a non-positive-definite covariance
matrix, this may be a sign of one or more of the following:
5.14.4.1

A Non-physical Region

On its way to the minimum, MIGRAD may have traversed a region that has unphysical behavior, which is of course not
a serious problem as long as it recovers and leaves such a region.
5.14.4.2

An Underdetermined Problem

If the matrix is not positive-definite even at the minimum, this may mean that the solution is not well defined, for
example that there are more unknowns than there are data points, or that the parameterization of the fit contains a
linear dependence. If this is the case, then Minuit (or any other program) cannot solve your problem uniquely. The
error matrix will necessarily be largely meaningless, so the user must remove the under determinedness by reformulating
the parameterization. Minuit cannot do this itself.
5.14.4.3

Numerical Inaccuracies

It is possible that the apparent lack of positive-definiteness is due to excessive round off errors in numerical calculations
(in the user function), or not enough precision. This is unlikely in general, but becomes more likely if the number
of free parameters is very large, or if the parameters are badly scaled (not all of the same order of magnitude), and
correlations are large. In any case, whether the non-positive-definiteness is real or only numerical is largely irrelevant,
since in both cases the error matrix will be unreliable and the minimum suspicious.
5.14.4.4

An Ill-posed Problem

For questions of parameter dependence, see the discussion above on positive-definiteness. Possible other mathematical
problems are the following:
Excessive numerical round off - be especially careful of exponential and factorial functions which get big very
quickly and lose accuracy.
Starting too far from the solution - the function may have unphysical local minima, especially at infinity in some
variables.

5.15

FUMILI Minimization Package

FUMILI is used to minimize Chi-square function or to search maximum of likelihood function. Experimentally measured
~ where x~i are coordinates, and ~ - vector of parameters. For
values Fi are fitted with theoretical functions fi (x~i , ),
better convergence Chi-square function has to be the following form

5.16. NEURAL NETWORKS

133

1X
2
=
2
2 i=1

~ Fi
fi (x~i , )
i

!2

where i are errors of the measured function. The minimum condition is:
n
i
X
2
1 fi h
~ Fj = 0, i = 1...m
.
(x~j , )
=
2
i
i
j=1 j

where m is the quantity of parameters. Expanding left part of this equation over parameter increments and retaining
only linear terms one gets


2
i


~0
=

X  2 2 
+
.(k k0 ) = 0
i k =~0
k

here ~0 is some initial value of parameters. In general case:

n

X 1 fj fj X (fj Fj ) 2 fj
2 2

=
+
i k
2 i k
j2
i k
j=1 j
j=1
In FUMILI algorithm for second derivatives of Chi-square approximate expression is used when last term in previous
equation is discarded. It is often done, not always wittingly, and sometimes causes troubles, for example, if user wants
to limit parameters with positive values by writing down i2 instead of i . FUMILI will fail if one tries minimize
~ where g is arbitrary function.
2 = g 2 ()
Approximate value is:
n

X 1 fj fj
2 2
Zik =
i k
2 i k
j=1 j
Then the equations for parameter increments are:


2
i


+
~
~0
=

Zik (k k0 ) = 0,

i = 1...m

Remarkable feature of algorithm is the technique for step restriction. For an initial value of parameter ~0 a parallelepiped
P0 is built with the center at ~0 and axes parallel to coordinate axes i . The lengths of parallelepiped sides along i-th
~ are quasi-linear all over the parallelepiped.
axis is 2bi , where bi is such a value that the functions fj ()
FUMILI takes into account simple linear inequalities in the form:
imin i imax
They form parallelepiped P (P0 may be deformed by P ). Very similar step formulae are used in FUMILI for negative
logarithm of the likelihood function with the same idea - linearization of function argument.

5.16

Neural Networks

5.16.1

Introduction

Neural Networks are used in various fields for data analysis and classification, both for research and commercial
institutions. Some randomly chosen examples are image analysis, financial movements predictions and analysis, or
sales forecast and product shipping optimization. In particles physics neural networks are mainly used for classification
tasks (signal over background discrimination). A vast majority of commonly used neural networks are multilayer
perceptrons. This implementation of multilayer perceptrons is inspired from the MLPfit package, which remains one of
the fastest tools for neural networks studies.

134

5.16.2

CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

The MLP

The multilayer perceptron is a simple feed-forward network with the following structure showed on the left.
It is made of neurons characterized by a bias and weighted links in between - lets call those links synapses. The
input neurons receive the inputs, normalize them and forward them to the first hidden layer. Each neuron in any
subsequent layer first computes a linear combination of the outputs of the previous layer. The output of the neuron is
then function of that combination with f being linear for output neurons or a sigmoid for hidden layers.
Such a structure is very useful because of two theorems:
1- A linear combination of sigmoids can approximate any continuous function.
2- Trained with output=1 for the signal and 0 for the background, the approximated function of inputs X is the
probability of signal, knowing X.

5.16.3

Learning Methods

The aim of all learning methods is to minimize the total error on a set of weighted examples. The error is defined
as the sum in quadrate, divided by two, of the error on each individual output neuron. In all methods implemented
in this library, one needs to compute the first derivative of that error with respect to the weights. Exploiting the
well-known properties of the derivative, one can express this derivative as the product of the local partial derivative by
the weighted sum of the outputs derivatives (for a neuron) or as the product of the input value with the local partial
derivative of the output neuron (for a synapse). This computation is called back-propagation of the errors. Six
learning methods are implemented.
5.16.3.1

Stochastic Minimization

This is the most trivial learning method. The Robbins-Monro stochastic approximation is applied to multilayer
perceptrons. The weights are updated after each example according to the formula:
wij (t + 1) = wij (t) + wij (t)

5.16. NEURAL NETWORKS

135

with:

wij (t) =


ep
+ + wij (t 1)
wij

The parameters for this method are Eta, EtaDecay, Delta and Epsilon.
5.16.3.2

Steepest Descent With Fixed Step Size (Batch Learning)

It is the same as the stochastic minimization, but the weights are updated after considering all the examples, with the
total derivative dEdw. The parameters for this method are Eta, EtaDecay, Delta and Epsilon.
5.16.3.3

Steepest Descent Algorithm

Weights are set to the minimum along the line defined by the gradient. The only parameter for this method is Tau.
Lower Tau = higher precision = slower search. A value Tau=3 seems reasonable.
5.16.3.4

Conjugate Gradients With the Polak-Ribiere Updating Formula

Weights are set to the minimum along the line defined by the conjugate gradient. Parameters are Tau and Reset, which
defines the epochs where the direction is reset to the steepest descent (estimated by using the Polak-Ribiere formula).
5.16.3.5

Conjugate Gradients With the Fletcher-Reeves Updating Formula

Weights are set to the minimum along the line defined by the conjugate gradient. Parameters are Tau and Reset, which
defines the epochs where the direction is reset to the steepest descent (estimated by using the Fletcher-Reeves formula).
5.16.3.6

The Broyden, Fletcher, Goldfarb, Shanno (BFGS) Method

It implies the computation of a NxN matrix, but seems more powerful at least for less than 300 weights. Parameters are
Tau and Reset, which defines the epochs where the direction is reset to the steepest descent.

5.16.4

Using the Network

Neural network are build from a set of samples. A sample is a set of values defining the inputs and the corresponding
output that the network should ideally provide. In ROOT this is a TTree entry. The first thing to be decided is the
network layout. This layout is described in a string where the layers are separated by semicolons. The input/output
layers are defined by giving the expression for each neuron, separated by comas. Hidden layers are just described by
the number of neurons.
In addition, input and output layer formulas can be preceded by @ (e.g. @out) if one wants to normalize the
corresponding value. Also, if the string ends with !, output neurons are set up for classification, i.e. with a sigmoid (1
neuron) or softmax (more neurons) activation function.
Many questions on the good usage of neural network, including rules of dumb to determine the best network topology
are addressed at ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/FAQ.html
// a simple network: 2 inputs, 10 hidden and 1 normalized
// output neuron
TMultiLayerPerceptron network("r,z:10:@Br",tree);
Expressions are evaluated as for TTree::Draw().
Input and outputs are taken from the TTree associated with the network. This TTree can be given as argument of the constructor or defined later with
TMultiLayerPerceptron::SetData(). Events can also be weighted. The weight expression can be given in
the constructor or set later with the method SetWeight() of the class TMultiLayerPerceptron. Two datasets must
be defined before learning the network: a training dataset that is used when minimizing the error, and a test dataset
that will avoid bias. Those two datasets can be build aside and then given to the network, or can be build from a
standard expression. By default, half of the events are put in both datasets.

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CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

// a more complex 4:8:1 network
// the ptsumf branch is used as weigh;
// default event lists are explicit
TMultiLayerPerceptron network("m,pt,acol,acopl:8:type","pt",tree,
"Entry$%2","Entry$/2");

The method TMultiLayerPerceptron::SetLearningMethod() defines the learning method. Learning methods are:
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kStochastic,
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kBatch,
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kSteepestDescent,
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kRibierePolak,
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kFletcherReeves,
TMultiLayerPerceptron::kBFGS
// default
The training can start with TMultiLayerPerceptron::Train(Int_t nepoch,Option_t* options). The first argument is the number of epochs while option is a string that can contain text (simple text output), graph (evaluating
graphical training curves), update = X (step for the text/graph output update) or + (will skip the randomization
and start from the previous values). All combinations are available.
network.Train(1000,"text,graph,update=10"); // full output every
// 10 epochs
network.Train(100,"text,+");
// 100 more epochs
//starts with existing weights
The weights can be saved to a file (DumpWeights) and then reloaded (LoadWeights) to a new compatible network. The
output can also be evaluated (Evaluate) for a given output neuron and an array of double input parameters or the
network can be exported (Export) as a standalone code. Up to now, this is only as a C++ or PYTHON class, but
other languages could be implemented.

5.16.5

Examples

An example of how to use TMultiLayerPerceptron is the macro mlpHiggs.C in $ROOTSYS/tutorials. Using some
standard simulated information that could have been obtained at LEP, a neural network is build, which can make the
difference between WW events and events containing a Higgs boson. Starting with a TFile containing two TTrees: one
for the signal, the other for the background, a simple script is used:
void mlpHiggs(Int_t ntrain=100) {
if (!gROOT->GetClass("TMultiLayerPerceptron"))
gSystem->Load("libMLP");
// prepare inputs - the 2 trees are merged into one, and a
// "type" branch, equal to 1 for the signal and 0 for the
// background is added
TFile input("mlpHiggs.root");
TTree *signal = (TTree *)input.Get("sig_filtered");
TTree *background = (TTree *)input.Get("bg_filtered");
TTree *simu = new TTree("MonteCarlo",
"Filtered Monte Carlo Events");
...
Since the input is a TTree and we are starting from two different TTrees (with different names), they are first merged
into one, and a type branch is added, that says whether there is a signal or a background event. Those irrelevant
details are skipped here.
...
TMultiLayerPerceptron *mlp = new TMultiLayerPerceptron(
"msumf,ptsumf, acolin, acopl:8:type","ptsumf",simu,
"Entry$%2","Entry$/2");
mlp->Train(ntrain, "text,graph,update=10");

5.16. NEURAL NETWORKS

137

The neural network is instantiated and trained. ptsumf is used as a weight, and the standard event lists are explicit.
The network that is then build has four input neurons, eight additional ones in the only hidden layer and one single
output neuron.
// Use the NN to plot the results for each sample
TH1F *bg = new TH1F("bgh","NN output",50,-.5,1.5);
TH1F *sig = new TH1F("sigh","NN output",50,-.5,1.5);
bg->SetDirectory(0);
sig->SetDirectory(0);
Double_t params[4];
for (i = 0; i < background->GetEntries(); i++) {
background->GetEntry(i);
params[0] = msumf;
params[1] = ptsumf;
params[2] = acolin;
params[3] = acopl;
bg->Fill(mlp->Evaluate(0,params));
}
for (i = 0; i < signal->GetEntries(); i++) {
signal->GetEntry(i);
params[0] = msumf;
params[1] = ptsumf;
params[2] = acolin;
params[3] = acopl;
sig->Fill(mlp->Evaluate(0,params));
}
TCanvas *cv = new TCanvas("NNout_cv","Neural net output");
bg->SetFillStyle(3008);
bg->SetFillColor(kBlue);
sig->SetFillStyle(3003);
sig->SetFillColor(kRed);
bg->SetStats(0);
sig->SetStats(0);
bg->Draw();
sig->Draw("same");
TLegend *legend = new TLegend(.75,.80,.95,.95);
legend->AddEntry(bg,"Background(WW)");
legend->AddEntry(sig,"Signal(Higgs)");
legend->Draw();
The neural net output is then used to display the final difference between background and signal events. The figure
The neural net output shows this plot.
As it can be seen, this is a quite efficient technique. As mentioned earlier, neural networks are also used for fitting
function. For some application with a cylindrical symmetry, a magnetic field simulation gives as output the angular
component of the potential vector A, as well as the radial and z components of the B field.
One wants to fit those distributions with a function in order to plug them into the Geant simulation code. Polynomial
fits could be tried, but it seems difficult to reach the desired precision over the full range. One could also use a spline
interpolation between known points. In all cases, the resulting field would not be C-infinite.
An example of output (for Br) is shown. First the initial function can be seen as the target. Then, the resulting
(normalized) neural net output. In order to ease the learning, the normalize output was used here. The initial
amplitude can be recovered by multiplying by the original RMS and then shifting by the original mean.

138

CHAPTER 5. FITTING HISTOGRAMS

Figure 5.5: The neural net output

Figure 5.6: The original and the neural net for Br

Chapter 6

A Little C++
This chapter introduces you to some useful insights into C++, to allow you to use of the most advanced features in
ROOT. It is in no case a full course in C++.

6.1

Classes, Methods and Constructors

C++ extends C with the notion of class. If youre used to structures in C, a class is a struct that is a group of
related variables, which is extended with functions and routines specific to this structure (class). What is the interest?
Consider a struct that is defined this way:
struct Line {
float x1;
float y1;
float x2;
float y2;
}
This structure represents a line to be drawn in a graphical window. (x1,y1) are the coordinates of the first point,
(x2,y2) the coordinates of the second point. In the standard C, if you want to draw effectively such a line, you first
have to define a structure and initialize the points (you can try this):
Line firstline;
firstline.x1 = 0.2;
firstline.y1 = 0.2;
firstline.x2 = 0.8;
firstline.y2 = 0.9;
This defines a line going from the point (0.2,0.2) to the point (0.8,0.9). To draw this line, you will have to write a
function, say LineDraw(Line l) and call it with your object as argument:
LineDraw(firstline);
In C++, we would not do that. We would instead define a class like this:
class TLine {
Double_t x1;
Double_t y1;
Double_t x2;
Double_t y2;
TLine(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2);
void Draw();
}
Here we added two functions, that we will call methods or member functions, to the TLine class. The first method is
used for initializing the line objects we would build. It is called a constructor. The second one is the Draw method
itself. Therefore, to build and draw a line, we have to do:
139

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CHAPTER 6. A LITTLE C++

TLine l(0.2,0.2,0.8,0.9);
l.Draw();

The first line builds the object lby calling its constructor. The second line calls the TLine::Draw() method of this
object. You dont need to pass any parameters to this method since it applies to the object l, which knows the
coordinates of the line. These are internal variables x1, y1, x2, y2 that were initialized by the constructor.

6.2

Inheritance and Data Encapsulation

We have defined a TLine class that contains everything necessary to draw a line. If we want to draw an arrow, is it so
different from drawing a line? We just have to draw a triangle at one end. It would be very inefficient to define the
class TArrow from scratch. Fortunately, inheritance allows a class to be defined from an existing class. We would write
something like:
class TArrow : public TLine {
int ArrowHeadSize;
void Draw();
void SetArrowSize(int arrowsize);
}
The keyword public will be explained later. The class TArrow now contains everything that the class TLine does,
and a couple of things more, the size of the arrowhead and a function that can change it. The Draw method of TArrow
will draw the head and call the draw method of TLine. We just have to write the code for drawing the head!

6.2.1

Method Overriding

Giving the same name to a method (remember: method = member function of a class) in the child class (TArrow)
as in the parent (TLine) does not give any problem. This is called overriding a method. Draw in TArrow overrides
Draw in TLine. There is no possible ambiguity since, when one calls the Draw() method; this applies to an object
which type is known. Suppose we have an object l of type TLine and an object a of type TArrow. When you want to
draw the line, you do:
l.Draw();
Draw() from TLine is called. If you do:
a.Draw();
Draw() from TArrow is called and the arrow a is drawn.

6.2.2

Data Encapsulation

We have seen previously the keyword public. This keyword means that every name declared public is seen by the
outside world. This is opposed to private that means only the class where the name was declared private could see
this name. For example, suppose we declare in TArrow the variable ArrowHeadSize private.
private:
int ArrowHeadSize;
Then, only the methods (i.e. member functions) of TArrow will be able to access this variable. Nobody else will see it.
Even the classes that we could derive from TArrow will not see it. On the other hand, if we declare the method Draw()
as public, everybody will be able to see it and use it. You see that the character public or private does not depend
of the type of argument. It can be a data member, a member function, or even a class. For example, in the case of
TArrow, the base class TLine is declared as public:
class TArrow : public TLine { ...

6.3. CREATING OBJECTS ON THE STACK AND HEAP

141

This means that all methods of TArrow will be able to access all methods of TLine, but this will be also true for
anybody in the outside world. Of course, this is true if TLine accepts the outside world to see its methods/data
members. If something is declared private in TLine, nobody will see it, not even TArrow members, even if TLine is
declared as a public base class.
What if TLine is declared private instead of public ? Well, it will behave as any other name declared private in
TArrow: only the data members and methods of TArrow will be able to access TLine, its methods and data members,
nobody else. This may seem a little bit confusing and readers should read a good C++ book if they want more details.
Especially since, besides public and private, a member can be protected. Usually, one puts private the methods that the
class uses internally, like some utilities classes, and that the programmer does not want to be seen in the outside world.
With good C++ practice (which we have tried to use in ROOT), all data members of a class are private. This is
called data encapsulation and is one of the strongest advantages of Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Private data
members of a class are not visible, except to the class itself. So, from the outside world, if one wants to access those
data members, one should use so called getters and setters methods, which are special methods used only to get or
set the data members. The advantage is that if the programmers want to modify the inner workings of their classes,
they can do so without changing what the user sees. The user does not even have to know that something has changed
(for the better, hopefully). For example, in our TArrow class, we would have set the data member ArrowHeadSize
private. The setter method is SetArrowSize(), we do not need a getter method:
class TArrow : public TLine {
private:
int ArrowHeadSize;
public:
void Draw();
void SetArrowSize(int arrowsize);
}
To define an arrow object you call the constructor. This will also call the constructor of TLine, which is the parent
class of TArrow, automatically. Then we can call any of the line or arrow public methods:
root[] TArrow *myarrow = new TArrow(1,5,89,124);
root[] myarrow->SetArrowSize(10);
root[] myarrow->Draw();

6.3

Creating Objects on the Stack and Heap

To explain how objects are created on the stack and on the heap we will use the Quad class. You can find the
definition in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/quadp/Quad.h and Quad.cxx. The Quad class has four methods. The constructor
and destructor, Evaluate that evaluates ax**2 + bx +c, and Solve which solves the quadratic equation ax**2 + bx
+c = 0.
Quad.h :
class Quad {
public:
Quad(Float_t a, Float_t b, Float_t c);
~Quad();
Float_t Evaluate(Float_t x) const;
void Solve() const;
private:
Float_t fA;
Float_t fB;
Float_t fC;
};
Quad.cxx:
#include <iostream.h>
#include <math.h>
#include "Quad.h"

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CHAPTER 6. A LITTLE C++

Quad::Quad(Float_t a, Float_t b, Float_t c) {

fA = a;
fB = b;
fC = c;
}
Quad::~Quad() {
Cout <<"deleting object with coeffts: "<< fA << "," << fB << ","
<< fC << endl;
}
Float_t Quad::Evaluate(Float_t x) const {
return fA*x*x + fB*x + fC;
}
void Quad::Solve() const {
Float_t temp = fB*fB - 4.*fA*fC;
if ( temp > 0. ) {
temp = sqrt( temp );
cout << "There are two roots: " << ( -fB - temp ) / (2.*fA)
<< " and " << ( -fB + temp ) / (2.*fA) << endl;
} else {
if ( temp == 0. ) {
cout << "There are two equal roots: " << -fB / (2.*fA)
<< endl;
} else {
cout << "There are no roots" << endl;
}
}
}
Let us first look how we create an object. When we create an object by:
root[] Quad my_object(1.,2.,-3.);
We are creating an object on the stack. A FORTRAN programmer may be familiar with the idea; it is not unlike a
local variable in a function or subroutine. Although there are still a few old timers who do not know it, FORTRAN
is under no obligation to save local variables once the function or subroutine returns unless the SAVE statement is
used. If not then it is likely that FORTRAN will place them on the stack and they will pop off when the RETURN
statement is reached. To give an object more permanence it has to be placed on the heap.
root[] .L Quad.cxx
root[] Quad *my_objptr = new Quad(1.,2.,-3.);
The second line declares a pointer to Quad called my_objptr. From the syntax point of view, this is just like all the
other declarations we have seen so far, i.e. this is a stack variable. The value of the pointer is set equal to
new Quad(1.,2.,-3.);
new, despite its looks, is an operator and creates an object or variable of the type that comes next, Quad in this case,
on the heap. Just as with stack objects it has to be initialized by calling its constructor. The syntax requires that the
argument list follow the type. This one statement has brought two items into existence, one on the heap and one on
the stack. The heap object will live until the delete operator is applied to it.
There is no FORTRAN parallel to a heap object; variables either come or go as control passes in and out of a function
or subroutine, or, like a COMMON block variables, live for the lifetime of the program. However, most people in HEP
who use FORTRAN will have experience of a memory manager and the act of creating a bank is a good equivalent of
a heap object. For those who know systems like ZEBRA, it will come as a relief to learn that objects do not move,
C++ does not garbage collect, so there is never a danger that a pointer to an object becomes invalid for that reason.
However, having created an object, it is the users responsibility to ensure that it is deleted when no longer needed, or
to pass that responsibility onto to some other object. Failing to do that will result in a memory leak, one of the most
common and most hard-to-find C++ bugs.
To send a message to an object via a pointer to it, you need to use the -> operator e.g.:

6.3. CREATING OBJECTS ON THE STACK AND HEAP

143

root[] my_objptr->Solve();
Although we chose to call our pointer my_objptr, to emphasize that it is a pointer, heap objects are so common in an
object-oriented program that pointer names rarely reflect the fact - you have to be careful that you know if you are
dealing with an object or its pointer! Fortunately, the compiler wont tolerate an attempt to do something like:
root[] my_objptr.Solve();
Although this is a permitted by the CINT shortcuts, it is one that you are strongly advised not to follow! As we have
seen, heap objects have to be accessed via pointers, whereas stack objects can be accessed directly. They can also be
accessed via pointers:
root[] Quad stack_quad(1.,2.,-3.);
root[] Quad *stack_ptr = &stack_quad;
root[] stack_ptr->Solve();
Here we have a Quad pointer that has been initialized with the address of a stack object. Be very careful if you take
the address of stack objects. As we shall see soon, they are deleted automatically, which could leave you with an illegal
pointer. Using it will corrupt and may well crash the program!
It is time to look at the destruction of objects. A destructor is a special C++ function that releases resources for
(or destroy) an object of a class. It is opposite of a constructor that create the object of a class when is called. The
compiler will provide a destructor that does nothing if none is provided. We will add one to our Quad class so that we
can see when it is called. The class names the destructor but with a prefix ~ which is the C++ ones complement
i.e. bit wise complement, and hence has destruction overtones! We declare it in the .h file and define it in the .cxx file.
It does not do much except print out that it has been called (still a useful debug technique despite todays powerful
debuggers!).
Now run root, load the Quad class and create a heap object:
root[] .L Quad.cxx
root[] Quad *my_objptr = new Quad(1.,2.,-3.);
To delete the object:
root[] delete my_objptr;
root[] my_objptr = 0;
You should see the print out from its destructor. Setting the pointer to zero afterwards is not strictly necessary (and
CINT does it automatically), but the object is no more accessible, and any attempt to use the pointer again will, as has
already been stated, cause grief. So much for heap objects, but how are stack objects deleted? In C++, a stack object
is deleted as soon as control leaves the innermost compound statement that encloses it. Therefore, it is singularly futile
to do something like:
root[] {

Quad my_object(1.,2.,-3.); }

CINT does not follow this rule; if you type in the above line, you will not see the destructor message. As explained in
the Script lesson, you can load in compound statements, which would be a bit pointless if everything disappeared as
soon as it was loaded! Instead, to reset the stack you have to type:
root[] gROOT->Reset();
This sends the Reset message via the global pointer to the ROOT object, which, amongst its many roles, acts as a
resource manager. Start ROOT again and type in the following:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

.L Quad.cxx
Quad my_object(1.,2.,-3.);
Quad *my_objptr = new Quad(4.,5.,-6.);
gROOT->Reset();

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CHAPTER 6. A LITTLE C++

You will see that this deletes the first object but not the second. We have also painted ourselves into a corner, as
my_objptr was also on the stack. This command will fail.
root[] my_objptr->Solve();
CINT no longer knows what my_objptr is. This is a great example of a memory leak; the heap object exists but we
have lost our way to access it. In general, this is not a problem. If any object will outlive the compound statement in
which it was created then a more permanent pointer will point to it, which frequently is part of another heap object.
See Resetting the Interpreter Environment in the chapter CINT the C++ Interpreter.

Chapter 7

CINT the C++ Interpreter

The subject of this chapter is CINT, ROOT command line interpreter and script processor. First, we explain what
CINT is and why ROOT uses it. Then we discuss CINT as the command line interpreter, the CINT commands,
and CINT extensions to C++ are discussed. CINT as the script interpreter is explained and illustrated with several
examples.

7.1

What is CINT?

CINT, which is pronounced [sint], is a C++ interpreter. An interpreter takes a program, in this case a C++
program, and carries it out by examining each instruction and in turn executing the equivalent sequence of machine
language. For example, an interpreter translates and executes each statement in the body of a loop n times. It does
not generate a machine language program. This may not be a good example, because most interpreters have become
smart about loop processing.
A compiler on the other hand, takes a program and makes a machine language executable. Once compiled the execution
is very fast, which makes a compiler best suited for the case of built once, run many times. For example, the ROOT
executable is compiled occasionally and executed many times. It takes anywhere from 1 to 45 minutes to compile
ROOT for the first time (depending on the CPU). Once compiled it runs very fast. On the average, a compiled program
runs roughly ten times faster than an interpreted one. Because compiling is slow, using a compiler is cumbersome for
rapid prototyping when one changes and rebuilds as often as once per minute. An interpreter, on the other hand, is
the perfect tool for code that changes often and runs a few times. Most of the time, interpreters are built for scripting
languages, such as JavaScript, IDL, or Python. These languages are specifically designed to be interpreted rather than
compiled. The advantage of using a normally compiled language is that code can be compiled once the prototype
is debugged and refined. CINT is a C++ interpreter, making it a tool for rapid prototyping and scripting in C++.
It is also available as a stand-alone product, see http://root.cern.ch/cint. This page also has links to all the CINT
documentation. The downloadable tar file contains documentation, the CINT executable, and many demo scripts that
are not included in the regular ROOT distribution. Here is the list of CINT main features:
Supports K&R-C, ANSI-C, and ANSI-C++
CINT covers 85-95% of the C++, ANSI-C and K&R-C language constructs. It supports multiple inheritance,
virtual function, function overloading, operator overloading, default parameters, templates, and much more.
CINT is robust enough to interpret its own source code. CINT is not designed to be a 100% ANSI/ISO compliant
C++ language processor. It is a portable scripting language environment, which is close enough to the standard
C++.
Interprets Large C/C++ source code
CINT can handle huge C/C++ source code, and loads source files quickly. It can interpret its own, over 70,000
lines source code - more than 150,000 lines.
Enables mixing Interpretation & Native Code
Depending on the need for execution speed or the need for interaction, one can mix native code execution and
interpretation. makecint encapsulates arbitrary C/C++ objects as precompiled libraries. A precompiled
library can be configured as a dynamically linked library. Accessing interpreted code and precompiled code can
be done seamlessly in both directions.
Provides a Single-Language solution
145

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

CINT/makecint is a single-language environment. It works with any ANSI-C/C++ compiler to provide the
interpreter environment on top of it.
Simplifies C++
CINT is meant to bring C++ to the non-software professional. C++ is simpler to use in the interpreter
environment. It helps the non-software professional (the domain expert) to talk the same language as the software
counterpart.
Provides RTTI and a Command Line
CINT can process C++ statements from command line, dynamically define/erase class definition and functions;
load/unload source files and libraries. Extended Run Time Type Identification is provided, allowing you to
explore imaginative new ways of using C++.
CINT has a built-in debugger for complex C++ code and a text based class browser is part of it.
It is portable.
CINT works on number of operating systems: HP-UX, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, AIX, Alpha-OSF, IRIX, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, NEC EWS4800, NewsOS, BeBox, WindowsNT, Windows9x, MS-DOS, MacOS, VMS, NextStep, Convex.

7.2

The ROOT Command Line Interface

Start up a ROOT session by typing root at the system prompt.

> root
*******************************************
*
*
*
W E L C O M E to R O O T
*
*
*
*
Version
5.16/00
27 June 2007
*
*
*
* You are welcome to visit our Web site *
*
http://root.cern.ch
*
*
*
*******************************************
FreeType Engine v2.1.9 used to render TrueType fonts.
Compiled on 28 June 2007 for linux with thread support.
CINT/ROOT C/C++ Interpreter version 5.16.21, June 22, 2007
Type ? for help. Commands must be C++ statements.
Enclose multiple statements between { }.
root[0]
Now we create a TLine object:
root[] TLine l
root[] l.Print()
TLine X1=0.000000 Y1=0.000000 X2=0.000000 Y2=0.000000
root[] l.SetX1(10)
root[] l.SetY1(11)
root[] l.Print()
TLine X1=10.000000 Y1=11.000000 X2=0.000000 Y2=0.000000
root[] .g
...
0x4038f080 class TLine l , size=40
0x0
protected: Double_t fX1 //X of 1st point
0x0
protected: Double_t fY1 //Y of 1st point
0x0
protected: Double_t fX2 //X of 2nd point
0x0
protected: Double_t fY2 //Y of 2nd point
0x0
private: static class TClass* fgIsA

7.2. THE ROOT COMMAND LINE INTERFACE

Here we note:
Terminating with ; is not required, see ROOT/CINT Extensions to C++.
Emacs style command line editing.
Raw interpreter commands start with a dot (.).
root[] .class TLine
=================================================
class TLine //A line segment
size=0x38
(tagnum=289,voffset=-1,isabstract=0,parent=-1,gcomp=0:-1,d21=~cd=f7)
List of base class------------------------------0x0
public: TObject //Basic ROOT object
0xc
public: TAttLine //Line attributes
List of member variable-------------------------Defined in TLine
(compiled) 0x0
protected: Double_t fX1 //X of 1st point
(compiled) 0x0
protected: Double_t fY1 //Y of 1st point
(compiled) 0x0
protected: Double_t fX2 //X of 2nd point
(compiled) 0x0
protected: Double_t fY2 //Y of 2nd point
(compiled) 0x8a3a718 static const enum TLine:: kLineNDC
(compiled) 0x0
private: static TClass* fgIsA
List of member function-------------------------filename
line:size busy function type and name (in TLine)
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: virtual void ~TLine(void);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: TLine TLine(void);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: TLine TLine(Double_t x1,Double_t y1,
Double_t x2,Double_t y2);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: TLine TLine(const TLine& line);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: virtual void Copy(TObject& line) const;
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: virtual Int_t DistancetoPrimitive(
Int_t px,Int_t py);
...
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: static int ImplFileLine(void);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: static const char* ImplFileName(void);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public: static int DeclFileLine(void);
(compiled) 0:0
0 public:TLine& operator=(const TLine&);
root[] l.Print(); > test.log
root[] l.Dump(); >> test.log
root[] ?
Here we see:
Use .class as quick help and reference
Unix like I/O redirection (; is required before >)
Use ? to get help on all raw interpreter commands
Use @ to abort a multi-line command
Now let us execute a multi-line command:
root[] {
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with
end with

'}',
'}',
'}',
'}',
'}',
'}',
'}',

'@':abort
'@':abort
'@':abort
'@':abort
'@':abort
'@':abort
'@':abort

>
>
>
>
>
>
>

TLine l;
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
l.SetX1(i);
l.SetY1(i+1);
l.Print();
}
}

147

148
TLine
TLine
TLine
TLine
TLine
root[]

CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

X1=0.000000
X1=1.000000
X1=2.000000
X1=3.000000
X1=4.000000
.q

Y1=1.000000
Y1=2.000000
Y1=3.000000
Y1=4.000000
Y1=5.000000

X2=0.000000
X2=0.000000
X2=0.000000
X2=0.000000
X2=0.000000

Y2=0.000000
Y2=0.000000
Y2=0.000000
Y2=0.000000
Y2=0.000000

Here we note:
A multi-line command starts with a { and ends with a }.
Every line has to be correctly terminated with a ; (like in real C++).
All objects are created in globalscope.
There is no way to back up; you are better off writing a script.
Use .q to exit root.

7.3

The ROOT Script Processor

ROOT script files contain pure C++ code. They can contain a simple sequence of statements like in the multi command
line example given above, but also arbitrarily complex class and function definitions.

7.3.1

Un-named Scripts

Let us start with a script containing a simple list of statements (like the multi-command line example given in the
previous section). This type of script must start with a { and end with a } and is called an un-named script. Assume
the file is called script1.C
{
#include <iostream.h>
cout << " Hello" << endl;
float x = 3.;
float y = 5.;
int
i = 101;
cout <<" x = "<<x<<" y = "<<y<<" i = "<<i<< endl;
}
To execute the stream of statements in script1.C do:
root[] .x script1.C
This loads the contents of file script1.C and executes all statements in the interpreters global scope. One can
re-execute the statements by re-issuing .x script1.C (since there is no function entry point). Scripts are searched
for in the Root.MacroPath as defined in your .rootrc file. To check which script is being executed use:
root[] .which script1.C
/home/rdm/root/./script1.C

7.3.2

Named Scripts

Let us change the un-named script to a named script. Copy the file script1.C to script2.C and add a function
statement:

7.3. THE ROOT SCRIPT PROCESSOR

149

#include <iostream.h>
int run()
{
cout << " Hello" << endl;
float x = 3.;
float y = 5.;
int
i= 101;
cout <<" x = "<< x <<" y = "<< y <<" i = "<< i << endl;
return 0;
}
Notice that no surrounding {} are required in this case. To execute function run() in script2.C do:
root[] .L script2.C
// load script in memory
root[] run()
// execute entry point run
Hello
x = 3 y = 5 i = 101
(int)0
root[] run()
// execute run() again
Hello
x = 3 y = 5 i = 101
(int)0
root[] .func
// list all functions known by CINT
filename
line:size busy function type and name
...
script2.C
4:9
0 public: int run();
The last command shows that run() has been loaded from file script2.C, that the function run() starts on line 4 and
is 9 lines long. Notice that once a function has been loaded it becomes part of the system just like a compiled function.
Now we copy the file script2.C to the script3.C and change the function name from run() to script3(int j =
10):
#include <iostream.h>
int script3(int j = 10) {
cout << " Hello" << endl;
float x = 3.;
float y = 5.;
int
i = j;
cout <<" x = "<< x <<", y = "<< y <<", i = "<< i << endl;
return 0;
}
To execute script3() in script3.C type:
root[] .x script3.C(8)
This loads the contents of file script3.C and executes entry point script3(8). Note that the above only works when
the filename (minus extension) and function entry point are both the same.
The function script3() can still be executed multiple times:
root[]
Hello
x = 3,
(int)0
root[]
Hello
x = 3,
(int)0

script3()
y = 5, i = 10
script3(33)
y = 5, i = 33

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

In a named script, the objects created on the stack are deleted when the function exits. For example, this scenario is
very common. You create a histogram in a named script on the stack. You draw the histogram, but when the function
exits the canvas is empty and the histogram disappeared. To avoid histogram from disappearing you can create it on
the heap (by using new). This will leave the histogram object intact, but the pointer in the named script scope will be
deleted. Since histograms (and trees) are added to the list of objects in the current directory, you can always retrieve
them to delete them if needed.
root[] TH1F *h = (TH1F*)gDirectory->Get("myHist");
// or
root[] TH1F *h = (TH1F*)gDirectory->GetList()->FindObject("myHist");
In addition, histograms and trees are automatically deleted when the current directory is closed. This will automatically
take care of the clean up. See Input/Output.

7.3.3

Executing a Script from a Script

You may want to execute a script conditionally inside another script. To do it you need to call the interpreter and
you can do that with TROOT::ProcessLine(). The example $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/cernstaff.C calls a script
to build the root file if it does not exist:
void cernstaff() {
if (gSystem->AccessPathName("cernstaff.root")) {
gROOT->ProcessLine(".x cernbuild.C");
}
ProcessLine takes a parameter, which is a pointer to an int or to a TInterpreter::EErrorCode to let you access the CINT error code after an attempt to interpret. This will contain the CINT error as defined in enum
TInterpreter::EErrorCode.

7.4

Resetting the Interpreter Environment

Variables created on the command line and in un-named scripts are in the interpreters global scope, which makes the
variables created in un-named scripts available on the command line event after the script is done executing. This is
the opposite of a named script where the stack variables are deleted when the function in which they are defined has
finished execution.
When running an un-named script over again and this is frequently the case since un-named scripts are used to
prototype, one should reset the global environment to clear the variables. This is done by calling gROOT->Reset().
It is good practice, and you will see this in the examples, to begin an un-named script with gROOT->Reset(). It
clears the global scope to the state just before executing the previous script (not including any logon scripts). The
gROOT->Reset() calls the destructor of the objects if the object was created on the stack. If the object was created on
the heap (via new) it is not deleted, but the variable is no longer associated with it. Creating variables on the heap in
un-named scripts and calling gROOT->Reset() without you calling the destructor explicitly will cause a memory leak.
This may be surprising, but it follows the scope rules. For example, creating an object on the heap in a function (in a
named script) without explicitly deleting it will also cause a memory leak. Since when exiting the function only the
stack variables are deleted. The code below shows gROOT->Reset() calling the destructor for the stack variable, but
not for the heap variable. In the end, neither variable is available, but the memory for the heap variable is not released.
Here is an example:
root[] gDebug = 1
(const int)1
root[] TFile stackVar("stack.root","RECREATE")
TKey Writing 86 bytes at address 64 for ID= stack.root Title=
root[] TFile *heapVar = new TFile("heap.root","RECREATE")
TKey Writing 84 bytes at address 64 for ID= heap.root Title=
We turn on Debug to see what the subsequent calls are doing. Then we create two variables, one on the stack and one
on the heap.

7.5. A SCRIPT CONTAINING A CLASS DEFINITION

151

root[] gROOT->Reset()
TKey Writing 48 bytes at address 150 for ID= stack.root Title=
TKey Writing 54 bytes at address 198 for ID= stack.root Title=
TFile dtor called for stack.root
TDirectory dtor called for stack.root
When we call gROOT->Reset(), CINT tells us that the destructor is called for the stack variable, but it does not
mention the heap variable.
root[] stackVar
Error: No symbol stackVar in current scope
FILE:/var/tmp/faaa01jWe_cint LINE:1
*** Interpreter error recovered ***
root[] heapVar
Error: No symbol heapVar in current scope
FILE:/var/tmp/gaaa01jWe_cint LINE:1
*** Interpreter error recovered ***
Neither variable is available in after the call to reset.
root[]
(class
root[]
(class

gROOT->FindObject("stack.root")
TObject*)0x0
gROOT->FindObject("heap.root")
TObject*)0x106bfb30

The object on the stack is deleted and shows a null pointer when we do a FindObject. However, the heap object is
still around and taking up memory.
Note gROOT->Reset() should be never called in a named script or a compiled program.

7.5

A Script Containing a Class Definition

Lets create a small class TMyClass and a derived class TChild. The virtual method TMyClass::Print()is overridden
in TChild. Save this in file called script4.C.
#include <iostream.h>
class TMyClass {
private:
float
fX;
//x position in centimeters
float
fY;
//y position in centimeters
public:
TMyClass() { fX = fY = -1; }
virtual void Print() const;
void SetX(float x) { fX = x; }
void SetY(float y) { fY = y; }
};
void TMyClass::Print() const // parent print method
{
cout << "fX = " << fX << ", fY = " << fY << endl;
}
class TChild : public TMyClass {
public:
void Print() const;
};
void TChild::Print() const // child print metod
{
cout << "This is TChild::Print()" << endl;
TMyClass::Print();
}

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To execute script4.C do:

root[] .L script4.C
root[] TMyClass *a = new TChild
root[] a->Print()
This is TChild::Print()
fX = -1, fY = -1
root[] a->SetX(10)
root[] a->SetY(12)
root[] a->Print()
This is TChild::Print()
fX = 10, fY = 12
root[] .class TMyClass
=====================================================
class TMyClass
size=0x8 FILE:script4.C LINE:3
List of base class----------------------------------List of member variable-----------------------------Defined in TMyClass
0x0
private: float fX
0x4
private: float fY
List of member function-----------------------------Defined in TMyClass
filename
line:size busy function type and name
script4.C
16:5
0 public: class TMyClass TMyClass(void);
script4.C
22:4
0 public: void Print(void);
script4.C
12:1
0 public: void SetX(float x);
script4.C
13:1
0 public: void SetY(float y);
root[] .q
As you can see, an interpreted class behaves just like a compiled class.
There are some limitations for a class created in a script:
They cannot inherit from TObject. Currently the interpreter cannot patch the virtual table of compiled objects
to reference interpreted objects.
Because the I/O is encapsulated in TObject and a class defined in a script cannot inherit from TObject, it cannot
be written to a ROOT file.
See Adding a Class for ways how to add a class with a shared library and with ACLiC.

7.6

Debugging Scripts

A powerful feature of CINT is the ability to debug interpreted functions by means of setting breakpoints and being
able to single step through the code and print variable values on the way. Assume we have script4.C still loaded, we
can then do:
root[] .b TChild::Print
Break point set to line 26 script4.C
root[] a.Print()
26
TChild::Print() const
27
{
28
cout << "This is TChild::Print()" << endl;
FILE:script4.C LINE:28 cint> .s
311 operator<<(ostream& ostr,G__CINT_ENDL& i) {return(endl(ostr));
FILE:iostream.h LINE:311 cint> .s
}
This is TChild::Print()

7.7. INSPECTING OBJECTS

153

29
MyClass::Print();
FILE:script4.C LINE:29 cint> .s
16
MyClass::Print() const
17
{
18
cout << "fX = " << fX << ", fY = " << fY << endl;
FILE:script4.C LINE:18 cint> .p fX
(float)1.000000000000e+01
FILE:script4.C LINE:18 cint> .s
311 operator<<(ostream& ostr,G__CINT_ENDL& i) {return(endl(ostr));
FILE:iostream.h LINE:311 cint> .s
}
fX = 10, fY = 12
19

30

2
}
root[] .q

7.7

Inspecting Objects

An object of a class inheriting from TObject can be inspected, with the Inspect() method. The TObject::Inspect
method creates a window listing the current values of the objects members. For example, the next picture is of TFile.
root[] TFile f("staff.root")
root[] f.Inspect()
You can see the pointers are in red and can be clicked on to follow the pointer to the object. If you clicked on fList, the
list of objects in memory and there were none, no new canvas would be shown. On top of the page are the navigation
buttons to see the previous and next screen.

7.8

ROOT/CINT Extensions to C++

In the next example, we demonstrate three of the most important extensions ROOT/CINT makes to C++. Start
ROOT in the directory $ROOTSYS/tutorials (make sure to have first run ".x hsimple.C"):
root[] f = new TFile("hsimple.root")
(class TFile*)0x4045e690
root[] f.ls()
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
KEY: TH1F
hpx;1
This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F
hpxpy;1 py ps px
KEY: THProfile
hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1
Demo ntuple
root[] hpx.Draw()
NULL
Warning in <MakeDefCanvas>: creating a default canvas with name c1
root[] .q
The first command shows the first extension; the declaration of f may be omitted when new is used. CINT will
correctly create f as pointer to object of class TFile.
The second extension is shown in the second command. Although f is a pointer to TFile we dont have to use the
pointer de-referencing syntax -> but can use the simple . notation.

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

Figure 7.1: ROOT object inspector of TFile

7.9. ACLIC - THE AUTOMATIC COMPILER OF LIBRARIES FOR CINT

155

Figure 7.2: The object inspector of fKeys, the list of keys in the memory
The third extension is more important. In case CINT cannot find an object being referenced, it will ask ROOT to
search for an object with an identical name in the search path defined by TROOT::FindObject(). If ROOT finds the
object, it returns CINT a pointer to this object and a pointer to its class definition and CINT will execute the requested
member function. This shortcut is quite natural for an interactive system and saves much typing. In this example,
ROOT searches for hpx and finds it in simple.root.
The fourth is shown below. There is no need to put a semicolon at the end of a line. The difference between having it
and leaving it off is that when you leave it off the return value of the command will be printed on the next line. For
example:
root[] 23+5 // no semicolon prints the return value
(int)28
root[] 23+5; // semicolon no return value is printed
root[]
Be aware that these extensions do not work when a compiler replaces the interpreter. Your code will not compile,
hence when writing large scripts, it is best to stay away from these shortcuts. It will save you from having problems
compiling your scripts using a real C++ compiler.

7.9

ACLiC - The Automatic Compiler of Libraries for CINT

Instead of having CINT interpret your script there is a way to have your scripts compiled, linked and dynamically
loaded using the C++ compiler and linker. The advantage of this is that your scripts will run with the speed of
compiled C++ and that you can use language constructs that are not fully supported by CINT. On the other hand,
you cannot use any CINT shortcuts (see ROOT/CINT Extensions to C++) and for small scripts, the overhead of the
compile/link cycle might be larger than just executing the script in the interpreter.
ACLiC will build a CINT dictionary and a shared library from your C++ script, using the compiler and the compiler
options that were used to compile the ROOT executable. You do not have to write a makefile remembering the
correct compiler options, and you do not have to exit ROOT.

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

Usage

Before you can compile your interpreted script you need to add include statements for the classes used in the script.
Once you did that, you can build and load a shared library containing your script. To load it use the command .L and
append the file name with a +.
root[] .L MyScript.C+
root[] .files
...
*file="/home/./MyScript_C.so"
The + option generates the shared library and names it by taking the name of the file filename but replacing the
dot before the extension by an underscore and by adding the shared library extension for the current platform. For
example on most platforms, hsimple.cxx will generate hsimple_cxx.so. If we execute a .files command we can see
the newly created shared library is in the list of loaded files.
The + command rebuild the library only if the script or any of the files it includes are newer than the library. When
checking the timestamp, ACLiC generates a dependency file which name is the same as the library name, just replacing
the so extension by the extension d. For example on most platforms, hsimple.cxx will generate hsimple_cxx.d.
To ensure that the shared library is rebuilt you can use the ++ syntax:
root[] .L MyScript.C++
To build, load, and execute the function with the same name as the file you can use the .x command. This is the same
as executing a named script. You can have parameters and use .xor .X. The only difference is you need to append a +
or a ++.
root[] .x MyScript.C+ (4000)
Creating shared library /home/./MyScript_C.so
You can select whether the script in compiled with debug symbol or with optimization by appending the letter g or
O after the + or ++. Without the specification, the script is compiled with the same level of debugging symbol and
optimization as the currently running ROOT executable. For example:
root[] .L MyScript.C++g
will compile MyScript.C with debug symbols; usually this means giving the -g option to compiler.
root[] .L MyScript.C++O
will compile MyScript.C with optimizations; usually this means giving the -O option to compiler. The syntax:
root[] .L MyScript.C++
is using the default optimization level. The initial default is to compile with the same level of optimization as the root
executable itself. The default can be changed by:
root[] gSystem->SetAclicMode(TSystem::kDebug);
root[] gSystem->SetAclicMode(TSystem::kOpt);
Note that the commands:
root[] .L MyScript.C+g
root[] .L MyScript.C+O
respectively compile MyScript.C with debug and optimization if the library does not exist yet; they will not change
the debug and the optimization level if the library already exist and it is up to date. To use ACLiC from compiled
code or from inside another macro, we recommend using the ProcessLine() method of TROOT. For example, in one
script you can use ACLiC to compile and load another script.
gROOT->ProcessLine(".L MyScript.C+")
gROOT->ProcessLine(".L MyScript.C++")

7.9. ACLIC - THE AUTOMATIC COMPILER OF LIBRARIES FOR CINT

7.9.2

157

Setting the Include Path

You can get the include path by typing:

root[] .include
You can append to the include path by typing:
root[] .include $HOME/mypackage/include
In a script you can append to the include path:
gSystem->AddIncludePath(" -I$HOME/mypackage/include ")
You can also overwrite the existing include path:
gSystem->SetIncludePath(" -I$HOME/mypackage/include ")
The $ROOTSYS/include directory is automatically appended to the include path, so you do not have to worry about
including it. To add library that should be used during linking of the shared library use something like:
gSystem->AddLinkedLibs("-L/my/path -lanylib");
This is especially useful for static libraries. For shared ones you can also simply load them before trying to compile the
script:
gSystem->Load("mydir/mylib");
ACLiC uses the directive fMakeSharedLibs to create the shared library. If loading the shared library fails, it tries to
output a list of missing symbols by creating an executable (on some platforms like OSF, this does not HAVE to be an
executable) containing the script. It uses the directive fMakeExe to do so. For both directives, before passing them
to TSystem::Exec(), it expands the variables $SourceFiles, $SharedLib, $LibName, $IncludePath, $LinkedLibs,
$ExeNameand$ObjectFiles. See SetMakeSharedLib() for more information on those variables. When the file being
passed to ACLiC is on a read only file system, ACLiC warns the user and creates the library in a temporary directory:
root[] .L readonly/t.C++
Warning in <ACLiC>: /scratch/aclic/subs/./readonly is not writable!
Warning in <ACLiC>: Output will be written to /tmp
Info in <TUnixSystem::ACLiC>: creating shared library
/tmp//scratch/aclic/subs/./readonly/t_C.so
To select the temporary directory ACLiC looks at $TEMP, $TEMP_DIR, $TEMPDIR, $TMP, $TMPDIR, $TMP_DIRor uses
/tmp (or C:/). Also, a new interface TSystem::Get/SetBuildDir is introduced to let users select an alternative root for building of the ACLiC libraries. For filename/full/path/name/macro.C, the library is created as
fBuildDir/full/path/name/macro_C.so.

7.9.3

Dictionary Generation

You can direct what is added to the dictionary generated by ACLiC in two ways. The simplest way is to add at the
end of script (i.e. after the symbols have been defined) something like:
#if defined(__MAKECINT__)
#pragma link C++ class MyOtherClass;
#endif
You can also write this portion of code in a file name MyScript_linkdef.h where the suffix _linkdefis the prefix defined by the key ACLiC.Linkdef in the currently used resource file (usually .rootrcor$ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc)
and the prefix is the name of your script.
In ROOT 3.05/03 and above, the default behavior of rootcint is to not link in (i.e. generate the dictionary for) any of
the symbols. In particular, this means that the following lines are now, in the general case, unnecessary.

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

#pragma link off all globals;

#pragma link off all classes;
#pragma link off all functions;
This also means that linking the instantiation of a class template:
#pragma link C++ class mytemplate<int>;
ONLY links this specific class. In previous versions of ROOT, depending on many factors, this might also have included
the linking of many other instantiation of class template used directly or indirectly by mytemplate.
A typical case would have been to rely on:
#pragma link C++ class vector<MyClass>;
to also induce the generation of the iterators. You now need to request them explicitly. Another advantage of the
change is that now, if you omit the pragma link off line from your linkdef file, you can actually sprinkle the pragma
link C++ class across as many of you header as file as you need.
See the documentation of rootcint for details how pragma can be used.
NOTE: You should not call ACLiC with a script that has a function called main(). When ACLiC calls rootcint
with a function called main it tries to add every symbol it finds while parsing the script and the header files to the
dictionary. This includes the system header files and the ROOT header files. It will result in duplicate entries at best
and crashes at worst, because some classes in ROOT need special attention before they can be added to the dictionary.

7.9.4

Intermediate Steps and Files

ACLiC executes two steps and a third one if needed. These are:
Calling rootcint to create a CINT dictionary. rootcint is a ROOT specific version of makecint, CINT generic
dictionary generator.
Calling the compiler to build the shared library from the script
If there are errors, it calls the compiler to build a dummy executable to report clearly unresolved symbols.
ACLiC makes a shared library with a CINT dictionary containing the classes and functions declared in the script. It
also adds the classes and functions declared in included files with the same name as the script file and any of the
following extensions: .h, .hh, .hpp, .hxx, .hPP, .hXX. This means that, by default, you cannot combine scripts from
different files into one library by using #include statements; you will need to compile each script separately. In a
future release, we plan to add the global variables declared in the script to the dictionary also. If you are curious about
the specific calls, you can raise the ROOT debug level: gDebug=3 and ACLiC will print these steps. If you need to
keep the intermediate files around, for example when debugging the script using gdb, use gDebug=7.

7.9.5

Moving between Interpreter and Compiler

The best way to develop portable scripts is to make sure you can always run them with both, the interpreter and with
ACLiC. To do so, do not use the CINT extensions and program around the CINT limitations. When it is not possible
or desirable to program around the CINT limitations, you can use the C preprocessor symbols defined for CINT and
rootcint.
The preprocessor symbol __CINT__ is defined for both CINT and rootcint. The symbol __MAKECINT__ is only defined
in rootcint.
Use !defined(__CINT__) || defined(__MAKECINT__) to bracket code that needs to be seen by the compiler and
rootcint, but will be invisible to the interpreter.
Use !defined(__CINT__)to bracket code that should be seen only by the compiler and not by CINT or rootcint.For
example, the following will hide the declaration and initialization of the array gArray from both CINT and rootcint.
#if !defined(__CINT__)
int gArray[] = { 2, 3, 4};
#endif

7.10. REFLEX

159

Because ACLiC calls rootcint to build a dictionary, the declaration of gArray will not be included in the dictionary,
and consequently, gArray will not be available at the command line even if ACLiC is used. CINT and rootcint will
ignore all statements between the "#if !defined (__CINT__)" and #endif". If you want to use gArray in the same
script as its declaration, you can do so. However, if you want use the script in the interpreter you have to bracket the
usage of gArray between #ifs, since the definition is not visible. If you add the following preprocessor statements:
#if !defined(__CINT__)
int gArray[] = { 2, 3, 4};
#elif defined(__MAKECINT__)
int gArray[];
#endif
gArray will be visible to rootcint but still not visible to CINT. If you use ACLiC, gArray will be available at the
command line and be initialized properly by the compiled code.
We recommend you always write scripts with the needed include statements. In most cases, the script will still run
with the interpreter. However, a few header files are not handled very well by CINT.
These types of headers can be included in interpreted and compiled mode:
The subset of standard C/C++ headers defined in $ROOTSYS/cint/include.
Headers of classes defined in a previously loaded library (including ROOT own). The defined class must have a
name known to ROOT (i.e. a class with a ClassDef).
A few headers will cause problems when they are included in interpreter mode, because the interpreter itself already
includes them. In general, the interpreter needs to know whether to use the interpreted or compiled version. The mode
of the definition needs to match the mode of the reference.
Here are the cases that need to be excluded in interpreted mode, but included for rootcint. Bracket these with:
!defined(__CINT__) || defined(__MAKECINT__)
All CINT headers, see $ROOTSYS/cint/inc
Headers with classes named other than the file name. For example Rtypes.h and GuiTypes.h.
Headers with a class defined in libraries before the library is loaded. For example: having #include
"TLorentzVector.hbefore gSystem->Load("libPhysics"). This will also cause problems when compiling the
script, but a clear error message will be given. With the interpreter, it may core dump. Bracket these type of
include statements with#if !defined (__CINT__),this will print an error in both modes.
Hiding header files from rootcint that are necessary for the compiler but optional for the interpreter can lead to a
subtle but fatal error. For example:
#ifndef __CINT__
#include "TTree.h"
#else
class TTree;
#endif
class subTree : public TTree {
};
In this case, rootcint does not have enough information about the TTree class to produce the correct dictionary file.
If you try this, rootcint and compiling will be error free, however, instantiating a subTree object from the CINT
command line will cause a fatal error. In general, it is recommended to let rootcint see as many header files as
possible.

7.10

Reflex

Reflection is the ability of a programming language to introspect its data structures and interact with them at runtime
without prior knowledge. Reflex provides reflection capabilities for C++. With the ROOT v5.08, Reflex is an optional
package. It will become a mandatory package (loaded by default) with the next ROOT versions. In order to build it
you have to ./configure --enable-reflex

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

Overview

Inside ROOT Reflex is thought to replace the current reflection system, which is inherent to CINT. This is an ongoing
work and not part of this release. Nevertheless, Reflex dictionaries can be used inside ROOT while populating the
current CINT data structures via a special gateway called Cintex (see Cintex).
In order to use reflection a dictionary of the data structures involved has to be generated. Before generating the
dictionaries, the source code has to be parsed and the information extracted. In the ROOT environment, there are two
ways to generate dictionaries for the Reflex library.
Using CINT as a source code parser - the command to issue when using CINT for parsing C++ constructs is:
rootcint -reflex -f module/src/G__Module.cxx -c module/inc/TMod1.h
module/inc/TMod2.h module/inc/Linkdef.h
Using the gcc compiler as a source code parser: With this option a special program called gccxml has to be
installed. This program is an extension to gcc and produces xml code out of parsed C++ definitions which will
be further used to generate the proper dictionary source code via a python script. For parsing C++ constructs
using the gcc compiler the command will be:
rootcint -gccxml -f module/src/G__Module.cxx -c module/inc/TMod1.h
module/inc/TMod2.h module/inc/Linkdef.h
Note: an installation of Python and gccxml is required for using this option.

7.10.2

Selecting Types And Members

You can use selection files to tell genreflex what it should generate a dictionary for. If you do not use it, it will generate
a dictionary for all types in the files passed at the command line, or when specifying --deep for all types it finds.
The selection file is passed to genreflex with the -s parameters like this:
genreflex -s selection.xml header1.h header2.h.
It is an XML file with the following structure:
<lcgdict>
[<selection>]
<class [name="classname"] [pattern="wildname"]
[file_name="filename"] [file_pattern="wildname"]
[id="xxxx"] [type="vector"]/>
<class name="classname" >
<field name="m_transient" transient="true"/>
<field name="m_anothertransient" transient="true"/>
<properties prop1="value1" [prop2="value2"]/>
</class>
<function [name="funcname"] [pattern="wildname"]
[proto_name="name(int)"] [proto_pattern="name(int,*)"] />
<enum [name="enumname"] [patter="wildname"] />
<variable [name="varname"] [patter="wildname"] />
[</selection>]
<exclusion>
<class [name="classname"] [pattern="wildname"] />
<method name="unwanted" />
</class>
...
</lcgdict>

7.10. REFLEX

7.10.3

161

Genreflex and Templates

The program parsing the header files and providing genreflex with the information whats in them is called GCCXML.
It only sees templates if they are instantiated. See the C++ standard on when template instantiation happens. The
rule of thumb is: if you design a templated class then it probably does not happen in that templated classs header.
So you need to help GCCXML. There are two common approaches: the struct member, and the proper C++ way.
7.10.3.1

Explicit Template Instantiation

This is the preferred method, but it is not widely used. Suppose you have a templated template class C and a templated
function template T A::f(const T&) const;. You can instantiate them (say with template parameter long long)
using:
#ifdef __GCCXML__
// GCCXML explicit template instantiation block
template class C<long long>;
template long long A::f(const long long&);
#endif
You can even put this into your regular header file: it is surrounded by an #ifdef __GCCXML__ and will thus be
invisible to any other compiler.
7.10.3.2

Template Instantiation by struct Members

Suppose you have a templated template class C and a templated function template T f(const T&) const; defined in file
C.h. For the templated class you can use:
#include "C.h"
#ifdef __GCCXML__
// GCCXML explicit template instantiation block
namespace {
struct GCCXML_DUMMY_INSTANTIATION {
C<long long> dummyMember;
};
}
#endif
Often people put these instantiations into a separate header which in turn #includes the actual header, such that the
C++ sources do not see the GCCXML_DUMMY_INSTANTIATION.

7.10.4

GCCXML Installation

Gccxml is a front-end to the gcc compiler suite, which generates xml code out of parsed C++ definitions. Gccxml
needs to be installed in order to use this option. Now we are using a patched version of gccxml release 0.6.0 called
(0.6.0_patch3). This installation can be downloaded from http://spi.cern.ch/lcgsoft/.
Once the dictionary sources have been generated, they can be compiled into a library and loaded via the Reflex builder
system. The dictionary information can be used via the Reflex API. For this purpose, Reflex provides eight classes,
which exploit the whole functionality of the system.

7.10.5

Reflex API

Reflex offers a simple yet powerful API to access Reflex reflection database. The following classes are defined in the
namespace ROOT::Reflex and documented at http://root.cern.ch/root/html/REFLEX_Index.html.
An object is an abstraction of a user object. It contains the information about its type and it is location in memory.
Type is an abstraction of a C++ type. Types in Reflex are:
Array

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CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

Class/struct
Templated class/struct
Enum
Function
Fundamental
Pointer
Pointer to member
Typedef
Union

A scope is an abstraction of a C++ type. It holds information such as its declaring scope, it is underlying scope and
it is data/function members. Scopes are:

Namespace
Class/Struct
Templated class/struct
Union
Enum

A member lives inside a scope and is of a given Type. Members can be distinguished as:
DataMember
FunctionMember
Templated member
Base holds the information about the inheritance structure of classes. It contains information such as the offset to the
base class and the type of the base class.
Properties are key/value pairs where the key is a string and the value an Any object (Boost::Any). Any objects can
hold any type of information be it a string, int or any arbitrary object. Properties can be attached to Types, Scopes
and Members and hold any kind of information that is not specific to C++. Examples for Properties would be the
class author, a description of a member or the class id.
A MemberTemplate is an abstraction of a templated member. It holds the information about its template parameters
and a list of its instantiations.
A TypeTemplate is an abstraction of a templated type (e.g. class). It holds the same information as the MemberTemplate (e.g. template parameters, list of instantiations)
The Reflex package lives in the namespace ROOT::Reflex. Below some examples of usage of the package are given.
For further information please see the documentation of the different API classes.
The next examples will refer to the example class MyClass:
class MyClass {
public:
MyClass() : fMem1(47), fMem2("foo") { }
int GetMem1() { return fMem1; }
int GetMem1(int i) { return fMem1*i; }
void SetMem1(int i) { fMem1 = i; }
std::string GetMem2() { return fMem2; }
void SetMem2(const std::string & str) { fMem2 = str; }
private:
int fMem1;
std::string fMem2;
};
The first thing after loading a dictionary (which is done at the moment at the same time as the implemenation library),
will be to look up a certain Type or Scope.
Type t1 = Type::ByName("MyClass");

7.10. REFLEX

163

Every API class provides the operator bool, which will return true if the information retrieved for this instance is
valid and further actions on this instance can be taken.
if (t1) {
if (t1.IsClass()) std::cout << "Class ";
std::cout << t1.Name();
}
As a class is also a scope (as enum and union) we can now also iterate over its members. This can be done either with
stl like iterators or with an iteration by number:
For (Member_Iterator mi = t1.DataMember_Begin();
mi != DataMember_End(); ++mi) {
std::cout << (*mi).Name(SCOPED) << " "
<< (*mi).TypeOf().Name(QUALIFIED);
}
Member m;
for (size_t i = 0; i < t1.FunctionMemberSize(); ++i) {
m = t1.FunctionMemberAt(i);
std::cout << m.Name() << " " << m.TypeOf().Name();
for (Type_Iterator ti = m.FunctionParaeter_Begin(); ti !=
m.FunctionParameter_End(); ++ti) {
std::cout << (*ti).Name() << std::endl;
}
}
It is not only possible to introspect information through Reflex but also take actions. E.g. instantiate classes/structs,
invoke functions, set data members, etc. The instantiation of a type which represents a class struct can be done with:
Object o1 = t1.Construct();
which will call the default constructor for this type and allocate the memory for this type inside the Object. The
Object will also contain the type information constructed.
Now the object of a certain type has been constructed one may interact with it. E.g. getting the value of a data
member can be done via which will return an Object of the data member in question.
Object mem_obj = o1.Get("fMem1");
int real_value = 0;
if (mem_obj.TypeOf().Name() == "int)
int real_value = Object_Cast<int>(mem_obj);
It is also possible to invoke function members via the Object class. A function member can be looked up by name,
if the member is overloaded an additional parameter which is the string representation of the type can be passed.
Currently parameters for the function to invoke shall be passed as a vector of memory addresses of the parameters.
This may change in the future to pass a vector of Objects.
int par1 = 2;
std::vector<void*> parVec;
parVec.push_back(&par1);
int ret_val = Object_Cast<int>(
o1.Invoke("GetMem1","int (int)",parVec));
Calling the destructor of an Object can be done via, this will call both the destructor and of the object type and
deallocate the memory.
o1.Destruct();

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7.10.6

CHAPTER 7. CINT THE C++ INTERPRETER

Cintex

Cintex is an optional package inside ROOT. In order to build it you have to

./configure --enable-cintex at the ROOT configuration step.
The purpose of the Cintex package is to bridge uni-directional information from the Reflex to the CINT dictionary
system. This package will be needed as long as the unification of the Reflex and CINT dictionaries has not been
completed. This unification is work ongoing. In order to use Cintex functionality it will be needed to load the Cintex
library (e.g. libCintex.so on linux systems) and enable the Cintex gateway with
Cintex::Enable();
After these two steps have been taken, any Reflex dictionary information should be propagated to the CINT dictionaries
and subsequently usable inside the CINT environment (e.g. from the root prompt). If wanted debugging information
while loading Reflex dictionaries can be turned on with (any number greater than 0 can be used as argument but will
not make any difference in the amount of debugging output for the time being).
Cintex::SetDebug(1);

Chapter 8

Object Ownership
An object has ownership of another object if it has permission to delete it. Usually a collection or a parent object
such as a pad holds ownership. To prevent memory leaks and multiple attempts to delete an object, you need to know
which objects ROOT owns and which are owned by you.
The following rules apply to the ROOT classes.
Histograms, trees, and event lists created by the user are owned by current directory (gDirectory ). When the
current directory is closed or deleted the objects it owns are deleted.
The TROOT master object (gROOT ) has several collections of objects. Objects that are members of these collections
are owned by gROOT see Ownership by the Master TROOT Object (gROOT).
Objects created by another object, for example the function object (e.g.TF1) created by the TH1::Fitmethod is
owned by the histogram.
An object created by DrawCopy methods, is owned by the pad it is drawn in.
If an object fits none of these cases, the user has ownership. The next paragraphs describe each rule and user ownership
in more detail.

8.1

Ownership by Current Directory (gDirectory)

When a histogram, tree, or event list (TEventList) is created, it is added to the list of objects in the current directory
by default. You can get the list of objects in a directory and retrieve a pointer to a specific object with the GetList
method. This example retrieves a histogram.
TH1F *h = (TH1F*)gDirectory->GetList()->FindObject("myHist");
The method TDirectory::GetList() returns a TList of objects in the directory. It looks in memory, and is
implemented in all ROOT collections. You can change the directory of a histogram, tree, or event list with the
SetDirectory method. Here we use a histogram for an example, but the same applies to trees and event lists.
h->SetDirectory(newDir);
You can also remove a histogram from a directory by using SetDirectory(0). Once a histogram is removed from the
directory, it will not be deleted when the directory is closed. It is now your responsibility to delete this histogram once
you have finished with it. To change the default that automatically adds the histogram to the current directory, you
can call the static function:
TH1::AddDirectory(kFALSE);
Not all histograms created here after will be added to the current directory. In this case, you own all histogram objects
and you will need to delete them and clean up the references. You can still set the directory of a histogram by calling
SetDirectory once it has been created as described above.
Note that, when a file goes out of scope or is closed all objects on its object list are deleted.
165

166

8.2

CHAPTER 8. OBJECT OWNERSHIP

Ownership by the Master TROOT Object (gROOT)

The master object gROOT , maintains several collections of objects. For example, a canvas is added to the collection of
canvases and it is owned by the canvas collection.
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*
TSeqCollection*

fFiles
fMappedFiles
fSockets
fCanvases
fStyles
fFunctions
fTasks
fColors
fGeometries
fBrowsers
fSpecials
fCleanups

List
List
List
List
List
List
List
List
List
List
List
List

of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of

TFile
TMappedFile
TSocket and TServerSocket
TCanvas
TStyle
TF1, TF2, TF3
TTask
TColor
geometries
TBrowser
special objects
recursiveRemove collections

These collections are also displayed in the root folder of the Object Browser. Most of these collections are self
explanatory. The special cases are the collections of specials and cleanups.

8.2.1

The Collection of Specials

This collection contains objects of the following classes: TCutG, TMultiDimFit, TPrincipal, TChains. In addition it
contains the gHtml object, gMinuit objects, and the array of contours graphs (TGraph) created when calling the Draw
method of a histogram with the "CONT, LIST" option.

8.2.2

Access to the Collection Contents

The current content for a collection listed above can be accessed with the corresponding gROOT->GetListOf method
(for example gROOT->GetListOfCanvases). In addition, gROOT->GetListOfBrowsables returns a collection of all
objects visible on the left side panel in the browser. See the image of the Object Browser in the next figure.

Figure 8.1: The ROOT Object Browser

8.3. OWNERSHIP BY OTHER OBJECTS

8.3

167

Ownership by Other Objects

When an object creates another, the creating object is the owner of the created one. For example:
myHisto->Fit("gaus")
The call to Fit copies the global TF1 Gaussian function and attaches the copy to the histogram. When the histogram is
deleted, the copy is deleted also.
When a pad is deleted or cleared, all objects in the pad with the kCanDelete bit set are deleted automatically. Currently
the objects created by the DrawCopy methods, have the kCanDelete bit set and are therefore owned by the pad.

8.4

Ownership by the User

The user owns all objects not described in one of the above cases. TObject has two bits, kCanDelete and kMustCleanup,
that influence how an object is managed (in TObject::fBits). These are in an enumeration in TObject.h. To set
these bits do:
MyObject->SetBit(kCanDelete)
MyObject->SetBit(kMustCleanup)
The bits can be reset and tested with the TObject::ResetBit and TObject::TestBit methods.

8.4.1

The kCanDelete Bit

The gROOT collections (see above) own their members and will delete them regardless of the kCanDelete bit. In all
other collections, when the collection Clear method is called (i.e. TList::Clear()), members with the kCanDelete
bit set, are deleted and removed from the collection. If the kCanDelete bit is not set, the object is only removed from
the collection but not deleted.
If a collection Delete (TList::Delete()) method is called, all objects in the collection are deleted without considering
the kCanDelete bit. It is important to realize that deleting the collection (i.e. delete MyCollection), DOES NOT
delete the members of the collection.
If the user specified MyCollection->SetOwner() the collection owns the objects and delete MyCollection will delete
all its members. Otherwise, you need to:
// delete all member objects in the collection
MyCollection->Delete();
// and delete the collection object
delete MyCollection;
Note that kCanDelete is automatically set by the DrawCopy method and the user can set it for any object. For example,
the user must manage all graphics primitives. If you want TCanvas to delete the primitive you created you have to set
the kCanDelete bit.
The kCanDelete bit setting is displayed with TObject::ls(). The last number is either 1 or 0 and is the kCanDelete
bit.
root[] TCanvas MyCanvas("MyCanvas")
root[] MyCanvas.Divide(2,1)
root[] MyCanvas->cd(MyCanvas_1)
root[] hstat.Draw()
// hstat is an existing TH1F
root[] MyCanvas->cd(MyCanvas_2)
root[] hstat.DrawCopy()
// DrawCopy sets the kCanDelete bit
(class TH1*)0x88e73f8
root[] MyCanvas.ls()
Canvas Name=MyCanvas ...
TCanvas ... Name= MyCanvas ...
TPad
... Name= MyCanvas_1 ...

168

CHAPTER 8. OBJECT OWNERSHIP

TFrame ...
OBJ: TH1F
hstat
Event Histogram : 0
TPaveText
... title
TPaveStats ... stats
TPad ... Name= MyCanvas_2 ...
TFrame ...
OBJ: TH1F
hstat
Event Histogram : 1
TPaveText
... title
TPaveStats ... stats

8.4.2

The kMustCleanup Bit

When the kMustCleanup bit is set, the object destructor will remove the object and its references from all collections
in the clean up collection (gROOT ::fCleanups). An object can be in several collections, for example if an object is in a
browser and on two canvases. If the kMustCleanup bit is set, it will be removed automatically from the browser and
both canvases when the destructor of the object is called.
The kMustCleanup bit is set:
When an object is added to a pad (or canvas) in TObject::AppendPad.
When an object is added to a TBrowser with TBrowser::Add.
When an object is added to a TFolder withTFolder::Add.
When creating an inspector canvas with TInspectCanvas::Inspector.
When creating a TCanvas.
When painting a frame for a pad, the frames kMustCleanup is set in TPad::PaintPadFrame
The user can add his own collection to the collection of clean ups, to take advantage of the automatic garbage collection.
For example:
// create two list
TList *myList1, *myList2;
// add both to of clean ups
gROOT->GetListOfCleanUps()->Add(myList1);
gROOT->GetListOfCleanUps()->Add(myList2);
// assuming myObject is in myList1 and myList2, when calling:
delete myObject;
// the object is deleted from both lists

Chapter 9

Graphics and the Graphical User

Interface
Graphical capabilities of ROOT range from 2D objects (lines, polygons, arrows) to various plots, histograms, and 3D
graphical objects. In this chapter, we are going to focus on principals of graphics and 2D objects. Plots and histograms
are discussed in a chapter of their own.

9.1

Drawing Objects

In ROOT, most objects derive from a base class TObject. This class has a virtual method Draw() so all objects are
supposed to be able to be drawn. The basic whiteboard on which an object is drawn is called a canvas (defined by
the class TCanvas). If several canvases are defined, there is only one active at a time. One draws an object in the active
canvas by using the statement:
object.Draw()
This instructs the object object to draw itself. If no canvas is opened, a default one (named c1) is instantiated
and is drawn.
root[] TLine a(0.1,0.1,0.6,0.6)
root[] a.Draw()
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
The first statement defines a line and the second one draws it. A default canvas is drawn since there was no opened one.

9.2

Interacting with Graphical Objects

When an object is drawn, one can interact with it. For example, the line drawn in the previous paragraph may be
moved or transformed. One very important characteristic of ROOT is that transforming an object on the screen will
also transform it in memory. One actually interacts with the real object, not with a copy of it on the screen. You can
try for instance to look at the starting X coordinate of the line:
root[] a.GetX1()
(double)1.000000000e-1
X1 is the x value of the starting coordinate given in the definition above. Now move it interactively by clicking with the
left mouse button in the lines middle and try to do again:
root[] a.GetX1()
(Double_t)1.31175468483816005e-01
You do not obtain the same result as before, the coordinates of a have changed. As said, interacting with an object
on the screen changes the object in memory.
169

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9.2.1

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Moving, Resizing and Modifying Objects

Changing the graphic objects attributes can be done with the GUI or programmatically. First, lets see how it is done
in the GUI.
9.2.1.1

The Left Mouse Button

As was just seen moving or resizing an object is done with the left mouse button. The cursor changes its shape to
indicate what may be done:
Point the object or one part of it:

Rotate:

Resize (exists also for the other directions):

Enlarge (used for text):
Move:
Here are some examples of:

Moving:

Resizing:

Rotating:
9.2.1.2

With C++ Statements (Programmatically)

How would one move an object in a script? Since there is a tight correspondence between what is seen on the screen
and the object in memory, changing the object changes it on the screen. For example, try to do:
root[] a.SetX1(0.9)

9.2. INTERACTING WITH GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

171

This should change one of the coordinates of our line, but nothing happens on the screen. Why is that? In short, the
canvas is not updated with each change for performance reasons. See Updating the Pad.

9.2.2

Selecting Objects

9.2.2.1

The Middle Mouse Button

Objects in a canvas, as well as in a pad, are stacked on top of each other in the order they were drawn. Some objects
may become active objects, which mean they are reordered to be on top of the others. To interactively make an
object active, you can use the middle mouse button. In case of canvases or pads, the border becomes highlighted
when it is active.
9.2.2.2

With C++ Statements (Programmatically)

Frequently we want to draw in different canvases or pads. By default, the objects are drawn in the active canvas. To
activate a canvas you can use the TPad::cd() method.
root[] c1->cd()

9.2.3

Context Menus: the Right Mouse Button

The context menus are a way to interactively call certain methods of an object. When designing a class, the programmer
can add methods to the context menu of the object by making minor changes to the header file.
9.2.3.1

Using Context Menus

On a ROOT canvas, you can right-click on any object and see the context menu for it. The script hsimple.C draws
a histogram. The image below shows the context menus for some of the objects on the canvas. Next picture shows
that drawing a simple histogram involves as many as seven objects. When selecting a method from the context menu
and that method has options, the user will be asked for numerical values or strings to fill in the option. For example,
TAxis::SetTitle will prompt you for a string to use for the axis title.
9.2.3.2

Structure of the Context Menus

The curious reader will have noticed that each entry in the context menu corresponds to a method of the class. Look
for example to the menu named TAxis::xaxis. xaxis is the name of the object and TAxis the name of its class. If we
look at the list of TAxis methods, for example in http://root.cern.ch/root/htmldoc/TAxis.html, we see the methods
SetTimeDisplay() andUnZoom(), which appear also in the context menu.
There are several divisions in the context menu, separated by lines. The top division is a list of the class methods; the
second division is a list of the parent class methods. The subsequent divisions are the methods other parent classes
in case of multiple inheritance. For example, see the TPaveText::title context menu. A TPaveText inherits from
TAttLine, which has the method SetLineAttributes().
9.2.3.3

Adding Context Menus for a Class

For a method to appear in the context menu of the object it has to be marked by // *MENU* in the header file. Below
is the line from TAttLine.h that adds the SetLineAttribute method to the context menu.
virtual void

SetLineAttributes(); // *MENU*

Nothing else is needed, since CINT knows the classes and their methods. It takes advantage of that to create the
context menu on the fly when the object is clicking on. If you click on an axis, ROOT will ask the interpreter what are
the methods of the TAxis and which ones are set for being displayed in a context menu.
Now, how does the interpreter know this? Remember, when you build a class that you want to use in the ROOT
environment, you use rootcint that builds the so-called stub functions and the dictionary. These functions and the
dictionary contain the knowledge of the used classes. To do this, rootcint parses all the header files. ROOT has

172

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.1: Context menus of different objects in a canvas

9.2. INTERACTING WITH GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

173

defined some special syntax to inform CINT of certain things, this is done in the comments so that the code still
compiles with a C++ compiler.
For example, you have a class with a Draw() method, which will display itself. You would like a context menu to
appear when on clicks on the image of an object of this class. The recipe is the following:
The class has to contain the ClassDef/ClassImp macros
For each method you want to appear in the context menu, put a comment after the declaration containing *MENU*
or *TOGGLE* depending on the behavior you expect. One usually uses Set methods (setters). The *TOGGLE*
comment is used to toggle a boolean data field. In that case, it is safe to call the data field fMyBool where
MyBool is the name of the setter SetMyBool. Replace MyBool with your own boolean variable.
You can specify arguments and the data members in which to store the arguments.
For example:
class MyClass : public TObject {
private:
int
fV1;
// first variable
double
fV2;
// second variable
public:
int
GetV1() {return fV1;}
double GetV2() {return fV2;}
void
SetV1(int x1) { fV1 = x1;}
// *MENU*
void
SetV2(double d2) { fV2 = d2;} // *MENU*
void
SetBoth(int x1, double d2) {fV1 = x1; fV2 = d2;}
}

ClassDef (MyClass,1)

To specify arguments:
void SetXXX(Int_t x1, Float_t y2); //*MENU* *ARGS={x1=>fV1}
This statement is in the comment field, after the *MENU*. If there is more than one argument, these arguments are
separated by commas, where fX1 and fY2 are data fields in the same class.
void SetXXX(Int_t x1, Float_t y2); //*MENU* *ARGS={x1=>fX1,y2=>fY2}
If the arguments statement is present, the option dialog displayed when selecting SetXXX field will show the values of
variables. We indicate to the system which argument corresponds to which data member of the class.

9.2.4

Executing Events when a Cursor Passes on Top of an Object

This paragraph is for class designers. When a class is designed, it is often desirable to include drawing methods for it.
We will have a more extensive discussion about this, but drawing an object in a canvas or a pad consists in attaching
the object to that pad. When one uses object.Draw(), the object is NOT painted at this moment. It is only attached
to the active pad or canvas.
Another method should be provided for the object to be painted, the Paint() method. This is all explained in the next
paragraph. As well as Draw() and Paint(), other methods may be provided by the designer of the class. When the
mouse is moved or a button pressed/released, the TCanvas function named HandleInput() scans the list of objects in
all its pads and for each object calls some standard methods to make the object react to the event (mouse movement,
click or whatever).
The second one is DistanceToPrimitive(px,py). This function computes a distance to an object from the mouse
position at the pixel position (px, py, see definition at the end of this paragraph) and returns this distance in pixel
units. The selected object will be the one with the shortest computed distance. To see how this works, select the
Event Status item in the canvas Options menu. ROOT will display one status line showing the picked object. If
the picked object is, for example, a histogram, the status line indicates the name of the histogram, the position x,y in
histogram coordinates, the channel number and the channel content.

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

It is nice for the canvas to know what the closest object from the mouse is, but its even nicer to be able to make this
object react. The third standard method to be provided is ExecuteEvent(). This method actually does the event
reaction. Its prototype is where px and py are the coordinates at which the event occurred, except if the event is a key
press, in which case px contains the key code.
void ExecuteEvent(Int_t event, Int_t px, Int_t py);
Where event is the event that occurs and is one of the following (defined in Buttons.h):
kNoEvent,
kButton3Down,
kButton2Up,
kButton2Motion,
kButton1Locate,
kKeyUp,
kButton3Double,
kMouseLeave

kButton1Down,
kKeyDown,
kButton3Up,
kButton3Motion,
kButton2Locate,
kButton1Double,
kMouseMotion,

kButton2Down,
kButton1Up,
kButton1Motion,
kKeyPress,
kButton3Locate,
kButton2Double,
kMouseEnter,

We hope the names are self-explanatory.

Designing an ExecuteEvent method is not very easy, except if one wants very basic treatment. We will not go into
that and let the reader refer to the sources of classes like TLine or TBox. Go and look at their ExecuteEvent method!
We can nevertheless give some reference to the various actions that may be performed. For example, one often wants
to change the shape of the cursor when passing on top of an object. This is done with the SetCursor method:
gPad->SetCursor(cursor)
The argument cursor is the type of cursor. It may be:
kBottomLeft,
kTopRight,
kTopSide,
kCross,
kHand,
kArrowRight,

kBottomRight,
kBottomSide,
kRightSide,
kArrowHor,
kRotate,
kCaret,

kTopLeft,
kLeftSide,
kMove,
kArrowVer,
kPointer,
kWatch

They are defined in TVirtualX.h and again we hope the names are self-explanatory. If not, try them by designing a
small class. It may derive from something already known like TLine.
Note that the ExecuteEvent() functions may in turn; invoke such functions for other objects, in case an object is
drawn using other objects. You can also exploit at best the virtues of inheritance. See for example how the class
TArrow (derived from TLine) use or redefine the picking functions in its base class.
The last comment is that mouse position is always given in pixel units in all these standard functions. px=0 and py=0
corresponds to the top-left corner of the canvas. Here, we have followed the standard convention in windowing systems.
Note that user coordinates in a canvas (pad) have the origin at the bottom-left corner of the canvas (pad). This is all
explained in the paragraph The Coordinate Systems of a Pad.

9.3

Graphical Containers: Canvas and Pad

We have talked a lot about canvases, which may be seen as windows. More generally, a graphical entity that contains
graphical objects is called a Pad. A Canvas is a special kind of Pad. From now on, when we say something about pads,
this also applies to canvases. A pad (class TPad) is a graphical container in the sense it contains other graphical objects
like histograms and arrows. It may contain other pads (sub-pads) as well. A Pad is a linked list of primitives of any
type (graphs, histograms, shapes, tracks, etc.). It is a kind of display list.
Drawing an object is nothing more than adding its pointer to this list. Look for example at the code of TH1::Draw().
It is merely ten lines of code. The last statement is AppendPad(). This statement calls method of TObject that just
adds the pointer of the object, here a histogram, to the list of objects attached to the current pad. Since this is a
TObjects method, every object may be drawn, which means attached to a pad.
When is the painting done then ? The answer is: when needed. Every object that derives from TObject has a Paint()
method. It may be empty, but for graphical objects, this routine contains all the instructions to paint effectively it in

9.3. GRAPHICAL CONTAINERS: CANVAS AND PAD

Figure 9.2: The pad display list

Figure 9.3: Pad painting

175

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

the active pad. Since a Pad has the list of objects it owns, it will call successively the Paint() method of each object,
thus re-painting the whole pad on the screen. If the object is a sub-pad, its Paint() method will call the Paint()
method of the objects attached, recursively calling Paint() for all the objects.
In some cases a pad need to be painted during a macro execution. To force the pad painting gPad->Update() (see
next section) should be performed.
The list of primitives stored in the pad is also used to pick objects and to interact with them.

9.3.1

The Global Pad: gPad

When an object is drawn, it is always in the so-called active pad. For every day use, it is comfortable to be able to
access the active pad, whatever it is. For that purpose, there is a global pointer, called gPad . It is always pointing to
the active pad. If you want to change the fill color of the active pad to blue but you do not know its name, do this.
root[] gPad->SetFillColor(38)
To get the list of colors, go to the paragraph Color and color palettes or if you have an opened canvas, click on the
View menu, selecting the Colors item.
9.3.1.1

Finding an Object in a Pad

Now that we have a pointer to the active pad, gPad and that we know this pad contains some objects, it is sometimes
interesting to access one of those objects. The method GetPrimitive() of TPad, i.e. TPad::GetPrimitive(const
char* name) does exactly this. Since most of the objects that a pad contains derive from TObject, they have a name.
The following statement will return a pointer to the object myobjectname and put that pointer into the variable obj.
As you can see, the type of returned pointer is TObject*.
root[] obj = gPad->GetPrimitive("myobjectname")
(class TObject*)0x1063cba8
Even if your object is something more complicated, like a histogram TH1F, this is normal. A function cannot return
more than one type. So the one chosen was the lowest common denominator to all possible classes, the class from
which everything derives, TObject. How do we get the right pointer then? Simply do a cast of the function output
that will transform the output (pointer) into the right type. For example if the object is a TPaveLabel:
root[] obj = (TPaveLabel*)(gPad->GetPrimitive("myobjectname"))
(class TPaveLabel*)0x1063cba8
This works for all objects deriving from TObject. However, a question remains. An object has a name if it derives
from TNamed, not from TObject. For example, an arrow (TArrow) doesnt have a name. In that case, the name is
the name of the class. To know the name of an object, just click with the right button on it. The name appears at
the top of the context menu. In case of multiple unnamed objects, a call to GetPrimitive("className") returns the
instance of the class that was first created. To retrieve a later instance you can use GetListOfPrimitives(), which
returns a list of all the objects on the pad. From the list you can select the object you need.
9.3.1.2

Hiding an Object

Hiding an object in a pad can be made by removing it from the list of objects owned by that pad. This list is accessible
by the GetListOfPrimitives() method of TPad. This method returns a pointer to a TList. Suppose we get the
pointer to the object, we want to hide, call it obj (see paragraph above). We get the pointer to the list:
root[] li = gPad->GetListOfPrimitives()
Then remove the object from this list:
root[] li->Remove(obj)
The object will disappear from the pad as soon as the pad is updated (try to resize it for example). If one wants to
make the object reappear:
root[] obj->Draw()
Caution, this will not work with composed objects, for example many histograms drawn on the same plot (with the
option same). There are other ways! Try to use the method described here for simple objects.

9.3. GRAPHICAL CONTAINERS: CANVAS AND PAD

9.3.2

177

The Coordinate Systems of a Pad

There are coordinate systems in a TPad: user coordinates, normalized coordinates (NDC), and pixel coordinates.

Figure 9.4: Pad coordinate systems

9.3.2.1

The User Coordinate System

The most common is the user coordinate system. Most methods of TPad use the user coordinates, and all graphic
primitives have their parameters defined in terms of user coordinates. By default, when an empty pad is drawn, the
user coordinates are set to a range from 0 to 1 starting at the lower left corner. At this point they are equivalent of the
NDC coordinates (see below). If you draw a high level graphical object, such as a histogram or a function, the user
coordinates are set to the coordinates of the histogram. Therefore, when you set a point it will be in the histogram
coordinates.
For a newly created blank pad, one may use TPad::Range to set the user coordinate system. This function is defined
as:
void Range(float x1,float y1,float x2,float y2)
The arguments x1, x2 defines the new range in the x direction, and the y1, y2 define the new range in the y-direction.
root[] TCanvas MyCanvas ("MyCanvas")
root[] gPad->Range(-100,-100,100,100)
This will set the active pad to have both coordinates to go from -100 to 100, with the center of the pad at (0,0). You
can visually check the coordinates by viewing the status bar in the canvas. To display the status bar select Event
Status entry in the View canvas menu.

Figure 9.5: The status bar

9.3.2.2

The Normalized Coordinate System (NDC)

Normalized coordinates are independent of the window size and of the user system. The coordinates range from 0 to 1
and (0, 0) corresponds to the bottom-left corner of the pad. Several internal ROOT functions use the NDC system (3D
primitives, PostScript, log scale mapping to linear scale). You may want to use this system if the user coordinates are
not known ahead of time.

9.3.2.3

The Pixel Coordinate System

The least common is the pixel coordinate system, used by functions such as DistanceToPrimitive() and
ExecuteEvent(). Its primary use is for cursor position, which is always given in pixel coordinates. If (px,py) is the
cursor position, px=0 and py=0 corresponds to the top-left corner of the pad, which is the standard convention in
windowing systems.

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Using NDC for a particular Object

Most of the time, you will be using the user coordinate system. But sometimes, you will want to use NDC. For example,
if you want to draw text always at the same place over a histogram, no matter what the histogram coordinates are.
There are two ways to do this. You can set the NDC for one object or may convert NDC to user coordinates. Most
graphical objects offer an option to be drawn in NDC. For instance, a line (TLine) may be drawn in NDC by using
DrawLineNDC(). A latex formula or a text may use TText::SetNDC() to be drawn in NDC coordinates.

9.3.3

Converting between Coordinate Systems

There are a few utility functions in TPad to convert from one system of coordinates to another. In the following table, a
point is defined by (px,py) in pixel coordinates, (ux,uy) in user coordinates, (ndcx,ndcy) in normalized coordinates,
(apx, apy) are in absolute pixel coordinates.
Conversion
NDC to Pixel
Pixel to User

User to Pixel

User to absolute pixel

Absolute pixel to user

TPads Methods
UtoPixel(ndcx)
VtoPixel(ndcy)
PixeltoX(px)
PixeltoY(py)
PixeltoXY(px,py,&ux,&uy)
XtoPixel(ux)
YtoPixel(uy)
XYtoPixel(ux,uy,&px,&py)
XtoAbsPixel(ux)
YtoAbsPixel(uy)
XYtoAbsPixel(ux,uy,&apx,&apy)
AbsPixeltoX(apx)
AbsPixeltoY(apy)
AbsPixeltoXY(apx,apy,&ux,&uy)

Returns
Int_t
Int_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t ux,uy
Int_t
Int_t
Int_t px,py
Int_t
Int_t
Int_t apx,apy
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t ux,uy

Note: all the pixel conversion functions along the Y axis consider that py=0 is at the top of the pad except PixeltoY()
which assume that the position py=0 is at the bottom of the pad. To make PixeltoY() converting the same way as
the other conversion functions, it should be used the following way (p is a pointer to a TPad):
p->PixeltoY(py - p->GetWh());

9.3.4

Dividing a Pad into Sub-pads

Dividing a pad into sub pads in order for instance to draw a few histograms, may be done in two ways. The first is to
build pad objects and to draw them into a parent pad, which may be a canvas. The second is to automatically divide a
pad into horizontal and vertical sub pads.

9.3.4.1

Creating a Single Sub-pad

The simplest way to divide a pad is to build sub-pads in it. However, this forces the user to explicitly indicate the size
and position of those sub-pads. Suppose we want to build a sub-pad in the active pad (pointed by gPad ). First, we
build it, using a TPad constructor:
root[] spad1 = new TPad("spad1","The first subpad",.1,.1,.5,.5)
One gives the coordinates of the lower left point (0.1, 0.1) and of the upper right one (0.5, 0.5). These coordinates are
in NDC. This means that they are independent of the user coordinates system, in particular if you have already drawn
for example a histogram in the mother pad. The only thing left is to draw the pad:
root[] spad1->Draw()
If you want more sub-pads, you have to repeat this procedure as many times as necessary.

9.3. GRAPHICAL CONTAINERS: CANVAS AND PAD

9.3.4.2

179

Dividing a Canvas into Sub-Pads

The manual way of dividing a pad into sub-pads is sometimes very tedious. There is a way to automatically generate
horizontal and vertical sub-pads inside a given pad.
root[] pad1->Divide(3,2)

Figure 9.6: Dividing a pad into 6 sub-pads

Figure 9.7: Dividing a pad into 6 sub-pads

If pad1 is a pad then, it will divide the pad into 3 columns of 2 sub-pads. The generated sub-pads get names pad1_i
where the index i=1 to nxm (in our case pad1_1, pad1_2. . . pad1_6). The names pad1_1etc. . . correspond to new
variables in CINT, so you may use them as soon as the executed method was pad->Divide(). However, in a compiled
program, one has to access these objects. Remember that a pad contains other objects and that these objects may
themselves be pads. So we can use the GetPrimitive() method:
TPad* pad1_1 = (TPad*)(pad1->GetPrimitive("pad1_1"))
One question remains. In case one does an automatic divide, how one can set the default margins between pads? This
is done by adding two parameters to Divide(), which are the margins in x and y:
root[] pad1->Divide(3,2,0.1,0.1)
The margins are here set to 10% of the parent pad width.

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9.3.5

Updating the Pad

For performance reasons, a pad is not updated with every change. For example, changing the coordinates of the pad
does not automatically redraw it. Instead, the pad has a bit-modified that triggers a redraw. This bit is automatically
set by:
Touching the pad with the mouse - for example resizing it with the mouse.
Finishing the execution of a script.
Adding a new primitive or modifying some primitives for example the name and title of an object.
You can also set the bit-modified explicitly with the Modified method:
// the pad has changed
root[] pad1->Modified()
// recursively update all modified pads:
root[] c1->Update()
A subsequent call to TCanvas::Update() scans the list of sub-pads and repaints the pads declared modified.
In compiled code or in a long macro, you may want to access an object created during the paint process. To do so, you
can force the painting with a TCanvas::Update(). For example, a TGraph creates a histogram (TH1) to paint itself. In
this case the internal histogram obtained with TGraph::GetHistogram() is created only after the pad is painted. The
pad is painted automatically after the script is finished executing or if you force the painting with TPad::Modified()
followed by a TCanvas::Update(). Note that it is not necessary to call TPad::Modified() after a call to Draw(). The
bit-modified is set automatically by Draw(). A note about the bit-modified in sub pads: when you want to update
a sub pad in your canvas, you need to call pad->Modified() rather than canvas->Modified(), and follow it with a
canvas->Update(). If you use canvas->Modified(), followed by a call to canvas->Update(), the sub pad has not
been declared modified and it will not be updated. Also note that a call to pad->Update() where pad is a sub pad of
canvas, calls canvas->Update() and recursively updates all the pads on the canvas.

9.3.6

Making a Pad Transparent

As we will see in the paragraph Fill Attributes, a fill style (type of hatching) may be set for a pad.
root[] pad1->SetFillStyle(istyle)
This is done with the SetFillStyle method where istyle is a style number, defined in Fill Attributes. A special
set of styles allows handling of various levels of transparency. These are styles number 4000 to 4100, 4000 being fully
transparent and 4100 fully opaque. So, suppose you have an existing canvas with several pads. You create a new pad
(transparent) covering for example the entire canvas. Then you draw your primitives in this pad. The same can be
achieved with the graphics editor. For example:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

9.3.7

.x tutorials/hist/h1draw.C
TPad *newpad=new TPad("newpad","Transparent pad",0,0,1,1);
newpad->SetFillStyle(4000);
newpad->Draw();
newpad->cd();
// create some primitives, etc

Setting the Log Scale

Setting the scale to logarithmic or linear is an attribute of the pad, not the axis or the histogram. The scale is an
attribute of the pad because you may want to draw the same histogram in linear scale in one pad and in log scale in
another pad. Frequently, we see several histograms on top of each other in the same pad. It would be very inconvenient
to set the scale attribute for each histogram in a pad.
Furthermore, if the logic was set in the histogram class (or each object) the scale setting in each Paint method of all
objects should be tested.
If you have a pad with a histogram, a right-click on the pad, outside of the histograms frame will convince you. The
SetLogx(), SetLogy() and SetLogz() methods are there. As you see, TPad defines log scale for the two directions x
and y plus z if you want to draw a 3D representation of some function or histogram.
The way to set log scale in the x direction for the active pad is:

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

181

root[] gPad->SetLogx(1)
To reset log in the z direction:
root[] gPad->SetLogz(0)
If you have a divided pad, you need to set the scale on each of the sub-pads. Setting it on the containing pad does not
automatically propagate to the sub-pads. Here is an example of how to set the log scale for the x-axis on a canvas with
four sub-pads:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

9.3.8

TCanvas MyCanvas("MyCanvas","My Canvas")

MyCanvas->Divide(2,2)
MyCanvas->cd(1)
gPad->SetLogx()
MyCanvas->cd(2)
gPad->SetLogx()
MyCanvas->cd(3)
gPad->SetLogx()

WaitPrimitive method

When the TPad::WaitPrimitive() method is called with no arguments, it will wait until a double click or any key
pressed is executed in the canvas. A call to gSystem->Sleep(10) has been added in the loop to avoid consuming at all
the CPU. This new option is convenient when executing a macro. By adding statements like:
canvas->WaitPrimitive();
You can monitor the progress of a running macro, stop it at convenient places with the possibility to interact with the
canvas and resume the execution with a double click or a key press.

9.3.9

Locking the Pad

You can make the TPad non-editable. Then no new objects can be added, and the existing objects and the pad can not
be changed with the mouse or programmatically. By default the TPad is editable.
TPad::SetEditable(kFALSE)

9.4

Graphical Objects

In this paragraph, we describe the various simple 2D graphical objects defined in ROOT. Usually, one defines these
objects with their constructor and draws them with their Draw() method. Therefore, the examples will be very brief.
Most graphical objects have line and fill attributes (color, width) that will be described in Graphical objects attributes.
If the user wants more information, the class names are given and he may refer to the online developer documentation.
This is especially true for functions and methods that set and get internal values of the objects described here. By
default 2D graphical objects are created in User Coordinates with (0, 0) in the lower left corner.

9.4.1

Lines, Arrows and Polylines

The simplest graphical object is a line. It is implemented in the TLine class. The line constructor is:
TLine(Double_t x1,Double_t y1,Double_t x2,Double_t y2)
The arguments x1, y1, x2, y2 are the coordinates of the first and second point. It can be used:
root[] l = new TLine(0.2,0.2,0.8,0.3)
root[] l->Draw()

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The arrow constructor is:

TArrow(Double_t x1, Double_t y1,
Double_t x2, Double_t y2,
Float_t arrowsize, Option_t *option)
It defines an arrow between points x1,y1 and x2,y2. The arrow size is in percentage of the pad height. The option
parameter has the following meanings:
>

<|

<

|>

<>
<|>
Once an arrow is drawn on the screen, one can:
click on one of the edges and move this edge.
click on any other arrow part to move the entire arrow.

Figure 9.8: Different arrow formats

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

183

If FillColor is 0, an open triangle is drawn; else a full triangle is filled with the set fill color. If ar is an arrow object,
fill color is set with:
ar.SetFillColor(icolor);
Where icolor is the color defined in Color and Color Palettes.
The default-opening angle between the two sides of the arrow is 60 degrees. It can be changed with the method
ar->SetAngle(angle), where angle is expressed in degrees.
A poly-line is a set of joint segments. It is defined by a set of N points in a 2D space. Its constructor is:
TPolyLine(Int_t n,Double_t* x,Double_t* y,Option_t* option)
Where n is the number of points, and x and y are arrays of n elements with the coordinates of the points. TPolyLine
can be used by it self, but is also a base class for other objects, such as curly arcs.

9.4.2

Circles and Ellipses

An ellipse can be truncated and rotated. It is defined by its center (x1,y1) and two radii r1 and r2. A minimum and
maximum angle may be specified (phimin,phimax). The ellipse may be rotated with an angle theta. All these angles
are in degrees. The attributes of the outline line are set via TAttLine, of the fill area - via TAttFill class. They are
described in Graphical Objects Attributes.

Figure 9.9: Different types of ellipses

When an ellipse sector is drawn only, the lines between the center and the end points of the sector are drawn by default.
By specifying the drawn option only, these lines can be avoided. Alternatively, the method SetNoEdges() can be
called. To remove completely the ellipse outline, specify zero (0) as a line style.
The TEllipse constructor is:
TEllipse(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t r1, Double_t r2,
Double_t phimin, Double_t phimax, Double_t theta)
An ellipse may be created with:
root[] e = new TEllipse(0.2,0.2,0.8,0.3)
root[] e->Draw()

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9.4.3

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Rectangles

The class TBox defines a rectangle. It is a base class for many different higher-level graphical primitives. Its bottom left
coordinates x1, y1 and its top right coordinates x2, y2, defines a box. The constructor is:
TBox(Double_t x1,Double_t y1,Double_t x2,Double_t y2)
It may be used as in:
root[] b = new TBox(0.2,0.2,0.8,0.3)
root[] b->SetFillColor(5)
root[] b->Draw()

Figure 9.10: A rectangle with a border

A TWbox is a rectangle (TBox) with a border size and a border mode. The attributes of the outline line and of the fill
area are described in Graphical Objects Attributes

9.4.4

Markers

A marker is a point with a fancy shape! The possible markers are shown in the next figure.

Figure 9.11: Markers

The marker constructor is:
TMarker(Double_t x,Double_t y,Int_t marker)
The parameters x and y are the marker coordinates and marker is the marker type, shown in the previous figure.
Suppose the pointer ma is a valid marker. The marker size is set via ma->SetMarkerSize(size), where size is the
desired size. Note, that the marker types 1, 6 and 7 (the dots) cannot be scaled. They are always drawn with the same
number of pixels. SetMarkerSize does not apply on them. To have a scalable dot a circle shape should be used
instead, for example, the marker type 20. The default marker type is 1, if SetMarkerStyle is not specified. It is the
most common one to draw scatter plots.
The user interface for changing the marker color, style and size looks like shown in this picture. It takes place in the
editor frame anytime the selected object inherits the class TAttMarker.

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

185

Figure 9.12: Different marker sizes

Figure 9.13: Different marker sizes

Figure 9.14: The use of non-symmetric markers

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Non-symmetric symbols should be used carefully in plotting. The next two graphs show how the misleading a careless
use of symbols can be. The two plots represent the same data sets but because of a bad symbol choice, the two on the
top appear further apart from the next example.
A TPolyMaker is defined by an array on N points in a 2D space. At each point x[i], y[i] a marker is drawn. The list
of marker types is shown in the previous paragraph. The marker attributes are managed by the class TAttMarker and
are described in Graphical Objects Attributes. The TPolyMarker constructor is:
TPolyMarker(Int_t n,Double_t *x,Double_t *y,Option_t *option)
Where x and y are arrays of coordinates for the n points that form the poly-marker.

9.4.5

Curly and Wavy Lines for Feynman Diagrams

This is a peculiarity of particle physics, but we do need sometimes to draw Feynman diagrams. Our friends working
in banking can skip this part. A set of classes implements curly or wavy poly-lines typically used to draw Feynman
diagrams. Amplitudes and wavelengths may be specified in the constructors, via commands or interactively from
context menus. These classes are TCurlyLine and TCurlyArc. These classes make use of TPolyLine by inheritance;
ExecuteEvent methods are highly inspired from the methods used in TPolyLine and TArc.

Figure 9.15: The picture generated by the tutorial macro feynman.C

The TCurlyLine constructor is:
TCurlyLine(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t x2, Double_t y2,
Double_t wavelength, Double_t amplitude)
The coordinates (x1, y1) define the starting point, (x2, y2) - the end-point. The wavelength and the amplitude are
given in percent of the pad height.
The TCurlyArc constructor is:
TCurlyArc(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t rad,
Double_t phimin, Double_t phimax,
Double_t wavelength, Double_t amplitude)
The curly arc center is (x1, y1) and the radius is rad. The wavelength and the amplitude are given in percent of the
line length. The parameters phimin and phimax are the starting and ending angle of the arc (given in degrees). Refer
to $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/feynman.C for the script that built the figure above.

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

9.4.6

187

Text and Latex Mathematical Expressions

Text displayed in a pad may be embedded into boxes, called paves (TPaveLabel), or titles of graphs or many other
objects but it can live a life of its own. All text displayed in ROOT graphics is an object of class TText. For a physicist,
it will be most of the time a TLatex expression (which derives from TText). TLatex has been conceived to draw
mathematical formulas or equations. Its syntax is very similar to the Latex in mathematical mode.
9.4.6.1

Subscripts and Superscripts

Subscripts and superscripts are made with the _ and commands. These commands can be combined to make complex
subscript and superscript expressions. You may choose how to display subscripts and superscripts using the 2 functions
SetIndiceSize(Double_t) and SetLimitIndiceSize(Int_t). Examples of what can be obtained using subscripts
and superscripts:
The expression
x{2y}
x_{2y}

9.4.6.2

Gives
x2y
x2y

The expression
x{y{2}}
x{y_{1}}

Gives
2
xy
xy1

The expression
x_{1}{y_{1}}
x_{1}{y}

Gives
xy11
xy1

Fractions

Fractions denoted by the / symbol are made in the obvious way. The #frac command is used for large fractions in
displayed formula; it has two arguments: the numerator and the denominator. For example, the equation x = y + z 2
y 2 + 1 is obtained by following expression x=#frac{y+z/2}{y{2}+1}.

9.4.6.3

Roots

The #sqrt command produces the square ROOT of its argument; it has an optional first argument for other roots.

Example: #sqrt{10} #sqrt[3]{10}

9.4.6.4

Delimiters

You can produce three kinds of proportional delimiters.

#[]{....} or la Latex
#left[.....#right]big square brackets
#{}{....} or #left{.....#right}big curly brackets
#||{....} or #left|.....#right|big absolute value symbol
#(){....} or #left(.....#right)big parenthesis

9.4.6.5

Changing Style in Math Mode

You can change the font and the text color at any moment using:
#font[font-number]{...} and #color[color-number]{...}

9.4.6.6

Line Splitting

A TLatex string may be split in two with the following command: #splitline{top}{bottom}. TAxis and TGaxis
objects can take advantage of this feature. For example, the date and time could be shown in the time axis over two
lines with: #splitline{21 April 2003}{14:23:56}

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9.4.7

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Greek Letters

The command to produce a lowercase Greek letter is obtained by adding # to the name of the letter. For an uppercase
Greek letter, just capitalize the first letter of the command name.
#alpha
#gamma
#mu
#sigma
#psi
#Epsilon
#vartheta
#Theta
#varsigma

9.4.8

#beta
#eta
#nu
#tau
#zeta
#Phi
#Lambda
#Rho
#Xi

#chi
#iota
#omicron
#upsilon
#Alpha
#Gamma
#Mu
#Sigma
#Psi

#delta
#varphi
#pi
#varomega
#Beta
#Eta
#Nu
#Tau
#epsilon

#varepsilon
#kappa
#theta
#omega
#Chi
#Iota
#Omicron
#Upsilon
#varUpsilon

#phi
#lambda
#rho
#xi
#Delta
#Kappa
#Pi
#Omega
#Zeta

Mathematical Symbols

TLatex can make mathematical and other symbols. A few of them, such as + and >, are produced by typing the
corresponding keyboard character. Others are obtained with the commands as shown in the table above.
9.4.8.1

Accents, Arrows and Bars

Symbols in a formula are sometimes placed one above another. TLatex provides special commands for that.
#hat{a} =hat
#check =inverted hat
#acute =acute
#grave =accent grave
#dot =derivative
#ddot =double derivative
#tilde =tilde
#slash =special sign. Draw a slash on top of the text between brackets for example
#slash{E}_{T}generates Missing ET
a _ is obtained with #bar{a}
a -> is obtained with #vec{a}
9.4.8.2

Example 1

The script $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/latex.C:

{

TCanvas c1("c1","Latex",600,700);
TLatex l;
l.SetTextAlign(12);
l.SetTextSize(0.04);
l.DrawLatex(0.1,0.8,"1) C(x) = d #sqrt{#frac{2}{#lambdaD}}
#int^{x}_{0}cos(#frac{#pi}{2}t^{2})dt");
l.DrawLatex(0.1,0.6,"2) C(x) = d #sqrt{#frac{2}{#lambdaD}}
#int^{x}cos(#frac{#pi}{2}t^{2})dt");
l.DrawLatex(0.1,0.4,"3) R = |A|^{2} =
#frac{1}{2}(#[]{#frac{1}{2}+C(V)}^{2}+
#[]{#frac{1}{2}+S(V)}^{2})");
l.DrawLatex(0.1,0.2,"4) F(t) = #sum_{i=
-#infty}^{#infty}A(i)cos#[]{#frac{i}{t+i}}");

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

189

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

Figure 9.16: The picture generated by the tutorial macro latex.C

191

192
9.4.8.3

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Example 2

The script $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/latex2.C:

{

TCanvas c1("c1","Latex",600,700);
TLatex l;
l.SetTextAlign(23);
l.SetTextSize(0.1);
l.DrawLatex(0.5,0.95,"e^{+}e^{-}#rightarrowZ^{0}
#rightarrowI#bar{I}, q#bar{q}");
l.DrawLatex(0.5,0.75,"|#vec{a}#bullet#vec{b}|=
#Sigmaa^{i}_{jk}+b^{bj}_{i}");
l.DrawLatex(0.5,0.5,"i(#partial_{#mu}#bar{#psi}#gamma^{#mu}
+m#bar{#psi}=0
#Leftrightarrow(#Box+m^{2})#psi=0");
l.DrawLatex(0.5,0.3,"L_{em}=eJ^{#mu}_{em}A_{#mu} ,
J^{#mu}_{em}=#bar{I}#gamma_{#mu}I
M^{j}_{i}=#SigmaA_{#alpha}#tau^{#alphaj}_{i}");

Figure 9.17: The picture generated by the tutorial macro latex2.C

9.4.8.4

Example 3

The script $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/latex3.C:

{

TCanvas c1("c1");
TPaveText pt(.1,.5,.9,.9);
pt.AddText("#frac{2s}{#pi#alpha^{2}}
#frac{d#sigma}{dcos#theta} (e^{+}e^{-}
#rightarrow f#bar{f} ) = ");

9.4. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

193

pt.AddText("#left| #frac{1}{1 - #Delta#alpha} #right|^{2}

(1+cos^{2}#theta");
pt.AddText("+ 4 Re #left{ #frac{2}{1 - #Delta#alpha} #chi(s)
#[]{#hat{g}_{#nu}^{e}#hat{g}_{#nu}^{f}
(1 + cos^{2}#theta) + 2 #hat{g}_{a}^{e}
#hat{g}_{a}^{f} cos#theta) } #right}");
pt.SetLabel("Born equation");
pt.Draw();

Figure 9.18: The picture generated by the tutorial macro latex3.C

9.4.9

Text in a Pad

Text displayed in a pad may be embedded into boxes, called paves, or may be drawn alone. In any case, it is
recommended to use a Latex expression, which is covered in the previous paragraph. Using TLatex is valid whether
the text is embedded or not. In fact, you will use Latex expressions without knowing it since it is the standard for all
the embedded text. A pave is just a box with a border size and a shadow option. The options common to all types of
paves and used when building those objects are the following:
option = "T" top frame
option = "B" bottom frame
option = "R" right frame
option = "L" left frame
option = "NDC" x1,y1,x2,y2 are given in NDC
option = "ARC" corners are rounded
We will see the practical use of these options in the description of the more functional objects like TPaveLabels. There
are several categories of paves containing text: TPaveLabel, TPaveText and TPavesText. TPaveLabels are panels
containing one line of text. They are used for labeling.
TPaveLabel(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t x2, Double_t y2,
const char *label, Option_t *option)
Where (x1, y1) are the coordinates of the bottom left corner, (x2,y2) - coordinates of the upper right corner. label
is the text to be displayed and option is the drawing option, described above. By default, the border size is 5 and the
option is br. If one wants to set the border size to some other value, one may use the method SetBorderSize(). For

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

example, suppose we have a histogram, which limits are (-100,100) in the x direction and (0, 1000) in the y direction.
The following lines will draw a label in the center of the histogram, with no border. If one wants the label position to
be independent of the histogram coordinates, or user coordinates, one can use the option NDC. See The Coordinate
Systems of a Pad.
root[] pl = new TPaveLabel(-50,0,50,200,"Some text")
root[] pl->SetBorderSize(0)
root[] pl->Draw()

Figure 9.19: PaveLabels drawn with different options

A TPaveLabel can contain only one line of text. A TPaveText may contain several lines. This is the only difference.
This picture illustrates and explains some of the points of TPaveText. Once a TPaveText is drawn, a line can be added
or removed by brining up the context menu with the mouse.
A TPavesText is a stack of text panels (see TPaveText). One can set the number of stacked panels at building time. It
has the following constructor: By default, the number of stacked panels is 5, option=br.
TPavesText(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t x2, Double_t y2,
Int_t npaves, Option_t* option)

9.4.10

The TeX Processor TMathText

TMathTexts purpose is to write mathematical equations, exactly as TeX would do it. The syntax is the same as the
TeXs one.
The script $ROOTSYS/tutorials/graphics/tmathtex.C:
gives the following output:
TMathText uses plain TeX syntax and uses \ as control instead of #. If a piece of text containing \ is given to
TLatex then TMathText is automatically invoked. Therefore, as histograms titles, axis titles, labels etc . . . are drawn
using TLatex, the TMathText syntax can be used for them also.

9.5

Axis

The axis objects are automatically built by various high level objects such as histograms or graphs. Once build, one
may access them and change their characteristics. It is also possible, for some particular purposes to build axis on their
own. This may be useful for example in the case one wants to draw two axis for the same plot, one on the left and one
on the right.
For historical reasons, there are two classes representing axis. TAxis * axis is the axis object, which will be returned
when calling the TH1::GetAxis() method.
TAxis *axis = histo->GetXaxis()
Of course, you may do the same for Y and Z-axis. The graphical representation of an axis is done with the TGaxis
class. The histogram classes and TGraph generate instances of this class. This is internal and the user should not have
to see it.

9.5. AXIS

195

Figure 9.20: PaveText examples

Figure 9.21: A PaveText example

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.22: A TMathText example

9.5.1

Axis Title

The axis title is set, as with all named objects, by

axis->SetTitle("Whatever title you want");
When the axis is embedded into a histogram or a graph, one has to first extract the axis object:
h->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("Whatever title you want")

9.5.2

Axis Options and Characteristics

The axis options are most simply set with the styles. The available style options controlling specific axis options are
the following:
TAxis *axis = histo->GetXaxis();
axis->SetAxisColor(Color_t color = 1);
axis->SetLabelColor(Color_t color = 1);
axis->SetLabelFont(Style_t font = 62);
axis->SetLabelOffset(Float_t offset = 0.005);
axis->SetLabelSize(Float_t size = 0.04);
axis->SetNdivisions(Int_t n = 510, Bool_t optim = kTRUE);
axis->SetNoExponent(Bool_t noExponent = kTRUE);
axis->SetTickLength(Float_t length = 0.03);
axis->SetTitleOffset(Float_t offset = 1);
axis->SetTitleSize(Float_t size = 0.02);
The getters corresponding to the described setters are also available. The general options, not specific to axis, as for
instance SetTitleTextColor() are valid and do have an effect on axis characteristics.

9.5. AXIS

9.5.3

197

Setting the Number of Divisions

Use TAxis::SetNdivisions(ndiv,optim) to set the number of divisions for an axis. The ndiv and optim are as
follows:
ndiv = N1 + 100*N2 + 10000*N3
N1 = number of first divisions.
N2 = number of secondary divisions.
N3 = number of tertiary divisions.
optim = kTRUE (default), the divisions number will be optimized around the specified value.
optim = kFALSE, or n < 0, the axis will be forced to use exactly n divisions.
For example:
ndiv = 0: no tick marks.
ndiv = 2: 2 divisions, one tick mark in the middle of the axis.
ndiv = 510: 10 primary divisions, 5 secondary divisions
ndiv = -10: exactly 10 primary divisions

9.5.4

Zooming the Axis

You can use TAxis::SetRange or TAxis::SetRangeUser to zoom the axis.

TAxis::SetRange(Int_t binfirst,Int_t binlast)
The SetRange method parameters are bin numbers. They are not axis. For example if a histogram plots the values
from 0 to 500 and has 100 bins, SetRange(0,10) will cover the values 0 to 50. The parameters for SetRangeUser are
user coordinates. If the start or end is in the middle of a bin the resulting range is approximation. It finds the low edge
bin for the start and the high edge bin for the high.
TAxis::SetRangeUser(Axis_t ufirst,Axis_t ulast)
Both methods, SetRange and SetRangeUser, are in the context menu of any axis and can be used interactively. In
addition, you can zoom an axis interactively: click on the axis on the start, drag the cursor to the end, and release the
mouse button.

9.5.5

Drawing Axis Independently of Graphs or Histograms

An axis may be drawn independently of a histogram or a graph. This may be useful to draw for example a supplementary
axis for a graph. In this case, one has to use the TGaxis class, the graphical representation of an axis. One may use
the standard constructor for this kind of objects:
TGaxis(Double_t xmin, Double_t ymin, Double_t xmax, Double_t ymax,
Double_t wmin, Double_t wmax, Int_t ndiv = 510,
Option_t* chopt,Double_t gridlength = 0)
The arguments xmin, ymin are the coordinates of the axis start in the user coordinates system, and xmax, ymax
are the end coordinates. The arguments wmin and wmax are the minimum (at the start) and maximum (at the end)
values to be represented on the axis; ndiv is the number of divisions. The options, given by the chopt string are the
following:
chopt = G: logarithmic scale, default is linear.
chopt = B: Blank axis (it is useful to superpose the axis).

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Instead of the wmin,wmax arguments of the normal constructor, i.e. the limits of the axis, the name of a TF1 function
can be specified. This function will be used to map the user coordinates to the axis values and ticks.
The constructor is the following:
TGaxis(Double_t xmin, Double_t ymin, Double_t xmax, Double_t ymax,
const char* funcname, Int_t ndiv=510,
Option_t* chopt, Double_t gridlength=0)
In such a way, it is possible to obtain exponential evolution of the tick marks position, or even decreasing. In fact,
anything you like.

9.5.6

Orientation of Tick Marks on Axis

Tick marks are normally drawn on the positive side of the axis, however, if xmin = xmax, then negative.
chopt = +: tick marks are drawn on Positive side. (Default)
chopt = -: tick marks are drawn on the negative side.
chopt = +-: tick marks are drawn on both sides of the axis.
chopt = U: unlabeled axis, default is labeled.

9.5.7

Labels

9.5.7.1

Position

Labels are normally drawn on side opposite to tick marks. However, chopt = =: on Equal side. The function
TAxis::CenterLabels() sets the bit kCenterLabels and it is visible from TAxis context menu. It centers the bin
labels and it makes sense only when the number of bins is equal to the number of tick marks. The class responsible for
drawing the axis TGaxis inherits this property.
9.5.7.2

Orientation

Labels are normally drawn parallel to the axis. However, if xmin = xmax, then they are drawn orthogonal, and if
ymin=ymax they are drawn parallel.
9.5.7.3

Labels for Exponents

By default, an exponent of the form 10N is used when the label values are either all very small or very large. One can
disable the exponent by calling:
TAxis::SetNoExponent(kTRUE)
Note that this option is implicitly selected if the number of digits to draw a label is less than the fgMaxDigits global
member. If the property SetNoExponent was set in TAxis (via TAxis::SetNoExponent), the TGaxis will inherit this
property. TGaxis is the class responsible for drawing the axis. The method SetNoExponent is also available from the
axis context menu.
9.5.7.4

Number of Digits in Labels

TGaxis::fgMaxDigits is the maximum number of digits permitted for the axis labels above which the notation with
10N is used. It must be greater than 0. By default fgMaxDigits is 5 and to change it use the TGaxis::SetMaxDigits
method. For example to set fgMaxDigits to accept 6 digits and accept numbers like 900000 on an axis call:
TGaxis::SetMaxDigits(6)

9.5. AXIS

199

Figure 9.23: Y-axis with and without exponent labels

9.5.7.5

Tick Mark Positions

Labels are centered on tick marks. However, if xmin = xmax, then they are right adjusted.
chopt = R: labels are right adjusted on tick mark (default is centered)
chopt = L: labels are left adjusted on tick mark.
chopt = C: labels are centered on tick mark.
chopt = M: In the Middle of the divisions.
9.5.7.6

Label Formatting

Blank characters are stripped, and then the label is correctly aligned. The dot, if last character of the string, is also
stripped. In the following, we have some parameters, like tick marks length and characters height (in percentage of the
length of the axis, in user coordinates). The default values are as follows:
Primary tick marks: 3.0 %
Secondary tick marks: 1.5 %
Third order tick marks: .75 %
Characters height for labels: 4%
Labels offset: 1.0 %
9.5.7.7

Stripping Decimals

Use the TStyle::SetStripDecimals to strip decimals when drawing axis labels. By default, the option is set to true,
and TGaxis::PaintAxis removes trailing zeros after the dot in the axis labels, e.g. {0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, etc.}
TStyle::SetStripDecimals (Bool_t strip=kTRUE)
If this function is called with strip=kFALSE, TGaxis::PaintAxis() will draw labels with the same number of digits
after the dot, e.g. {0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, etc.}

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Optional Grid

chopt = W: cross-Wire
9.5.7.9

Axis Binning Optimization

By default, the axis binning is optimized.

chopt = N: No binning optimization
chopt = I: Integer labeling

9.5.8

Axis with Time Units

Histograms axis can be defined as time axis. To do that it is enough to activate the SetTimeDisplay attribute on a
given axis. If h is a histogram, it is done the following way:
h->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);

// X axis is a time axis

Two parameters can be adjusted in order to define time axis: the time format and the time offset.
9.5.8.1

Time Format

It defines the format of the labels along the time axis. It can be changed using the TAxis method SetTimeFormat. The
time format is the one used by the C function strftime(). It is a string containing the following formatting characters:
For the date:

For the time:

%a abbreviated weekday name

%b abbreviated month name
%d day of the month (01-31)
%m month (01-12)
%y year without century
%Y year with century
%H hour (24-hour clock)
%I hour (12-hour clock)
%p local equivalent of AM or PM
%M minute (00-59)
%S seconds (00-61)
%% %

The other characters are output as is. For example to have a format like dd/mm/yyyy one should do:
h->GetXaxis()->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%Y");
If the time format is not defined, a default one will be computed automatically.
9.5.8.2

Time Offset

This is a time in seconds in the UNIX standard UTC format (the universal time, not the local one), defining the
starting date of a histogram axis. This date should be greater than 01/01/95 and is given in seconds. There are three
ways to define the time offset:
1- By setting the global default time offset:
TDatime da(2003,02,28,12,00,00);
gStyle->SetTimeOffset(da.Convert());
If no time offset is defined for a particular axis, the default time offset will be used. In the example above, notice the
usage of TDatime to translate an explicit date into the time in seconds required by SetTimeFormat.
2- By setting a time offset to a particular axis:

9.5. AXIS

201

TDatime dh(2001,09,23,15,00,00);
h->GetXaxis()->SetTimeOffset(dh.Convert());
3- Together with the time format using SetTimeFormat. The time offset can be specified using the control character
%F after the normal time format. %F is followed by the date in the format: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.
h->GetXaxis()->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%y%F2000-02-28 13:00:01");
Notice that this date format is the same used by the TDatime function AsSQLString. If needed, this function can be
used to translate a time in seconds into a character string which can be appended after %F. If the time format is not
specified (before %F) the automatic one will be used. The following example illustrates the various possibilities.
{

gStyle->SetTitleH(0.08);
TDatime da(2003,02,28,12,00,00);
gStyle->SetTimeOffset(da.Convert());
ct = new TCanvas("ct","Time on axis",0,0,600,600);
ct->Divide(1,3);
ht1 = new TH1F("ht1","ht1",30000,0.,200000.);
ht2 = new TH1F("ht2","ht2",30000,0.,200000.);
ht3 = new TH1F("ht3","ht3",30000,0.,200000.);
for (Int_t i=1;i<30000;i++) {
Float_t noise = gRandom->Gaus(0,120);
ht1->SetBinContent(i,noise);
ht2->SetBinContent(i,noise*noise);
ht3->SetBinContent(i,noise*noise*noise);
}
ct->cd(1);
ht1->GetXaxis()->SetLabelSize(0.06);
ht1->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);
ht1->GetXaxis()->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%y%F2000-02-2813:00:01");
ht1->Draw();
ct->cd(2);
ht2->GetXaxis()->SetLabelSize(0.06);
ht2->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);
ht2->GetXaxis()->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%y");
ht2->Draw();
ct->cd(3);
ht3->GetXaxis()->SetLabelSize(0.06);
TDatime dh(2001,09,23,15,00,00);
ht3->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);
ht3->GetXaxis()->SetTimeOffset(dh.Convert());
ht3->Draw();

The output is shown in the figure below. If a time axis has no specified time offset, the global time offset will be stored
in the axis data structure. The histogram limits are in seconds. If wmin and wmax are the histogram limits, the time
axis will spread around the time offset value from TimeOffset+wmin to TimeOffset+wmax. Until now all examples had
a lowest value equal to 0. The following example demonstrates how to define the histogram limits relatively to the time
offset value.
{

// Define the time offset as 2003, January 1st

TDatime T0(2003,01,01,00,00,00);
int X0 = T0.Convert();
gStyle->SetTimeOffset(X0);
// Define the lowest histogram limit as 2002,September 23rd
TDatime T1(2002,09,23,00,00,00);
int X1 = T1.Convert()-X0;
// Define the highest histogram limit as 2003, March 7th

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.24: Time axis examples

9.5. AXIS

203

TDatime T2(2003,03,07,00,00,00);
int X2 = T2.Convert(1)-X0;
TH1F * h1 = new TH1F("h1","test",100,X1,X2);
TRandom r;
for (Int_t i=0;i<30000;i++) {
Double_t noise = r.Gaus(0.5*(X1+X2),0.1*(X2-X1));
h1->Fill(noise);
}

h1->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);
h1->GetXaxis()->SetLabelSize(0.03);
h1->GetXaxis()->SetTimeFormat("%Y/%m/%d");
h1->Draw();

The output is shown in the next figure. Usually time axes are created automatically via histograms, but one may also
want to draw a time axis outside a histogram context. Therefore, it is useful to understand how TGaxis works for
such axis. The time offset can be defined using one of the three methods described before. The time axis will spread
around the time offset value. Actually, it will go from TimeOffset+wmin to TimeOffset+wmax where wmin and wmax
are the minimum and maximum values (in seconds) of the axis. Let us take again an example. Having defined 2003,
February 28 at 12h, we would like to see the axis a day before and a day after.

Figure 9.25: A histogram with time axis X

A TGaxis can be created the following way (a day has 86400 seconds):
TGaxis *axis = new TGaxis(x1,y1,x2,y2,-100000,150000,2405,"t");
the t option (in lower case) means it is a time axis. The axis goes form 100000 seconds before TimeOffset and
150000 seconds after. So the complete macro is:

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{

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","Examples of TGaxis",10,10,700,500);

c1->Range(-10,-1,10,1);
TGaxis *axis = new TGaxis(-8,-0.6,8,-0.6,-100000,150000,2405,"t");
axis->SetLabelSize(0.03);
TDatime da(2003,02,28,12,00,00);
axis->SetTimeOffset(da.Convert());
axis->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%Y");
axis->Draw();

The time format is specified with:

axis->SetTimeFormat("%d/%m/%Y");
The macro gives the following output:

Thanks to the TLatex directive #splitline it is possible to write the time labels on two lines. In the previous example
changing the SetTimeFormat line by:
axis->SetLabelOffset(0.02);
axis->SetTimeFormat("#splitline{%Y}{%d/%m}");
will produce the following axis:

9.5.9

Axis Examples

To illustrate what was said, we provide two scripts. The first one creates the picture shown in the next figure.
The first script is:
{

c1 = new TCanvas("c1","Examples of Gaxis",10,10,700,500);

c1->Range(-10,-1,10,1);
TGaxis *axis1 = new TGaxis(-4.5,-0.2,5.5,-0.2,-6,8,510,"");
axis1->SetName("axis1");
axis1->Draw();
TGaxis *axis2 = new TGaxis(4.5,0.2,5.5,0.2,0.001,10000,510,"G");
axis2->SetName("axis2");
axis2->Draw();
TGaxis *axis3 = new TGaxis(-9,-0.8,-9,0.8,-8,8,50510,"");
axis3->SetName("axis3");
axis3->Draw();
TGaxis *axis4 = new TGaxis(-7,-0.8,7,0.8,1,10000,50510,"G");
axis4->SetName("axis4");
axis4->Draw();

9.5. AXIS

205

Figure 9.26: The first axis example

TGaxis *axis5 = new TGaxis(-4.5,-6,5.5,-6,1.2,1.32,80506,"-+");
axis5->SetName("axis5");
axis5->SetLabelSize(0.03);
axis5->SetTextFont(72);
axis5->SetLabelOffset(0.025);
axis5->Draw();
TGaxis *axis6 = new TGaxis(-4.5,0.6,5.5,0.6,100,900,50510,"-");
axis6->SetName("axis6");
axis6->Draw();
TGaxis *axis7 = new TGaxis(8,-0.8,8,0.8,0,9000,50510,"+L");
axis7->SetName("axis7");
axis7->SetLabelOffset(0.01);
axis7->Draw();

// one can make axis top->bottom. However because of a problem,

// the two x values should not be equal
TGaxis *axis8 = new TGaxis(6.5,0.8,6.499,-0.8,0,90,50510,"-");
axis8->SetName("axis8");
axis8->Draw();

The second example shows the use of the second form of the constructor, with axis ticks position determined by a
function TF1:
void gaxis3a()
{
gStyle->SetOptStat(0);
TH2F *h2 = new TH2F("h","Axes",2,0,10,2,-2,2);

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.27: The second axis example

h2->Draw();
TF1 *f1=new TF1("f1","-x",-10,10);
TGaxis *A1 = new TGaxis(0,2,10,2,"f1",510,"-");
A1->SetTitle("axis with decreasing values");
A1->Draw();
TF1 *f2=new TF1("f2","exp(x)",0,2);
TGaxis *A2 = new TGaxis(1,1,9,1,"f2");
A2->SetTitle("exponential axis");
A2->SetLabelSize(0.03);
A2->SetTitleSize(0.03);
A2->SetTitleOffset(1.2);
A2->Draw();

TF1 *f3=new TF1("f3","log10(x)",0,800);

TGaxis *A3 = new TGaxis(2,-2,2,0,"f3",505);
A3->SetTitle("logarithmic axis");
A3->SetLabelSize(0.03);
A3->SetTitleSize(0.03);
A3->SetTitleOffset(1.2);
A3->Draw();

// strip chart example

void seism() {
TStopwatch sw; sw.Start();
//set time offset
TDatime dtime;
gStyle->SetTimeOffset(dtime.Convert());

9.5. AXIS

207

Figure 9.28: An axis example with time display

TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","Time on axis",10,10,1000,500);

c1->SetFillColor(42);
c1->SetFrameFillColor(33);
c1->SetGrid();
Float_t bintime = 1;
// one bin = 1 second. change it to set the time scale
TH1F *ht = new TH1F("ht","The ROOT seism",10,0,10*bintime);
Float_t signal = 1000;
ht->SetMaximum(signal);
ht->SetMinimum(-signal);
ht->SetStats(0);
ht->SetLineColor(2);
ht->GetXaxis()->SetTimeDisplay(1);
ht->GetYaxis()->SetNdivisions(520);
ht->Draw();

for (Int_t i=1;i<2300;i++) {

// Build a signal : noisy damped sine
Float_t noise = gRandom->Gaus(0,120);
if (i > 700)
noise += signal*sin((i-700.)*6.28/30)*exp((700.-i)/300.);
ht->SetBinContent(i,noise);
c1->Modified();
c1->Update();
gSystem->ProcessEvents();
//canvas can be edited during the loop
}
printf("Real Time = %8.3fs,Cpu Time = %8.3fsn",sw.RealTime(),
sw.CpuTime());

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9.6
9.6.1

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Graphical Objects Attributes

Text Attributes

When a class contains text or derives from a text class, it needs to be able to set text attributes like font type, size,
and color. To do so, the class inherits from the TAttText class (a secondary inheritance), which defines text attributes.
TLatex and TText inherit from TAttText.

9.6.1.1

Setting Text Alignment

Text alignment may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to all objects deriving from TAttText, and
there are many. We will take an example that may be transposed to other types. Suppose la is a TLatex object.
The alignment is set with:
root[] la->SetTextAlign(align)
The parameter align is a short describing the alignment:
align = 10*HorizontalAlign + VerticalAlign
For horizontal alignment, the following convention applies:

1 = left
2 = centered
3 = right

For vertical alignment, the following convention applies:

1 = bottom
2 = centered
3 = top

For example, align: 11 = left adjusted and bottom adjusted; 32 = right adjusted and vertically centered.

9.6.1.2

Setting Text Angle

Use TAttText::SetTextAngle to set the text angle. The angle is the degrees of the horizontal.
root[] la->SetTextAngle(angle)

9.6.1.3

Setting Text Color

Use TAttText::SetTextColor to set the text color. The color is the color index. The colors are described in Color
and Color Palettes.
root[] la->SetTextColor(color)

9.6. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS ATTRIBUTES

9.6.1.4

209

Setting Text Font

Use TAttText::SetTextFont to set the font. The parameter font is the font code, combining the font and precision:
font = 10 * fontID + precision
root[] la->SetTextFont(font)
The table below lists the available fonts. The font IDs must be between 1 and 14. The precision can be:
Precision = 0 fast hardware fonts (steps in the size)
Precision = 1 scalable and rotate-able hardware fonts (see below)
Precision = 2 scalable and rotate-able hardware fonts
When precision 0 is used, only the original non-scaled system fonts are used. The fonts have a minimum (4) and
maximum (37) size in pixels. These fonts are fast and are of good quality. Their size varies with large steps and they
cannot be rotated. Precision 1 and 2 fonts have a different behavior depending if True Type Fonts (TTF) are used
or not. If TTF are used, you always get very good quality scalable and rotate-able fonts. However, TTF are slow.
Precision 1 and 2 fonts have a different behavior for PostScript in case of TLatex objects:
With precision 1, the PostScript text uses the old convention (see TPostScript) for some special characters to
draw sub and superscripts or Greek text.
With precision 2, the PostScript special characters are drawn as such. To draw sub and superscripts it is highly
recommended to use TLatex objects instead.
For example: font = 62 is the font with ID 6 and precision 2.
The available fonts are:
Font ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

X11
times-medium-i-normal
times-bold-r-normal
times-bold-i-normal
helvetica-medium-r-norma l
helvetica-medium-o-norma l
helvetica-bold-r-normal
helvetica-bold-o-normal
courier-medium-r-normal
courier-medium-o-normal
courier-bold-r-normal
courier-bold-o-normal
symbol-medium-r-normal
times-medium-r-normal

True Type name

Times New Roman
Times New Roman
Times New Roman
Arial
Arial
Arial
Arial
Courier New
Courier New
Courier New
Courier New
Symbol
Times New Roman
Wingdings

This script makes the image of the different fonts:

{

textc = new TCanvas("textc","Example of text",1);

for (int i=1;i<15;i++) {
cid = new char[8];
sprintf(cid,"ID %d :",i);
cid[7] = 0;
lid = new TLatex(0.1,1-(double)i/15,cid);
lid->SetTextFont(62);
lid->Draw();
l = new TLatex(.2,1-(double)i/15,
"The quick brown fox is not here anymore")
l->SetTextFont(i*10+2);
l->Draw();

Is italic
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No

boldness
4
7
7
4
4
7
7
4
4
7
7
6
4
4

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.29: Fonts examples

9.6. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS ATTRIBUTES

211

9.6.1.5

How to use True Type Fonts

You can activate the True Type Fonts by adding the following line in your .rootrc file.
Unix.*.Root.UseTTFonts:

true

You can check that you indeed use the TTF in your Root session. When the TTF is active, you get the following
message at the start of a session: Free Type Engine v1.x used to render TrueType fonts. You can also check with the
command:
gEnv->Print()
9.6.1.6

Setting Text Size

Use TAttText::SetTextSize to set the text size.

root[] la->SetTextSize(size)
The size is the text size expressed in percentage of the current pad size.
The text size in pixels will be:
If current pad is horizontal, the size in pixels = textsize * canvas_height
If current pad is vertical, the size in pixels = textsize * canvas_width

The user interface for changing the text color, size, font and allignment looks like
shown in this picture. It takes place in the editor frame anytime the selected object inherits the class TAttText.

9.6.2

Line Attributes

All classes manipulating lines have to deal with line attributes: color, style and width. This is done by using secondary
inheritance of the class TAttLine. The line color may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to all objects
deriving from TAttLine, and there are many (histograms, plots). We will take an example that may be transposed to
other types. Suppose li is a TLine object. The line color is set with:
root[] li->SetLineColor(color)
The argument color is a color number. The colors are described in Color and Color Palettes
The line style may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to all objects deriving from TAttLine, and there
are many (histograms, plots). We will take an example that may be transposed to other types. Suppose li is a
TLine object. The line style is set with:
root[] li->SetLineStyle(style)
The argument style is one of: 1=solid, 2=dash, 3=dot, 4=dash-dot.
The line width may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to all objects deriving from TAttLine, and
there are many (histograms, plots). We will take an example that may be transposed to other types. Suppose li is a
TLine object. The line width is set with:

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

root[] li->SetLineWidth(width)
The width is the width expressed in pixel units.

The user interface for changing the line color, line width and style looks like shown in this
picture. It takes place in the editor frame anytime the selected object inherits the class TAttLine.

9.6.3

Fill Attributes

Almost all graphics classes have a fill area somewhere. These classes have to deal with fill attributes. This is done by
using secondary inheritance of the class TAttFill. Fill color may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to
all objects deriving from TAttFill, and there are many (histograms, plots). We will take an example that may be
transposed to other types. Suppose h is a TH1F (1 dim histogram) object. The histogram fill color is set with:
root[] h->SetFillColor(color)
The color is a color number. The colors are described in Color and color palettes
Fill style may be set by a method call. What is said here applies to all objects deriving from TAttFill, and there are
many (histograms, plots). We will take an example that may be transposed to other types. Suppose h is a TH1F (1
dim histogram) object. The histogram fill style is set with:
root[] h->SetFillStyle(style)
The convention for style is: 0:hollow, 1001:solid, 2001:hatch style, 3000+pattern number:patterns, 4000 to 4100:transparency, 4000:fully transparent, 4100: fully opaque.
Fill styles >3100 and <3999 are hatches. They are defined according to the FillStyle=3ijk value as follows:
i(1-9) specifies the space between each hatch (1=minimum space, 9=maximum). The final spacing is set by
SetHatchesSpacing() method and it is*GetHatchesSpacing().
j(0-9) specifies the angle between 0 and 90 degres as follows: 0=0, 1=10, 2=20, 3=30, 4=45, 5=not drawn, 6=60,
7=70, 8=80 and 9=90.
k(0-9) specifies the angle between 0 and 90 degres as follows: 0=180, 1=170, 2=160, 3=150, 4=135, 5=not drawn,
6=120, 7=110, 8=100 and 9=90.

9.6.4

Color and Color Palettes

At initialization time, a table of basic colors is generated when the first Canvas constructor is called. This table is a
linked list, which can be accessed from the gROOT object (see TROOT::GetListOfColors()). Each color has an index
and when a basic color is defined, two companion colors are defined:
the dark version (color index + 100)
the bright version (color index + 150)
The dark and bright colors are used to give 3-D effects when drawing various boxes (see TWbox, TPave, TPaveText,
TPaveLabel, etc). If you have a black and white copy of the manual, here are the basic colors and their indices.
The list of currently supported basic colors (here dark and bright colors are not shown) are shown. The color numbers
specified in the basic palette, and the picture above, can be viewed by selecting the menu entry Colors in the View
canvas menu. The user may define other colors. To do this, one has to build a new TColor:
TColor(Int_t color,Float_t r,Float_t g,Float_t b,const char* name)

9.6. GRAPHICAL OBJECTS ATTRIBUTES

Figure 9.30: The various patterns

Figure 9.31: The basic ROOT colors

213

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

One has to give the color number and the three Red, Green, Blue values, each being defined from 0 (min) to 1(max).
An optional name may be given. When built, this color is automatically added to the existing list of colors. If the color
number already exists, one has to extract it from the list and redefine the RGB values. This may be done for example
with:
root[] color=(TColor*)(gROOT->GetListOfColors()->At(index_color))
root[] color->SetRGB(r,g,b)
Where r, g and b go from 0 to 1 and index_color is the color number you wish to change.

The user interface for changing the fill color and style looks like shown in this picture. It
takes place in the editor frame anytime the selected object inherits the class TAttFill.
9.6.4.1

Color Palette (for Histograms)

Defining one color at a time may be tedious. The histogram classes (see Draw Options) use the color palette. For
example, TH1::Draw("col") draws a 2-D histogram with cells represented by a box filled with a color CI function of
the cell content. If the cell content is N, the color CI used will be the color number in colors[N]. If the maximum cell
content is >ncolors, all cell contents are scaled to ncolors. The current color palette does not have a class or global
object of its own. It is defined in the current style as an array of color numbers. The current palette can be changed
with:
TStyle::SetPalette(Int_t ncolors,Int_t*color_indexes).
By default, or if ncolors <= 0, a default palette (see above) of 50 colors is defined. The colors defined in this palette
are good for coloring pads, labels, and other graphic objects. If ncolors > 0 and colors = 0, the default palette
is used with a maximum of ncolors. If ncolors == 1 && colors == 0, then a pretty palette with a spectrum
Violet->Red is created. It is recommended to use this pretty palette when drawing lego(s), surfaces or contours. For
example, to set the current palette to the pretty one, do:
root[] gStyle->SetPalette(1)
A more complete example is shown below. It illustrates the definition of a custom palette. You can adapt it to suit
your needs. In case you use it for contour coloring, with the current color/contour algorithm, always define two more
colors than the number of contours.
void palette() {
// Example of creating new colors (purples)
const Int_t colNum = 10;
// and defining of a new palette
Int_t palette[colNum];
for (Int_t i=0; i<colNum; i++) {
// get the color and if it does not exist create it
if (! gROOT->GetColor(230+i) ){
TColor *color =

9.7. THE GRAPHICS EDITOR

215

new TColor(230+i,1-(i/((colNum)*1.0)),0.3,0.5,"");
} else {
TColor *color = gROOT->GetColor(230+i);
color->SetRGB(1-(i/((colNum)*1.0)),0.3,0.5);
}
palette[i] = 230+i;

}
gStyle->SetPalette(colNum,palette);
TF2 *f2 = new TF2("f2","exp(-(x^2)-(y^2))",-3,3,-3,3);
// two contours less than the number of colors in palette
f2->SetContour(colNum-2);
f2->Draw("cont");

9.7

The Graphics Editor

A new graphics editor took place in ROOT v4.0. The editor can be activated by selecting the Editor menu entry in the
canvas View menu or one of the context menu entries for setting line, fill, marker or text attributes. The following
object editors are available for the current ROOT version.

9.7.1

TAxisEditor

This user interface gives the possibility for changing the following axis attributes:

color of the selected axis, the axis title and labels;

the length of thick parameters and the possibility to set them on both axis sides (if +- is selected);
to set logarithmic or linear scale along the selected axis with a choice for optimized or more logarithmic labels;
primary, secondary and tertiary axis divisions can be set via the three number fields;
the axis title can be added or edited and the titles color, position, offset, size and font can be set interactively;
the color, size, and offset of axis labels can be set similarly. In addition, there is a check box for no exponent
choice, and another one for setting the same decimal part for all labels.

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9.7.2

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

TPadEditor

It provides the following user interface:

Fixed aspect ratio - can be set for pad resizing.
Edit - sets pad or canvas as editable.
Cross-hair - sets a cross hair on the pad.
TickX - set ticks along the X axis.
TickY - set ticks along the Y axis.
GridX - set a grid along the X axis.
GridY - set a grid along the Y axis.
The pad or canvas border size can be set if a sunken or a raised border mode is
selected; no border mode can be set too.

9.8

Copy and Paste

You can make a copy of a canvas using TCanvas::DrawClonePad. This method is unique to TCanvas. It clones the
entire canvas to the active pad. There is a more general method TObject::DrawClone, which all objects descendent of
TObject, specifically all graphic objects inherit. Below are two examples, one to show the use of DrawClonePad and
the other to show the use of DrawClone.

9.8.1

Using the GUI

In this example we will copy an entire canvas to a new one with DrawClonePad. Run the script draw2dopt.C.
root[] .x tutorials/hist/draw2dopt.C
This creates a canvas with 2D histograms. To make a copy of the canvas follow the steps:
Right-click on it to bring up the context menu
Select DrawClonePad
This copies the entire canvas and all its sub-pads to a new canvas. The copied canvas is a deep clone, and all the
objects on it are copies and independent of the original objects. For instance, change the fill on one of the original
histograms, and the cloned histogram retains its attributes. DrawClonePad will copy the canvas to the active pad; the
target does not have to be a canvas. It can also be a pad on a canvas.
If you want to copy and paste a graphic object from one canvas or pad to another canvas or pad, you can do so with
DrawClone method inherited from TObject. All graphics objects inherit the TObject::DrawClone method. In this
example, we create a new canvas with one histogram from each of the canvases from the script draw2dopt.C.

9.8. COPY AND PASTE

217

Figure 9.32: Different draw options

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Start a new ROOT session and execute the script draw2dopt.C

Select a canvas displayed by the script, and create a new canvas c1 from the File menu.
Make sure that the target canvas (c1) is the active one by middle clicking on it. If you do this step right after
step 2, c1 will be active.
Select the pad with the first histogram you want to copy and paste.
Right click on it to show the context menu, and select DrawClone.
Leave the option blank and hit OK.
Repeat these steps for one histogram on each of the canvases created by the script, until you have one pad from each
type. If you wanted to put the same annotation on each of the sub pads in the new canvas, you could use DrawClone
to do so. Here we added the date to each pad. The steps to this are:
Create the label in on of the pads with the graphics editor.
Middle-click on the target pad to make it the active pad
Use DrawClone method of the label to draw it in each of the other panels.
The option in the DrawClone method argument is the Draw option for a histogram or graph. A call to TH1::DrawClone
can clone the histogram with a different draw option.

9.8.2

Programmatically

To copy and paste the four pads from the command line or in a script you would execute the following statements:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

.x tutorials/hist/draw2dopt.C
TCanvas c1("c1","Copy Paste",200,200,800,600);
surfaces->cd(1); // get the first pad
TPad *p1 = gPad;
lego->cd(2);// get the next pad
TPad *p2 = gPad;
cont->cd(3);// get the next pad
TPad *p3 = gPad;
c2h->cd(4);// get the next pad
TPad *p4 = gPad;
// to draw the four clones
c1->cd();
p1->DrawClone();
p2->DrawClone();
p3->DrawClone();
p4->DrawClone();

Note that the pad is copied to the new canvas in the same location as in the old canvas. For example if you were to
copy the third pad of surf to the top left corner of the target canvas you would have to reset the coordinates of the
cloned pad.

9.9

Legends

Legends for a graph are obtained with a TLegend object. This object points to markers, lines, boxes, histograms,
graphs and represent their marker, line, fill attributes. Any object that has a marker or line or fill attribute may have
an associated legend. A TLegend is a panel with several entries (class TLegendEntry) and is created by the constructor
TLegend(Double_t x1, Double_t y1, Double_t x2, Double_t y2,
const char *header, Option_t *option)
The legend is defined with default coordinates, border size and option. The legend coordinates (NDC) in the current
pad are x1, y1, x2, y2. The default text attributes for the legend are:

9.10. THE POSTSCRIPT INTERFACE

219

Alignment = 12 left adjusted and vertically centered

Angle = 0 (degrees)
Color = 1 (black)
Size = calculate when number of entries is known
Font = helvetica-medium-r-normal scalable font = 42, and bold = 62 for title
The title is a regular entry and supports TLatex. The default is no title (header = 0). The options are the same as
for TPave; by default, they are brand. Once the legend box is created, one has to add the text with the AddEntry()
method:
TLegendEntry* TLegend::AddEntry(TObject *obj,
const char *label,
Option_t *option)
The parameters are:
*objis a pointer to an object having marker, line, or fill attributes (a histogram, or a graph)
label is the label to be associated to the object
option:
L draw line associated with line attributes of obj, if obj inherits from TAttLine.
P draw poly-marker associated with marker attributes of obj, if obj inherits TAttMarker.
F draw a box with fill associated with fill attributes of obj, if obj inherits TAttFill.
One may also use the other form of the method AddEntry:
TLegendEntry* TLegend::AddEntry(const char *name,
const char *label,
Option_t *option)
Here name is the name of the object in the pad. Other parameters are as in the previous case. Next example shows
how to create a legend:
leg = new TLegend(0.4,0.6,0.89,0.89);
leg->AddEntry(fun1,"One Theory","l");
leg->AddEntry(fun3,"Another Theory","f");
leg->AddEntry(gr,"The Data","p");
leg->Draw();
// oops we forgot the blue line... add it after
leg->AddEntry(fun2,
"#sqrt{2#pi} P_{T} (#gamma) latex
// and add a header (or "title") for the legend
leg->SetHeader("The Legend Title");
leg->Draw();

formula","f");

Here fun1, fun2, fun3 and gr are pre-existing functions and graphs. You can edit the TLegend by right clicking on it.

9.10

The PostScript Interface

To generate a PostScript (or encapsulated PostScript) file for a single image in a canvas, you can:
Select to print the canvas in the PostScript file format from the File menu / Save or Save As menu entries. By
default, a PostScript file is generated, if you do not specify the file format.

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 9.33: A legend example

9.10. THE POSTSCRIPT INTERFACE

221

Click in the canvas area, near the edges, with the right mouse button and select the Print context menu entry.
This will generate a file of canvas pointed to by c1. You can select the name of the PostScript file. If the file
name is xxx.ps, you will generate a PostScript file named xxx.ps. If the file name is xxx.eps, you generate an
encapsulated Postscript file instead. In your program (or script), you can type:
c1->Print("xxx.ps") // or
c1->Print("xxx.eps")
Next example prints the picture in the pad pointed by pad1.
pad1->Print("xxx.ps")
The TPad::Print method has a second parameter called option. Its value can be:
0 which is the default and is the same as ps
ps a Postscript file is produced
Portrait a Postscript file is produced with Portrait orientation
Landscape a Postscript file is produced with Landscape orientation
epsan Encapsulated Postscript file
Previewan Encapsulated Postscript file with preview is produced
gif a Graphics Interchange Format file
cxx a C++ macro file is generated
pdfa Portable Document Format file
xml a eXtensible Mark-up Language file
jpga Joint Photographic Experts Group file
png a Portable Network Graphics Format (PNG file)
xpm a X11 Pixel Map Format
svg a Scalable Vector Graphics file
tiff a Tagged-Image File Format
roota ROOT binary file is produced
You do not need to specify this second parameter; you can indicate by the filename extension what format you want to
save a canvas in (i.e. canvas.ps, canvas.gif, canvas.C, etc).
The size of the PostScript picture, by default, is computed to keep the aspect ratio of the picture on the screen, where
the size along x is always 20 cm. You can set the size of the PostScript picture before generating the picture with a
command such as:
TPostScript myps("myfile.ps",111)
myps.Range(xsize,ysize);
object->Draw();
myps.Close();
The first parameter in the TPostScript constructor is the name of the file; the second one is the format option:
111 - ps portrait
112 - ps landscape
113 - eps
You can set the default paper size with:
gStyle->SetPaperSize(xsize,ysize);
You can resume writing again in this file with myps.Open(). Note that you may have several Post Script files opened
simultaneously. Use TPostScript::Text(x,y,"string") to add text to a postscript file. This method writes the
string in quotes into a PostScript file at position x, y in world coordinates.

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

9.10.1

Special Characters

The following characters have a special action on the PostScript file:

- go to Greek
- go to special
~ - go to Zapf Dingbats
? - go to subscript
- go to superscript
! - go to normal level of script
& - backspace one character
# - end of Greek or end of ZapfDingbats
These special characters are printed as such on the screen. To generate one of these characters on the PostScript file,
you must escape it with the escape character @. The use of these special characters is illustrated in several scripts
referenced by the TPostScript constructor.

9.10.2

Writing Several Canvases to the Same PostScript File

The following sequence writes the canvas to c1.ps and closes the postscript file:
TCanvas c1("c1");
h1.Draw();
c1.Print("c1.ps");
If the Postscript file name finishes with (, the file remains opened (it is not closed). If the Postscript file name
finishes with ) and the file has been opened with (, the file is closed.
{

TCanvas c1("c1");
h1.Draw();
c1.Print("c1.ps("); // write canvas and keep the ps file open
h2.Draw();
c1.Print("c1.ps"); // canvas is added to "c1.ps"
h3.Draw();
c1.Print("c1.ps)"); // canvas is added to "c1.ps"
// and ps file is closed

The TCanvas::Print("file.ps(") mechanism is very useful, but it can be a little inconvenient to have the action of
opening/closing a file being atomic with printing a page. Particularly if pages are being generated in some loop, one
needs to detect the special cases of first and last page. The [ and ] can be used instead of ( and ) as shown in
the next example.
c1.Print("file.ps[");
// no actual print; just open file.ps
for (i=0; i<10; ++i) {
// fill canvas for context i
...
c1.Print("file.ps");
// actually print canvas to file.ps
} // end loop
c1.Print("file.ps]");
// no actual print; just close file.ps
The following script illustrates how to open a postscript file and draw several pictures. The generation of a new
postscript page is automatic when TCanvas::Clear is called by object->Draw().

9.10. THE POSTSCRIPT INTERFACE

{

223

TFile f("hsimple.root");
TCanvas c1("c1","canvas",800,600);
//select PostScript output type
Int_t type = 111;
//portrait ps
// Int_t type = 112;
//landscape ps
// Int_t type = 113;
//eps
//create a PostScript file and set the paper size
TPostScript ps("test.ps",type);
ps.Range(16,24);
//set x,y of printed page

//draw 3 histograms from file hsimple.root on separate pages

hpx->Draw();
c1.Update();
//force drawing in a script
hprof->Draw();
c1.Update();
hpx->Draw("lego1");
c1.Update();
ps.Close();

The next example does the same:

{

TFile f("hsimple.root");
TCanvas c1("c1","canvas",800,600);
//set x,y of printed page
gStyle->SetPaperSize(16,24);

//draw 3 histograms from file hsimple.root on separate pages

hpx->Draw();
c1->Print("test1.ps(", "Portrait");
hprof->Draw();
c1->Print("test1.ps");
hpx->Draw("lego1");
c1->Print("test1.ps)");

This following example shows two pages. The canvas is divided. TPostScript::NewPage must be called before starting
a new picture. object->Draw does not clear the canvas in this case because we clear only the pads and not the main
canvas. Note that c1->Update must be called at the end of the first picture.
{

TFile *f1 = new TFile("hsimple.root");

TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1");
TPostScript *ps = new TPostScript("file.ps",112);
// picture 1
c1->Divide(2,1);
ps->NewPage();
c1->cd(1);
hpx->Draw();
c1->cd(2);
hprof->Draw();
// picture 2
c1->Update();
ps->NewPage();
c1->cd(1);

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

hpxpy->Draw();
c1->cd(2);
ntuple->Draw("px");
c1->Update();
ps->Close();

// invoke PostScript viewer

gSystem->Exec("gs file.ps");

The next one does the same:

{

TFile *f1 = new TFile("hsimple.root");

TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1");
c1->Divide(2,1);
// picture 1
c1->cd(1);
hpx->Draw();
c1->cd(2);
hprof->Draw();
c1->Print("test2.ps(", "Landscape");

// picture 2
c1->cd(1);
hpxpy->Draw();
c1->cd(2);
ntuple->Draw("px");
c1->Print("test2.ps)");
gSystem->Exec("gs file.ps");

9.10.3

// invoke PostScript

viewer

The Color Models

TPostScript (and TPDF) support two color models: RGB and CMYK. CMY and CMYK models are subtractive color
models unlike RGB which is an additive. They are mainly used for printing purposes. CMY means Cyan Magenta
Yellow to convert RGB to CMY it is enough to do: C=1-R, M=1-G and Y=1-B. CMYK has one more component K
(black). The conversion from RGB to CMYK is:
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t

Black
Cyan
Magenta
Yellow

=
=
=
=

TMath::Min(TMath::Min(1-Red,1-Green),1-Blue);
(1-Red-Black)/(1-Black);
(1-Green-Black)/(1-Black);
(1-Blue-Black)/(1-Black);

CMYK add the black component which allows to have a better quality for black printing. TPostScript (and TPDF)
support the CMYK model. To change the color model use:
gStyle->SetColorModelPS(c);
c = 0 means TPostScript will use RGB color model (default)
c = 1 means TPostScript will use CMYK color model

9.11

The PDF Interface

Like PostScript, PDF is a vector graphics output format allowing a very high graphics output quality. The functionnalities
provided by this class are very similar to those provided by TPostScript.
Compare to PostScript output, the PDF files are usually smaller because some parts of them can be compressed.
PDF also allows to define table of contents. This facility can be used in ROOT. The following example shows how to
proceed:

9.12. CREATE OR MODIFY A STYLE

{

225

TCanvas* canvas = new TCanvas("canvas");

TH1F* histo = new TH1F("histo","test 1",10,0.,10.);
histo->SetFillColor(2);
histo->Fill(2.);
histo->Draw();
canvas->Print("plots.pdf(","Title:One bin filled");
histo->Fill(4.);
histo->Draw();
canvas->Print("plots.pdf","Title:Two bins filled");
histo->Fill(6.);
histo->Draw();
canvas->Print("plots.pdf","Title:Three bins filled");
histo->Fill(8.);
histo->Draw();
canvas->Print("plots.pdf","Title:Four bins filled");
histo->Fill(8.);
histo->Draw();
canvas->Print("plots.pdf)","Title:The fourth bin content is 2");

Each character string following the keyword Title: makes a new entry in the table of contents.

9.12

Create or Modify a Style

All objects that can be drawn in a pad inherit from one or more attribute classes like TAttLine, TAttFill, TAttText,
TAttMarker. When objects are created, their default attributes are taken from the current style. The current style
is an object of the class TStyle and can be referenced via the global variable gStyle (in TStyle.h). See the class
TStyle for a complete list of the attributes that can be set in one style.
ROOT provides several styles called:
Default - the default style
Plain - the simple style (black and white)
Bold - bolder lines
Video - suitable for html output or screen viewing
The Default style is created by:
TStyle *default = new TStyle("Default","Default Style");
The Plain style can be used if you want to get a conventional PostScript output or if you are working on a
monochrome display. The following example shows how to create it.
TStyle *plain

= new TStyle("Plain",
"Plain Style(no colors/fill areas)");
plain->SetCanvasBorderMode(0);
plain->SetPadBorderMode(0);
plain->SetPadColor(0);
plain->SetCanvasColor(0);
plain->SetTitleColor(0);
plain->SetStatColor(0);
You can set the current style by:
gROOT->SetStyle(style_name);
You can get a pointer to an existing style by:

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TStyle *style = gROOT->GetStyle(style_name);

You can create additional styles by:
TStyle *st1 = new TStyle("st1","my style");
st1->Set...
st1->cd(); // this becomes now the current style gStyle
In your rootlogon.C file, you can redefine the default parameters via statements like:
gStyle->SetStatX(0.7);
gStyle->SetStatW(0.2);
gStyle->SetLabelOffset(1.2);
gStyle->SetLabelFont(72);
Note that when an object is created, its attributes are taken from the current style. For example, you may have created
a histogram in a previous session and saved it in a file. Meanwhile, if you have changed the style, the histogram will be
drawn with the old attributes. You can force the current style attributes to be set when you read an object from a file
by calling ForceStyle before reading the objects from the file.
gROOT->ForceStyle();
When you call gROOT->ForceStyle() and read an object from a ROOT file, the objects method UseCurrentStyle
is called. The attributes saved with the object are replaced by the current style attributes. You call also call
myObject->UseCurrentStyle() directly. For example if you have a canvas or pad with your histogram or any other
object, you can force these objects to get the attributes of the current style by:
canvas->UseCurrentStyle();
The description of the style functions should be clear from the name of the TStyle setters or getters. Some functions
have an extended description, in particular:
TStyle::SetLabelFont
TStyle::SetLineStyleString: set the format of dashed lines.
TStyle::SetOptStat
TStyle::SetPalette to change the colors palette
TStyle::SetTitleOffset
TStyle::SetOptDate(Int_t optdate) to support several date formats. If optdate is non-null, the current
date/time will be printed in the canvas. The position of the date string can be controlled by: optdate =
10*format+mode
mode = 1 the date is printed in the bottom/left corner
mode = 2 date is printed in the bottom/right corner
mode = 3 date is printed in the top/right corner
format = 0 (default) date format is like: Wed Sep 25 17:10:35 2002
format = 1 date format is: 2002-09-25
format = 2 date format is: 2002-09-25 17:10:35

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

9.13

227

3D Viewers

ROOT provides several viewers capable of displaying 3D content:

the Pad - simple line drawing using TPad and associated projection class TView;
GL Viewer - high quality and performance viewer(See The GL Viewer);
X3D viewer - simple legacy viewer (See The X3D Viewer);
GL-in-pad - combination of basic GL viewer in TPad, with no hardware acceleration.
The X3D and GL viewers are created as external windows, associated with a pad, and displaying the same content
as it. Only these external viewers are detailed here - for Pad (TPad, TView classes) you should refer to Graphical
Containers: Canvas and Pad and the class definitions.
All viewers use a common architecture to publish 3D objects to the viewer - described in Common 3D Viewer
Architecture below. In most cases, you will not need to use this, working instead with a package, such as the The
Geometry Package, which provides comprehensive, high level functionality to create and place objects into complex
3D scenes, and uses the viewer architecture internally to show the result in your chosen viewer.

9.13.1

Invoking a 3D viewer

A 3D viewer can be created in a script by passing the appropriate option to Draw()when attaching the drawn object(s)
to a pad. For a fuller explanation of pads, attaching objects with Draw() etc. refer to Graphical Containers: Canvas
and Pad.
root[] myShapes->Draw("ogl");
Valid option strings are:
ogl : external GL viewer
x3d: external X3D viewer
pad: pad viewer
If no option is passed to Draw() then the pad is used by default. If you already have content in a pad, which you
would like to display in one of the external viewers you can select from the canvas View menu / View With, and pick
the viewer type.

Figure 9.34: Invoking external 3D viewers from canvas menus

Note: A current limitation means that when an external viewer is created the pad is no longer redrawn. When the
external viewer is closed, clicking in the pad will refresh.

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

The GL Viewer

The GL Viewer uses (or compliant libraries such as ) to generate high quality, high-performance 3D renderings, with
sophisticated lighting, materials and rendering styles for 3D scenes. Many users will be able to take advantage of
hardware acceleration of the underlying OpenGL commands by their computers video card, resulting is considerable
performance gains - up to interactive manipulation of 1000s of complex shapes in real-time.
The GL Viewer is supported on all official ROOT platforms (assuming you have suitable libraries), and is the main 3D
viewer, which development effort is concentrated upon. As OpenGL is a trademark we refer to our viewer built on
this technology as the GL Viewer. The code for it can be found under $ROOTSYS/gl.

Figure 9.35: The GL 3D Viewer

You can manipulate the viewer via the GUI or via the base TGLViewer object behind the interface. These are detailed
below - see also $ROOTSYS/tutorials/gl/glViewerExercise.C.
9.13.2.1

Projections Modes (Cameras)

The GL Viewer supports two basic types of camera, which affect how the 3D world is projected onto the 2D render
area:
Perspective: Objects are drawn with characteristic foreshortening effect, where distant objects appear smaller
than near ones. This is useful for obtaining a real world views. The degree of foreshortening is affected by the
current camera field of view (focal length of its lens) - see Adjusting Cameras.
Orthographic: Distance from camera does not affect object size. These projections are useful for measurement or
checking alignments, as the sizes and angles between objects are preserved.
You can select the active camera from the viewers Camera menu on the top menu bar. There are three perspective
camera choices:
Perspective (Floor XOZ) Default
Perspective (Floor YOZ)

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

229

Perspective (Floor XOY)

In each case the perspective camera is constrained to keep the chosen floor plane, defined by a pair of world axes,
appearing level at all times - i.e. there is no banking of the horizon that you experience when a plane rolls. There are
also three orthographic camera choices:
Orthographic (XOY)
Orthographic (XOZ)
Orthographic (ZOY)
Orthographic projections are generally constrained to look down one of the global axes of the world, with the other two
axes lying horizontal/vertical on the viewer window. Therefore, XOY has the X-axis horizontal, the Y-axis vertical.
You can always confirm the orientation and constraints of the camera in the world by enabling axis drawing in the
Guides tab - see sections Guides and Clipping below. For orthographic camera a ruler-depicting current scene
units is also available.
You can also pick the current camera by obtaining a handle to the GL Viewer object behind the interface:
TGLViewer * v = (TGLViewer *)gPad->GetViewer3D();
calling the method TGLViewer::SetCurrentCamera with one of the TGLViewer::ECameraType types:
v->SetCurrentCamera(TGLViewer::kCameraPerspXOZ);
See also $ROOTSYS/tutorials/gl/glViewerExercise.C.
9.13.2.2

Adjusting Cameras

The interactions with the camera are summarized above. In each case the interaction is listed, along with description
and user actions required to achieve it. For all cameras you can reset the original default view, framing the entire
scene, by double clicking any mouse button.

Figure 9.36: GL Viewer camera interactions

For the Zoom interaction you can use the following modifiers combinations to adjust the sensitivity:

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Shiftx 10
Ctrlx 0.1
Shift + Ctrlx 0.01
The modifiers must be applied after the zoom action has started (right mouse button is down).
Note for orthographic cameras:
There is no field of view of view/focal length - dollying and zooming producing an identical scaling action.
There is a fixed eye direction - so the Orbit action is disabled.
Note for perspective cameras:
Dollying (moving the camera backwards/forwards) and zooming are often confused, and may appear very similar.
When you dolly the camera the lens focal length does not change, hence the distortions associated with the
projections are unaffected. However the movement can result in objects coming through the front of the camera
and disappearing.
When you zoom, the camera does not move - hence clipping of near objects is unaffected. However with extremely
small zooms (FOV large/focal length short) noticeable distortions, causing straight lines to become curved, can
be seen with objects near the camera - the fisheye lens effect.
Generally dollying is more natural, but you may need to use both to achieve the desired perspective and eye
position - particularly when you are working inside or very close to 3D objects.
Configure the camera by calling the methods SetPerspectiveCamera() or SetOrthographicCamera() of TGLViewer:
TGLViewer * v = (TGLViewer *)gPad->GetViewer3D();
v->SetOrthoCamera(TGLViewer::kCameraOrthoXOY,
left,right,top,bottom);
...
v->SetPerspectiveCamera (camera,fov,dolly,center,hRotate,vRotate);
Note - you can configure any of the six cameras in the viewer at any time, but you will not see the result until the
camera is made current.
9.13.2.3

Draw Styles

The GL Viewer supports three different rendering modes, which are applied to all the objects in your scene, but not
Clip Shapes and Guides (See Clipping and Manipulators). These are shown below, along with the key used to
activate the style.

Figure 9.37: GL Viewer draw styles

Filled Polygons Wireframe Outline Enable with r key Enable with w key Enable with t key Solid polygons,
with hidden surface Object edges in color, with Combination of Filled Polygons removal, color surface materials, no
surface filling/hiding. and Outline styles. Solid opacity, specular reflection etc. shapes with edges. Black background.
Black background. White background.
Call method TGLViewer::SetStyle with one of TGLRnrCtx::EDrawStyleflags kFill, kOutline, kWireFrame:
v->SetStyle(TGLRnrCtx::kFill);

9.13. 3D VIEWERS
9.13.2.4

231

Lighting / Style

The GL viewer creates five diffuse lights (left, right, top, bottom, and front) arranged around the 3D scene. These
lights are carried with the camera - that is they are always in same position relative to your eye - the left light always
shines from the left.
Light controls are located: Viewer Controls Pane Style.
Each light has a checkbox to enable/disable it. Set lights on/off with TGLLightSet::SetLight e.g.
v->GetLightSet()->SetLight(TGLLightSet::kLightBottom, kFALSE);
9.13.2.5

Clipping

The GL viewer supports interactive clipping, enabling you to remove sections of your 3D scene and the shapes, revealing
internal details.

Figure 9.38: GL Viewer interactive box clipping

The controls for clipping can be found under: Viewer Controls Pane Clipping tab.
Two clipping shapes are currently supported:
Single plane
Box
Pick the type from the radio buttons - only one (or none) may be active at one time.
The clip object can be adjusted by:
Adjusting the values in the properties panel GUI
Directly manipulating the clip object in the viewer

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To show and/or directly manipulate the object check the Show / Edit in Viewer checkbox. The clip object is drawn in
semi-transparent light brown. The current manipulator is attached to it, allowing you direct control over its position,
scale and rotation. See Manipulators section below for details on using viewer manipulators.
The clip plane is described by the standard plane equation: ax+by+cz+d=0, where the factors a, b, c, d are entered
into the edit boxes, and applied using the Apply button.
The clip box is described by its center position, entered in the Center X, Center Y and Center Z edit boxes, and its
lengths (extents) entered in the Length X, Length Y and Length Z edit boxes.
This clipping is achieved using OpenGL clip plane support; as such, there are certain limitations:
Solid shapes are not capped - they appear hollow.
Only shapes, which can be described with combination of planes, can be rendered in this fashion - e.g. a clipping
tube is not possible.
Each additional clipping plane requires an additional render pass - so the more active planes the more time the
render will take.
Set the current clip object with TGLClipSet::SetClipType
v->GetClipSet()->SetClipType(TGLClipSet::kClipPlane);
Configure the clip object with TGLClipSet::SetClipState
Double_t planeEq[4] = {0.5,1.0,-1.0, 2.0};
v->GetClipSet()->SetClipState(TGLClipSet::kClipPlane, planeEq);
As with cameras, any clip can be configured at any time, but you must set the clip current to see the effect.
9.13.2.6

Manipulators

Manipulators are GUI widgets or controls attached to a 3D object in the viewer, allowing a direct manipulation of
the objects geometry. There are three manipulators for the three basic geometries transformations. In each case, the
manipulator consists of three components, one for each local axis of the object, shown in standard colors: red (X),
green (Y) and blue (Z).
Activate the manipulator by moving the mouse over one of these components (which turns yellow to indicate active
state). Click with left mouse and drag this active component to perform the manipulation. Toggle between the
manipulator types using the x, c, v keys while the mouse cursoris above the manipulator. Note: Manipulators
cannot be controlled via the API at present.
9.13.2.7

Guides

Guides are visual aids drawn into the viewer world. Controls for these are under the Guides tab:
Viewer Controls Pane Guides Tab
Axes show the world (global) frame coordinatedirections: X (red), Y (green) and Z (blue). The negative portion of the
axis line is shown in dark color, the positive in bright. The axis name and minimum / maximum values are labeled in
the same color. There are three options for axes drawing - selected by radio buttons:
None - not drawn (default).
Edge - draw axes on the (minimum) edge of the scene extents box.
Origin - drawn axes through the origin.
For edge axes, the zero value for each axis is marked on the axis line with a colored sphere. For origin axes, a single
white sphere is shown at the origin.
Edge axes are depth clipped - i.e. are obscured by 3D objects in front of them. Origin axes (which generally pass
through the middle of the 3D scene) are not depth clipped - so always visible.

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

233

Figure 9.39: GL Viewer object manipulators

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

A single orange sphere of fixed view port (window) size can be shown at any arbitrary position. Enable / disable the
drawing with Show checkbox. Enter X/Y/Z position in the edit boxes to set position. Initial position is at the center
of the scene.
Set the guides using TGLViewer::SetGuideState e.g. to enable edge axes, and enable a reference marker at world
position 50, 60, 100:
Double_t refPos[3] = {50.0,60.0,100.0};
v->SetGuideState(TGLUtil::kAxesEdge, kTRUE, refPos);
9.13.2.8

Selecting Scene Shapes

You can select a single shape from your scene by pressing Shift key, pointing and left clicking anywhere on the shape
in the viewer. Selection is currently shown by drawing the shape-bounding box (not depth clipped) in white (polygon
or wire frame render styles) or red (outline render style). Manipulators supported by the shape are drawn in red, green
and blue while the non-supported ones are drawn in grey. To deselect a shape, either select another, or shift/click
anywhere on the background (empty space) in the viewer. You cannot select Manipulators or Guides (Axes / Reference
Marker).
9.13.2.9

Editing Shapes

When a shape is selected, the viewers control pane shows the user interface that allows you to review and adjust the
color and geometry properties of the shape.
Note: At present modifications to the shapes are local to the viewer - they are not propagated back to external
objects/client that published to the viewer. The changes are preserved only until the viewer is closed. In some cases,
this will never be feasible as there is not a one-to-one correspondence between a shape in the viewer and a single
external object in which the modification could be stored.
9.13.2.10

Colors / Style

Viewer Controls Pane Style tab.

A full description of OpenGL materials, colors and lighting is beyond the scope of this document. You should refer to
the OpenGL programming manual (Red Book) for a full discussion. In most cases adjustment of the Diffuse color
material + Opacity/Shine properties is sufficient to achieve desired results.
A shape has four-color materials (components):
Diffuse
Ambient
Specular
Emissive
For each of these you can select the component via the radio buttons. Each component can have the red, green and
blue values for the component adjusted via the sliders. You can apply this adjustment to the shape itself, or to all
shapes sharing a common family. Shapes of the same family have external objects with the same TObject name string.
You can also adjust the Opacity and Shine for the shapes materials via the sliders.
9.13.2.11

Geometry

Viewer Controls Pane Geometry tab.

Review and modify the shapes X/Y/Z center and scaling factors via the edit boxes. Selection and editing of shapes is
not available via the API at present.
9.13.2.12

Outputting Viewer Contents

The current viewer rendering can be output to an external EPS or PDF, using the options under the File menu on the
top menu bar. The file is named viewer.eps or viewer.pdf and written to the current ROOT directory.

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

9.13.3

235

The X3D Viewer

The X3D viewer is a fairly simple and limited viewer, capable of showing basic lines and polygons. It lacks the quality,
performance and more advanced features of the GL Viewer, and additionally is not supported on Windows. It is not
actively developed and you are encouraged to use the GL Viewer out of preference. The below table presents the main
interactions - these are repeated in the Help dialog of the viewer.
Action KeyActionKey
Wireframe Mode wRotate about xx a
Hidden Line Mode eRotate about yy b
Hidden Surface Mode rRotate about zz c
Move object down uAuto-rotate about x1 2 3
Move object up iAuto-rotate about y4 5 6
Move object left lAuto-rotate about z7 8 9
Move object right hToggle controls styleo
Move object forward jToggle stereo displays
Move object backward kToggle blue stereo viewd
Adjust focus (stereo mode) [ ] { }Toggle double bufferf
Rotate object Left mouse button down + move.

9.13.4

Common 3D Viewer Architecture

The 3D Viewer Architecture provides a common mechanism for viewer clients to publish 3D objects to it. It enables:
Decoupling of producers (geometry packages etc) who model collection of 3D objects from consumers (viewers)
which display them.
Producer code free of explicit drawing commands & viewer specific branching.
Support differing viewers and clients capabilities, e.g.
Mix of native (in viewer) shapes and generic client side tessellation.
Local/global frame object description
Bounding boxes
Placing copies sharing common geometry (logical/physical shapes).
The architecture consists of:
TVirtualViewer3D interface: An abstract handle to the viewer, allowing client to add objects, test preferences
etc.
TBuffer3D class hierarchy: Used to describe 3D objects (shapes) - filled /added by negotiation with viewer via
TVirtualViewer3D.
A typical interaction between viewer and client using these, taken from TGeoPainter is:
TVirtualViewer3D * viewer = gPad->GetViewer3D();
// Does viewer prefer local frame positions?
Bool_t localFrame = viewer->PreferLocalFrame();
// Perform first fetch of buffer from the shape and try adding it to the viewer
const TBuffer3D &buffer = shape.GetBuffer3D(TBuffer3D::kCore |
TBuffer3D::kBoundingBox |
TBuffer3D::kShapeSpecific,
localFrame);
Int_t reqSections = viewer->AddObject(buffer, &addDaughters);

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// If the viewer requires additional sections fetch from the shape

// (if possible) and add again
if (reqSections != TBuffer3D::kNone)
shape.GetBuffer3D(reqSections, localFrame);
Together these allow clients to publish objects to any one of the 3D viewers free of viewer specific drawing code. They
allow our simple x3d viewer, and considerably more sophisticated OpenGL one to both work with both geometry
libraries (g3d and geom) efficiently.
In addition to external viewers, created in separate windows, this architecture is also used by internal TPad drawing
when it requires 3D projections. Publishing to a viewer consists of the following steps:
1- Create / obtain viewer handle.
2- Begin scene on viewer.
3- Fill mandatory parts of TBuffer3D describing object.
4- Add to viewer.
5- Fill optional parts of TBuffer3D as requested by viewer.
[ . . . . repeat 3/4/5 as required for other/child objects]
6- End scene on viewer.
You should attach the top-level node of your external geometry (or the manager) to a TPad object using
TObject::Draw(), and perform the publishing to the viewer in your objects TObject::Paint() overloaded method. See Scene Rebuilds, and example scripts, for more details.
9.13.4.1

Creating / Obtaining Viewer Handle

External viewers are bound to a TPad object (this may be removed as a requirement in the future). You can create or
obtain the current viewer handle via the method:
TVirtualViewer3D * v = gPad->GetViewer3D("type");
Here the type string defines the viewer type - currently one of:
ogl : External GL viewer
x3d: External X3D viewer
pad: Pad viewer
If no type is passed (null string), and there is no current viewer, then the type is defaulted to pad. If no type is passed
and there is a current viewer, then this is returned - hence once a viewer is created it can be obtained elsewhere by:
TVirtualViewer3D * v = gPad->GetViewer3D();
9.13.4.2

Opening / Closing Scenes

Objects must be added to viewer between BeginScene() and EndScene() calls e.g.
viewer->BeginScene();
// Add objects
viewer ->EndScene();
These calls enable the viewer to suspend redraws, and perform internal caching/setup. If the object you attach to the
pad derives from TAtt3D, then the pad will take responsibility for calling BeginScene() and EndScene() for you. You
can always test if the scene is already open for object addition with:
viewer->BuildingScene();
Note: the x3d viewer does not support rebuilding of scenes - objects added after the first Open/Close Scene pair will
be ignored.

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

237

Figure 9.40: Overview of 3D viewer architecture

9.13.4.3

Describing Objects - Filling TBuffer3D

The viewers behind the TVirtualViewer3D interface differ greatly in their capabilities e.g.
Some support native shape (e.g. spheres/tubes in OpenGL) and can draw these based on an abstract description.
Others always require a tessellation description based on TBuffer3Ds kRaw / kRawSizes points/lines/segments
sections.
Some need the 3D object positions in the master (world) frame, others can cope with local frames and a translation
matrix to place the object.
Some require bounding boxes for objects - others do not.
Similarly some viewer clients are only capable of providing positions in master frame, cannot provide bounding boxes
etc. Additionally we do not want to incur the cost of expensive tessellation operations if the viewer does not require
them. To cope with these variations the TBuffer3D objects are filled by negotiation with the viewer.
TBuffer3D classes are conceptually divided into enumerated sections: kCore, kBoundingBox, kRaw - see the class
diagram and the file TBuffer3D.h for more details. The TBuffer3D methods SectionsValid(), SetSectionsValid(),
ClearSectionsValid() are used to test, set, clear these section validity flags e.g.
buffer.SetSectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kShapeSpecific);
...
if (buffer.SectionsValid(TBuffer3D:: kShapeSpecific)) {
...
}
The sections found in the base TBuffer3D (kCore/kBoundingBox/kRawSizes/kRaw) are sufficient to describe any
tessellated shape in a generic fashion. An additional kShapeSpecific section is added in TBuffer3D derived classes,
allowing a more abstract shape description (a sphere of inner radius x, outer radius y). This enables a viewer, which
knows how to draw (tessellate) the shape itself to do so, while providing a generic fallback suitable for all viewers. The
rules for client negotiation with the viewer are:

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Figure 9.41: TBuffer3D class hierarchy

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

239

If suitable specialized TBuffer3D class exists, use it, otherwise use TBuffer3D.
Complete the mandatory kCore section.
Complete the kShapeSpecific section if applicable.
Complete the kBoundingBox if you can.
Pass this buffer to the viewer using one of the TBuffer3D::AddObject() methods.
If the viewer requires more sections to be completed (kRaw/kRawSizes) TBuffer3D::AddObject() will return flags
indicating which ones, otherwise it returns kNone. If requested, you must fill the buffer, mark these sections valid, and
call TBuffer3D::AddObject again, to complete adding the object. For example, in out TGeo geometry package, in
TGeoPainter::PaintShape, we perform the negotiation with viewer:
TVirtualViewer3D * viewer = gPad->GetViewer3D();
if (shape.IsA() != TGeoCompositeShape::Class()) {
// Does viewer prefer local frame positions?
Bool_t localFrame = viewer->PreferLocalFrame();
// Perform first fetch of buffer from the shape and adding
// it to the viewer
const TBuffer3D &buffer = shape.GetBuffer3D(TBuffer3D::kCore |
TBuffer3D::kBoundingBox |
TBuffer3D::kShapeSpecific, localFrame);
Int_t reqSections = viewer->AddObject(buffer, &addDaughters);
// If the viewer requires additional sections fetch from the
// shape (if possible) and add again
if (reqSections != TBuffer3D::kNone) {
shape.GetBuffer3D(reqSections, localFrame);
viewer->AddObject(buffer, &addDaughters);
}
}
The buffer is supplied/filled by the appropriate TShape::GetBuffer3D() and TShape::FillBuffer3D overloads
e.g. for a sphere in TGeoSphere.
const TBuffer3D &TGeoSphere::GetBuffer3D(Int_t reqSections,
Bool_t localFrame) const {
// Fills a static 3D buffer and returns a reference.
static TBuffer3DSphere buffer;
// Filling of kBoundingBox is defered to TGeoBBox, and
// kCore on up to TGeoShape
TGeoBBox::FillBuffer3D(buffer, reqSections, localFrame);
// Complete kShapeSpecific section for sphere
if (reqSections & TBuffer3D::kShapeSpecific) {
buffer.fRadiusInner = fRmin;
buffer.fRadiusOuter = fRmax;
...
buffer.SetSectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kShapeSpecific);
}
// Complete kRawSizes section
if (reqSections & TBuffer3D::kRawSizes) {
...
buffer.SetSectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kRawSizes);
}
}
// Complete kRaw tesselation section
if ((reqSections & TBuffer3D::kRaw) &&
buffer.SectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kRawSizes)) {
SetPoints(buffer.fPnts);
// Transform points to master frame if viewer requires it
// The fLocalFrame flag and translation matrix will have
// already been set in TGeoShape::FillBuffer3D() as required

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CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

if (!buffer.fLocalFrame)
TransformPoints(buffer.fPnts, buffer.NbPnts());
SetSegsAndPols(buffer);
buffer.SetSectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kRaw);

}
return buffer;

Note:
we use a static TBuffer3D derived object for efficiency - once the object is added the buffer can be reused.
kRawSize (the calculation of tessellation sizing required in buffer) and kRaw (the actual filling of tessellation) is
split, as the X3D viewer requires two publication passes - one to establish the full tessellation capacity for all
shapes, and another to actually add them. Splitting avoids having to do the expensive tessellation on the first
pass.
9.13.4.4

Shape Specific TBuffer3D Derived Classes

Currently we provide the following shape specific classes, which the GL Viewer can take advantage of (see TBuffer3D.h
and TBuffer3DTypes.h)
TBuffer3DSphere - solid, hollow and cut spheres (GL Viewer only supports solid spheres at present - cut / hollow
ones will be requested as tessellated objects by client.)
TBuffer3DTube - basic tube with inner/outer radius and length.
TBuffer3DTubeSeg - angle tube segment.
TBuffer3DCutTube - angle tube segment with plane cut ends.
See the above example from TGeoSphere::GetBuffer3D and also equivalent functions in TGeoTube, TGeoTubeSeg and
TGeoCtub. Anyone is free to add new TBuffer3D classes, but it should be clear that one or more viewers will require
updating to be able to take advantage of them. Hence we only provide classes which existing viewers can benefit from.
The number of native shapes in GL Viewer will be expanded in the future.
9.13.4.5

Master / Local Reference Frames

The Core section of TBuffer3D contains two members relating to reference frames:
fLocalFrame: indicates if any positions in the buffer (bounding box and tessellation vertexes) are in local or
master (world frame).
fLocalMaster: is a standard 4x4 translation matrix (OpenGL column major ordering) for placing the object
into the 3D master frame.
If fLocalFrame is false, fLocalMaster should contain an identity matrix. This is set by default, and can be reset
using the TBuffer3D::SetLocalMasterIdentity() method.
9.13.4.6

Bounding Boxes

You are not obliged to complete the kBoundingBox section, as any viewer requiring one internally (GL Viewer) will
build it if you do not provide. However to do this the viewer will force you to provide the (expensive) raw tessellation,
and the resulting box will be axis aligned with the overall scene, which is non-ideal for rotated shapes. As we need
to support orientated (rotated) bounding boxes, TBuffer3D requires the 6 vertices of the box. We also provide a
convenience function, TBuffer::SetAABoundingBox(), for simpler case of setting an axis aligned bounding box. The
bounding box should be filled in same frame (local / master) as the rest of the TBuffer3D, and inaccordance with
fLocalFrame flag.
A typical example from TGeoBBox::FillBuffer3D:

9.13. 3D VIEWERS

241

if (reqSections & TBuffer3D::kBoundingBox) {

Double_t halfLengths[3] = { fDX, fDY, fDZ };
buffer.SetAABoundingBox(fOrigin, halfLengths);
if (!buffer.fLocalFrame) {
TransformPoints(buffer.fBBVertex[0], 8);
}
buffer.SetSectionsValid(TBuffer3D::kBoundingBox);
}
9.13.4.7

Logical and Physical Objects

Some viewers can support two types of object placement:

Add object as a single independent entity in the world reference frame - e.g. a sphere, radius r, at x, y, z.
Repeated placement (copying) in world frame of this locally unique piece of geometry (described in local reference
frame) e.g. define a sphere S (radius r), place copy at x1, y1, z1, another copy at x2, y2, z2 etc.
The second case is very typical in geometry packages, e.g. ROOTs TGeo package, GEANT4 etc, where we have very
large number repeated placements of relatively few unique shapes.
Some viewers (GL Viewer only at present) are able to take advantage of this by identifying unique logical shapes from
the fID logical ID member of TBuffer3D. If repeated addition of the same fID is found, the shape is cached already and the costly tessellation does not need to be sent again. The viewer can also perform internal GL specific caching
(display lists) with considerable performance gains in these cases. For this to work correctly the logical object in must
be described in TBuffer3D in the local reference frame, complete with the local/master translation. In some cases you
will not have a real object you can reasonably set TBuffer3D::fID to, or the object is recycled or temporary.
To suppress internal caching in the GL Viewer in these cases, set TBuffer3D::fID to 0 (null).
The viewer indicates it can support local frame objects through the TVirtualViewer3D interface method:
PreferLocalFrame(). If this returns kTRUE you can make repeated calls to AddObject(), with TBuffer3D containing
the same fID, and different fLocalMaster placements.
For viewers supporting logical/physical objects, the TBuffer3D content refers to the properties of the logical object,
with the exception of:
fLocalMaster transform
fColor
fTransparency
attributes, which can be varied for each physical object.
As a minimum requirement all clients must be capable of filling the raw tessellation of the object buffer, in the
master reference frame. Conversely viewers must always be capable of displaying the object described by this buffer. If
either does not meet this requirement the object may not be displayed.
9.13.4.8

Scene Rebuilds

TBuffer3D::AddObject is not an explicit command to the viewer - it may for various reasons decide to ignore it:
It already has the object internally cached.
The object falls outside some interest limits of the viewer camera.
The object is too small to be worth drawing.
In all these cases TBuffer3D::AddObject() returns kNone, as it does for successful addition, indicating it does not
require further information about this object. Hence you should not try to make any assumptions about what the
viewer did with the object. The viewer may decide to force the client to rebuild (republish) the scene, obtaining a
different collection of objects, if the internal viewer state changes .e.g. significant camera move. It does this presently
by forcing a repaint on the attached TPad object - hence you should attach you master geometry object to the pad (via
TObject::Draw()), and perform the publishing to the viewer in response to TObject::Paint().

242
9.13.4.9

CHAPTER 9. GRAPHICS AND THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Physical IDs

TVirtualViewer3D provides for two methods of object addition:

virtual Int_t AddObject(const TBuffer3D &buffer,
Bool_t * addChildren = 0)
virtual Int_t AddObject(UInt_t physicalID,
const TBuffer3D & buffer,
Bool_t *addChildren = 0)
If you use the first (simple) case a viewer using logical/physical pairs will generate sequential IDs for each physical
object internally. Scene rebuilds will require destruction and recreation of all physical objects. For the second you
can specify an identifier from the client side, which must be unique and stable - i.e. the IDs of a published object is
consistent, regardless of changes in termination of contained child geometry branches. In this case the viewer can safely
cache the physical objects across scene rebuilds, discarding those no longer of interest.
9.13.4.10

Child Objects

In many geometries there is a rigid containment hierarchy, and so if the viewer is not interested in a certain object due
to limits/size then it will also not be interest in any of the contained branch of siblings. Both TBuffer3D::AddObject()
methods have an addChildren return parameter. The viewer will complete this (if passed) indicating if children of the
object just sent are worth sending.
9.13.4.11

Recycling TBuffer3D

Once add TBuffer3D::AddObject() has been called, the contents are copied to the viewers internal data structures.
You are free to destroy this TBuffer3D, or recycle it for the next object if suitable.
9.13.4.12

Examples

For an example of a simple geometry, working in master reference frame examine the code under $ROOTSYS/g3d. For
a more complex example, which works in both master and local frames, and uses logical/physical division of shape
geometry and placement, examine the code under $ROOTSYS/geom - in particular TGeoShape hierarchy, and the painter
object TGeoPainter (under geopainter) where the negotiation with the viewer is performed.

Chapter 10

Folders and Tasks

10.1

Folders

A TFolder is a collection of objects visible and expandable in the ROOT object browser. Folders have a name and a
title and are identified in the folder hierarchy by an UNIX-like naming convention. The base of all folders is //root.
It is visible at the top of the left panel in the browser. The browser shows several folders under //root.
New folders can be added and removed to/from a folder.

10.2

Why Use Folders?

One reason to use folders is to reduce class dependencies and improve modularity. Each set of data has a producer
class and one or many consumer classes. When using folders, the producer class places a pointer to the data into a
folder, and the consumer class retrieves a reference to the folder.
The consumer can access the objects in a folder by specifying the path name of the folder.
Here is an example of a folders path name:
//root/Event/Hits/TCP
One does not have to specify the full path name. If the partial path name is unique, it will find it; otherwise it will
return the first occurrence of the path.
The first diagram shows a system without folders. The objects have pointers to each other to access each others data.
Pointers are an efficient way to share data between classes. However, a direct pointer creates a direct coupling between
classes. This design can become a very tangled web of dependencies in a system with a large number of classes.
In the second diagram, a reference to the data is in the folder and the consumers refer to the folder rather than
each other to access the data. The naming and search service provided by the ROOT folders hierarchy provides an
alternative. It loosely couples the classes and greatly enhances I/O operations. In this way, folders separate the data
from the algorithms and greatly improve the modularity of an application by minimizing the class dependencies.
In addition, the folder hierarchy creates a picture of the data organization. This is useful when discussing data design
issues or when learning the data organization. The example below illustrates this point.

10.3

How to Use Folders

Using folders means to build a hierarchy of folders, posting the reference to the data in the folder by the producer, and
creating a reference to the folder by the user.

10.3.1

Creating a Folder Hierarchy

To create a folder hierarchy you add the top folder of your hierarchy to //root. Then you add a folder to an existing
folder with the TFolder::AddFolder method. This method takes two parameters: the name and title of the folder to
be added. It returns a pointer of the newly created folder.
The code below creates the folder hierarchy shown in the browser. In this macro, the folder is also added to the list of
browsable. This way, it is visible in the browser on the top level.
243

244

CHAPTER 10. FOLDERS AND TASKS

10.3. HOW TO USE FOLDERS

245

// Add the top folder of my hierary to //root

TFolder *aliroot=gROOT->GetRootFolder()->AddFolder("aliroot",
"aliroot top level folders");
// Add the hierarchy to the list of browsables
gROOT->GetListOfBrowsables()->Add(aliroot,"aliroot");
// Create and add the constants folder
TFolder *constants=aliroot->AddFolder("Constants",
"Detector constants");
// Create and add the pdg folder to pdg
TFolder *pdg = constants->AddFolder("DatabasePDG","PDG database");
// Create and add the run folder
TFolder *run = aliroot->AddFolder("Run","Run dependent folders");
// Create and add the configuration folder to run
TFolder *configuration = run->AddFolder("Configuration",
"Run configuration");
// Create and add the run_mc folder
TFolder *run_mc = aliroot->AddFolder("RunMC",
"MonteCarlo run dependent folders");

// Create and add the configuration_mc folder to run_mc

TFolder *configuration_mc = run_mc->AddFolder("Configuration",
"MonteCarlo run configuration");

10.3.2

Posting Data to a Folder (Producer)

A TFolder can contain other folders as shown above or any TObject descendents. In general, users will not post a
single object to a folder; they will store a collection or multiple collections in a folder. For example, to add an array to
a folder:
TObjArray *array;
run_mc->Add(array);

10.3.3

Reading Data from a Folder (Consumer)

One can search for a folder or an object in a folder using the TROOT::FindObjectAny method. It analyzes the string
passed as its argument and searches in the hierarchy until it finds an object or folder matching the name. With
FindObjectAny, you can give the full path name, or the name of the folder. If only the name of the folder is given, it

246

CHAPTER 10. FOLDERS AND TASKS

10.4. TASKS

247

will return the first instance of that name. A string-based search is time consuming. If the retrieved object is used
frequently or inside a loop, you should save a pointer to the object as a class data member. Use the naming service
only in the initialization of the consumer class. When a folder is deleted, any reference to it in the parent or other
folder is deleted also.
conf=(TFolder*)gROOT->FindObjectAny("/aliroot/Run/Configuration");
// or ...
conf=(TFolder*)gROOT->FindObjectAny("Configuration");
By default, a folder does not own the object it contains. You can overwrite that with TFolder::SetOwner. Once
the folder is the owner of its contents, the contents are deleted when the folder is deleted. Some ROOT objects are
automatically added to the folder hierarchy. For example, the following folders exist on start up:
//root/ROOT Files with the list of open Root files
//root/Classes with the list of active classes
//root/Geometries with active geometries
//root/Canvases with the list of active canvases
//root/Styles with the list of graphics styles
//root/Colors with the list of active colors
For example, if a file myFile.root is added to the list of files, one can retrieve a pointer to the corresponding TFile
object with a statement like:
TFile *myFile = (TFile*)gROOT->FindObjectAny(
"/ROOTFiles/myFile.root");
//or...
TFile *myFile = (TFile*)gROOT->FindObjectAny("myFile.root");

10.4

Tasks

Tasks can be organized into a hierarchy and displayed in the browser. The TTask class is the base class from which
the tasks are derived. To give task functionality, you need to subclass the TTask class and override the Exec method.
An example of TTask subclassesis $ROOTSYS/tutorials/MyTasks.cxx. The script that creates a task hierarchy and
adds it to the browser is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tasks.C. Here is a part of MyTasks.cxx that shows how to subclass
from TTask.
// A set of classes deriving from TTask see macro tasks.C. The Exec
// function of each class prints one line when it is called.
#include "TTask.h"
class MyRun : public TTask {
public:
MyRun() { ; }
MyRun(const char *name,const char *title);
virtual ~MyRun() { ; }
void Exec(Option_t *option="");
ClassDef(MyRun,1)
// Run Reconstruction task
};
class MyEvent : public TTask {
public:
MyEvent() { ; }
MyEvent(const char *name,const char *title);
virtual ~MyEvent() { ; }
void Exec(Option_t *option="");
ClassDef(MyEvent,1)
// Event Reconstruction task
};
Later in MyTasks.cxx, we can see examples of the constructor and overridden Exec() method:

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CHAPTER 10. FOLDERS AND TASKS

ClassImp(MyRun)
MyRun::MyRun(const char *name,const char *title):TTask(name,title)
{
...
}
void MyRun::Exec(Option_t *option)
{
printf("MyRun executingn");
}
Each TTask derived class may contain other TTasks that can be executed recursively. In this way, a complex program
can be dynamically built and executed by invoking the services of the top level task or one of its subtasks. The
constructor of TTask has two arguments: the name and the title. This script creates the task defined above, and
creates a hierarchy of tasks.
// Show the tasks in a browser. To execute a Task, select
// "ExecuteTask" in the context menu see also other functions in the
// TTask context menu, such as:
//
-setting a breakpoint in one or more tasks
//
-enabling/disabling one task, etc
void tasks() {
gROOT->ProcessLine(".L MyTasks.cxx+");
TTask *run = new MyRun("run","Process one run");
TTask *event = new MyEvent("event","Process one event");
TTask *geomInit = new MyGeomInit("geomInit",
"Geometry Initialisation");
TTask *matInit
= new MyMaterialInit("matInit",
"MaterialsInitialisation");
TTask *tracker = new MyTracker("tracker","Tracker manager");
TTask *tpc
= new MyRecTPC("tpc","TPC Reconstruction");
TTask *its
= new MyRecITS("its","ITS Reconstruction");
TTask *muon
= new MyRecMUON("muon","MUON Reconstruction");
TTask *phos
= new MyRecPHOS("phos","PHOS Reconstruction");
TTask *rich
= new MyRecRICH("rich","RICH Reconstruction");
TTask *trd
= new MyRecTRD("trd","TRD Reconstruction");
TTask *global = new MyRecGlobal("global","Global Reconstruction");
// Create a hierarchy by adding sub tasks
run->Add(geomInit);
run->Add(matInit);
run->Add(event);
event->Add(tracker);
event->Add(global);
tracker->Add(tpc);
tracker->Add(its);
tracker->Add(muon);
tracker->Add(phos);
tracker->Add(rich);
tracker->Add(trd);
// Add the top level task
gROOT->GetListOfTasks()->Add(run);

// Add the task to the browser

gROOT->GetListOfBrowsables()->Add(run);
new TBrowser;

Note that the first line loads the class definitions in MyTasks.cxx with ACLiC. ACLiC builds a shared library and
adds the classes to the CINT dictionary. See Adding a Class with ACLiC.
To execute a TTask, you call the ExecuteTask method. ExecuteTask will recursively call:

10.4. TASKS

249

Figure 10.1: Tasks in the ROOT browser

250

CHAPTER 10. FOLDERS AND TASKS

the TTask::Execmethod of the derived class;

the TTask::ExecuteTasks to execute for each task the list of its subtasks;
If the top level task is added to the list of ROOT browseable objects, the tree of tasks can be seen in the ROOT
browser. To add it to the browser, get the list of browseable objects first and add it to the collection.
gROOT->GetListOfBrowsables()->Add(run);
The first parameter of the Add method is a pointer to a TTask, the second parameter is the string to show in the
browser. If the string is left out, the name of the task is used.
After executing, the script above the browser will look like in this figure.

10.5

Execute and Debug Tasks

The browser can be used to start a task, set break points at the beginning of a task or when the task has completed.
At a breakpoint, data structures generated by the execution up this point may be inspected asynchronously and then
the execution can be resumed by selecting the Continue function of a task.
A task may be active or inactive (controlled by TTask::SetActive). When a task is inactive, its sub tasks are not
executed. A task tree may be made persistent, saving the status of all the tasks.

Chapter 11

Input/Output
This chapter covers the saving and reading of objects to and from ROOT files. It begins with an explanation of the
physical layout of a ROOT file. It includes a discussion on compression, and file recovery. Then we explain the logical
file, the class TFile and its methods. We show how to navigate in a file, how to save objects and read them back. We
also include a discussion on Streamers. Streamers are the methods responsible to capture an objects current state to
save it to disk or send it over the network. At the end of the chapter is a discussion on the two specialized ROOT files:
TNetFile and TWebFile.

11.1

The Physical Layout of ROOT Files

A ROOT file is like a UNIX file directory. It can contain directories and objects organized in unlimited number of
levels. It also is stored in machine independent format (ASCII, IEEE floating point, Big Endian byte ordering). To
look at the physical layout of a ROOT file, we first create one. This example creates a ROOT file and 15 histograms,
fills each histogram with 1000 entries from a Gaussian distribution, and writes them to the file.
{

char name[10], title[20];

TObjArray Hlist(0);
// create an array of Histograms
TH1F* h;
// create a pointer to a histogram
// make and fill 15 histograms and add them to the object array
for (Int_t i = 0; i < 15; i++) {
sprintf(name,"h%d",i);
sprintf(title,"histo nr:%d",i);
h = new TH1F(name,title,100,-4,4);
Hlist.Add(h);
h->FillRandom("gaus",1000);
}
// open a file and write the array to the file
TFile f("demo.root","recreate");
Hlist->Write();
f.Close();

The example begins with a call to the TFile constructor. This class is describing the ROOT file (that has the extension
.root). In the next section, we will cover TFile in details. The last line of the example closes the file. To view its
contents we need to open it again, and to create a TBrowser object by:
root[] TFile f("demo.root")
root[] TBrowser browser;
You can check if the file is correctly opened by:
TFile f("demo.root");
if (f.IsZombie()) {
cout << "Error opening file" << endl;
251

252

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Figure 11.1: The browser with 15 created histograms

exit(-1);
} else {
...
}
Once we have the TFile object, we can call the TFile::Map() method to view the physical layout. The output prints
the date/time, the start record address, the number of bytes in the record, the class name of the record and the
compression factor.
root[] f.Map()
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124502
20051208/124503
20051208/124503
20051208/124503
20051208/124503

At:100
At:214
At:627
At:1037
At:1433
At:1833
At:2235
At:2651
At:3057
At:3460
At:3871
At:4271
At:4680
At:5089
At:5509
At:5915
At:6320
At:9372
At:10104
At:10157

N=114
N=413
N=410
N=396
N=400
N=402
N=416
N=406
N=403
N=411
N=400
N=409
N=409
N=420
N=406
N=405
N=3052
N=732
N=53
N=1

TFile
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
TH1F
StreamerInfo
KeysList
FreeSegments
END

CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX
CX

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

2.35
2.36
2.45
2.42
2.41
2.33
2.39
2.40
2.36
2.42
2.38
2.38
2.32
2.40
2.40
3.16

Here we see the fifteen histograms (TH1Fs) with the first one starting at byte 148. We also see an entry TFile. You
may notice that the first entry starts at byte 100. The first 100 bytes are taken by the file header.

11.1.1

The File Header

This table shows the file header information. When fVersion is greater than 1000000, the file is a large file (> 2 GB)
and the offsets will be 8 bytes long. The location in brackets are the location in the case of a large file.

11.1. THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT OF ROOT FILES

Byte
1 -> 4
5 -> 8
9 -> 12
13 -> 16
17 -> 20
21 -> 24
25 -> 28
29 -> 32
33 -> 33
34 -> 37
34 -> 37
34 -> 37
34 -> 37

Value Name
root
fVersion
fBEGIN
fEND
fSeekFree
fNbytesFree
nfree
fNbytesName
fUnits
fCompress
fSeekInfo
fNBytesInfo
fCompress

[13->20]
[21->28]
[29->32]
[33->36]
[37->40]
[41->41]
[42->45]
[46->53]
[54->57]
[58->75]

253
Description
Root file identifier
File format version
Pointer to first data record
Pointer to first free word at the EOF
Pointer to FREE data record
Number of bytes in FREE data record
Number of free data records
Number of bytes in TNamed at creation time
Number of bytes for file pointers
Zip compression level
Pointer to TStreamerInfo record
Number of bytes in TStreamerInfo record
Universal Unique ID

The first four bytes of the file header contain the string root which identifies a file as a ROOT file. Because of this
identifier, ROOT is not dependent on the .root extension. It is still a good idea to use the extension, just for us
to recognize them easier. The nfree and value is the number of free records. This variable along with FNBytesFree
keeps track of the free space in terms of records and bytes. This count also includes the deleted records, which are
available again.

11.1.2

The Top Directory Description

The 84 bytes after the file header contain the top directory description, including the name, the date and time it was
created, and the date and time of the last modification.
20010404/092347

11.1.3

At:64

N=84

TFile

The Histogram Records

What follows are the 15 histograms, in records of variable length.

20010404/092347
20010404/092347

At:148
At:528

N=380
N=377

TH1F
TH1F

CX =
CX =

2.49
2.51

The first 4 bytes of each record is an integer holding the number of bytes in this record. A negative number flags the
record as deleted, and makes the space available for recycling in the next writing. The rest of bytes in the header
contain all the information to identify uniquely a data block on the file. It is followed by the object data.
The next table explains the values in each individual record. If the key is located past the 32 bit file limit (> 2 GB)
then some fields will be 8 bytes instead of 4 bytes (values between the brackets):
Byte
1 -> 4
5 -> 6
7 -> 10
11 -> 14
15 -> 16
17 -> 18
19 -> 22 [19->26]
23 -> 26 [27->34]
27 -> 27 [35->35]
28 -> . . . [36->..
. . . -> . . .
. . . -> . . .
. . . -> . . .
. . . -> . . .
. . . -> . . .

Value Name
Nbytes
Version
ObjLen
Datime
KeyLen
Cycle
SeekKey
SeekPdir
lname
.] | ClassName
| lname
| Name
| lTitle
| Title
| DATA

Description
Length of compressed object (in bytes)
TKey version identifier
Length of uncompressed object
Date and time when object was written to file
Length of the key structure (in bytes)
Cycle of key
Pointer to record itself (consistency check)
Pointer to directory header
Number of bytes in the class name
| Object Class Name
| Number of bytes in the object name
| lName bytes with the name of the object
| Number of bytes in the object title
| Title of the object
| Data bytes associated to the object

You see a reference to TKey. It is explained in detail in the next section.

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11.1.4

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

The Class Description List (StreamerInfo List)

The histogram records are followed by the StreamerInfo list of class descriptions. The list contains the description of
each class that has been written to file.
20010404/092347

At:5854

N=2390

StreamerInfo

CX =

3.41

The class description is recursive, because to fully describe a class, its ancestors and object data members have to be
described also. In demo.root, the class description list contains the description for:
TH1F
all classes in the TH1F inheritance tree
all classes of the object data members
all classes in the object data members inheritance tree.
This description is implemented by the TStreamerInfo class, and is often referred to as simply StreamerInfo. You
can print a files StreamerInfolist with the TFile::ShowStreamerInfo method. Below is an example of the output.
Only the first line of each class description is shown. The demo.root example contains only TH1F objects. Here we see
the recursive nature of the class description; it contains the StreamerInfoof all the classes needed to describe TH1F.
root[] f.ShowStreamerInfo()
StreamerInfo for class: TH1F, version=1
BASE
TH1
offset=0 type= 0 1-Dim histogram base class
BASE
TArrayF
offset=0 type= 0 Array of floats
StreamerInfo for class: TH1, version=3
BASE
TNamed
offset=0 type=67
BASE
TAttLine
offset=0 type=0
BASE
TAttFill
offset=0 type=0
BASE
TAttMarker offset=0 type=0
Int_t
fNcells
offset=0 type=3
TAxis
fXaxis
offset=0 type=61
TAxis
fYaxis
offset=0 type=61
TAxis
fZaxis
offset=0 type=61
Short_t fBarOffset offset=0 type=2
Short_t fBarWidth
offset=0 type=2
Stat_t
fEntries
offset=0 type=8
Stat_t
fTsumw
offset=0 type=8
Stat_t
fTsumw2
offset=0 type=8
Stat_t
fTsumwx
offset=0 type=8
Stat_t
fTsumwx2
offset=0 type=8
Double_t fMaximum
offset=0 type=8
Double_t fMinimum
offset=0 type=8
Double_t fNormFactor offset=0 type=8
TArrayD fContour
offset=0 type=62
TArrayD fSumw2
offset=0 type=62
TString fOption
offset=0 type=65
TList*
fFunctions offset=0 type=63
StreamerInfo
...
StreamerInfo
...
StreamerInfo
...
StreamerInfo
...
StreamerInfo
...
StreamerInfo

The basis for named object(name,title)

Line attributes
Fill area attributes
Marker attributes
number bins(1D),cells(2D)+U/Overflows
X axis descriptor
Y axis descriptor
Z axis descriptor
(1000*offset) for barcharts or legos
(1000*width) for bar charts or legos
Number of entries//continued...
Total Sum of weights
Total Sum of squares of weights
Total Sum of weight*X
Total Sum of weight*X*X
Maximum value for plotting
Minimum value for plotting
Normalization factor
Array to display contour levels
Array of sum of squares of weights
histogram options
->Pointer to list of functions(fits,user)

for class: TNamed, version=1

for class: TAttLine, version=1
for class: TAttFill, version=1
for class: TAttMarker, version=1
for class: TArrayF, version=1
for class: TArray, version=1

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

255

...
StreamerInfo for class: TAxis, version=6
...
StreamerInfo for class: TAttAxis, version=4
...
ROOT allows a class to have multiple versions, and each version has its own description in form of a StreamerInfo.
Above you see the class name and version number. The StreamerInfolist has only one description for each class/version
combination it encountered. The file can have multiple versions of the same class, for example objects of old and new
versions of a class can be in the same file. The StreamerInfois described in detail in the section on Streamers.

11.1.5

The List of Keys and the List of Free Blocks

The last three entries on the output of TFile::Map() are the list of keys, the list of free segments, and the address
where the data ends.. When a file is closed, it writes a linked list of keys at the end of the file. This is what we see in
the third to the last entry. In our example, the list of keys is stored in 732 bytes beginning at byte# 8244.
20010404/092347
20010404/092347
20010404/092347

At:8244
At:8976
At:9029

N=732
N=53
N=1

KeysList
FreeSegments
END

The second to last entry is a list of free segments. In our case, this starts 8976 and is not very long, only 53 bytes,
since we have not deleted any objects. The last entry is the address of the last byte in the file.

11.1.6

File Recovery

A file may become corrupted or it may be impossible to write it to disk and close it properly. For example if the file
is too large and exceeds the disk quota, or the job crashes or a batch job reaches its time limit before the file can
be closed. In these cases, it is imperative to recover and retain as much information as possible. ROOT provides an
intelligent and elegant file recovery mechanism using the redundant directory information in the record header.
If a file that has been not properly closed is opened again, it is scanned and rebuilt according to the information in
the record header. The recovery algorithm reads the file and creates the saved objects in memory according to the
header information. It then rebuilds the directory and file structure. If the file is opened in write mode, the recovery
makes the correction on disk when the file is closed; however if the file is opened in read mode, the correction can not
be written to disk. You can also explicitly invoke the recovery procedure by calling the TFile::Recover() method.
You can recover the directory structure, but you cannot save what you recovered to the file on disk. In the following
example, we interrupted and aborted the previous ROOT session, causing the file not to be closed. When we start a
new session and attempt to open the file, it gives us an explanation and status on the recovery attempt.

root[] TFile f("demo.root")

Warning in <TFile::TFile>: file demo.root probably not closed, trying to recover successfully recovered 15

11.2

The Logical ROOT File: TFile and TKey

We saw that the TFile::Map() method reads the file sequentially and prints information about each record while
scanning the file. It is not feasible to support only sequential access and hence ROOT provides random or direct access,
i.e. reading a specified object at a time. To do so, TFile keeps a list of TKeys, which is essentially an index to the
objects in the file. The TKey class describes the record headers of objects in the file. For example, we can get the list of
keys and print them. To find a specific object on the file we can use the TFile::Get() method.
root[] TFile f("demo.root")
root[] f.GetListOfKeys()->Print()
TKey Name = h0, Title = histo nr:0,
TKey Name = h1, Title = histo nr:1,
TKey Name = h2, Title = histo nr:2,
TKey Name = h3, Title = histo nr:3,
TKey Name = h4, Title = histo nr:4,
TKey Name = h5, Title = histo nr:5,

Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle

=
=
=
=
=
=

1
1
1
1
1
1

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CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
TKey Name =
root[] TH1F

h6, Title = histo nr:6, Cycle =

h7, Title = histo nr:7, Cycle =
h8, Title = histo nr:8, Cycle =
h9, Title = histo nr:9, Cycle =
h10, Title = histo nr:10, Cycle
h11, Title = histo nr:11, Cycle
h12, Title = histo nr:12, Cycle
h13, Title = histo nr:13, Cycle
h14, Title = histo nr:14, Cycle
*h9 = (TH1F*)f.Get("h9");

1
1
1
1
=
=
=
=
=

1
1
1
1
1

The TFile::Get() finds the TKey object with name h9. Using the TKey info it will import in memory the object in
the file at the file address #3352 (see the output from the TFile::Map above). This is done by the Streamer method
that is covered in detail in a later section. Since the keys are available in a TList of TKeys we can iterate over the
list of keys:
{

TFile f("demo.root");
TIter next(f.GetListOfKeys());
TKey *key;
while ((key=(TKey*)next())) {
printf("key: %s points to an object of class: %s at %dn",
key->GetName(),
key->GetClassName(),key->GetSeekKey());
}

The output of this script is:

root[] .x iterate.C
key: h0 points to an object of class: TH1F at 150
key: h1 points to an object of class: TH1F at 503
key: h2 points to an object of class: TH1F at 854
key: h3 points to an object of class: TH1F at 1194
key: h4 points to an object of class: TH1F at 1539
key: h5 points to an object of class: TH1F at 1882
key: h6 points to an object of class: TH1F at 2240
key: h7 points to an object of class: TH1F at 2582
key: h8 points to an object of class: TH1F at 2937
key: h9 points to an object of class: TH1F at 3293
key: h10 points to an object of class: TH1F at 3639
key: h11 points to an object of class: TH1F at 3986
key: h12 points to an object of class: TH1F at 4339
key: h13 points to an object of class: TH1F at 4694
key: h14 points to an object of class: TH1F at 5038
In addition to the list of keys, TFile also keeps two other lists: TFile::fFree is a TList of free blocks used to recycle
freed up space in the file. ROOT tries to find the best free block. If a free block matches the size of the new object to
be stored, the object is written in the free block and this free block is deleted from the list. If not, the first free block
bigger than the object is used. TFile::fListHead contains a sorted list (TSortedList) of objects in memory. The
diagram below illustrates the logical view of the TFile and TKey.

11.2.1

Viewing the Logical File Contents

TFile is a descendent of TDirectory, which means it behaves like a TDirectory. We can list the contents, print the
name, and create subdirectories. In a ROOT session, you are always in a directory and the directory you are in is
called the current directory and is stored in the global variable gDirectory . Let us look at a more detailed example of
a ROOT file and its role as the current directory. First, we create a ROOT file by executing a sample script.
root[] .x $ROOTSYS/tutorials/hsimple.C

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

Figure 11.2: ROOT File/Directory/Key description

257

258

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Now you should have hsimple.root in your directory. The file was closed by the script so we have to open it again to
work with it. We open the file with the intent to update it, and list its contents.
root[] TFile f ("hsimple.root","UPDATE")
root[] f.ls()
TFile** hsimple.root
TFile* hsimple.root
KEY: TH1F hpx;1 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
It shows the two lines starting with TFile followed by four lines starting with the word KEY. The four keys tell us
that there are four objects on disk in this file. The syntax of the listing is:
KEY: <class> <variable>;<cycle number> <title>
For example, the first line in the list means there is an object in the file on disk, called hpx. It is of the class TH1F
(one-dimensional histogram of floating numbers). The objects title is This is the px distribution. If the line starts
with OBJ, the object is in memory. The <class> is the name of the ROOT class (T-something). The <variable> is the
name of the object. The cycle number along with the variable name uniquely identifies the object. The <title> is the
string given in the constructor of the object as title.

Figure 11.3: The structure of TFile

The figure shows a TFile with five objects in the top directory (kObjA;1, kObjA;2, kObjB;1, kObjC;1 and kObjD;1).
ObjA is on file twice with two different cycle numbers. It also shows four objects in memory (mObjE, mObjeF, mObjM,
mObjL). It also shows several subdirectories.

11.2.2

The Current Directory

When you create a TFile object, it becomes the current directory. Therefore, the last file to be opened is always the
current directory. To check your current directory you can type:
root[] gDirectory->pwd()
Rint:/
This means that the current directory is the ROOT session (Rint). When you create a file, and repeat the command
the file becomes the current directory.

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

259

root[] TFile f1("AFile1.root");

root[] gDirectory->pwd()
AFile1.root:/
If you create two files, the last becomes the current directory.
root[] TFile f2("AFile2.root");
root[] gDirectory->pwd()
AFile2.root:/
To switch back to the first file, or to switch to any file in general, you can use the TDirectory::cd method. The next
command changes the current directory back to the first file.
root[] f1.cd();
root[] gDirectory->pwd()
AFile1.root:/
Note that even if you open the file in READ mode, it still becomes the current directory. CINT also offers a shortcut
for gDirectory->pwd() and gDirectory->ls(), you can type:
root[] .pwd
AFile1.root:/
root[] .ls
TFile**
TFile*

AFile1.root
AFile1.root

To return to the home directory where we were before:

root[] gROOT->cd()
(unsigned char)1
root[] gROOT->pwd()
Rint:/

11.2.3

Objects in Memory and Objects on Disk

The TFile::ls() method has an option to list the objects on disk (-d) or the objects in memory (-m). If no
option is given it lists both, first the objects in memory, then the objects on disk. For example:
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("hsimple.root");
root[] gDirectory->ls("-m")
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
Remember that gDirectory is the current directory and at this time is equivalent to f. This correctly states that no
objects are in memory.
The next command lists the objects on disk in the current directory.
root[] gDirectory->ls("-d")
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
KEY: TH1F
hpx;1
This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F
hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
To bring an object from disk into memory, we have to use it or Get it explicitly. When we use the object, ROOT
gets it for us. Any reference to hprof will read it from the file. For example drawing hprof will read it from the file
and create an object in memory. Here we draw the profile histogram, and then we list the contents.

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CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

root[] hprof->Draw()
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
root[] f->ls()
TFile** hsimple.root
TFile* hsimple.root
OBJ: TProfile hprof Profile of pz versus px : 0
KEY: TH1F hpx;1 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
We now see a new line that starts with OBJ. This means that an object of class TProfile, called hprof has been
added in memory to this directory. This new hprof in memory is independent from the hprof on disk. If we make
changes to the hprof in memory, they are not propagated to the hprof on disk. A new version of hprof will be saved
once we call Write.
You may wonder why hprof is added to the objects in the current directory. hprof is of the class TProfile that
inherits from TH1D, which inherits from TH1. TH1 is the basic histogram. All histograms and trees are created in the
current directory (also see Histograms and the Current Directory). The reference to all histograms includes objects
of any class descending directly or indirectly from TH1. Hence, our TProfile hprof is created in the current directory
f.There was another side effect when we called the TH1::Draw method. CINT printed this statement:
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
It tells us that a TCanvas was created and it named it c1. This is where ROOT is being nice, and it creates a canvas
for drawing the histogram if no canvas was named in the draw command, and if no active canvas exists. The newly
created canvas, however, is NOT listed in the contents of the current directory. Why is that? The canvas is not added
to the current directory, because by default ONLY histograms and trees are added to the object list of the current
directory. Actually, TEventList objects are also added to the current directory, but at this time, we dont have to
worry about those. If the canvas is not in the current directory then where is it? Because it is a canvas, it was added
to the list of canvases.
This list can be obtained by the command gROOT->GetListOfCanvases()->ls(). The ls() will print the contents of
the list. In our list, we have one canvas called c1. It has a TFrame, a TProfile, and a TPaveStats.
root[] gROOT->GetListOfCanvases()->ls()
Canvas Name=c1 Title=c1
Option=TCanvas fXlowNDC=0 fYlowNDC=0 fWNDC=1 fHNDC=1
Name= c1 Title= c1
Option=TFrame X1= -4.000000 Y1=0.000000 X2=4.000000 Y2=19.384882
OBJ: TProfile hprof
Profile of pz versus px : 0
TPaveText X1=-4.900000 Y1=20.475282 X2=-0.950000 Y2=21.686837 title
TPaveStats X1=2.800000 Y1=17.446395 X2=4.800000 Y2=21.323371 stats
Lets proceed with our example and draw one more histogram, and we see one more OBJ entry.
root[] hpx->Draw()
root[] f->ls()
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
OBJ: TProfile hprof
Profile of pz versus px : 0
OBJ: TH1F
hpx
This is the px distribution : 0
KEY: TH1F
hpx;1
This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F
hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
TFile::ls() loops over the list of objects in memory and the list of objects on disk. In both cases, it calls the ls()
method of each object. The implementation of the ls method is specific to the class of the object, all of these objects
are descendants of TObject and inherit the TObject::ls() implementation. The histogram classes are descendants of
TNamed that in turn is a descent of TObject. In this case, TNamed::ls() is executed, and it prints the name of the
class, and the name and title of the object. Each directory keeps a list of its objects in the memory. You can get this
list by TDirectory::GetList(). To see the lists in memory contents you can do:

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

261

root[]f->GetList()->ls()
OBJ: TProfile
hprof
Profile of pz versus px : 0
OBJ: TH1F
hpx
This is the px distribution : 0
Since the file f is the current directory (gDirectory ), this will yield the same result:
root[] gDirectory->GetList()->ls()
OBJ: TProfile
hprof
Profile of pz versus px : 0
OBJ: TH1F
hpx
This is the px distribution : 0

11.2.4

Saving Histograms to Disk

At this time, the objects in memory (OBJ) are identical to the objects on disk (KEY). Lets change that by adding a
fill to the hpx we have in memory.
root[] hpx->Fill(0)
Now the hpx in memory is different from the histogram (hpx) on disk. Only one version of the object can be in memory,
however, on disk we can store multiple versions of the object. The TFile::Write method will write the list of objects
in the current directory to disk. It will add a new version of hpx and hprof.
root[] f->Write()
root[] f->ls()
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
OBJ: TProfile hprof Profile of pz versus px : 0
OBJ: TH1F
hpx
This is the px distribution : 0
KEY: TH1F
hpx;2 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH1F
hpx;1 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F
hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;2 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1
Demo ntuple
The TFile::Write method wrote the entire list of objects in the current directory to the file. You see that it added
two new keys: hpx;2 and hprof;2 to the file. Unlike memory, a file is capable of storing multiple objects with the
same name. Their cycle number, the number after the semicolon, differentiates objects on disk with the same name. If
you wanted to save only hpx to the file, but not the entire list of objects, you could use the TH1::Writemethod of hpx:
root[] hpx->Write()
A call to obj->Write without any parameters will call obj->GetName() to find the name of the object and use it to
create a key with the same name. You can specify a new name by giving it as a parameter to the Write method.
root[] hpx->Write("newName")
If you want to re-write the same object, with the same key, use the overwrite option.
root[] hpx->Write("",TObject::kOverwrite)
If you give a new name and use the kOverwrite, the object on disk with the matching name is overwritten if such an
object exists. If not, a new object with the new name will be created.
root[] hpx->Write("newName",TObject::kOverwrite)
The Write method did not affect the objects in memory at all. However, if the file is closed, the directory is emptied
and the objects on the list are deleted.

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CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Figure 11.4: The file before and after the call to Write
root[] f->Close()
root[] f->ls()
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
In the code snipped above, you can see that the directory is now empty. If you followed along so far, you can see that
c1 which was displaying hpx is now blank. Furthermore, hpx no longer exists.
root[] hpx->Draw()
Error: No symbol hpx in current scope
This is important to remember, do not close the file until you are done with the objects or any attempt to reference the
objects will fail.

11.2.5

Histograms and the Current Directory

When a histogram is created, it is added by default to the list of objects in the current directory. You can get the list
of histograms in a directory and retrieve a pointer to a specific histogram.
TH1F *h = (TH1F*)gDirectory->Get("myHist"); // or
TH1F *h = (TH1F*)gDirectory->GetList()->FindObject("myHist");
The method TDirectory::GetList() returns a TList of objects in the directory. You can change the directory of a
histogram with the SetDirectory method.
h->SetDirectory(newDir);
If the parameter is 0, the histogram is no longer associated with a directory.

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

263

h->SetDirectory(0);
Once a histogram is removed from the directory, it will no longer be deleted when the directory is closed. It is now your
responsibility to delete this histogram object once you are finished with it. To change the default that automatically
adds the histogram to the current directory, you can call the static function:
TH1::AddDirectory(kFALSE);
In this case, you will need to do all the bookkeeping for all the created histograms.

11.2.6

Saving Objects to Disk

In addition to histograms and trees, you can save any object in a ROOT file. For example to save a canvas to the
ROOT file you can use either TObject::Write() or TDirectory::WriteTObject(). The example:
root[] c1->Write()
This is equivalent to:
root[] f->WriteTObject(c1)
For objects that do not inherit from TObject use:
root[] f->WriteObject(ptr,"nameofobject")
Another example:
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("hsimple.root","UPDATE")
root[] hpx->Draw()
<TCanvas::MakeDefCanvas>: created default TCanvas with name c1
root[] c1->Write()
root[] f->ls()
TFile**
hsimple.root
TFile*
hsimple.root
OBJ: TH1F
hpx
This is the px distribution : 0
KEY: TH1F
hpx;2
This is the px distribution
KEY: TH1F
hpx;1
This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F
hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;2 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1
Demo ntuple
KEY: TCanvas c1;1
c1

11.2.7

Saving Collections to Disk

All collection classes inherit from TCollection and hence inherit the TCollection::Write() method. When you
call TCollection::Write() each object in the container is written individually into its own key in the file. To write
all objects into one key you can specify the name of the key and use the optionTObject::kSingleKey. For example:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

TList * list = new TList;

TNamed * n1, * n2;
n1 = new TNamed("name1","title1");
n2 = new TNamed("name2","title2");
list->Add(n1);
list->Add(n2);
gFile->WriteObject(list,"list",TObject::kSingleKey);

264

11.2.8

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

A TFile Object Going Out of Scope

There is another important point to remember about TFile::Close and TFile::Write. When a variable is declared
on the stack in a function such as in the code below, it will be deleted when it goes out of scope.
void foo() {
TFile f("AFile.root","RECREATE");
}
As soon as the function foohas finished executing, the variable f is deleted. When a TFile object is deleted an
implicit call to TFile::Close is made. This will save only the file descriptor to disk. It contains the file header, the
StreamerInfolist, the key list, the free segment list, and the end address. See The Physical Layout of ROOT Files.
The TFile::Close does not make a call to Write(), which means that the objects in memory will not be saved in the
file. You need to explicitly call TFile::Write() to save the object in memory to file before the exit of the function.
void foo() {
TFile f("AFile.root","RECREATE");
... stuff ...
f.Write();
}
To prevent an object in a function from being deleted when it goes out of scope, you can create it on the heap instead
of on the stack. This will create a TFile object f, that is available on a global scope, and it will still be available when
exiting the function.
void foo() {
TFile *f = new TFile("AFile.root","RECREATE");
}

11.2.9

Retrieving Objects from Disk

If you have a ROOT session running, please quit and start fresh.
We saw that multiple versions of an object with the same name could be in a ROOT file. In our example, we saved a
modified histogram hpx to the file, which resulted in two hpxs uniquely identified by the cycle number: hpx;1 and
hpx;2. The question is how we can retrieve the right version of hpx. When opening the file and using hpx, CINT
retrieves the one with the highest cycle number. To read the hpx;1 into memory, rather than the hpx:2 we would get
by default, we have to explicitly get it and assign it to a variable.
root[] TFile *f1 = new TFile("hsimple.root")
root[] TH1F *hpx1; f1->GetObject("hpx;1",hpx)
root[] hpx1->Draw()

11.2.10

Subdirectories and Navigation

The TDirectory class lets you organize its contents into subdirectories, and TFile being a descendent of TDirectory
inherits this ability. Here is an example of a ROOT file with multiple subdirectories as seen in the ROOT browser.
To add a subdirectory to a file use TDirectory::mkdir. The example below opens the file for writing and creates a
subdirectory called Wed011003. Listing the contents of the file shows the new directory in the file and the TDirectory
object in memory.
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("AFile.root","RECREATE")
root[] f->mkdir("Wed011003")
(class TDirectory*)0x1072b5c8
root[] f->ls()
TFile**
AFile.root
TFile*
AFile.root
TDirectory*
Wed011003
KEY: TDirectory
Wed011003;1

Wed011003
Wed011003

11.2. THE LOGICAL ROOT FILE: TFILE AND TKEY

265

We can change the current directory by navigating into the subdirectory, and after changing directory; we can see that
gDirectory is now Wed011003.
root[] f->cd("Wed011003")
root[] gDirectory->pwd()
AFile.root:/Wed011003
In addition to gDirectory we have gFile , another global that points to the current file. In our example, gDirectory
points to the subdirectory, and gFile points to the file (i.e. the files top directory).
root[] gFile->pwd()
AFile.root:/
Use cd() without any arguments to return to the files top directory.
root[] f->cd()
AFile.root:/
Change to the subdirectory again, and create a histogram. It is added to the current directory, which is the subdirectory
Wed011003.
root[] f->cd("Wed011003")
root[] TH1F *histo = new TH1F("histo","histo",10,0,10)
root[] gDirectory->ls()
TDirectory* Wed011003
Wed011003
OBJ: TH1F
histo
histo : 0
If you are in a subdirectory and you want to have a pointer to the file containing the subdirectory, you can do:
root[] gDirectory->GetFile()
If you are in the top directory gDirectory is the same as gFile . We write the file to save the histogram on disk, to
show you how to retrieve it later.
root[] f->Write()
root[] gDirectory->ls()
TDirectory*
Wed011003
OBJ: TH1F
histo
histo : 0
KEY: TH1F
histo;1 histo

Wed011003

When retrieving an object from a subdirectory, you can navigate to the subdirectory first or give it the path name
relative to the file. The read object is created in memory in the current directory. In this first example, we get histo
from the top directory and the object will be in the top directory.
root[] TH1 *h; f->GetObject("Wed011003/histo;1",h)
If file is written, a copy of histo will be in the top directory. This is an effective way to copy an object from one
directory to another. In contrast, in the code box below, histo will be in memory in the subdirectory because we
changed the current directory.
root[] f->cd("Wed011003")
root[] TH1 *h; gDirectory->GetObject("histo;1",h)
Note that there is no warning if the retrieving was not successful. You need to explicitly check the value of h, and if it
is null, the object could not be found. For example, if you did not give the path name the histogram cannot be found
and the pointer to h is null:

266
root[]
root[]
(class
root[]
root[]
(class

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

TH1 *h; gDirectory->GetObject("Wed011003/histo;1",h)
h
TH1*)0x10767de0
TH1 *h; gDirectory->GetObject("histo;1",h)
h
TH1*)0x0

To remove a subdirectory you need to use TDirectory::Delete. There is no TDirectory::rmdir. The Delete method
takes a string containing the variable name and cycle number as a parameter.
void Delete(const char *namecycle)
The namecycle string has the format name;cycle. The next are some rules to remember:
name = * means all, but dont remove the subdirectories
cycle =* means all cycles (memory and file)
cycle = means apply to a memory object
cycle = 9999 also means apply to a memory object
namecycle = means the same as namecycle =T*
namecycle = T* delete subdirectories
For example to delete a directory from a file, you must specify the directory cycle:
root[] f->Delete("Wed011003;1")
Some other examples of namecycle format are:
foo:delete the object named foo from memory
foo;1: delete the cycle 1 of the object named foo from the file
foo;*: delete all cycles of foo from the file and also from memory
*;2: delete all objects with cycle number 2 from the file
*;*:

delete all objects from memory and from the file

T*;*: delete all objects from memory and from the file including all subdirectories

11.3

Streamers

To follow the discussion on Streamers, you need to know what a simple data type is. A variable is of a simple data
type if it cannot be decomposed into other types. Examples of simple data types are longs, shorts, floats, and chars.
In contrast, a variable is of a composite data type if it can be decomposed. For example, classes, structures, and
arrays are composite types. Simple types are also called primitive types, basic types, and CINT sometimes calls them
fundamental types.
When we say, writing an object to a file, we actually mean writing the current values of the data members. The most
common way to do this is to decompose (also called the serialization of) the object into its data members and write
them to disk. The decomposition is the job of the Streamer. Every class with ambitions to be stored in a file has a
Streamerthat decomposes it and streams its members into a buffer.
The methods of the class are not written to the file, it contains only the persistent data members. To decompose the
parent classes, the Streamercalls the Streamerof the parent classes. It moves up the inheritance tree until it reaches
an ancestor without a parent. To serialize the object data members it calls their Streamer. They in turn move up
their own inheritance tree and so forth. The simple data members are written to the buffer directly. Eventually the
buffer contains all simple data members of all the classes that make up this particular object. Data members that are
references (as MyClass &fObj;) are never saved, it is always the responsibility of the objects constructor to set them
properly.

11.3. STREAMERS

11.3.1

267

Automatically Generated Streamers

A Streamerusually calls other Streamers: the Streamerof its parents and data members. This architecture depends on
all classes having Streamers, because eventually they will be called. To ensure that a class has a Streamer, rootcint
automatically creates one in the ClassDef macro that is defined in $ROOTSYS/include/Rtypes.h. ClassDef defines
several methods for any class, and one of them is the Streamer. The automatically generated Streameris complete
and can be used as long as no customization is needed.
The Event class is defined in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.h. Looking at the class definition, we find that it inherits from
TObject. It is a simple example of a class with diverse data members.
class Event :
private:
TDirectory
Float_t
char
Int_t
Int_t
Int_t
UInt_t
Float_t
EventHeader
TClonesArray
TH1F
Int_t
Float_t
Float_t
...

public TObject {
*fTransient;
fPt;
fType[20];
fNtrack;
fNseg;
fNvertex;
fFlag;
fTemperature;
fEvtHdr;
*fTracks;
*fH;
fMeasures[10];
fMatrix[4][4];
*fClosestDistance;

//! current directory

//! transient value

//|| don't split

//->
//->
//[fNvertex]

The Event class is added to the CINT dictionary by the rootcint utility. This is the rootcint statement in the
$ROOTSYS/test/Makefile:
@rootcint -f EventDict.cxx -c Event.h EventLinkDef.h
The EventDict.cxx file contains the automatically generated Streamerfor Event:
void Event::Streamer(TBuffer &R__b){
// Stream an object of class Event.
if (R__b.IsReading()) {
Event::Class()->ReadBuffer(R__b, this);
} else {
Event::Class()->WriteBuffer(R__b, this);
}
}
When writing an Event object, TClass::WriteBuffer is called. WriteBuffer writes the current version number of
the Event class, and its contents into the buffer R__b. The Streamercalls TClass::ReadBuffer when reading an
Event object. The ReadBuffer method reads the information from buffer R__b into the Event object.

11.3.2

Transient Data Members (//!)

To prevent a data member from being written to the file, insert a ! as the first character after the comment marks.
It tells ROOT not to save that data member in a root file when saving the class. For example, in this version of Event,
the fPt and fTransient data members are not persistent.
class Event : public TObject {
private:
TDirectory
*fTransient; //! current directory
Float_t fPt;
//! transient value
...

268

11.3.3

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

The Pointer to Objects (//->)

The string -> in the comment field of the members *fH and *fTracks instruct the automatic Streamer to assume
these will point to valid objects and the Streamerof the objects can be called rather than the more expensive R__b <<
fH. It is important to note that no check is done on the validity of the pointer value. In particular if the pointer points,
directly or indirectly, back to the current object, this will result in an infinite recursion and the abrupt end of the
process.
TClonesArray
TH1F

11.3.4

*fTracks;
*fH;

//->
//->

Variable Length Array

When the Streamercomes across a pointer to a simple type, it assumes it is an array. Somehow, it has to know how
many elements are in the array to reserve enough space in the buffer and write out the appropriate number of elements.
This is done in the class definition. For example:
class Event : public TObject {
private:
char
fType[20];
Int_t
fNtrack;
Int_t
fNseg;
Int_t
fNvertex;
...
Float_t
*fClosestDistance;

//[fNvertex]

The array fClosestDistance is defined as a pointer of floating point numbers. A comment mark (//), and the number
in square brackets tell the Streamerthe length of the array for this object. In general the syntax is:
<simple type> *<name>//[<length>]
The length cannot be an expression. If a variable is used, it needs to be an integer data member of the class. It must
be defined ahead of its use, or in a base class.
The same notation also applies to variable length array of object and variable length array of pointer to objects.
MyObject *obj; //[fNojbs]
MyObject **objs; //[fDatas]

11.3.5

Double32_t

Math operations very often require double precision, but on saving single usually precision is sufficient. For this purpose
we support the typedef Double32_t which is stored in memory as a double and on disk as a float or interger. The actual
size of disk (before compression) is determined by the parameter next to the data member declartion. For example:
Double32_t m_data;

//[min,max<,nbits>]

If the comment is absent or does not contain min, max, nbit, the member is saved as a float.
If min and max are present, they are saved as a 32 bits precision. min and max can be explicit values or be expressions
of values known to CINT (e.g. pi").
If nbits is present, the member is saved as int with nbit. For more details see the io tutorials double32.C.

11.3.6

Prevent Splitting (//|| )

If you want to prevent a data member from being split when writing it to a tree, append the characters || right after
the comment string. This only makes sense for object data members. For example:
EventHeader

fEvtHdr;

//|| do not split the header

11.3. STREAMERS

269

Figure 11.5: Compression and precision of Double32_t

270

11.3.7

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Streamers with Special Additions

Most of the time you can let rootcint generate a Streamer for you. However if you want to write your own
Streameryou can do so. For some classes, it may be necessary to execute some code before or after the read or
write block in the automatic Streamer. For example after the execution of the read block, one can initialize some
non persistent members. There are two reasons why you would need to write your own Streamer: 1) if you have a
non-persistent data member that you want to initialize to a value depending on the read data members; 2) if you
want or need to handle the schema evolution on your own. In addition, the automatic Streamerdoes not support
C-structures. It is best to convert the structure to a class definition.
First, you need to tell rootcint not to build a Streamerfor you. The input to the rootcint command (in
the makefile) is a list of classes in a LinkDef.h file. For example, the list of classes for Event is listed in
$ROOTSYS/test/EventLinkDef.h. The - at the end of the class name tells rootcint not to generate a Streamer. In
the example, you can see the Event class is the only one for which rootcint is instructed not to generate a Streamer.
#ifdef __CINT__
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma

link
link
link
link
link
link
link

off
off
off
C++
C++
C++
C++

all globals;
all classes;
all functions;
class EventHeader+;
class Event-;
class HistogramManager+;
class Track+;

#endif
#pragma link C++ class EventHeader+;
The + sign tells rootcint to use the new Streamersystem introduced in ROOT 3.0. The following is an example of
a customized Streamerfor Event. The Streamer takes a TBuffer as a parameter, and first checks to see if this is a
case of reading or writing the buffer.
void Event::Streamer(TBuffer &R__b) {
if (R__b.IsReading()) {
Event::Class()->ReadBuffer(R__b, this);
fTransient = gDirectory;
//save current directory
fPt= TMath::Sqrt(fPx*fPx + fPy*fPy + fPz*fPz);
} else {
Event::Class()->WriteBuffer(R__b, this);
}
}

11.3.8

Writing Objects

The Streamer decomposes the objects into data members and writes them to a buffer. It does not write the buffer to a
file, it simply populates a buffer with bytes representing the object. This allows us to write the buffer to a file or do
anything else we could do with the buffer. For example, we can write it to a socket to send it over the network. This is
beyond the scope of this chapter, but it is worthwhile to emphasize the need and advantage of separating the creation
of the buffer from its use. Let us look how a buffer is written to a file. The dictionary for a class needs to be loaded
before any object of that type can be saved.
The TObject::Write method does the following:
Creates a TKey object in the current directory
Creates a TBuffer object which is part of the newly created TKey
Fills the TBuffer with a call to the class::Streamer method
Creates a second buffer for compression, if needed
Reserves space by scanning the TFree list. At this point, the size of the buffer is known.
Writes the buffer to the file

11.4. POINTERS AND REFERENCES IN PERSISTENCY

271

Releases the TBuffer part of the key

In other words, the TObject::Write calls the Streamer method of the class to build the buffer. The buffer is in the
key and the key is written to disk. Once written to disk the memory consumed by the buffer part is released. The key
part of the TKey is kept.

Figure 11.6: A diagram of a streamed TH1F in the buffer

The key consumes about 60 bytes, whereas the buffer, since it contains the object data, can be very large.

11.3.9

Ignore Object Streamers

Your class can ignore the TObject Streamerwith the MyClass->Class::IgnoreObjectStreamer() method. When the
class kIgnoreTObjectStreamerbit is set (by calling the IgnoreTObjectStreamermethod), the automatically generated
Streamerwill not call TObject::Streamer, and the TObject part of the class is not streamed to the file. This is useful
in case you do not use the TObject fBits and fUniqueIDdata members. You gain space on the file, and you do not
loose functionality if you do not use the fBits and fUniqueID.See The Role of TObject on the use of fBits and
fUniqueID.

11.3.10

Streaming a TClonesArray

When writing a TClonesArray it bypasses by default the Streamerof the member class and uses a more efficient
internal mechanism to write the members to the file. You can override the default and specify that the member class
Streameris used by setting the TClonesArray::BypassStreamer bit to false:
TClonesArray *fTracks;
fTracks->BypassStreamer(kFALSE);

// use the member Streamer

When the kBypassStreamer bit is set, the automatically generated Streamercan call directly the method
TClass::WriteBuffer. Bypassing the Streamer improves the performance when writing/reading the objects in the
TClonesArray. However, the drawback is when a TClonesArray is written with split=0 bypassing the Streamer, the
StreamerInfoof the class in the array being optimized, one cannot later use the TClonesArray with split > 0. For
example, there is a problem with the following scenario: a class Foo has a TClonesArray of Bar objects the Foo object
is written with split=0 to Tree T1. In this case the StreamerInfo for the class Bar is created in optimized mode in
such a way that data members of the same type are written as an array improving the I/O performance. In a new
program, T1 is read and a new Tree T2 is created with the object Foo in split > 1.
When the T2branch is created, the StreamerInfo for the class Bar is created with no optimization (mandatory for
the split mode). The optimized Bar StreamerInfo is going to be used to read the TClonesArray in T1. The result
will be Bar objects with data member values not in the right sequence. The solution to this problem is to call
BypassStreamer(kFALSE) for the TClonesArray. In this case, the normal Bar::Streamer function will be called. The
Bar::Streamer function works OK independently if the Bar StreamerInfohad been generated in optimized mode or
not.

11.4

Pointers and References in Persistency

An object pointer as a data member presents a challenge to the streaming software. If the object pointed to is saved
every time, it could create circular dependencies and consume a large amount of disk space. The network of references
must be preserved on disk and recreated upon reading the file.

272

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

If you use independent I/O operations for pointers and their referenced objects you can use the TRef class. Later in
this section is an example that compares disk space, memory usage, and I/O times of C++ pointers and TRefs. In
general, a TRef is faster than C++ but the advantage of a C++ pointer is that it is already C++.

11.4.1

Streaming C++ Pointers

When ROOT encounters a pointer data member it calls the Streamer of the object and labels it with a unique object
identifier. The object identifier is unique for one I/O operation. If there is another pointer to the object in the same
I/O operation, the first object is referenced i.e. it is not saved again. When reading the file, the object is rebuilt and
the references recalculated.

Figure 11.7: Streaming object pointers

In this way, the network of pointers and their objects is rebuilt and ready to use the same way it was used before it
was persistent. If the pointer hold the address of an object which in embedded in another object (as opposed to being
pointed to by a pointer), the object will be duplicate at read time. To avoid this, make the pointer a transient data
member.

11.4.2

Motivation for the TRef Class

If the object is split into several files or into several branches of one or more TTrees, standard C++ pointers cannot
be used because each I/O operation will write the referenced objects, and multiple copies will exist. In addition, if
the pointer is read before the referenced object, it is null and may cause a run time system error. To address these
limitations, ROOT offers the TRef class.
TRef allows referencing an object in a different branch and/or in a different file. TRef also supports the complex
situation where a TFile is updated multiple times on the same machine or a different machine. When a TRef is read
before its referenced object, it is null. As soon as the referenced object is read, the TRef points to it. In addition, one
can specify an action to be taken by TRef in the case it is read before its reference object (seeAction on Demand
below).

11.4.3

Using TRef

A TRef is a lightweight object pointing to any TObject. This object can be used instead of normal C++ pointers in
case:
The referenced object R and the pointer P are not written to the same file
P is read before R
R and P are written to different Tree branches
Below is a line from the example in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.cxx.
TRef
fLastTrack;
//pointer to last track
...
Track *track = (Track*)fTracks->ConstructedAt(fNtrack++);
track->Set(random);
// Save reference to last Track in the collection of Tracks
fLastTrack = track;
The track and its reference fLastTrack can be written with two separate I/O calls in the same or in different files, in
the same or in different branches of a TTree. If the TRef is read and the referenced object has not yet been read, TRef
will return a null pointer. As soon as the referenced object will be read, TRef will point to it.

11.4. POINTERS AND REFERENCES IN PERSISTENCY

11.4.4

273

How Does It Work?

A TRef is itself a TObject with an additional transient pointer fPID. When a TRef is used to point to a TObject*R,
for example in a class with
TRef

P;

one can do:

P = R;

//to set the pointer

When the statement P = Ris executed, the following happens:

The pointer fPID is set to the current TProcessID (see below).
The current ObjectNumber (see below) is incremented by one.
R.fUniqueID is set to ObjectNumber.
In the fPID object, the element fObjects[ObjectNumber] is set to R
P.fUniqueID is also set to ObjectNumber.
After having set P, one can immediately return the value of R using P.GetObject(). This function returns the
fObjects[fUniqueID] from the fPID object.
When the TRef is written, the process id number pidf of fPID is written in addition to the TObject part of the
TRef (fBits,fUniqueID). When the TRef is read, its pointer fPID is set to the value stored in the TObjArray of
TFile::fProcessIDs(fProcessIDs[pidf]).
When a referenced object is written, TObject::Streamer writes the pidf in addition to the standard fBits and
fUniqueID. When TObject::Streamer reads a reference object, the pidf is read. At this point, the referenced object
is entered into the table of objects of the TProcessID corresponding to pidf.
WARNING: If MyClass is the class of the referenced object, The TObject part of MyClass must be streamed. One
should not call MyClass::Class()->IgnoreTObjectStreamer().
11.4.4.1

TProccessID and TUUID

A TProcessID uniquely identifies a ROOT job. The TProcessID title consists of a TUUID object, which provides a
globally unique identifier. The TUUID class implements the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier), also known as GUID
(Globally Unique Identifier). A UUID is 128 bits long, and if generated according to this algorithm, is either guaranteed
to be different from all other UUID generated until 3400 A.D. or extremely likely to be different.
The TROOT constructor automatically creates a TProcessID. When a TFile contains referenced objects, the TProcessID
object is written to the file. If a file has been written in multiple sessions (same machine or not), a TProcessID is
written for each session. The TProcessID objects are used by TRef to uniquely identify the referenced TObject.
When a referenced object is read from a file (its bit kIsReferenced is set), this object is entered into the objects
table of the corresponding TProcessID. Each TFile has a list of TProcessIDs (see TFile::fProcessIDs) also
accessiblefromTProcessID::fgPIDs(for all files). When this object is deleted, it is removed from the
table via the cleanup mechanism invoked by the **TObject** destructor. Each **TProcessID** has a
table (TObjArray *fObjects) that keeps track of all referenced objects. If a referenced object has
afUniqueID, a pointer to this unique object may be found usingfObjects->At(fUniqueID). In the same
way, when a **TRef::GetObject** is called,GetObjectuses its ownfUniqueIDto find the pointer to the
referenced object. SeeTProcessID::GetObjectWithIDandPutObjectWithID.
11.4.4.2

Object Number

When an object is referenced, a unique identifier is computed and stored in both the fUniqueID of the referenced and
referencing object. This uniqueID is computed by incrementing by one the static global in TProcessID::fgNumber. The
fUniqueID is the serial object number in the current session. One can retrieve the current fgNumber value by calling the
static function TProcessID::GetObjectCount at any time or can set this number by TProcessID::SetObjectCount.
To avoid a growing table of fObjects in TProcessID, in case, for example, one processes many events in a loop,
it might be necessary to reset the object number at the end of processing of one event. See an example in
$ROOTSYS/test/Event.cxx (look at function Build). The value of ObjectNumbermay be saved at the beginning
of one event and reset to this original value at the end of the event. These actions may be nested.

274

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

saveNumber = TProcessID::GetObjectCount();
...
TProcessID::SetObjectCount(savedNumber);

11.4.5

Action on Demand

The normal behavior of a TRef has been described above. In addition, TRef supports Actions on Demand. It may
happen that the referenced object is not yet in the memory, on a separate file or not yet computed. In this case, TRef
is able to execute automatically an action:
Call to a compiled function (static function of member function)
Call to an interpreted function
Execution of a CINT script
11.4.5.1

How to Select This Option?

In the definition of the TRef data member in the original class, do:
TRef fRef;

//EXEC:execName points to something

When the special keyword "EXEC:" is found in the comment field of the member, the next string is assumed to be
the name of a TExec object. When a file is connected, the dictionary of the classes on the file is read in memory (see
TFile::ReadStreamerInfo). When the TStreamerElement object is read, a TExec object is automatically created
with the name specified after the keyword "EXEC:" in case a TExec with a same name does not already exist.
The action to be executed via this TExec can be specified with:
A call to the TExec constructor, if the constructor is called before
Opening the file.
A call to TExec::SetAction at any time.
One can compute a pointer to an existing TExec with a name with:
TExec *myExec = gROOT->GetExec(execName);
myExec->SetAction(actionCommand);
The parameter actionCommand is a string containing a CINT instruction. Examples:
myExec->SetAction("LoadHits()");
myExec->SetAction(".x script.C");
When a TRef is de-referenced via TRef::GetObject, its TExec** is automatically executed. The TExec function/script
can do one or more of the following:**
Load a file containing the referenced object. This function typically looks in the file catalog.
Compute a pointer to the referenced object and communicate this pointer back to the calling function
TRef::SetObject via:
TRef::SetObject(object)
As soon as an object is returned to GetObject, the fUniqueID of the TRef is set to the fUniqueID of the referenced
object. At the next call to GetObject, the pointer stored in fPid:fObjects[fUniqueID] will be returned directly. An
example of action on demand is in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.h:
TRef

fWebHistogram;

//EXEC:GetWebHistogram

11.5. SCHEMA EVOLUTION

275

When calling fWebHistogram.GetObject(), the function GetObject will automatically invoke the script
GetWebHistogram.C via the interpreter. An example of a GetWebHistogram.C script is shown below:
void GetWebHistogram() {
TFile *f=TFile::Open("http://root.cern.ch/files/pippa.root");
f->cd("DM/CJ");
TH1 *h6 = (TH1*)gDirectory->Get("h6");
h6->SetDirectory(0);
delete f;
TRef::SetObject(h6);
}
In the above example, a call to fWebHistogram.GetObject() executes the script with the function GetWebHistogram.
This script connects a file with histograms: pippa.root on the ROOT Web site and returns the object h6 to
TRef::GetObject.
TRef

fWebHistogram;

//EXEC:GetWebHistogram()

Note that if the definition of the TRef fWebHistogram had been changed the compiled or interpreted function
GetWebHistogram() would have been called instead of the CINT script GetWebHistogram.C.

11.4.6

Array of TRef

When storing multiple TRefs, it is more efficient to use a TRefArray. The efficiency is due to having a single pointer
fPID for all TRefs in the array. It has a dynamic compact table of fUniqueIDs. We recommend that you use a
TRefArray rather then a collection of TRefs.
Example:
Suppose a TObjArray *mytracks containing a list of Track objects.
Suppose a TRefArray *pions containing pointers to the pion tracks in mytracks. This list is created with
statements like: pions->Add(track);
Suppose a TRefArray *muons containing pointers to the muon tracks in mytracks.
The 3 arrays mytracks,pions and muons may be written separately.

11.5

Schema Evolution

Schema evolution is a problem faced by long-lived data. When a schema changes, existing persistent data can become
inaccessible unless the system provides a mechanism to access data created with previous versions of the schema. In
the lifetime of collaboration, the class definitions (i.e. the schema) are likely to change frequently. Not only can the
class itself change, but any of its parent classes or data member classes can change also. This makes the support for
schema evolution necessary.
ROOT fully supports schema evolution. The next figure below illustrates some of the scenarios.
The top half represents different versions of the shared library with the class definitions. These are the in-memory class
versions. The bottom half represents data files that contain different versions of the classes.
An old version of a shared library and a file with new class definitions - this can be the case when someone has
not updated the library and is reading a new file.
Reading a file with a shared library that is missing a class definition (i.e. missing class D).
Reading a file without any class definitions. This can be the case where the class definition is lost, or unavailable.
The current version of a shared library and an old file with old class versions (backward compatibility). This is
often the case when reading old data.

276

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Figure 11.8: The ROOT schema evolution

Reading a file with a shared library built with MakeProject. This is the case when someone has already read the
data without a shared library and has used ROOT MakeProject feature to reconstruct the class definitions and
shared library (MakeProject is explained in detail later on).
In case of a mismatch between the in-memory version and the persistent version of a class, ROOT maps the persistent
one to the one in memory. This allows you to change the class definition at will, for example:
Change the order of data members in the class.
Add new data members. By default, the value of the missing member will be 0 or in case of an object it will be
set to null.
Remove data members.
Move a data member to a base class or vice-versa.
Change the type of a member if it is a simple type or a pointer to a simple type. If a loss of precision occurs, a
warning is given.
Add or remove a base class

Figure 11.9: The schema evolution for objects written on disk and in memory
ROOT supports schema evolution by keeping a class description of each version of the class that was ever written to
disk, with the class. When it writes an object to file, it also writes the description of the current class version along
with it. This description is implemented in the StreamerInfoclass.

11.5.1

The TStreamerInfo Class

Each class has a list of StreamerInfo objects, one for each version of the class if that version was written to disk at
least once. When reading an object from a file, the system uses the StreamerInfo list to decode an object into the
current version. The StreamerInfo is made up of TStreamerElements . Each describes one persistent data member of
the class. By default, all data members of a class are persistent. To exclude a data member (i.e. make it not persistent),
add a ! after the comment marks. For example the pointer *fPainter of a TH1 is not persistent:
TVirtualHistPainter* fPainter //!pointer to histogram painter

11.5. SCHEMA EVOLUTION

11.5.2

277

The TStreamerElement Class

A TStreamerElement describes a data member of a simple type, object, array, pointer, or container. The offset in the
TStreamerElement is the starting address of the data for that data member.
BASE
BASE

TNamed
TAttLine

offset= 0 type=67 The basis for a named object

offset= 28 type= 0 Line attributes

In this example, the TNamed data starts at byte 0, and TAttLine starts at byte 28. The offset is machine and compiler
dependent and is computed when the StreamerInfo is analyzed. The types are defined in the file TStreamerInfo.h
and listed here:
enum EReadWrite {
kBase=0,
kChar=1,kShort=2,kInt=3,kLong=4,
kFloat=5,
kCounter=6,kCharStar=7, kDouble=8,kUChar=11,
kUShort=12,
kUInt=13,kULong=14,kBits=15,kOffsetL=20,
kOffsetP=40, kObject=61,kAny=62,kObjectp=63,kObjectP=64,
kTString=65, kTObject=66,kTNamed=67,kSkip=100,kSkipL=120,
kSkipP=140,
kConv=200,
kConvL=220,kConvP=240,kStreamer=500,
kStreamLoop=501,
kMissing=99999
};
The method TClass::GetStreamerInfo analyzes the StreamerInfo the same way it would be analyzed by referring to the class. While analyzing the StreamerInfo, it computes the offsets. The type field is the type of the
TStreamerElement. It is specific to the StreamerInfo definition.

11.5.3

Example: TH1 StreamerInfo

In the StreamerInfo of the TH1 class we see the four base classes: TNamed, TAttLine, TAttFill, andTAttMarker.
These are followed by a list of the data members. Each data member is implemented by a TStreamerElement object.
root[] TH1::Class()->GetStreamerInfo()->ls()
StreamerInfo for class: TH1, version=3
BASE
TNamed offset= 0 type=67 The basis for a named object
BASE
TAttLine
offset= 28 type= 0 Line attributes
BASE
TAttFill
offset= 40 type= 0 Fill area attributes
BASE
TAttMarker
offset= 48 type= 0 Marker attributes
Int_t
fNcells
offset= 60 type= 3 number of bins(1D
TAxis
fXaxis
offset= 64 type=61 X axis descriptor
TAxis
fYaxis
offset=192 type=61 Y axis descriptor
TAxis
fZaxis
offset=320 type=61 Z axis descriptor
Short_t fBarOffset
offset=448 type= 2(1000*offset)for bar charts or legos
Short_t fBarWidth
offset=450 type= 2 (1000*width)for bar charts or legos
Stat_t fEntries
offset=452 type= 8 Number of entries
Stat_t fTsumw
offset=460 type= 8 Total Sum of weights
Stat_t fTsumw2
offset=468 type= 8 Total Sum of squares of weights
Stat_t fTsumwx
offset=476 type= 8 Total Sum of weight*X
Stat_t fTsumwx2
offset=484 type= 8 Total Sum of weight*X*X
Double_t fMaximum
offset=492 type= 8 Maximum value for plotting
Double_t fMinimum
offset=500 type= 8 Minimum value for plotting
Double_t fNormFactor offset=508 type= 8 Normalization factor
TArrayD fContour
offset=516 type=62 Array to display contour levels
TArrayD fSumw2
offset=528 type=62 Array of sum of squares of weights
TString fOption
offset=540 type=65 histogram options
TList*
fFunctions
offset=548 type=63 ->Pointer to list of functions
i= 0, TNamed
type= 67, offset= 0, len=1, method=0
i= 1, TAttLine
type= 0, offset= 28, len=1, method=142484480
i= 2, TAttFill
type= 0, offset= 40, len=1, method=142496992
i= 3, TAttMarker
type= 0, offset= 48, len=1, method=142509704
i= 4, fNcells
type= 3, offset= 60, len=1, method=0
i= 5, fXaxis
type= 61, offset= 64, len=1, method=1081287424

278

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

i= 6,
i= 7,
i= 8,
i= 9,
i=10,
i=11,
i=12,
i=13,

fYaxis
fZaxis
fBarOffset
fEntries
fContour
fSumw2
fOption
fFunctions

11.5.4

type=
type=
type=
type=
type=
type=
type=
type=

61,
61,
22,
28,
62,
62,
65,
63,

offset=192,
offset=320,
offset=448,
offset=452,
offset=516,
offset=528,
offset=540,
offset=548,

len=1,
len=1,
len=2,
len=8,
len=1,
len=1,
len=1,
len=1,

method=1081287548
method=1081287676
method=0
method=0
method=1081287804
method=1081287924
method=1081288044
method=1081288164

Optimized StreamerInfo

The entries starting with i = 0 is the optimized format of the StreamerInfo. Consecutive data members of the
same simple type and size are collapsed and read at once into an array for performance optimization.
i=
i=
i=
i=

0,
1,
2,
3,

TNamed
TAttLine
TAttFill
TAttMarker

type= 67, offset= 0, len=1,

type= 0, offset= 28, len=1,
type= 0, offset= 40, len=1,
type= 0, offset= 48, len=1,

method=0
method=142484480
method=142496992
method=142509704

For example, the five data members beginning with fEntiesand the three data members beginning with fMaximum,
are put into an array called fEntries (i = 9) with the length 8.
i= 9, fEntries

type= 28, offset=452, len=8, method=0

Only simple type data members are combined, object data members are not combined. For example the three axis
data members remain separate. The method is a handle to the method that reads the object.

11.5.5

Automatic Schema Evolution

When a class is defined in ROOT, it must include the ClassDef macro as the last line in the header file inside the
class definition. The syntax is:
ClassDef(<ClassName>,<VersionNumber>)
The version number identifies this particular version of the class. When a class has version 0 it is not stored in a root
file but its base class(es) is(are). The reason can be that this class has no data members worth saving or all real info is
in the base classes. The version number is written to the file in the Streamer by the call TBuffer::WriteVersion.
You, as the designer of the class, do not need to do any manual modification in the Streamer. ROOT schema evolution
mechanism is automatic and handled by the StreamerInfo.

11.5.6

Manual Schema Evolution

If you have written your own Streamer as described in the section Streamers with Special Additions, you will
have to manually add code for each version and manage the evolution of your class. When you add or remove data
members, you must modify the Streamer by hand. ROOT assumes that you have increased the class version number
in the ClassDef statement and introduced the relevant test in the read part of the Streamer. For example, if a new
version of the Event class above includes a new member: Int_t fNew the ClassDef statement should be changed to
ClassDef(Event,2) and the following lines should be added to the read part of the Streamer:
if (R__v > 1) R__b >> fNew;
else fNew = 0;
// set to some default value
If, in the same new version 2 you remove the member fH, you must add the following code to read the histogram object
into some temporary object and delete it:
if (R__v) < 2 {
TH1F *dummy = 0;
R__b >> dummy;
delete dummy;
}

11.5. SCHEMA EVOLUTION

279

Our experience with manual schema evolution shows that it is easy to make and mismatches between Streamer writers
and readers are frequent and increase as the number of classes increase. We recommend you use rootcint generated
Streamers whenever you can, and profit from the automatic schema evolution.

11.5.7

Building Class Definitions with the StreamerInfo

A ROOT files StreamerInfolist contains the description of all versions of all classes in the file. When a file is
opened the StreamerInfois read into memory and it provides enough information to make the file browsable. The
TStreamerInfoenables us to recreate a header file for the class in case the compiled class is not available. This is
done with the TFile::MakeProject method. It creates a directory with the header files for the named classes and a
makefile to compile a shared library with the class definitions.

11.5.8

Example: MakeProject

To explain the details, we use the example of the ATLFast project that is a fast simulation for the ATLAS experiment.
The complete source for ATLFast can be down loaded at ftp://root.cern.ch/root/atlfast.tar.gz. Once we compile and
run ATLFast we get a ROOT file called atlfast.root, containing the ATLFast objects. When we open the file, we get
a warning that the file contains classes that are not in the CINT dictionary. This is correct since we did not load the
class definitions.
root[] TFile f("atlfast.root")
Warning in <TClass::TClass>: no dictionary for class TMCParticle is available
Warning in <TClass::TClass>: no dictionary for class ATLFMuon available
We can see the StreamerInfofor the classes:
root[] f.ShowStreamerInfo()
...
StreamerInfo for class: ATLFMuon, version=1
BASE TObject
offset= 0 type=66 Basic ROOT object
BASE TAtt3D
offset= 0 type= 0 3D attributes
Int_t m_KFcode
offset= 0 type= 3 Muon KF-code
Int_t m_MCParticle offset= 0 type= 3 Muon position in MCParticles list
Int_t m_KFmother
offset= 0 type= 3 Muon mother KF-code
Int_t m_UseFlag
offset= 0 type= 3 Muon energy usage flag
Int_t m_Isolated
offset= 0 type= 3 Muon isolation (1 for isolated)
Float_t m_Eta
offset= 0 type= 5 Eta coordinate
Float_t m_Phi
offset= 0 type= 5 Phi coordinate
Float_t m_PT
offset= 0 type= 5 Transverse energy
Int_t
m_Trigger offset= 0 type= 3 Result of trigger...
However, when we try to use a specific class we get a warning because the class is not in the CINT dictionary. We can
create a class using gROOT->GetClass() which makes a fake class from the StreamerInfo.
// Build a 'fake' class
root[] gROOT->GetClass("ATLFMuon")
(const class TClass*)0x87e5c08
// The fake class has a StreamerInfo
root[] gROOT->GetClass("ATLFMuon")->GetStreamerInfo()->ls()
StreamerInfo for class: ATLFMuon, version=1
BASE
TObject
offset= 0 type=66 Basic ROOT object
BASE
TAtt3D
offset= 0 type= 0 3D attributes
Int_t
m_KFcode
offset= 16 type= 3 Muon KF-code
Int_t
m_MCParticle offset= 20 type= 3 Muon position in MCParticles list
Int_t
m_KFmother
offset= 24 type= 3 Muon mother KF-code
Int_t
m_UseFlag
offset= 28 type= 3 Muon energy usage flag
Int_t
m_Isolated
offset= 32 type= 3 Muon isolation
Float_t m_Eta
offset= 36 type= 5 Eta coordinate
Float_t m_Phi
offset= 40 type= 5 Phi coordinate
Float_t m_PT
offset= 44 type= 5 Transverse energy

280
Int_t
i= 0,
i= 1,
i= 2,
i= 3,
i= 4,

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

m_Trigger
TObject
TAtt3D
m_KFcode
m_Eta
m_Trigger

offset= 48 type= 3 Result of

type= 66, offset= 0, len=1,
type= 0, offset= 0, len=1,
type= 23, offset= 16, len=5,
type= 25, offset= 36, len=3,
type= 3, offset= 48, len=1,

trigger
method=0
method=142684688
method=0
method=0
method=0

MakeProject has three parameters:

MakeProject(const char *dirname,const char *classes,Option_t *option)
The first is the directory name in which to place the generated header files. The second parameter is the name of
the classes to include in the project. By default, all classes are included. It recognizes the wild card character *, for
example, ATLF* includes all classes beginning with ATLF. The third parameter is an option with the following
values:
new If the directory does not exist, it is created.
recreate If the directory does not exist, it is creates as in new, in addition if the directory does exist, all
existing files are deleted before creating the new files.
update The new classes are added to the existing directory and the existing classes are replaced with the new
definition. If the directory does not exist, it creates it as in new.
+: This option can be used in combination with the other three. It will create the necessary files to easily
build a shared library containing the class definitions.Specifically it will:
Generate a script called MAKE that builds the shared library containing the definition of all classes in the directory.
Generate a LinkDef.hfiles to use with rootcint in MAKE.
Run rootcint to generate a <dirname>ProjectDict.cxx file.
Compile the <dirname>ProjectDict.cxxwith the current options in compiledata.h.
Build a shared library<dirname>.so.
++:This option can be used instead of the single +. It does everything the single + does, and dynamically
loads the shared library <dirname>.so.
This example makes a directory called MyProject that will contain all class definitions from the atlfast.root file.
The necessary makefile to build a shared library are also created, and since the ++ is appended, the shared library
is also loaded.
root[] f.MakeProject("MyProject","*", "recreate++")
MakeProject has generated 0 classes in MyProject
MyProject/MAKE file has been generated
Shared lib MyProject/MyProject.so has been generated
Shared lib MyProject/MyProject.so has been dynamically linked
The contents of MyProject:
root[]
.! ls MyProject
ATLFCluster.h
ATLFJet.h
TMCParticle.h
ATLFClusterMaker.h
ATLFElectron.h
ATLFMCMaker.h
ATLFMaker.h
ATLFPhoton.h
ATLFPhotonMaker.h ATLFTrackMaker.h
LinkDef.h
MAKE
MyProjectProjectDict.cxx

ATLFMiscMaker.h
ATLFTrack.h
ATLFJetMaker.h
ATLFMuon.h
ATLFMuonMaker.h
ATLFElectronMaker.h
ATLFHistBrowser.h
ATLFMisc.h
ATLFTrigger.h
ATLFTriggerMaker.h
MyProject.so
MyProjectProjectDict.h
MyProjectProjectDict.o

Now you can load the shared library in any consecutive root session to use the atlfast classes.

11.6. MIGRATING TO ROOT 3

281

root[]gSystem->Load("MyProject/MyProject")
root[]ATLFMuon muon
This is an example of a generated header file:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
This class has been generated by TFile::MakeProject
//
(Thu Apr 5 10:18:37 2001 by ROOT version 3.00/06)
//
from the TStreamerInfo in file atlfast.root
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#ifndef ATLFMuon_h
#define ATLFMuon_h
#include "TObject.h"
#include "TAtt3D.h"
class ATLFMuon : public TObject , public TAtt3D {
public:
Int_t
m_KFcode;
//Muon KF-code
Int_t
m_MCParticle;
//Muon position in MCParticles list
Int_t
m_KFmother;
//Muon mother KF-code
Int_t
m_UseFlag;
//Muon energy usage flag
Int_t
m_Isolated;
//Muon isolation (1 for isolated)
Float_t
m_Eta;
//Eta coordinate
Float_t
m_Phi;
//Phi coordinate
Float_t
m_PT;
//Transverse energy
Int_t
m_Trigger;
//Result of trigger
ATLFMuon() {;}
virtual ~ATLFMuon() {;}
ClassDef(ATLFMuon,1) //
};
ClassImp(ATLFMuon)
#endif

11.6

Migrating to ROOT 3

We will distinguish the following cases:

Case A: You have your own Streamer method in your class implementation file. This also means that you have
specified MyClass in the LinkDef.h file.
Keep MyClass - unchanged.
Increment your class version id in ClassDef by 1, e.g. ClassDef(MyClass, 2)
Change your Streamer function in the following way: The old write block can be replaced by the new standard
Write. Change the read block to use the new scheme for the new versions and the old code for the old versions.
void MyClass::Streamer(TBuffer &R__b) {
// Stream an object of class MyClass.
if (R__b.IsReading()) {
UInt_t R__s, R__c;
Version_t R__v = R__b.ReadVersion(&R__s, &R__c);
if (R__v > 1) {
MyClass::Class()->ReadBuffer(R__b, this, R__v, R__s, R__c);
return;
}
// process old versions before automatic schema evolution
R__b >> xxxx;
R__b >> .. etc
R__b.CheckByteCount(R__s, R__c, MyClass::IsA()); // end of old versions
} else
MyClass::Class()->WriteBuffer(R__b,this);
}

282

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

Case B: You use the automatic Streamer in the dictionary file.

Move the old Streamer from the file generated by rootcint to your class implementation file, then modify the
Streamer function as in Case A above.
Increment your class version id in ClassDef by 1, i.e.ClassDef(MyClass, 2)
Add option - in the pragma line of LinkDef.
Case C: You use the automatic Streamer in the dictionary file and you already use the option + in the LinkDef file.
If the old automatic Streamer does not contain any statement using the function WriteArray, you have nothing to do,
except running rootcint again to regenerate the new form of the Streamer function, otherwise proceed like for case B.

11.7

Compression and Performance

ROOT uses a compression algorithm based on the well-known gzip algorithm. It supports nine levels of compression.
The default for ROOT is one. The compression level can be set with the method TFile::SetCompressionLevel. The
experience with this algorithm shows that a compression level of 1.3 for raw data files and around two on most DST
files is the optimum. The choice of one for the default is a compromise between the time it takes to read and write the
object vs. the disk space savings.
To specify no compression, set the level to zero.
We recommend using compression when the time spent in I/O is small compared to the total processing time. If the
I/O operation is increased by a factor of 5 it is still a small percentage of the total time and it may compress the data
by a factor of 10. On the other hand if the time spend on I/O is large, compression may have a large impact on the
programs performance.
The compression factor, i.e. the savings of disk space, varies with the type of data. A buffer with a same value array is
compressed so that the value is only written once. For example, a track has the mass of a pion that it is always the
same, and the charge of the pion that is either positive or negative. For 1000 pions, the mass will be written only
once, and the charge only twice (positive and negative). When the data is sparse, i.e. when there are many zeros, the
compression factor is also high.
Compression level
0
1
5
9

Bytes
1,004,998
438,366
429,871
426,899

Write Time (sec)

4.77
6.67
7.03
8.47

Read Time (sec.)

0.07
0.05
0.06
0.05

The time to uncompress an object is small compared to the compression time and is independent of the selected
compression level. Note that the compression level may be changed at any time, but the new compression level will
only apply to newly written objects. Consequently, a ROOT file may contain objects with different compression levels.
This table shows four runs of the demo script that creates 15 histograms with different compression parameters. To
make the numbers more significant, the macro was modified to create 1000 histograms. We have included two more
examples to show the impact of compression on Trees in the next chapter.

11.8

Remotely Access to ROOT Files via a rootd

Reading and writing ROOT files over the net can be done by creating a TNetFile object instead of a TFile object.
Since the TNetFile class inherits from the TFile class, it has exactly the same interface and behavior. The only
difference is that it reads and writes to a remote rootd daemon.

11.8.1

TNetFile URL

TNetFile file names are in standard URL format with protocol root. The following are valid TNetFile URLs:
root://hpsalo/files/aap.root
root://hpbrun.cern.ch/root/hsimple.root
root://pcna49a:5151/~na49/data/run821.root
root://pcna49d.cern.ch:5050//v1/data/run810.root

11.8. REMOTELY ACCESS TO ROOT FILES VIA A ROOTD

283

The only difference with the well-known http URLs is that the root of the remote file tree is the remote users home
directory. Therefore an absolute pathname requires a // after the host or port (as shown in the last example above).
Further the expansion of the standard shell characters, like ~, $, .., etc. is handled as expected. The default port
on which the remote rootd listens is 1094 and TNetFile (actually by TUrl that is used by TNetFile) assumes this
default port. The port number has been allocated by the IANA and is reserved for ROOT.

11.8.2

Remote Authentication

Connecting to a rootd daemon requires a remote user id and password. TNetFile supports several ways for you to
provide your login information:
Setting it globally via the static methods TNetFile::SetUser and TNetFile::SetPasswd
Via the ~/.netrc file (same format and file as used by ftp)
Via command line prompt
Setting the SPR password file via the option -P FILE, i.e. the next line will start the rootd daemon using the files
$HOME/.srootdpass2.conf and $HOME/.srootdpass2 for SPR authentication:rootd -P $HOME/.srootdpass2

11.8.3

A Simple Session

root[] TFile *f1 = TFile::Open("local/file.root","update")

root[] TFile *f2 = TFile::Open("root://pcna49a.cern.ch/data/file.root","new")
Name (pcna49a:rdm):
Password:
root[] TFile *f3 = TFile::Open("http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root")
root[] f3.ls()
TWebFile** http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root
TWebFile* http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root
KEY: TH1F hpx;1 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
root[] hpx.Draw()

11.8.4

The rootd Daemon

The rootd daemon works with the TNetFile class. It allows remote access to ROOT database files in read or read/write
mode. The rootd daemon can be found in the directory $ROOTSYS/bin. It can be started either via inetd or by hand
from the command line (no need to be super user). Its performance is comparable with NFS but while NFS requires all
kind of system permissions to setup, rootd can be started by any user. The simplest way to start rootd is by starting
it from the command line while being logged in to the remote machine. Once started rootd goes immediately in the
background (does not need &) and you can log out from the remote node. The only required argument is the range
of ports (specified using -p port1-port2). rootd will listen on the first available port in this range. You can also
specify -p 0-N to search relative to the service port specified in /etc/services. If a single port is specified (rootd
-p 1094) then no search is made. Unless started by inetd (rootd -i), it prints information about the found port,
something like: ROOTD_PORT=5151, ROOTD_PID=14433 before spawning the daemon. This way the user knows what
was used (eval rootd will set these as variables in Bourne-like shells). Also, rootd shows an error message (as well
as sending the syslog message) if there is any problem binding the port or forking the daemon.
Using TNetFile you can now read and write files on the remote machine.
In the example below, rootd runs on the remote node under user id minuser and searches for an available port into
the range 1094-1098. It finds and listens to port 1094. When creating a TNetFile object you have to specify the same
port number 1094 and use minuser (and corresponding password) as login id. When rootd is started in this way, you
can only login with the user id under which rootd was started on the remote machine.
hpsalo[]
login:
Password:
<fsgi02>

telnet fsgi02.fnal.gov
minuser
rootd -p 1094-1098

284

CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

ROOTD_PORT=1094
ROOTD_PID=14433
<fsgi02>
exit
hpsalo[]
root
root[]
TFile *f = TFile::Open("root://fsgi02.fnal.gov:1094/file.root","new")
Name (fsgi02.fnal.gov:rdm):
minuser
Password:
root[]
f.ls()
However, you can make many connections since the original rootd will fork (spawn) a new rootd that will service the
requests from the TNetFile. The original rootd keeps listening on the specified port for other connections. Each time
a TNetFile makes a connection; it gets a new private rootd that will handle its requests. At the end of a ROOT,
session when all TNetFiles are closed only the original rootd will stay alive ready to service future TNetFiles.

11.8.5

Starting rootd via inetd

If you expect to often connect via TNetFile to a remote machine, it is more efficient to install rootd as a service of
the inetd super daemon. In this way, it is not necessary for each user to run a private rootd. However, this requires a
one-time modification of two system files (and super user privileges to do so). Add to /etc/services the line: rootd
1094/tcp. To /etc/inetd.conf the line:
rootd stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/root/bin/rootd rootd -i
After these changes force inetd to reread its configuration file with: kill -HUP <pid inetd>. It is not necessary to
specify a port number in the URL given to TNetFile when the setup done this way. TNetFile assumes the default
port to be 1094 as specified above in the /etc/services file.

11.8.6

Command Line Arguments for rootd

rootd supports the following arguments:

-i says that rootd is started by inetd
-p port#-port# specifies the range of ports to be searched
-p 0-N the service ports range in /etc/services
-d level level of debug info written to syslogd
0 = no debug (default) 1 = minimum
2 = medium3 = maximum

11.9

Reading ROOT Files via Apache Web Server

By adding one ROOT specific module to your Apache web server, you can distribute ROOT files to any ROOT user.
There is no longer a need to send your files via FTP and risking (out of date) histograms or other objects. Your
latest up-to-date results are always accessible to all your colleagues. To access ROOT files via a web server, create a
TWebFile object instead of a TFile object with a standard URL as file name. For example:
root[] TWebFile f("http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root")
root[] f.ls()
TWebFile** http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root
TWebFile* http://root.cern.ch/~rdm/hsimple.root
KEY: TH1F hpx;1 This is the px distribution
KEY: TH2F hpxpy;1 py vs px
KEY: TProfile hprof;1 Profile of pz versus px
KEY: TNtuple ntuple;1 Demo ntuple
root[] hpx.Draw()

11.10. XML INTERFACE

285

Since TWebFile inherits from TFile all TFile operations work as expected. However, due to the nature of a web server
a TWebFile is a read-only file. A TWebFile is ideally suited to read relatively small objects (like histograms or other
data analysis results). Although possible, you dont want to analyze large TTrees via a TWebFile.
Here follows a step-by-step recipe for making your Apache 1.1 or 1.2 web server ROOT aware:
Go to your Apache source directory and add the file ftp://root.cern.ch/root/mod_root.c or ftp://root.cern.ch/
root/mod_root133.c when your Apache server is >1.2 (rename the file mod_root.c).
Add to the end of the Configuration file the line: Module root_module mod_root.o
Run the Configure script
Type make
Copy the new httpd to its expected place
Go to the conf directory and add at the end of the srm.conf file the line:AddHandler root-action root
Restart the httpd server

11.9.1

Using the General Open Function of TFile

To make life simple we provide a general function to open any type of file (except shared memory files of class TMapFile).
This functionality is provided by the static TFile::Open() function:
TFile *TFile::Open(const Text_t *name,Option_t *option="",
const Text_t *title="",Int_t compress,Int_t netopt)
Depending on the name argument, the function returns a TFile, a TNetFile or a TWebFile object. In case a TNetFile
URL specifies a local file, a TFile object will be returned (and of course no login information is needed). The arguments
of the Open() function are the same as the ones for the TFile constructor.
Using ReOpen() method it is possible to reopen a file with a different access mode, like from READ to UPDATE
or from NEW, CREATE, RECREATE, UPDATE to READ. Thus the mode argument can be either READ or
UPDATE. The method returns:
0 in case the mode was successfully modified;
1 in case the mode did not change (it was already as requested or there were wrong input arguments);
-1 in case of failure. In the last case the file cannot be used anymore.

11.10

XML Interface

A new module xml as implemented by Sergey Linev (GSI). It is an optional package that can be used to save a canvas
into file.xml file format instead of file.root. XML files do not have any advantages compared to the normal ROOT
files, except that the information in these files can be edited via a normal editor. The main motivation for this new
format is to facilitate the communication with other non ROOT applications. Currently writing and reading XML files
is limited to ROOT applications. It is our intention to develop a simple reader independent of the ROOT libraries that
could be used as an example for real applications.
The XML format should be used only for small data volumes, typically histogram files, pictures, geometries, calibrations.
The XML file is built in memory before being dumped to disk. Like for normal ROOT files, XML files use the same
I/O mechanism exploiting the ROOT/CINT dictionary. Any class having a dictionary can be saved in XML format.
This first implementation does not support subdirectories or trees.
The shared library libRXML.so may be loaded dynamically via gSystem->Load("libRXML"). This library is also
automatically loaded by the plug-in manager as soon a XML file is created. To create an XTM file, simply specify
a filename with an .xml extension when calling TFile::Open. TFile::Open will recognize that you are trying to
open an XML file and return a TXMLFile object. When a XML file is open in write mode, one can use the normal
TObject::Write to write an object in the file.

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CHAPTER 11. INPUT/OUTPUT

// example of a session saving a histogram to a XML file
TFile *f = TFile::Open("Example.xml","recreate");
TH1F *h = new TH1F("h","test",1000,-2,2)
h->FillRandom("gaus");
h->Write();
delete f;
// example of a session saving a histogram to a XML file
TFile *f = TFile::Open("Example.xml");
TH1F *h = (TH1F*)f->Get("h");
h->Draw();

The canvas can be saved as a XML file format via File menu / Save or Save As menu entries. One can do also:
canvas->Print("Example.xml");

Chapter 12

Trees
12.1

Why Should You Use a Tree?

In the Input/Output chapter, we saw how objects can be saved in ROOT files. In case you want to store large
quantities of same-class objects, ROOT has designed the TTree and TNtuple classes specifically for that purpose. The
TTree class is optimized to reduce disk space and enhance access speed. A TNtuple is a TTree that is limited to only
hold floating-point numbers; a TTree on the other hand can hold all kind of data, such as objects or arrays in addition
to all the simple types.
When using a TTree, we fill its branch buffers with leaf data and the buffers are written to disk when it is full. Branches,
buffers, and leafs, are explained a little later in this chapter, but for now, it is important to realize that each object is
not written individually, but rather collected and written a bunch at a time.
This is where the TTree takes advantage of compression and will produce a much smaller file than if the objects were
written individually. Since the unit to be compressed is a buffer, and the TTree contains many same-class objects, the
header of the objects can be compressed.
The TTree reduces the header of each object, but it still contains the class name. Using compression, the class name
of each same-class object has a good chance of being compressed, since the compression algorithm recognizes the bit
pattern representing the class name. Using a TTree and compression the header is reduced to about 4 bytes compared
to the original 60 bytes. However, if compression is turned off, you will not see these large savings.
The TTree is also used to optimize the data access. A tree uses a hierarchy of branches, and each branch can be read
independently from any other branch. Now, assume that Px and Py are data members of the event, and we would like
to compute Px2 + Py2 for every event and histogram the result.
If we had saved the million events without a TTree we would have to:

read each event in its entirety into memory

extract the Px and Py from the event
compute the sum of the squares
fill a histogram

We would have to do that a million times! This is very time consuming, and we really do not need to read the entire
event, every time. All we need are two little data members (Px and Py). On the other hand, if we use a tree with one
branch containing Px and another branch containing Py, we can read all values of Px and Py by only reading the Px
and Py branches. This makes the use of the TTree very attractive.

12.2

A Simple TTree

This script builds a TTree from an ASCII file containing statistics about the staff at CERN. This script, staff.C and
its input file staff.dat are in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree.
{

// example of macro to read data from an ascii file and

// create a root file with an histogram and a TTree
gROOT->Reset();
287

288

CHAPTER 12. TREES

// the structure to hold the variables for the branch

struct staff_t {
Int_t cat;
Int_t division;
Int_t flag;
Int_t age;
Int_t service;
Int_t children;
Int_t grade;
Int_t step;
Int_t nation;
Int_t hrweek;
Int_t cost;
};
staff_t staff;
// continued...
// open the ASCII file
FILE *fp = fopen("staff.dat","r");
char line[81];
// create a new ROOT file
TFile *f = new TFile("staff.root","RECREATE");
// create a TTree
TTree *tree = new TTree("T","staff data from ascii file");
// create one branch with all information from the stucture
tree->Branch("staff",&staff.cat,"cat/I:division:flag:age:service:
children:grade:step:nation:hrweek:cost");
// fill the tree from the values in ASCII file
while (fgets(&line,80,fp)) {
sscanf(&line[0],"%d%d%d%d",&staff.cat,&staff.division,
&staff.flag,&staff.age);
sscanf(&line[13],"%d%d%d%d",&staff.service,&staff.children,
&staff.grade,&staff.step);
sscanf(&line[24],"%d%d%d",&staff.nation,&staff.hrweek,
&staff.cost);
tree->Fill();
}
// check what the tree looks like
tree->Print();
fclose(fp);
f->Write();

The script declares a structure called staff_t, with several integers representing the relevant attribute of a staff
member. It opens the ASCII file, creates a ROOT file and a TTree. Then it creates one branch with the TTree::Branch
method. The first parameter of the Branch method is the branch name. The second parameter is the address from
which the first leaf is to be read. In this example it is the address of the structure staff. Once the branch is defined,
the script reads the data from the ASCII file into the staff_t structure and fills the tree. The ASCII file is closed,
and the ROOT file is written to disk saving the tree. Remember, trees and histograms are created in the current
directory, which is the file in our example. Hence an f->Write()saves the tree.

12.3

Show an Entry with TTree::Show

An easy way to access one entry of a tree is the use the TTree::Show method. For example to look at the 10th entry
in the staff.root tree:
root[] TFile f("staff.root")
root[] T->Show(10)
======> EVENT:10
Category
= 361

12.4. PRINT THE TREE STRUCTURE WITH TTREE::PRINT

Flag
Age
Service
Children
Grade
Step
Hrweek
Cost
Division
Nation

12.4

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

289

15
51
29
0
7
13
40
7599
PS
FR

Print the Tree Structure with TTree::Print

A helpful command to see the tree structure meaning the number of entries, the branches and the leaves, is TTree::Print.
root[] T->Print()
**********************************************************************
*Tree
:T
: staff data from ascii file
*
*Entries :3354
: Total = 245417 bytes File Size =
59945*
*
Tree compression factor =
2.90
*
**********************************************************************
*Br
0 :staff
:Category/I:Flag:Age:Service:Children:Grade:... *
*
| Cost
*
*Entries :3354 : Total Size = 154237 bytes File Size = 32316
*
*Baskets :
3 : Basket Size = 32000 bytes Compression= 2.97
*

12.5

Scan a Variable the Tree with TTree::Scan

The TTree::Scan method shows all values of the list of leaves separated by a colon.
root[] T->Scan("Cost:Age:Children")
************************************************
*
Row
*
Cost *
Age * Children *
************************************************
*
0 *
11975 *
58 *
0 *
*
1 *
10228 *
63 *
0 *
*
2 *
10730 *
56 *
2 *
*
3 *
9311 *
61 *
0 *
*
4 *
9966 *
52 *
2 *
*
5 *
7599 *
60 *
0 *
*
6 *
9868 *
53 *
1 *
*
7 *
8012 *
60 *
1 *
...

12.6

The Tree Viewer

The tree viewer is a quick and easy way to examine a tree. To start the tree viewer, open a file and object browser.
Right click on a TTree and select StartViewer. You can also start the tree viewer from the command line. First load
the viewer library.
root[] TFile f("staff.root")
root[] T->StartViewer()
If you want to start a tree viewer without a tree, you need to load the tree player library first:
root[] gSystem->Load("libTreeViewer.so")
root[] new TTreeViewer()

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

Figure 12.1: Activating the tree viewer

The figure above shows how the tree viewer looks like for the example file staff.root. The left panel contains the list
of trees and their branches; in this case there is only one tree. You can add more trees with the File-Open command to
open the file containing the new tree, then use the context menu on the right panel, select SetTreeName and enter the
name of the tree to add. On the right are the leaves or variables in the tree. You can double click on any leaf to a
histogram it.
The toolbar in the upper part can be used for user commands, changing the drawing option and the histogram name.
The lower part contains three picture buttons that draw a histogram, stop the current command, and refresh the tree.
The three check buttons toggle the following:
Hist- the histogram drawing mode;
Scan- enables redirecting of TTree::Scancommand in an ASCII file;
Rec - enables recording of the last issued command.

To draw more than one dimension you can drag and drop any leaf to the X,Y,Z boxes. Then push the
Draw button, witch is marked with the purple icon on the bottom left.

All commands can be interrupted at any time by pressing this button.

The method TTree::Refresh is called by pressing the refresh button in TTreeViewer. It redraws the
current exposed expression. Calling TTree::Refresh is useful when a tree is produced by a writer process and
concurrently analyzed by one or more readers.

To add a cut/weight to the histogram, enter an expression in the cut box. The cut box is the
one with the scissor icon.

Below them there are two text widgets for specifying the input and output event lists. A Tree Viewer session is made
by the list of user-defined expressions and cuts, applying to a specified tree. A session can be saved using File /
SaveSource menu or the SaveSource method from the context menu of the right panel. This will create a macro
having as default name treeviewer.C that can be ran at any time to reproduce the session.
Besides the list of user-defined expressions, a session may contain a list of RECORDS. A record can be produced in
the following way: dragging leaves/expression on X/Y/Z; changing drawing options; clicking the RED button on the
bottom when happy with the histogram
NOTE that just double clicking a leaf will not produce a record: the histogram must be produced when clicking the
DRAW button on the bottom-left. The records will appear on the list of records in the bottom right of the tree viewer.

12.7. CREATING AND SAVING TREES

291

Selecting a record will draw the corresponding histogram. Records can be played using the arrow buttons near to the
record button. When saving the session, the list of records is being saved as well.
Records have a default name corresponding to the Z: Y: X selection, but this can be changed using SetRecordName()
method from the right panel context menu. You can create a new expression by right clicking on any of theE() boxes.
The expression can be dragged and dropped into any of the boxes (X, Y, Z, Cut, or Scan). To scan one or more
variables, drop them into the Scan box, then double click on the box. You can also redirect the result of the scan to a
file by checking the Scan box on top.

When the Rec box is checked, the Draw and Scan commands are recorded in the history file and echoed on the
command line. The Histogram text box contains the name of the resulting histogram. By default it is htemp. You
can type any name, if the histogram does not exist it will create one. The Option text box contains the list of Draw
options. See Draw Options. You can select the options with the Options menu. The Command box lets you enter
any command that you could also enter on the command line. The vertical slider on the far left side can be used to
select the minimum and maximum of an event range. The actual start and end index are shown in on the bottom in
the status window.
There is an extensive help utility accessible with the Help menu. The IList and OList are to specify an input list of
entry indices and a name for the output list respectively. Both need to be of type TList and contain integers of entry
indices. These lists are described below in the paragraph Error! Reference source not found..

Figure 12.2: A couple of graphs

The first one is a plot of the age distribution, the second a scatter plot of the cost vs. age. The second one was generated
by dragging the age leaf into the Y-box and the cost leaf into the X-box, and pressing the Draw button. By default,
this will generate a scatter plot. Select a different option, for example "lego" to create a 2D histogram.

12.7

Creating and Saving Trees

This picture shows the TTree class:

To create a TTree we use its constructor. Then we design our data layout and add the branches. A tree can be created
by giving a name and title:
TTree t("MyTree","Example Tree");

12.7.1

Creating a Tree from a Folder Hierarchy

An alternative way to create a tree and organize it is to use folders (see Folders and Tasks). You can build a folder
structure and create a tree with branches for each of the sub-folders:
TTree folder_tree("MyFolderTree","/MyFolder");
The second argument "/MyFolder"is the top folder, and the / signals the TTree constructor that this is a folder not
just the title. You fill the tree by placing the data into the folder structure and calling TTree::Fill.

292

CHAPTER 12. TREES

Figure 12.3: The TTree class

12.7. CREATING AND SAVING TREES

12.7.2

293

Tree and TRef Objects

MyTree->BranchRef();
This call requests the construction of an optional branch supporting table of references (TRefTable). This branch
(TBranchRef) will keep all the information needed to find the branches containing referenced objects at each Tree::Fill,
the branch numbers containing the referenced objects are saved in the table of references. When the Tree header is
saved (via TTree::Write for example), the branch is saved, keeping the information with the pointers to the branches
having referenced objects. Enabling this optional table, allow TTree::Draw to automatically load the branches needed
to dereference a TRef (or TRefArray) object.

12.7.3

Autosave

Autosave gives the option to save all branch buffers every n byte. We recommend using Autosave for large acquisitions.
If the acquisition fails to complete, you can recover the file and all the contents since the last Autosave. To set the number
of bytes between Autosave you can use the TTree::SetAutosave() method. You can also call TTree::Autosave in
the acquisition loop every nentry.

12.7.4

Trees with Circular Buffers

When a TTree is memory resident, you set it up so that it retains retain only the last few entries. For example, this
can be very useful for monitoring purpose.
void TTree::SetCircular(Long64_t maxEntries);
where maxEntries is the maximum number of entries to be kept in the buffers. When the number of entries exceeds
this value, the first entries in the Tree are deleted and the buffers used again. An example of a script using a circular
buffer is shown below:
void circular() {
gROOT->cd(); //make sure that the Tree is memory resident
TTree *T = new TTree("T","test circular buffers");
TRandom r;
Float_t px,py,pz;
Double_t random;
UShort_t i;
T->Branch("px",&px,"px/F");
T->Branch("py",&py,"py/F");
T->Branch("pz",&pz,"pz/F");
T->Branch("random",&random,"random/D");
T->Branch("i",&i,"i/s");
T->SetCircular(20000);
for (i = 0; i < 65000; i++) {
r.Rannor(px,py);
pz = px*px + py*py;
random = r.Rndm();
T->Fill();
}
T->Print();
}

12.7.5

Size of TTree in the File

When writing a TTree to a file, if the file size reaches the value stored in the TTree::GetMaxTreeSize(), the current
file is closed and a new file is created. If the original file is named myfile.root, subsequent files are named
myfile_1.root, myfile_2.root, etc.
Currently, the automatic change of file is restricted to the case where the tree is in the top level directory. The file
should not contain sub-directories. Before switching to a new file, the tree header is written to the current file, then
the current file is closed. To process the multiple files created by ChangeFile(), one must use a TChain.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

The new file name has a suffix _N where N is equal to fFileNumber+1. By default a Root session starts with
fFileNumber=0. One can set fFileNumber to a different value via TTree::SetFileNumber(). In case a file named
_N already exists, the function will try a file named __N, then ___N, etc. The maximum tree size can be set
via the static function TTree::SetMaxTreeSize(). The default value of fgMaxTreeSize is 1.9 GB. If the current file
contains other objects (like TH1 and TTree), these objects are automatically moved to the new file.

12.7.6

User Info Attached to a TTree Object

The function TTree::GetUserInfo() allows adding any object defined by a user to the tree that is not depending on
the entry number. For example:
tree->GetUserInfo()->Add(myruninfo);

12.7.7

Indexing a Tree

Use TTree::BuildIndex(), to build an index table using expressions depending on the value in the leaves.
tree->BuildIndex(majorname, minorname);
The index is built in the following way:

a pass on all entries is made like in TTree::Draw()

var1 = majorname
var2 = minorname
sel = 231 majorname + minorname
for each entry in the tree the sel expression is evaluated and the results array is sorted into fIndexValues

Once the index is computed, using the TTree::GetEntryWithIndex(majornumber, minornumber) one entry can be
retrieved. Example:
// to create an index using leaves Run and Event
tree.BuildIndex("Run","Event");
// to read entry corresponding to Run=1234 and Event=56789
tree.GetEntryWithIndex(1234,56789);
Note that majorname and minorname may be expressions using original tree variables e.g.: run-90000, event +3*xx.
In case an expression is specified, the equivalent expression must be computed when calling GetEntryWithIndex().
To build an index with only majorname, specify minorname="0" (default).
Note that once the index is built, it can be saved with the TTree object with:
tree.Write();

//if the file has been open in "update" mode

The most convenient place to create the index is at the end of the filling process just before saving the tree header. If a
previous index was computed, it is redefined by this new call.
Note that this function can also be applied to a TChain. The return value is the number of entries in the Index (< 0
indicates failure).

12.8

Branches

The organization of branches allows the designer to optimize the data for the anticipated use. The class for a branch is
called TBranch. If two variables are independent, and the designer knows the variables will not be used together, they
should be placed on separate branches. If, however, the variables are related, such as the coordinates of a point, it is
most efficient to create one branch with both coordinates on it. A variable on a TBranch is called a leaf (yes - TLeaf).
Another point to keep in mind when designing trees is that branches of the same TTree can be written to separate
files. To add a TBranch to a TTree we call the method TTree::Branch(). Note that we DO NOT use the TBranch
constructor.
The TTree::Branch method has several signatures. The branch type differs by what is stored in it. A branch can hold
an entire object, a list of simple variables, contents of a folder, contents of a TList, or an array of objects. Lets see
some examples. To follow along you will need the shared library libEvent.so. First, check if it is in $ROOTSYS/test.
If it is, copy it to your own area. If it is not there, you have to build it by typing make in $ROOTSYS/test.

12.9. ADDING A BRANCH TO HOLD A LIST OF VARIABLES

12.9

295

Adding a Branch to Hold a List of Variables

As in the very first example (staff.root) the data we want to save is a list of simple variables, such as integers or
floats. In this case, we use the following TTree::Branch signature:
tree->Branch("Ev_Branch",&event,
"temp/F:ntrack/I:nseg:nvtex:flag/i");
The first parameter is the branch name.
The second parameter is the address from which the first variable is to be read. In the code above, event is a
structure with one float and three integers and one unsigned integer. You should not assume that the compiler aligns
the elements of a structure without gaps. To avoid alignment problems, you need to use structures with same length
members. If your structure does not qualify, you need to create one branch for each element of the structure.
The leaf name is NOT used to pick the variable out of the structure, but is only used as the name for the leaf. This
means that the list of variables needs to be in a structure in the order described in the third parameter.
This third parameter is a string describing the leaf list. Each leaf has a name and a type separated by a / and it is
separated from the next leaf by a :.
<Variable>/<type>:<Variable>/<type>
The example on the next line has two leafs: a floating-point number called temp and an integer named ntrack.
"temp/F:ntrack/I:"
The type can be omitted and if no type is given, the same type as the previous variable is assumed. This leaf list has
three integers called ntrack, nseg, and nvtex.
"ntrack/I:nseg:nvtex"
There is one more rule: when no type is given for the very first leaf, it becomes a float (F). This leaf list has three
floats called temp, mass, and px.
"temp:mass:px"
The symbols used for the type are:

C:
B:
b:
S:
s:
I:
i:
L:
l:
F:
D:
O:

a character string terminated by the 0 character

an 8 bit signed integer
an 8 bit unsigned integer
a 16 bit signed integer
a 16 bit unsigned integer
a 32 bit signed integer
a 32 bit unsigned integer
a 64 bit signed integer
a 64 bit unsigned integer
a 32 bit floating point
a 64 bit floating point
[the letter o, not a zero] a boolean (Bool_t)

The type is used for a byte count to decide how much space to allocate. The variable written is simply the block of
bytes starting at the starting address given in the second parameter. It may or may not match the leaf list depending
on whether or not the programmer is being careful when choosing the leaf address, name, and type.
By default, a variable will be copied with the number of bytes specified in the type descriptor symbol. However, if the
type consists of two characters, the number specifies the number of bytes to be used when copying the variable to the
output buffer. The line below describes ntrack to be written as a 16-bit integer (rather than a 32-bit integer).
"ntrack/I2"

296

CHAPTER 12. TREES

With this Branch method, you can also add a leaf that holds an entire array of variables. To add an array of floats use
the f[n] notation when describing the leaf.
Float_t f[10];
tree->Branch("fBranch",f,"f[10]/F");
You can also add an array of variable length:
{

TFile *f = new TFile("peter.root","recreate");

Int_t nPhot;
Float_t E[500];
TTree* nEmcPhotons = new TTree("nEmcPhotons","EMC Photons");
nEmcPhotons->Branch("nPhot",&nPhot,"nPhot/I");
nEmcPhotons->Branch("E",E,"E[nPhot]/F");

See Example 2: A Tree with a C Structure below ($ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/tree2.C) and staff.C at the
beginning of this chapter.

12.10

Adding a TBranch to Hold an Object

To write a branch to hold an event object, we need to load the definition of the Event class, which is in
$ROOTSYS/test/libEvent.so (if it doesnt exist type make in $ROOTSYS/test). An object can be saved in a tree if a
ROOT dictionary for its class has been generated and loaded.
root[] .L libEvent.so
First, we need to open a file and create a tree.
root[]
root[]

TFile *f = new TFile("AFile.root","RECREATE")

TTree *tree = new TTree("T","A Root Tree")

We need to create a pointer to an Event object that will be used as a reference in the TTree::Branch method. Then
we create a branch with the TTree::Branch method.
root[]
root[]

Event *event = new Event()

tree->Branch("EventBranch","Event",&event,32000,99)

To add a branch to hold an object we use the signature above. The first parameter is the name of the branch. The
second parameter is the name of the class of the object to be stored. The third parameter is the address of a pointer to
the object to be stored.
Note that it is an address of a pointer to the object, not just a pointer to the object.
The fourth parameter is the buffer size and is by default 32000 bytes. It is the number of bytes of data for that branch
to save to a buffer until it is saved to the file. The last parameter is the split-level, which is the topic of the next
section. Static class members are not part of an object and thus not written with the object. You could store them
separately by collecting these values in a special status object and write it to the file outside of the tree. If it makes
sense to store them for each object, make them a regular data member.

12.10.1

Setting the Split-level

To split a branch means to create a sub-branch for each data member in the object. The split-level can be set to 0 to
disable splitting or it can be set to a number between 1 and 99 indicating the depth of splitting.
If the split-level is set to zero, the whole object is written in its entirety to one branch. The TTree will look like the
one on the right, with one branch and one leaf holding the entire event object.
When the split-level is 1, an object data member is assigned a branch. If the split-level is 2, the data member objects
will be split also, and a split level of 3 its data members objects, will be split. As the split-level increases so does the
splitting depth. The ROOT default for the split-level is 99. This means the object will be split to the maximum.

12.10. ADDING A TBRANCH TO HOLD AN OBJECT

297

Figure 12.4: A split and not split tree

12.10.1.1

Memory Considerations when Splitting a Branch

Splitting a branch can quickly generate many branches. Each branch has its own buffer in memory. In case of many
branches (say more than 100), you should adjust the buffer size accordingly. A recommended buffer size is 32000 bytes
if you have less than 50 branches. Around 16000 bytes if you have less than 100 branches and 4000 bytes if you have
more than 500 branches. These numbers are recommended for computers with memory size ranging from 32MB to
256MB. If you have more memory, you should specify larger buffer sizes. However, in this case, do not forget that your
file might be used on another machine with a smaller memory configuration.

12.10.1.2

Performance Considerations when Splitting a Branch

A split branch is faster to read, but slightly slower to write. The reading is quicker because variables of the same type
are stored consecutively and the type does not have to be read each time. It is slower to write because of the large
number of buffers as described above. See "
Performance Benchmarks" for performance impact of split and non-split mode.

12.10.1.3

Rules for Splitting

When splitting a branch, variables of different types are handled differently. Here are the rules that apply when splitting
a branch.
If a data member is a basic type, it becomes one branch of class TBranchElement.
A data member can be an array of basic types. In this case, one single branch is created for the array.
A data member can be a pointer to an array of basic types. The length can vary, and must be specified in the
comment field of the data member in the class definition. See Input/Output.
Pointer data member are not split, except for pointers to a TClonesArray. The TClonesArray (pointed to) is
split if the split level is greater than two. When the split level is one, the TClonesArray is not split.
If a data member is a pointer to an object, a special branch is created. The branch will be filled by calling the
class Streamer function to serialize the object into the branch buffer.
If a data member is an object, the data members of this object are split into branches according to the split-level
(i.e. split-level > 2).
Base classes are split when the object is split.
Abstract base classes are never split.
All STL containers are supported.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

// STL vector of vectors of TAxis*
vector<vector<TAxis *> > fVectAxis;
// STL map of string/vector
map<string,vector<int> > fMapString;
// STL deque of pair
deque<pair<float,float> > fDequePair;

As of ROOT 4.01/00, only std::vector of objects can be split. Support for splitting the other type of STL
containers will be introduced in the near future.
C-structure data members are not supported in split mode.
An object that is not split may be slow to browse.
A STL container that is not split will not be accessible in the browser.

12.10.2

Exempt a Data Member from Splitting

If you are creating a branch with an object and in general you want the data members to be split, but you want to
exempt a data member from the split. You can specify this in the comment field of the data member:
class Event : public TObject {
private:
EventHeader
fEvtHdr;

12.10.3

//|| Don't split the header

Adding a Branch to Hold a TClonesArray

ROOT has two classes to manage arrays of objects. The TObjArray can manage objects of different classes, and the
TClonesArray that specializes in managing objects of the same class (hence the name Clones Array). TClonesArray
takes advantage of the constant size of each element when adding the elements to the array. Instead of allocating
memory for each new object as it is added, it reuses the memory. Here is an example of the time a TClonesArray
can save over a TObjArray. We have 100,000 events, and each has 10,000 tracks, which gives 1,000,000,000 tracks.
If we use a TObjArray for the tracks, we implicitly make a call to new and a corresponding call to delete for each
track. The time it takes to make a pair of new/delete calls is about 7 s (10-6). If we multiply the number of tracks
by 7 s, (1,000,000,000 * 7 * 10-6) we calculate that the time allocating and freeing memory is about 2 hours. This is
the chunk of time saved when a TClonesArray is used rather than a TObjArray. If you do not want to wait 2 hours
for your tracks (or equivalent objects), be sure to use a TClonesArray for same-class objects arrays. Branches with
TClonesArrays use the same method (TTree::Branch) as any other object described above. If splitting is specified
the objects in the TClonesArray are split, not the TClonesArray itself.

12.10.4

Identical Branch Names

When a top-level object (say event), has two data members of the same class the sub branches end up with identical
names. To distinguish the sub branch we must associate them with the master branch by including a . (a dot) at
the end of the master branch name. This will force the name of the sub branch to be master.sub branch instead of
simply sub branch. For example, a tree has two branches Trigger and MuonTrigger, each containing an object of the
same class (Trigger). To identify uniquely the sub branches we add the dot:
tree->Branch("Trigger.","Trigger",&b1,8000,1);
tree->Branch("MuonTrigger.","Trigger",&b2,8000,1);
If Trigger has three members, T1, T2, T3, the two instructions above will generate sub branches called: Trigger.T1,
Trigger.T2, Trigger.T3, MuonTrigger.T1, MuonTrigger.T2, andMuonTrigger.T3.

12.11

Adding a Branch with a Folder

Use the syntax below to add a branch from a folder:

tree->Branch("/aFolder");
This method creates one branch for each element in the folder. The method returns the total number of branches
created.

12.12. ADDING A BRANCH WITH A COLLECTION

12.12

299

Adding a Branch with a Collection

This Branch method creates one branch for each element in the collection.
tree->Branch(*aCollection, 8000, 99);
// Int_t TTree::Branch(TCollection *list, Int_t bufsize,
//
Int_t splitlevel, const char *name)
The method returns the total number of branches created. Each entry in the collection becomes a top level branch
if the corresponding class is not a collection. If it is a collection, the entry in the collection becomes in turn top
level branches, etc. The split level is decreased by 1 every time a new collection is found. For example if list is a
TObjArray*
If splitlevel = 1, one top level branch is created for each element of the TObjArray.
If splitlevel = 2, one top level branch is created for each array element. If one of the array elements is a
TCollection, one top level branch will be created for each element of this collection.
In case a collection element is a TClonesArray, the special Tree constructor for TClonesArray is called. The collection
itself cannot be a TClonesArray. If name is given, all branch names will be prefixed with name_.
IMPORTANT NOTE1: This function should not be called if splitlevel<1. IMPORTANT NOTE2: The branches
created by this function will have names corresponding to the collection or object names. It is important to give names
to collections to avoid misleading branch names or identical branch names. By default collections have a name equal to
the corresponding class name, e.g. the default name of TList is TList.

12.13

Examples for Writing and Reading Trees

The following sections are examples of writing and reading trees increasing in complexity from a simple tree with
a few variables to a tree containing folders and complex Event objects. Each example has a named script in the
$ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree directory. They are called tree1.C to tree4.C. The examples are:
tree1.C: a tree with several simple (integers and floating point) variables.
tree2.C: a tree built from a C structure (struct). This example uses the Geant3 C wrapper as an example of a
FORTRAN common block ported to C with a C structure.
tree3.C: in this example, we will show how to extend a tree with a branch from another tree with the Friends
feature. These trees have branches with variable length arrays. Each entry has a variable number of tracks, and
each track has several variables.
tree4.C: a tree with a class (Event). The class Event is defined in $ROOTSYS/test. In this example we first
encounter the impact of splitting a branch.
Each script contains the main function, with the same name as the file (i.e. tree1), the function to write - tree1w,
and the function to read - tree1r. If the script is not run in batch mode, it displays the tree in the browser and tree
viewer. To study the example scripts, you can either execute the main script, or load the script and execute a specific
function. For example:
// execute the function that writes, reads, shows the tree
root[]
x tree1.C
// use ACLiC to build shared library, check syntax, execute
root[] x tree1.C++
// Load the script and select a function to execute
root[]
L tree1.C
root[]
tree1w()
root[]
tree1r()

12.14

Example 1: A Tree with Simple Variables

This example shows how to write, view, and read a tree with several simple (integers and floating-point) variables.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.14.1

Writing the Tree

Below is the function that writes the tree (tree1w). First, the variables are defined (px, py, pz, random and ev).
Then we add a branch for each of the variables to the tree, by calling the TTree::Branch method for each variable.
void tree1w(){
// create a tree file tree1.root - create the file, the Tree and
// a few branches
TFile f("tree1.root","recreate");
TTree t1("t1","a simple Tree with simple variables");
Float_t px, py, pz;
Double_t random;
Int_t ev;
t1.Branch("px",&px,"px/F");
t1.Branch("py",&py,"py/F");
t1.Branch("pz",&pz,"pz/F");
t1.Branch("ev",&ev,"ev/I");

// fill the tree

for (Int_t i=0; i<10000; i++) {
gRandom->Rannor(px,py);
pz = px*px + py*py;
random = gRandom->Rndm();
ev = i;
t1.Fill();
}
// save the Tree heade; the file will be automatically closed
// when going out of the function scope
t1.Write();

12.14.1.1

Creating Branches with A single Variable

This is the signature of TTree::Branch to create a branch with a list of variables:

TBranch* TTree::Branch(const char* name,void* address,
const char* leaflist,
Int_t bufsize = 32000)
The first parameter is the branch name. The second parameter is the address from which to read the value. The third
parameter is the leaf list with the name and type of each leaf. In this example, each branch has only one leaf. In the
box below, the branch is named px and has one floating point type leaf also called px.
t1.Branch("px",&px,"px/F");
12.14.1.2

Filling the Tree

First we find some random values for the variables. We assign px and py a Gaussian with mean = 0 and sigma = 1
by calling gRandom->Rannor(px,py), and calculatepz. Then we call the TTree::Fill() method. The call t1.Fill()
fills all branches in the tree because we have already organized the tree into branches and told each branch where to
get the value from. After this script is executed we have a ROOT file called tree1.root with a tree called t1. There
is a possibility to fill branches one by one using the method TBranch::Fill(). In this case you do not need to call
TTree::Fill() method. The entries can be set by TTree::SetEntries(Double_t n). Calling this method makes
sense only if the number of existing entries is null.

12.14.2

Viewing the Tree

In the right panel of the ROOT object browse are the branches: ev, px, py, pz, and random. Note that these are shown
as leaves because they are end branches with only one leaf. To histogram a leaf, we can simply double click on it in
the browser. This is how the tree t1 looks in the Tree Viewer. Here we can add a cut and add other operations for
histogramming the leaves. See The Tree Viewer. For example, we can plot a two dimensional histogram.

12.14. EXAMPLE 1: A TREE WITH SIMPLE VARIABLES

Figure 12.5: The tree1.root file and its tree in the browser and a leaf histogram

Figure 12.6: The tree viewer

301

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.14.3

Reading the Tree

The tree1r function shows how to read the tree and access each entry and each leaf. We first define the variables to
hold the read values.
Float_t px, py, pz;
Then we tell the tree to populate these variables when reading an entry. We do this with the method
TTree::SetBranchAddress. The first parameter is the branch name, and the second is the address of the variable
where the branch data is to be placed. In this example, the branch name is px. This name was given when the tree
was written (see tree1w). The second parameter is the address of the variable px.
t1->SetBranchAddress("px",&px);
12.14.3.1

GetEntry

Once the branches have been given the address, a specific entry can be read into the variables with the method
TTree::GetEntry(n). It reads all the branches for entry (n) and populates the given address accordingly. By default,
GetEntry() reuses the space allocated by the previous object for each branch. You can force the previous object to be
automatically deleted if you call mybranch.SetAutoDelete(kTRUE) (default is kFALSE).
Consider the example in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.h. The top-level branch in the tree T is declared with:
Event *event = 0;
// event must be null or point to a valid object;
// it must be initialized
T.SetBranchAddress("event",&event);
When reading the Tree, one can choose one of these 3 options:
Option 1:
for (Int_t i = 0; i<nentries; i++) {
T.GetEntry(i);
//the object event has been filled at this point
}
This is the default and recommended way to create an object of the class Event.It will be pointed by event.
At the following entries, event will be overwritten by the new data. All internal members that are TObject* are
automatically deleted. It is important that these members be in a valid state when GetEntry is called. Pointers must
be correctly initialized. However these internal members will not be deleted if the characters -> are specified as the
first characters in the comment field of the data member declaration.
The pointer member is read via the pointer->Streamer(buf) if -> is specified. In this case, it is assumed that
the pointer is never null (see pointer TClonesArray *fTracks in the $ROOTSYS/test/Event example). If -> is not
specified, the pointer member is read via buf >> pointer. In this case the pointer may be null. Note that the option
with -> is faster to read or write and it also consumes less space in the file.
Option 2 - the option AutoDelete is set:
TBranch *branch = T.GetBranch("event");
branch->SetAddress(&event);
branch->SetAutoDelete(kTRUE);
for (Int_t i=0; i<nentries; i++) {
T.GetEntry(i); // the object event has been filled at this point
}
At any iteration, the GetEntry deletes the object event and a new instance of Event is created and filled.
Option 3 - same as option 1, but you delete the event yourself:

12.15. EXAMPLE 2: A TREE WITH A C STRUCTURE

303

for (Int_t i=0; i<nentries; i++) {

delete event;
event = 0;
//EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
T.GetEntry(i);
// the objrect event has been filled at this point
}
It is strongly recommended to use the default option 1. It has the additional advantage that functions like TTree::Draw
(internally calling TTree::GetEntry) will be functional even when the classes in the file are not available. Reading
selected branches is quicker than reading an entire entry. If you are interested in only one branch, you can use the
TBranch::GetEntry method and only that branch is read. Here is the script tree1r:
void tree1r(){
// read the Tree generated by tree1w and fill two histograms
// note that we use "new" to create the TFile and TTree objects,
// to keep them alive after leaving this function.
TFile *f = new TFile("tree1.root");
TTree *t1 = (TTree*)f->Get("t1");
Float_t px, py, pz;
Double_t random;
Int_t ev;
t1->SetBranchAddress("px",&px);
t1->SetBranchAddress("py",&py);
t1->SetBranchAddress("pz",&pz);
t1->SetBranchAddress("random",&random);
t1->SetBranchAddress("ev",&ev);
// create two histograms
TH1F *hpx
= new TH1F("hpx","px distribution",100,-3,3);
TH2F *hpxpy = new TH2F("hpxpy","py vs px",30,-3,3,30,-3,3);
//read all entries and fill the histograms
Int_t nentries = (Int_t)t1->GetEntries();
for (Int_t i=0; i<nentries; i++) {
t1->GetEntry(i);
hpx->Fill(px);
hpxpy->Fill(px,py);
}
// We do not close the file. We want to keep the generated
// histograms we open a browser and the TreeViewer
if (gROOT->IsBatch()) return;
new TBrowser ();
t1->StartViewer();

//In the browser, click on "ROOT Files", then on "tree1.root"

//You can click on the histogram icons in the right panel to draw
//them in the TreeViewer, follow the instructions in the Help.

12.15

Example 2: A Tree with a C Structure

The executable script for this example is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/tree2.C.In this example we show:

how
how
how
how
how
how

to
to
to
to
to
to

build branches from a C structure

make a branch with a fixed length array
make a branch with a variable length array
read selective branches
fill a histogram from a branch
use TTree::Draw to show a 3D plot

A C structure (struct) is used to build a ROOT tree. In general we discourage the use of C structures, we recommend
using a class instead. However, we do support them for legacy applications written in C or FORTRAN. The example

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

struct holds simple variables and arrays. It maps to a Geant3 common block /gctrak/.This is the definition of the
common block/structure:
const Int_t MAXMEC = 30;
// PARAMETER (MAXMEC=30)
// COMMON/GCTRAK/VECT(7),GETOT,GEKIN,VOUT(7)
//
+ ,NMEC,LMEC(MAXMEC)
//
+ ,NAMEC(MAXMEC),NSTEP
//
+ ,PID,DESTEP,DESTEL,SAFETY,SLENG
//
+ ,STEP,SNEXT,SFIELD,TOFG,GEKRAT,UPWGHT
typedef struct {
Float_t vect[7];
Float_t getot;
Float_t gekin;
Float_t vout[7];
Int_t
nmec;
Int_t
lmec[MAXMEC];
Int_t
namec[MAXMEC];
Int_t
nstep;
Int_t
pid;
Float_t destep;
Float_t destel;
Float_t safety;
Float_t sleng;
Float_t step;
Float_t snext;
Float_t sfield;
Float_t tofg;
Float_t gekrat;
Float_t upwght;
} Gctrak_t;
When using Geant3, the common block is filled by Geant3 routines at each step and only the TTree::Fill method
needs to be called. In this example we emulate the Geant3 step routine with the helixStep function. We also emulate
the filling of the particle values. The calls to the Branch methods are the same as if Geant3 were used.
void helixStep(Float_t step, Float_t *vect, Float_t *vout)
{
// extrapolate track in constant field
Float_t field = 20; // field in kilogauss
enum Evect {kX,kY,kZ,kPX,kPY,kPZ,kPP};
vout[kPP] = vect[kPP];
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t
Float_t

h4
= field*2.99792e-4;
rho
= -h4/vect[kPP];
tet
= rho*step;
tsint = tet*tet/6;
sintt = 1 - tsint;
sint = tet*sintt;
cos1t = tet/2;
f1 = step*sintt;
f2 = step*cos1t;
f3 = step*tsint*vect[kPZ];
f4 = -tet*cos1t;
f5 = sint;
f6 = tet*cos1t*vect[kPZ];

vout[kX]
vout[kY]
vout[kZ]
vout[kPX]
vout[kPY]

=
=
=
=
=

vect[kX]
vect[kY]
vect[kZ]
vect[kPX]
vect[kPY]

+
+
+
+
+

(f1*vect[kPX]
(f1*vect[kPY]
(f1*vect[kPZ]
(f4*vect[kPX]
(f4*vect[kPY]

+
+
+

f2*vect[kPY]);
f2*vect[kPX]);
f3);
f5*vect[kPY]);
f5*vect[kPX]);

12.15. EXAMPLE 2: A TREE WITH A C STRUCTURE

vout[kPZ] = vect[kPZ] + (f4*vect[kPZ] + f6);

12.15.1

Writing the Tree

void tree2w() {
// write tree2 example
//create a Tree file tree2.root
TFile f("tree2.root","recreate");
//create the file, the Tree
TTree t2("t2","a Tree with data from a fake Geant3");
// declare a variable of the C structure type
Gctrak_t gstep;
// add the branches for a subset of gstep
t2.Branch("vect",gstep.vect,"vect[7]/F");
t2.Branch("getot",&gstep.getot,"getot/F");
t2.Branch("gekin",&gstep.gekin,"gekin/F");
t2.Branch("nmec",&gstep.nmec,"nmec/I");
t2.Branch("lmec",gstep.lmec,"lmec[nmec]/I");
t2.Branch("destep",&gstep.destep,"destep/F");
t2.Branch("pid",&gstep.pid,"pid/I");
//Initialize particle parameters at first point
Float_t px,py,pz,p,charge=0;
Float_t vout[7];
Float_t mass = 0.137;
Bool_t newParticle = kTRUE;
gstep.step
= 0.1;
gstep.destep = 0;
gstep.nmec
= 0;
gstep.pid
= 0;
//transport particles
for (Int_t i=0; i<10000; i++) {
//generate a new particle if necessary (Geant3 emulation)
if (newParticle) {
px = gRandom->Gaus(0,.02);
py = gRandom->Gaus(0,.02);
pz = gRandom->Gaus(0,.02);
p = TMath::Sqrt(px*px+py*py+pz*pz);
charge = 1;
if (gRandom->Rndm() < 0.5) charge = -1;
gstep.pid
+= 1;
gstep.vect[0] = 0;
gstep.vect[1] = 0;
gstep.vect[2] = 0;
gstep.vect[3] = px/p;
gstep.vect[4] = py/p;
gstep.vect[5] = pz/p;
gstep.vect[6] = p*charge;
gstep.getot
= TMath::Sqrt(p*p + mass*mass);
gstep.gekin
= gstep.getot - mass;
newParticle
= kFALSE;
}
// fill the Tree with current step parameters
t2.Fill();
//transport particle in magnetic field (Geant3 emulation)
helixStep(gstep.step, gstep.vect, vout);

305

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

//make one step
//apply energy loss
gstep.destep
= gstep.step*gRandom->Gaus(0.0002,0.00001);
gstep.gekin -= gstep.destep;
gstep.getot = gstep.gekin + mass;
gstep.vect[6]= charge*TMath::Sqrt(gstep.getot*gstep.getot
- mass*mass);
gstep.vect[0] = vout[0];
gstep.vect[1] = vout[1];
gstep.vect[2] = vout[2];
gstep.vect[3] = vout[3];
gstep.vect[4] = vout[4];
gstep.vect[5] = vout[5];
gstep.nmec
= (Int_t)(5*gRandom->Rndm());
for (Int_t l=0; l<gstep.nmec; l++) gstep.lmec[l] = l;
if (gstep.gekin < 0.001) newParticle = kTRUE;
if (TMath::Abs(gstep.vect[2]) > 30) newParticle = kTRUE;

}
//save the Tree header. The file will be automatically
// closed when going out of the function scope
t2.Write();

12.15.1.1

Adding a Branch with a Fixed Length Array

At first, we create a tree and create branches for a subset of variables in the C structureGctrak_t. Then we add several
types of branches. The first branch reads seven floating-point values beginning at the address of gstep.vect. You
do not need to specify &gstep.vect, because in C and C++ the array variable holds the address of the first element.
t2.Branch("vect",gstep.vect,"vect[7]/F");
t2.Branch("getot",&gstep.getot,"getot/F");
t2.Branch("gekin",&gstep.gekin,"gekin/F");
12.15.1.2

Adding a Branch with a Variable Length Array

The next two branches are dependent on each other. The first holds the length of the variable length array and the
second holds the variable length array. The lmec branch reads nmec number of integers beginning at the address
gstep.lmec.
t2.Branch("nmec",&gstep.nmec,"nmec/I");
t2.Branch("lmec",gstep.lmec,"lmec[nmec]/I");
The variable nmec is a random number and is reset for each entry.
gstep.nmec = (Int_t)(5*gRandom->Rndm());
12.15.1.3

Filling the Tree

In this emulation of Geant3, we generate and transport particles in a magnetic field and store the particle parameters
at each tracking step in a ROOT tree.

12.15.2

Analysis

In this analysis, we do not read the entire entry we only read one branch. First, we set the address for the branch
to the file dstep, and then we use the TBranch::GetEntry method. Then we fill a histogram with the dstep branch
entries, draw it and fit it with a Gaussian. In addition, we draw the particles path using the three values in the vector.
Here we use the TTree::Draw method. It automatically creates a histogram and plots the 3 expressions (see Trees in
Analysis).

12.15. EXAMPLE 2: A TREE WITH A C STRUCTURE

void tree2r() {
// read the Tree generated by tree2w and fill one histogram
// we are only interested by the destep branch
// note that we use "new" to create the TFile and TTree objects because we
// want to keep these objects alive when we leave this function
TFile *f = new TFile("tree2.root");
TTree *t2 = (TTree*)f->Get("t2");
static Float_t destep;
TBranch *b_destep = t2->GetBranch("destep");
b_destep->SetAddress(&destep);
//create one histogram
TH1F *hdestep = new TH1F("hdestep","destep in Mev",100,1e-5,3e-5);
//read only the destep branch for all entries
Int_t nentries = (Int_t)t2->GetEntries();
for (Int_t i=0;i<nentries;i++) {
b_destep->GetEntry(i);
// fill the histogram with the destep entry
hdestep->Fill(destep);
}
// we do not close the file; we want to keep the generated histograms;
// we fill a 3-d scatter plot with the particle step coordinates
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","c1",600,800);
c1->SetFillColor(42);
c1->Divide(1,2);
c1->cd(1);
hdestep->SetFillColor(45);
hdestep->Fit("gaus");
c1->cd(2);
gPad->SetFillColor(37);

// continued...

307

308

CHAPTER 12. TREES

t2->SetMarkerColor(kRed);
t2->Draw("vect[0]:vect[1]:vect[2]");
if (gROOT->IsBatch()) return;

// invoke the x3d viewer

gPad->GetViewer3D("x3d");

12.16

Example 3: Adding Friends to Trees

In this example, we will show how to extend a tree with a branch from another tree with the Friends feature.

12.16.1

Adding a Branch to an Existing Tree

You may want to add a branch to an existing tree. For example, if one variable in the tree was computed with a certain
algorithm, you may want to try another algorithm and compare the results. One solution is to add a new branch, fill it,
and save the tree. The code below adds a simple branch to an existing tree. Note that the kOverwrite option in the
Write method overwrites the existing tree. If it is not specified, two copies of the tree headers are saved.
void tree3AddBranch() {
TFile f("tree3.root","update");
Float_t new_v;
TTree *t3 = (TTree*)f->Get("t3");
TBranch *newBranch = t3-> Branch("new_v",&new_v,"new_v/F");
//read the number of entries in the t3
Int_t nentries = (Int_t)t3->GetEntries();
for (Int_t i = 0; i < nentries; i++){
new_v= gRandom->Gaus(0,1);
newBranch->Fill();
}
t3->Write("",TObject::kOverwrite); // save only the new version of
// the tree
}
Adding a branch is often not possible because the tree is in a read-only file and you do not have permission to save
the modified tree with the new branch. Even if you do have the permission, you risk loosing the original tree with an
unsuccessful attempt to save the modification. Since trees are usually large, adding a branch could extend it over the
2GB limit. In this case, the attempt to write the tree fails, and the original data is may also be corrupted. In addition,
adding a branch to a tree enlarges the tree and increases the amount of memory needed to read an entry, and therefore
decreases the performance. For these reasons, ROOT offers the concept of friends for trees (and chains). We encourage
you to use TTree::AddFriend rather than adding a branch manually.

12.16.2

TTree::AddFriend

A tree keeps a list of friends. In the context of a tree (or a chain), friendship means unrestricted access to the friends
data. In this way it is much like adding another branch to the tree without taking the risk of damaging it. To add a
friend to the list, you can use the TTree::AddFriendmethod. The TTree (tree) below has two friends (ft1 and ft2)
and now has access to the variables a,b,c,i,j,k,l and m.

The AddFriend method has two parameters, the first is the tree name and the second is the name of the ROOT file
where the friend tree is saved. AddFriend automatically opens the friend file. If no file name is given, the tree called
ft1 is assumed to be in the same file as the original tree.

12.16. EXAMPLE 3: ADDING FRIENDS TO TREES

309

tree.AddFriend("ft1","friendfile1.root");
If the friend tree has the same name as the original tree, you can give it an alias in the context of the friendship:
tree.AddFriend("tree1 = tree","friendfile1.root");
Once the tree has friends, we can use TTree::Draw as if the friends variables were in the original tree. To specify
which tree to use in the Draw method, use the syntax:
<treeName>.<branchname>.<varname>
If the variablename is enough to identify uniquely the variable, you can leave out the tree and/or branch name.
For example, these commands generate a 3-d scatter plot of variable var in the TTree tree versus variable v1
inTTree ft1versus variablev2in **TTree**ft2.
tree.AddFriend("ft1","friendfile1.root");
tree.AddFriend("ft2","friendfile2.root");
tree.Draw("var:ft1.v1:ft2.v2");

The picture illustrates the access of the tree and its friends with a Draw command.
When AddFriend is called, the ROOT file is automatically opened and the friend tree (ft1) header is read into memory.
The new friend (ft1) is added to the list of friends of tree. The number of entries in the friend must be equal or
greater to the number of entries of the original tree. If the friend tree has fewer entries, a warning is given and the
missing entries are not included in the histogram.
Use TTree::GetListOfFriends to retrieve the list of friends from a tree.
When the tree is written to file (TTree::Write), the friends list is saved with it. Moreover, when the tree is retrieved,
the trees on the friends list are also retrieved and the friendship restored. When a tree is deleted, the elements of the
friend list are also deleted. It is possible to declare a friend tree that has the same internal structure (same branches
and leaves) as the original tree, and compare the same values by specifying the tree.
tree.Draw("var:ft1.var:ft2.var");
The example code is in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/tree3.C. Here is the script:
void tree3w() {
// Example of a Tree where branches are variable length arrays
// A second Tree is created and filled in parallel.
// Run this script with .x tree3.C
// In the function treer, the first Tree is open.
// The second Tree is declared friend of the first tree.
// TTree::Draw is called with variables from both Trees.
const Int_t kMaxTrack = 500;
Int_t ntrack;
Int_t stat[kMaxTrack];
Int_t sign[kMaxTrack];
Float_t px[kMaxTrack];
Float_t py[kMaxTrack];
Float_t pz[kMaxTrack];
Float_t pt[kMaxTrack];
Float_t zv[kMaxTrack];
Float_t chi2[kMaxTrack];

310

CHAPTER 12. TREES

Double_t sumstat;
// create the first root file with a tree
TFile f("tree3.root","recreate");
TTree *t3 = new TTree("t3","Reconst ntuple");
t3->Branch("ntrack",&ntrack,"ntrack/I");
t3->Branch("stat",stat,"stat[ntrack]/I");
t3->Branch("sign",sign,"sign[ntrack]/I");
t3->Branch("px",px,"px[ntrack]/F");
t3->Branch("py",py,"py[ntrack]/F");
t3->Branch("pz",pz,"pz[ntrack]/F");
t3->Branch("zv",zv,"zv[ntrack]/F");
t3->Branch("chi2",chi2,"chi2[ntrack]/F");
// create the second root file with a different tree
TFile fr("tree3f.root","recreate");
TTree *t3f = new TTree("t3f","a friend Tree");
t3f->Branch("ntrack",&ntrack,"ntrack/I");
t3f->Branch("sumstat",&sumstat,"sumstat/D");
t3f->Branch("pt",pt,"pt[ntrack]/F");

// Fill the trees

for (Int_t i=0;i<1000;i++) {
Int_t nt = gRandom->Rndm()*(kMaxTrack-1);
ntrack = nt;
sumstat = 0;
// set the values in each track
for (Int_t n=0;n<nt;n++) {
stat[n] = n%3;
sign[n] = i%2;
px[n]
= gRandom->Gaus(0,1);
py[n]
= gRandom->Gaus(0,2);
pz[n]
= gRandom->Gaus(10,5);
zv[n]
= gRandom->Gaus(100,2);
chi2[n] = gRandom->Gaus(0,.01);
sumstat += chi2[n];
pt[n]
= TMath::Sqrt(px[n]*px[n] + py[n]*py[n]);
}
t3->Fill();
t3f->Fill();
}
// Write the two files
t3->Print();
f.cd();
t3->Write();
fr.cd();
t3f->Write();

// Function to read the two files and add the friend

void tree3r()
{
TFile *f = new TFile("tree3.root");
TTree *t3 = (TTree*)f->Get("t3");
// Add the second tree to the first tree as a friend
t3->AddFriend("t3f","tree3f.root");
// Draw pz which is in the first tree and use pt
// in the condition. pt is in the friend tree.
t3->Draw("pz","pt>3");
}
// This is executed when typing .x tree3.C
void tree3() {
tree3w();

12.17. EXAMPLE 4: A TREE WITH AN EVENT CLASS

311

tree3r();

12.17

Example 4: A Tree with an Event Class

This example is a simplified version of $ROOTSYS/test/MainEvent.cxx and where Event objects are saved in a
tree. The full definition of Event is in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.h. To execute this macro, you will need the library
$ROOTSYS/test/libEvent.so. If it does not exist you can build the test directory applications by following the
instruction in the $ROOTSYS/test/README file.
In this example we will show
the difference in splitting or not splitting a branch
how to read selected branches of the tree,
how to print a selected entry

12.17.1

The Event Class

Event is a descendent of TObject. As such it inherits the data members of TObject and its methods such as Dump()
and Inspect()andWrite(). In addition, because it inherits from TObject it can be a member of a collection. To
summarize, the advantages of inheriting from a TObject are:
Inherit the Write, Inspect, and Dump methods
Enables a class to be a member of a ROOT collection
Enables RTTI
Below is the list of the Event data members. It contains a character array, several integers, a floating-point number,
and an EventHeader object. The EventHeader class is described in the following paragraph. Event also has two
pointers, one to a TClonesArray of tracks and one to a histogram. The string -> in the comment field of the
members *fTracks and *fH instructs the automatic Streamer to assume that the objects *fTracks and *fH are never
null pointers and that fTracks->Streamer can be used instead of the more time consuming form R__b << fTracks.
class Event : public TObject {
private:
char
fType[20];
Int_t
fNtrack;
Int_t
fNseg;
Int_t
fNvertex;
UInt_t
fFlag;
Float_t
fTemperature;
EventHeader
fEvtHdr;
TClonesArray
*fTracks;
TH1F
*fH;
Int_t
fMeasures[10];
Float_t
fMatrix[4][4];
Float_t
*fClosestDistance;
static TClonesArray *fgTracks;
static TH1F
*fgHist;
// ... list of methods
ClassDef(Event,1) //Event structure
};

12.17.2

//->
//->
//[fNvertex]

The EventHeader Class

The EventHeader class (also defined in Event.h) does not inherit from TObject. Beginning with ROOT 3.0, an object
can be placed on a branch even though it does not inherit from TObject. In previous releases branches were restricted
to objects inheriting from the TObject. However, it has always been possible to write a class not inheriting from
TObject to a tree by encapsulating it in a TObject descending class as is the case in EventHeader and Event.

312

CHAPTER 12. TREES

class EventHeader {
private:
Int_t
fEvtNum;
Int_t
fRun;
Int_t
fDate;
// ... list of methods
ClassDef(EventHeader,1)
};

12.17.3

//Event Header

The Track Class

The Track class descends from TObject since tracks are in a TClonesArray (i.e. a ROOT collection class) and contains
a selection of basic types and an array of vertices. Its TObject inheritance enables Track to be in a collection and in
Event is a TClonesArray of Tracks.
class Track : public TObject
private:
Float_t
fPx;
Float_t
fPy;
Float_t
fPz;
Float_t
fRandom;
Float_t
fMass2;
Float_t
fBx;
Float_t
fBy;
Float_t
fMeanCharge;
Float_t
fXfirst;
Float_t
fXlast;
Float_t
fYfirst;
Float_t
fYlast;
Float_t
fZfirst;
Float_t
fZlast;
Float_t
fCharge;
Float_t
fVertex[3];
Int_t
fNpoint;
Short_t
fValid;

};

{
//X component of the momentum
//Y component of the momentum
//Z component of the momentum
//A random track quantity
//The mass square of this particle
//X intercept at the vertex
//Y intercept at the vertex
//Mean charge deposition of all hits
//X coordinate of the first point
//X coordinate of the last point
//Y coordinate of the first point
//Y coordinate of the last point
//Z coordinate of the first point
//Z coordinate of the last point
//Charge of this track
//Track vertex position
//Number of points for this track
//Validity criterion

// method definitions ...

ClassDef(Track,1)

12.17.4

//A track segment

Writing the Tree

We create a simple tree with two branches both holding Event objects. One is split and the other is not. We also
create a pointer to an Event object (event).
void tree4w() {
// check to see if the event class is in the dictionary
// if it is not load the definition in libEvent.so
if (!TClassTable::GetDict("Event")) {
gSystem->Load("$ROOTSYS/test/libEvent.so");
}
// create a Tree file tree4.root
TFile f("tree4.root","RECREATE");
// create a ROOT Tree
TTree t4("t4","A Tree with Events");
// create a pointer to an Event object
Event *event = new Event();
// create two branches, split one
t4.Branch("event_branch", "Event", &event,16000,2);
t4.Branch("event_not_split", "Event", &event,16000,0);

12.17. EXAMPLE 4: A TREE WITH AN EVENT CLASS

313

// a local variable for the event type

char etype[20];

// fill the tree

for (Int_t ev = 0; ev <100; ev++) {
Float_t sigmat, sigmas;
gRandom->Rannor(sigmat,sigmas);
Int_t ntrack
= Int_t(600 + 600 *sigmat/120.);
Float_t random = gRandom->Rndm(1);
sprintf(etype,"type%d",ev%5);
event->SetType(etype);
event->SetHeader(ev, 200, 960312, random);
event->SetNseg(Int_t(10*ntrack+20*sigmas));
event->SetNvertex(Int_t(1+20*gRandom->Rndm()));
event->SetFlag(UInt_t(random+0.5));
event->SetTemperature(random+20.);
for(UChar_t m = 0; m < 10; m++) {
event->SetMeasure(m, Int_t(gRandom->Gaus(m,m+1)));
}
// continued...
// fill the matrix
for(UChar_t i0 = 0; i0 < 4; i0++) {
for(UChar_t i1 = 0; i1 < 4; i1++) {
event->SetMatrix(i0,i1,gRandom->Gaus(i0*i1,1));
}
}
// create and fill the Track objects
for (Int_t t = 0; t < ntrack; t++) event->AddTrack(random);
t4.Fill();
// Fill the tree
event->Clear(); // Clear before reloading event
}
f.Write();
// Write the file header
t4.Print();
// Print the tree contents

12.17.5

Reading the Tree

First, we check if the shared library with the class definitions is loaded. If not we load it. Then we read two branches,
one for the number of tracks and one for the entire event. We check the number of tracks first, and if it meets our
condition, we read the entire event. We show the fist entry that meets the condition.
void tree4r() {
// check if the event class is in the dictionary
// if it is not load the definition in libEvent.so
if (!TClassTable::GetDict("Event")) {
gSystem->Load("$ROOTSYS/test/libEvent.so");
}
// read the tree generated with tree4w
// note that we use "new" to create the TFile and TTree objects, because we
// want to keep these objects alive when we leave this function.
TFile *f = new TFile("tree4.root");
TTree *t4 = (TTree*)f->Get("t4");
// create a pointer to an event object for reading the branch values.
Event *event = new Event();
// get two branches and set the branch address
TBranch *bntrack = t4->GetBranch("fNtrack");
TBranch *branch = t4->GetBranch("event_split");
branch->SetAddress(&event);
Int_t nevent = t4->GetEntries();

314

CHAPTER 12. TREES

Int_t nselected = 0;
Int_t nb = 0;
for (Int_t i=0; i<nevent; i++) {
//read branch "fNtrack"only
bntrack->GetEntry(i);
// reject events with more than 587 tracks
if (event->GetNtrack() > 587)continue;
// read complete accepted event in memory
nb += t4->GetEntry(i);
nselected++;

// print the first accepted event

if (nselected == 1) t4->Show();
// clear tracks array
event->Clear();

if (gROOT->IsBatch()) return;
new TBrowser();
t4->StartViewer();

Now, lets see how the tree looks like in the tree viewer.

Figure 12.7: The tree viewer with tree4 example

You can see the two branches in the tree in the left panel: the event branch is split and hence expands when clicked on.
The other branch event not split is not expandable and we can not browse the data members.

12.18. EXAMPLE 5: IMPORT AN ASCII FILE INTO A TTREE

315

The TClonesArray of tracks fTracks is also split because we set the split level to 2. The output on the command line
is the result of tree4->Show(). It shows the first entry with more than 587 tracks:
======> EVENT:26
event_split
=
fUniqueID
=
fBits
=
fType[20]
=
fNtrack
=
fNseg
=
fNvertex
=
fFlag
=
fTemperature
=
fEvtHdr.fEvtNum =
fEvtHdr.fRun
=
fEvtHdr.fDate
=
fTracks
=
fTracks.fUniqueID
...

12.18

0
50331648
116 121 112 101 49 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
585
5834
17
0
20.044315
26
200
960312
585
= 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

Example 5: Import an ASCII File into a TTree

The method TTree::ReadFile can be used to automatic define the structure of the TTree and read the data from a
formatted ascii file.
Long64_t TTree::ReadFile(const char *filename,
const char *branchDescriptor)
Creates or simply read branches from the file named whose name is passed in filename.
{

gROOT->Reset();
TFile *f = new TFile("basic2.root","RECREATE");
TH1F *h1 = new TH1F("h1","x distribution",100,-4,4);
TTree *T = new TTree("ntuple","data from ascii file");
Long64_t nlines = T->ReadFile("basic.dat","x:y:z");
printf(" found %lld pointsn",nlines);
T->Draw("x","z>2");
T->Write();

If branchDescriptor is set to an empty string (the default), it is assumed that the Tree descriptor is given in the first
line of the file with a syntax like: A/D:Table[2]/F:Ntracks/I:astring/C.
Otherwise branchDescriptor must be specified with the above syntax.Lines in the input file starting with # are
ignored. A TBranch object is created for each variable in the expression. The total number of rows read from the file is
returned.

12.19

Trees in Analysis

The methods TTree::Draw, TTree::MakeClass and TTree::MakeSelector are available for data analysis using trees.
The TTree::Draw method is a powerful yet simple way to look and draw the trees contents. It enables you to plot a
variable (a leaf) with just one line of code. However, the Draw method falls short once you want to look at each entry
and design more sophisticated acceptance criteria for your analysis. For these cases, you can use TTree::MakeClass.
It creates a class that loops over the trees entries one by one. You can then expand it to do the logic of your analysis.
The TTree::MakeSelector is the recommended method for ROOT data analysis. It is especially important for large
data set in a parallel processing configuration where the analysis is distributed over several processors and you can
specify which entries to send to each processor. With MakeClass the user has control over the event loop, with
MakeSelectorthe tree is in control of the event loop.

316

CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.20

Simple Analysis Using TTree::Draw

We will use the tree in staff.root that was made by the macro in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/staff.C.
First, open the file and lists its contents.
root[] TFile f ("staff.root")
root[] f.ls()
TFile**
staff.root
TFile*
staff.root
KEY: TTree
T;1
staff data from ascii file
We can see the TTreeT in the file. We will use it to experiment with the TTree::Draw method, so lets create a
pointer to it:
root[] TTree *MyTree = T
CINT allows us to get simply the object by using it. Here we define a pointer to a TTree object and assign it the
value of T, the TTree in the file. CINT looks for an object named T in the current ROOT file and returns it (this
assumes that T has not previously been used to declare a variable or function).
In contrast, in compiled code, you can use:
TTree *MyTree;f.GetObject("T",MyTree);
To show the different Draw options, we create a canvas with four sub-pads. We will use one sub-pad for each Draw
command.
root[] TCanvas *myCanvas = new TCanvas()
root[] myCanvas->Divide(2,2)
We activate the first pad with the TCanvas::cd statement:
root[] myCanvas->cd(1)
We then draw the variable Cost:
root[] MyTree->Draw("C
As you can see, the last call TTree::Draw has only one parameter. It is a string containing the leaf name. A histogram
is automatically created as a result of a TTree::Draw. The style of the histogram is inherited from the TTree attributes
and the current style (gStyle ) is ignored. The TTree gets its attributes from the current TStyle at the time it was
created. You can call the method TTree::UseCurrentStyle to change to the current style rather than the TTree style.
(See gStyle ; see also Graphics and the Graphical User Interface )
In the next segment, we activate the second pad and draw a scatter plot variables:
root[] myCanvas->cd(2)
root[] MyTree->Draw("Cost:Age")
This signature still only has one parameter, but it now has two dimensions separated by a colon ("x:y"). The item
to be plotted can be an expression not just a simple variable. In general, this parameter is a string that contains
up to three expressions, one for each dimension, separated by a colon (e1:e2:e3). A list of examples follows this
introduction.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

12.20.1

317

Using Selection with TTree:Draw

Change the active pad to 3, and add a selection to the list of parameters of the draw command.
root[] myCanvas->cd(3)
root[] MyTree->Draw("Cost:Age","Nation == "FR"")
This will draw the Costvs. Age for the entries where the nation is equal to FR. You can use any C++ operator, and
some functions defined in TFormula, in the selection parameter. The value of the selection is used as a weight when
filling the histogram. If the expression includes only Boolean operations as in the example above, the result is 0 or 1. If
the result is 0, the histogram is not filled. In general, the expression is:
Selection = "weight *(boolean expression)"
If the Boolean expression evaluates to true, the histogram is filled with a weight. If the weight is not explicitly specified
it is assumed to be 1.
For example, this selection will add 1 to the histogram if x is less than y and the square root of z is less than 3.2.
"x<y && sqrt(z)>3.2"
On the other hand, this selection will add x+y to the histogram if the square root of z is larger than 3.2.
"(x+y)*(sqrt(z)>3.2)"
The Draw method has its own parser, and it only looks in the current tree for variables. This means that any variable
used in the selection must be defined in the tree. You cannot use an arbitrary global variable in the TTree::Draw
method.

12.20.2

Using TCut Objects in TTree::Draw

The TTree::Draw method also accepts TCutG objects. A TCut is a specialized string object used for TTree selections.
A TCut object has a name and a title. It does not have any data members in addition to what it inherits from TNamed.
It only adds a set of operators to do logical string concatenation. For example, assume:
TCut cut1 = "x<1"
TCut cut2 = "y>2"
then
cut1 && cut2
//result is the string "(x<1)&&(y>2)"
Operators =, +=, +, *, !, &&, || are overloaded, here are some examples:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

TCut c1 = "x < 1"

TCut c2 = "y < 0"
TCut c3 = c1 && c2
MyTree.Draw("x", c1)
MyTree.Draw("x", c1 || "x>0")
MyTree.Draw("x", c1 && c2)
MyTree.Draw("x", "(x + y)" * (c1 && c2))

318

CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.20.3

Accessing the Histogram in Batch Mode

The TTree::Draw method creates a histogram called htemp and puts it on the active pad. In a batch program, the
histogram htemp created by default, is reachable from the current pad.
// draw the histogram
nt->Draw("x", "cuts");
// get the histogram from the current pad
TH1F *htemp = (TH1F*)gPad->GetPrimitive("htemp");
// now we have full use of the histogram
htemp->GetEntries();
If you pipe the result of the TTree::Draw into a histogram, the histogram is also available in the current directory.
You can do:
// Draw the histogram and fill hnew with it
nt->Draw("x>>hnew","cuts");
// get hnew from the current directory
TH1F *hnew = (TH1F*)gDirectory->Get("hnew");
// or get hnew from the current Pad
TH1F *hnew = (TH1F*)gPad->GetPrimitive("hnew");

12.20.4

Using Draw Options in TTree::Draw

The next parameter is the draw option for the histogram:

root[] MyTree->Draw("Cost:Age","Nation == \"FR\"","surf2");

Figure 12.8: Using draw options in trees

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

319

The draw options are the same as for TH1::Draw. See Draw Options where they are listed. In addition to the draw
options defined in TH1, there are three more. The prof and profs draw a profile histogram (TProfile) rather
than a regular 2D histogram (TH2D) from an expression with two variables. If the expression has three variables, a
TProfile2D is generated.
The profs generates a TProfile with error on the spread. The prof option generates a TProfile with error on the
mean. The goff option suppresses generating the graphics. You can combine the draw options in a list separated by
commas. After typing the lines above, you should now have a canvas that looks this.

12.20.5

Superimposing Two Histograms

When superimposing two 2-D histograms inside a script with TTree::Draw and using the same option, you will need
to update the pad between Draw commands.
{

// superimpose two 2D scatter plots

// Create a 2D histogram and fill it with random numbers
TH2 *h2 = new TH2D ("h2","2D histo",100,0,70,100,0,20000);
for (Int_t i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
h2->Fill(gRandom->Gaus(40,10),gRandom->Gaus(10000,3000));
// set the color to differentiate it visually
h2->SetMarkerColor(kGreen);
h2->Draw();
// Open the example file and get the tree
TFile f("staff.root");
TTree *myTree = (TTree*)f.Get("T");
// the update is needed for the next draw command to work properly
gPad->Update();
myTree->Draw("Cost:Age", "","same");

In this example, h2->Draw is only adding the object h2 to the pads list of primitives. It does not paint the object
on the screen. However, TTree::Draw when called with option same gets the current pad coordinates to build an
intermediate histogram with the right limits. Since nothing has been painted in the pad yet, the pad limits have not
been computed. Calling pad->Update() forces the painting of the pad and allows TTree::Draw to compute the right
limits for the intermediate histogram.

12.20.6

Setting the Range in TTree::Draw

There are two more optional parameters to the TTree::Draw method: one is the number of entries and the second one
is the entry to start with. For example, this command draws 1000 entries starting with entry 100:
myTree->Draw("Cost:Age", "","",1000,100);

12.20.7

TTree::Draw Examples

The examples below use the Event.root file generated by the $ROOTSYS/test/Event executable and the Event, Track,
and EventHeader class definitions are in $ROOTSYS/test/Event.h. The commands have been tested on the split-levels
0, 1, and 9. Each command is numbered and referenced by the explanations immediately following the examples.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

// Data members and methods

tree->Draw("fNtrack");
tree->Draw("event.GetNtrack()");
tree->Draw("GetNtrack()");
tree->Draw("fH.fXaxis.fXmax");
tree->Draw("fH.fXaxis.GetXmax()");
tree->Draw("fH.GetXaxis().fXmax");
tree->Draw("GetHistogram().GetXaxis().GetXmax()");
// Expressions in the selection parameter
tree->Draw("fTracks.fPx","fEvtHdr.fEvtNum%10 == 0");

320
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47

CHAPTER 12. TREES

tree->Draw("fPx","fEvtHdr.fEvtNum%10 == 0");
// Two dimensional arrays defined as:
//
Float_t fMatrix[4][4] in Event class
tree->Draw("fMatrix");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][ ]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[2][2]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][0]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[1][ ]");
// using two arrays... Float_t fVertex[3]; in Track class
tree->Draw("fMatrix - fVertex");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[2][1] - fVertex[5][1]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][1] - fVertex[5][1]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[2][ ] - fVertex[5][ ]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][2] - fVertex[ ][1]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][2] - fVertex[ ][ ]");
tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][ ] - fVertex[ ][ ]");
// variable length arrays
tree->Draw("fClosestDistance");
tree->Draw("fClosestDistance[fNvertex/2]");
// mathematical expressions
tree->Draw("sqrt(fPx*fPx + fPy*fPy + fPz*fPz))");
// external function call
tree->Draw("TMath::BreitWigner(fPx,3,2)");
// strings
tree->Draw("fEvtHdr.fEvtNum","fType=="type1" ");
tree->Draw("fEvtHdr.fEvtNum","strstr(fType,"1" ");
// Where fPoints is defined in the track class:
//
Int_t fNpoint;
//
Int_t *fPoints; [fNpoint]
tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints");
tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints - fTracks.fPoints[][fAvgPoints]");
tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints[2][]- fTracks.fPoints[][55]");
tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints[][] - fTracks.fVertex[][]");
// selections
tree->Draw("fValid&0x1","(fNvertex>10) && (fNseg<=6000)");
tree->Draw("fPx","(fBx>.4) || (fBy<=-.4)");
tree->Draw("fPx","fBx*fBx*(fBx>.4) + fBy*fBy*(fBy<=-.4)");
tree->Draw("fVertex","fVertex>10");
tree->Draw("fPx[600]");
tree->Draw("fPx[600]","fNtrack>600");
// alphanumeric bin histogram
// where Nation is a char* indended to be used as a string
tree->Draw("Nation");
// where MyByte is a char* intended to be used as a byte
tree->Draw("MyByte + 0");
// where fTriggerBits is a data member of TTrack of type TBits
tree->Draw("fTracks.fTriggerBits");
// using alternate values
tree->Draw("fMatrix-Alt$(fClosestDistance,0)");
// using meta information about the formula
tree->Draw("fMatrix:Iteration$")
T->Draw("fLastTrack.GetPx():fLastTrack.fPx");
T->Scan("((Track*)(fLastTrack@.GetObject())).GetPx()","","");
tree->Draw("This->GetReadEntry()");
tree->Draw("mybr.mystring");
tree->Draw("myTimeStamp");

12.20.7.1

Explanations:

1. tree->Draw("fNtrack");
It fills the histogram with the number of tracks for each entry. fNtrack is a member of event.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

321

2. tree->Draw("event.GetNtrack()");
Same as case 1, but use the method of event to get the number of tracks. When using a method, you can include
parameters for the method as long as the parameters are literals.
3. tree->Draw("GetNtrack()");
Same as case 2, the object of the method is not specified. The command uses the first instance of the GetNtrack
method found in the objects stored in the tree. We recommend using this shortcut only if the method name is unique.
4. tree->Draw("fH.fXaxis.fXmax");
Draw the data member of a data member. In the tree, each entry has a histogram. This command draws the maximum
value of the X-axis for each histogram.
5. tree->Draw("fH.fXaxis.GetXmax()");
Same as case 4, but use the method of a data member.
6. tree->Draw("fH.GetXaxis().fXmax");
The same as case 4: a data member of a data member retrieved by a method.
7. **tree->Draw("GetHistogram().GetXaxis().GetXmax()");**
Same as case 4, but using methods.
8. tree->Draw("fTracks.fPx","fEvtHdr.fEvtNum%10 == 0");
Use data members in the expression and in the selection parameter to plot fPx or all tracks in every 10th entry. Since
fTracks is a TClonesArray of Tracks, there will be d values of fPx for each entry.
9. tree->Draw("fPx","fEvtHdr.fEvtNum%10 == 0");
Same as case 8, use the name of the data member directly.
10. tree->Draw("fMatrix");
When the index of the array is left out or when empty brackets are used [], all values of the array are selected. Draw
all values of fMatrix for each entry in the tree. If fMatrix is defined as: Float_t fMatrix[4][4], all 16 values are
used for each entry.
11. tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][ ]");
The same as case 10, all values of fMatrix are drawn for each entry.
12. tree->Draw("fMatrix[2][2]");
The single element at fMatrix[2][2] is drawn for each entry.
13. tree->Draw("fMatrix[][0]");
Four elements of fMatrix are used: fMatrix[1][0], fMatrix[2][0], fMatrix[3][0], fMatrix[4][0].
14. tree->Draw("fMatrix[1][ ]");
Four elements of fMatrix are used: fMatrix[1][0], fMatrix[1][2], fMatrix[1][3], fMatrix[1][4].

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

15. tree->Draw("fMatrix - fVertex");

With two arrays and unspecified element numbers, the number of selected values is the minimum of the first dimension
times the minimum of the second dimension. In this case fVertex is also a two dimensional array since it is a data
member of the tracks array. If fVertex is defined in the track class as: Float_t *fVertex[3], it has fNtracks x 3
elements. fMatrix has 4 x 4 elements. This case, draws 4 (the smaller of fNtrack and 4) times 3 (the smaller of 4 and
3), meaning 12 elements per entry. The selected values for each entry are:
fMatrix[0][0] - fVertex[0][0]
fMatrix[0][1] - fVertex[0][1]
fMatrix[0][2] - fVertex[0][2]
fMatrix[1][0] - fVertex[1][0]
fMatrix[1][1] - fVertex[1][1]
fMatrix[1][2] - fVertex[1][2]
fMatrix[2][0] - fVertex[2][0]
fMatrix[2][1] - fVertex[2][1]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[2][2]
fMatrix[3][0] - fVertex[3][0]
fMatrix[3][1] - fVertex[3][1]
fMatrix[3][2] - fVertex[3][2]
16. tree->Draw("fMatrix[2][1] - fVertex[5][1]");
This command selects one value per entry.
17. tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][1] - fVertex[5][1]");
The first dimension of the array is taken by the fMatrix.
fMatrix[0][1] - fVertex[5][1]
fMatrix[1][1] - fVertex[5][1]
fMatrix[2][1] - fVertex[5][1]
fMatrix[3][1] - fVertex[5][1]
18. tree->Draw("("fMatrix[2][ ] - fVertex[5][ ]");
The first dimension minimum is 2, and the second dimension minimum is 3 (from fVertex). Three values are selected
from each entry:
fMatrix[2][0] - fVertex[5][0]
fMatrix[2][1] - fVertex[5][1]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[5][2]
19. tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][2] - fVertex[ ][1]")
This is similar to case 18. Four values are selected from each entry:
fMatrix[0][2] - fVertex[0][1]
fMatrix[1][2] - fVertex[1][1]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[2][1]
fMatrix[3][2] - fVertex[3][1]
20. tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][2] - fVertex[ ][ ]")

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

323

This is similar to case 19. Twelve values are selected (4x3) from each entry:
fMatrix[0][2] - fVertex[0][0]
fMatrix[0][2] - fVertex[0][1]
fMatrix[0][2] - fVertex[0][2]
fMatrix[1][2] - fVertex[1][0]
fMatrix[1][2] - fVertex[1][1]
fMatrix[1][2] - fVertex[1][2]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[2][0]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[2][1]
fMatrix[2][2] - fVertex[2][2]
fMatrix[3][2] - fVertex[3][0]
fMatrix[3][2] - fVertex[3][1]
fMatrix[3][2] - fVertex[3][2]
21. tree->Draw("fMatrix[ ][ ] - fVertex[ ][ ]")
This is the same as case 15. The first dimension minimum is 4 (from fMatrix), and the second dimension minimum is
3 (from fVertex). Twelve values are selected from each entry.
22. tree->Draw("fClosestDistance")
This event data member fClosestDistance is a variable length array:
Float_t *fClosestDistance; //[fNvertex]
This command selects all elements, but the number per entry depends on the number of vertices of that entry.
23. tree->Draw("fClosestDistance[fNvertex/2]")
With this command the element at fNvertex/2 of the fClosestDistancearray is selected. Only one per entry is
selected.
24. tree->Draw("sqrt(fPx*fPx + fPy*fPy + fPz*fPz)")
This command shows the use of a mathematical expression. It draws the square root of the sum of the product.
25. tree->Draw("TMath::BreitWigner(fPx,3,2)")
The formula can contains call to a function that takes numerical arguments and returns a numerical value. The function
needs to be declared to the dictionary and need to be available from the global namespace. In particular, global
functions and public static member functions can be called.
26. tree->Draw("fEvtHdr.fEvtNum","fType=="type1" ")
You can compare strings, using the symbols == and !=, in the first two parameters of the Draw command (TTreeFormula).
In this case, the event number for type1 events is plotted.
27. tree->Draw("fEvtHdr.fEvtNum","strstr(fType,"1") ")
To compare strings, you can also use strstr. In this case, events having a 1 in fType are selected.
28. tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints")

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

If fPoints is a data member of the Track class declared as:

Int_t fNpoint;
Int_t *fPoints; [fNpoint]
The size of the array fPoints varies with each track of each event. This command draws all the value in the fPoints
arrays.
29. tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints - fTracks.fPoints[][fAvgPoints]");
When fAvgPoints is a data member of the Event class, this example selects:
fTracks[0].fPoints[0] - fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[0].fPoints[1] - fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[0].fPoints[2] - fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[0].fPoints[3] - fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[0].fPoints[4] - fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
...
fTracks[0].fPoints[max0]- fTracks[0].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
...
fTracks[1].fPoints[0] - fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[1].fPoints[1] - fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[1].fPoints[2] - fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[1].fPoints[3] - fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[1].fPoints[4] - fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
...
fTracks[1].fPoints[max1]- fTracks[1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
...
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[0] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[1] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[2] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[3] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[4] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
...
fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoints[maxn] - fTracks[fNtrack-1].fPoint[fAvgPoints]
Wheremax0, max1, ...

max n, is the size of thefPointsarray for the respective track.

30. tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints[2][]- fTracks.fPoints[][55]")

For each event, this expression is selected:
fTracks[2].fPoints[0] - fTracks[0].fPoints[55]
fTracks[2].fPoints[1] - fTracks[1].fPoints[55]
fTracks[2].fPoints[2] - fTracks[2].fPoints[55]
fTracks[2].fPoints[3] - fTracks[3].fPoints[55]
...
fTracks[2].fPoints[max] - fTracks[max].fPoints[55]
where max is the minimum of fNtrack and fTracks[2].fNpoint.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

325

31. tree->Draw("fTracks.fPoints[][] - fTracks.fVertex[][]")

For each event and each track, this expression is selected. It is the difference between fPoints and of fVertex. The
number of elements used for each track is the minimum of fNpoint and 3 (the size of the fVertex array).
fTracks[0].fPoints[0] - fTracks[0].fVertex[0]
fTracks[0].fPoints[1] - fTracks[0].fVertex[1]
fTracks[0].fPoints[2] - fTracks[0].fVertex[2]
// with fTracks[1].fNpoint==7
fTracks[1].fPoints[0] - fTracks[1].fVertex[0]
fTracks[1].fPoints[1] - fTracks[1].fVertex[1]
fTracks[1].fPoints[2] - fTracks[1].fVertex[2]
// with fTracks[1].fNpoint==5
fTracks[2].fPoints[0] - fTracks[1].fVertex[0]
fTracks[2].fPoints[1] - fTracks[1].fVertex[1]
// with fTracks[2].fNpoint==2
fTracks[3].fPoints[0] - fTracks[3].fVertex[0]
// with fTracks[3].fNpoint==1
fTracks[4].fPoints[0] - fTracks[4].fVertex[0]
fTracks[4].fPoints[1] - fTracks[4].fVertex[1]
fTracks[4].fPoints[2] - fTracks[4].fVertex[2]
// with fTracks[4].fNpoint==3
32. tree->Draw("fValid&0x1","(fNvertex>10) && (fNseg<=6000)")
You can use bit patterns (&,|,<<) or Boolean operation.
33. tree->Draw("fPx","(fBx>.4) || (fBy<=-.4)");
34. tree->Draw("fPx","fBx*fBx*(fBx>.4) + fBy*fBy*(fBy<=-.4)");
The selection argument is used as a weight. The expression returns a multiplier and in case of a Boolean the multiplier
is either 0 (for false) or 1 (for true). The first command draws fPx for the range between 0.4 and -0.4, the second
command draws fPx for the same range, but adds a weight using the result of the second expression.
35. tree->Draw("fVertex","fVertex>10")
When using arrays in the selection and the expression, the selection is applied to each element of the array.
if (fVertex[0]>10) fVertex[0]
if (fVertex[1]>10) fVertex[1]
if (fVertex[2]>10) fVertex[2]
36. tree->Draw("fPx[600]")
37. tree->Draw("fPx[600]","fNtrack > 600")
When using a specific element for a variable length array the entries with fewer elements are ignored. Thus these two
commands are equivalent.
38. tree->Draw("Nation")
Nation is a char* branch. When drawing a char* it will plot an alphanumeric histogram, of the different value of the
string Nation. The axis will have the Nation values. See Histograms.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

39. tree->Draw("MyChar +0")

If you want to plot a char* variable as a byte rather than a string, you can use the syntax above.
40. tree->Draw("fTracks.fTriggerBits")
fTriggerBits is a data member of TTrack of type TBits. Objects of class TBits can be drawn directly. This command
will create a 1D histogram from 0 to nbits which is filled for each non-null bit-number.
41. tree->Draw("fMatrix-Alt$(fClosestDistance,0)")
Alt$(primary,alternate) returns the value of primary if it is available for the current iteration; otherwise return
the value of alternate. Assuming that fClosestDistance is a smaller array than fMatrix. This example will draw
fMatrix[i]+fClosestDistance[i] for i less than the size of fClosestDistance, and will draw fMatrix[i]+0 for
the other value of i.
42. tree->Draw("fClosestDistance:Iteration$")
This example draws a 2D plot with, for all entries, fClosestDistance[i]:i for each value of i between 0 and the size
of fClosestDistance. Iterations$ is one of four special variables giving some indications of the state of the loops
implied by the formula:
Entry$ : return the current entry number (TTree::GetReadEntry())
Entries$ : return the total number of entries (TTree::GetEntries())
Length$ : return the total number of element of this formula for this entry
Iteration$: return the current iteration over this formula for this entry (i.e. varies from 0 to Length$).
43. T->Draw(fLastTrack.GetPx():fLastTrack.fPx);**
TRef and TRefArray are automatically deferenced and this shows the value of the fPx of the track referenced by
fLastTrack. To access the TRef object itself use the @ notation (see next example). This auto dereferencing can be
extended (via an implementation of TVirtualRefProxy) to any reference type.
44. T->Scan(((Track*)(fLastTrack@.GetObject())).GetPx(),,);**
Will cast the return value of GetObject() (which happens to be TObject* in this case) before requesting the GetPx()
member functions.
45. tree->Draw("This->GetReadEntry()");
You can refer to the tree (or chain) containing the data by using the string This. You can also call any TTree methods.
Next example will display the name of the first user info object:
tree->Draw("This->GetUserInfo()->At(0)->GetName()");
46. tree->Draw("mybr.mystring");
TString and std::string object are plotted directly. The example 45 draws the same results - i.e. an histogram
whose labels are the string value of mystring:
tree->Draw("mybr.mystring.c_str()");
or
tree->Draw("mybr.mytstring.Data()");
47. tree->Draw("myTimeStamp");
You can plot plot objects of any class which has either AsDouble or AsString (AsDouble has priority). For such a
class (for example TTimeStamp), the line 46 will plot the same as:
tree->Draw("myTimeStamp.AsDouble");
AsString can be returning either a char*, or a TString or an std::string.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

12.20.8

327

Multiple variables visualisation

This section presents the visualization technique available in ROOT to represent multiple variables (>4) data sets.

12.20.8.1

Spider (Radar) Plots

Spider plots (sometimes called web-plots or radar plots) are used to compare series of data points (events). They
use the human ability to spot un-symmetry.

Figure 12.9: Example of spider plot.

Variables are represented on individual axes displayed along a circle. For each variable the minimum value sits on the
circles center, and the maximum on the circles radius. Spider plots are not suitable for an accurate graph reading
since, by their nature, it can be difficult to read out very detailed values, but they give quickly a global view of an
event in order to compare it with the others. In ROOT the spider plot facility is accessed from the tree viewer GUI.
The variables to be visualized are selected in the tree viewer and can be scanned using the spider plot button.

Figure 12.10: The tree viewer Graphical User Interface and the Spider Plot Editor.
The spider plot graphics editor provides two tabs to interact with the spider plots output: the tab Style defining the
spider layout and the tab Browse to navigate in the tree.

328

CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.20.8.2

Parallel Coordinates Plots

The Parallel Coordinates Plots are a common way of studying and visualizing multiple variables data sets. They were
proposed by in A.Inselberg in 1981 as a new way to represent multi-dimensional information. In traditional Cartesian
coordinates, axes are mutually perpendicular. In Parallel coordinates, all axes are parallel which allows representing
data in much more than three dimensions. To show a set of points in Parallel Coordinates, a set of parallel lines is
drawn, typically vertical and equally spaced. A point in n-dimensional space is represented as a polyline with vertices
on the parallel axes. The position of the vertex on the i-th axis corresponds to the i-th coordinate of the point. The
three following figures show some very simple examples:

Figure 12.11: The Parallel Coordinates representation of the six dimensional point (-5,3,4,2,0,1).

Figure 12.12: The line y = -3x+20 and a circle in Parallel Coordinates.

The Parallel Coordinates technique is good at: spotting irregular events, seeing the data trend, finding correlations
and clusters. Its main weakness is the cluttering of the output. Because each point in the multidimensional space
is represented as a line, the output is very quickly opaque and therefore it is difficult to see the data clusters. Most
of the work done about Parallel Coordinates is to find techniques to reduce the outputs cluttering. The Parallel
Coordinates plots in ROOT have been implemented as a new plotting option PARA in the TTree::Draw()method.
To demonstrate how the Parallel Coordinates works in ROOT we will use the tree produced by the following pseudo
C++ code:
void parallel_example() {
TNtuple *nt = new TNtuple("nt","Demo ntuple","x:y:z:u:v:w:a:b:c");
for (Int_t i=0; i<3000; i++) {
nt->Fill(
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd, rnd, rnd,
nt->Fill(
s1x,
s1y,
s1z,
s2x,
s2y,
s2z, rnd, rnd,
nt->Fill(
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd, rnd, s3y,
nt->Fill( s2x-1, s2y-1,
s2z, s1x+.5, s1y+.5, s1z+.5, rnd, rnd,

rnd
rnd
rnd
rnd

);
);
);
);

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

nt->Fill(
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
nt->Fill( s1x+1, s1y+1, s1z+1,
nt->Fill(
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
nt->Fill(
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,

rnd,
s3x-2,
rnd,
rnd,

329
rnd,
s3y-2,
rnd,
rnd,

rnd,
s3z-2,
rnd,
rnd,

rnd,
rnd,
s3x,
rnd,

rnd,
rnd,
rnd,
rnd,

rnd
rnd
s3z
rnd

);
);
);
);

The data set generated has:

9 variables: x, y, z, u, v, w, a, b, c.
3000*8 = 24000 events.
3 sets of random points distributed on spheres: s1, s2, s3
Random values (noise): rnd
The variables a,b,c are almost completely random. The variables a and c are correlated via the 1st and 3rd
coordinates of the 3rd sphere s3.

The command used to produce the Parallel Coordinates plot is:

nt->Draw("x:a:y:b:z:u:c:v:w","","PARA");

Figure 12.13: Cluttered output produced when all the tree events are plotted.
If the 24000 events are plotted as solid lines and no special techniques are used to clarify the picture, the result is the
previous picture which is very cluttered and useless. To improve the readability of the Parallel Coordinates output and
to explore interactively the data set, many techniques are available. We have implemented a few in ROOT. First of all,
in order to show better where the clusters on the various axes are, a 1D histogram is associated to each axis. These
histograms (one per axis) are filled according to the number of lines passing through the bins.
These histograms can be represented which colors (get from a palette according to the bin contents) or as bar charts.
Both representations can be cumulated on the same plot. This technique allows seeing clearly where the clusters are on
an individual axis but it does not give any hints about the correlations between the axes.
Avery simple technique allows to make the clusters appearing: Instead of painting solid lines we paint dotted lines. The
cluttering of each individual line is reduced and the clusters show clearly as we can see on the next figure. The spacing
between the dots is a parameter which can be adjusted in order to get the best results.
Interactivity is a very important aspect of the Parallel Coordinates plots. To really explore the data set it is essential
to act directly with the events and the axes. For instance, changing the axes order may show clusters which were not
visible in a different order. On the next figure the axes order has been changed interactively. We can see that many
more clusters appear and all the random spheres we put in the data set are now clearly visible. Having moved the
variables u,v,w after the variables x,y,z the correlation between these two sets of variables is clear also.
To pursue further data sets exploration we have implemented the possibility to define selections interactively. A
selection is a set of ranges combined together. Within a selection, ranges along the same axis are combined with logical
OR, and ranges on different axes with logical AND. A selection is displayed on top of the complete data set using its
own color. Only the events fulfilling the selection criteria (ranges) are displayed. Ranges are defined interactively using

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

Figure 12.14: The histograms axis can be represented with colors or as bar charts.

Figure 12.15: Using dotted lines is a very simple method to reduce the cluttering.

Figure 12.16: Axis order is very important to show clusters.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

331

Figure 12.17: Selections are set of ranges which can be defined interactively.
cursors, like on the first axis on the figure. Several selections can be defined at the same time, each selection having its
own color.
Several selections can been defined. Each cluster is now clearly visible and the zone with crossing clusters is now
understandable whereas, without any selection or with only a single one, it was not easy to understand.

Figure 12.18: Several selections can be defined each of them having its own color.
Interactive selections on Parallel Coordinates are a powerful tool because they can be defined graphically on many
variables (graphical cuts in ROOT can be defined on two variables only) which allow a very accurate events filtering.
Selections allow making precise events choices: a single outlying event is clearly visible when the lines are displayed as
solid therefore it is easy to make cuts in order to eliminate one single event from a selection. Such selection (to filter
one single event) on a scatter plot would be much more difficult.
Once a selection has been defined, it is possible to use it to generate a TEntryList which is applied on the tree and
used at drawing time. In our example the selection we defined allows to select exactly the two correlated random
spheres.
Another technique has been implemented in order to show clusters when the picture is cluttered. A weight is assigned
to each event. The weight value is computed as:
weight =

n
X

bi

i=1

Where:
bi is the content of bin crossed by the event on the i-th axis.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

Figure 12.19: Selections allow to easily filter one single event.

Figure 12.20: Output of nt->Draw(x:y:z) and nt->Draw(u:v:w) after applying the selection.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

333

n is the number of axis.

The events having the bigger weights are those belonging to clusters. It is possible to paint only the events having a
weight above a given value and the clusters appear. The next example weight cut applied on the right plot is 50.
Only the events with a weight greater than 50 are displayed.

Figure 12.21: Applying a weight cut makes the clusters visible.

In case only a few events are displayed, drawing them as smooth curves instead of straight lines helps to differentiate
them.

Figure 12.22: Zoom on a Parallel Coordinates plot detail: curves differentiate better events.
Interactivity and therefore the Graphical User Interface are very important to manipulate the Parallel Coordinates
plots. The ROOT framework allows to easily implement the direct interactions on the graphical area and the graphical
editor facility provides dedicated GUI.
Tranparency is very useful with parallel coordinates plots. It alows to show cleraly the clusters.
12.20.8.3

Box (Candle) Plots

A Box Plot (also known as a box-and whisker plot or candle stick plot) is a convenient way to describe graphically
a data distribution (D) with only the five numbers. It was invented in 1977 by John Tukey. The five numbers are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The
The
The
The
The

minimum value of the distribution D (Min).

lower quartile (Q1): 25% of the data points in D are less than Q1.
median (M): 50% of the data points in D are less than M.
upper quartile (Q3): 75% of the data points in D are less than Q3.
maximum value of the distribution D (Max).

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

Figure 12.23: Parallel Coordinates graphical editors.

Figure 12.24: Parallel Coordinates with transparency.

Figure 12.25: A box plot describes a distribution with only five numbers.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

335

In ROOT Box Plots (Candle Plots) can be produced from a TTree using the candle option in TTree::Draw().
tree->Draw(px:cos(py):sin(pz),,candle);

12.20.9

Using TTree::Scan

TTree::Scan can be used to print the content of the trees entries optional passing a selection.
root[] MyTree->Scan();
will print the first 8 variables of the tree.
root[] MyTree->Scan("*");
will print all the variable of the tree.
Specific variables of the tree can be explicit selected by list them in column separated list:
root[] MyTree->Scan("var1:var2:var3");
will print the values of var1, var2 and var3. A selection can be applied in the second argument:
root[] MyTree->Scan("var1:var2:var3","var1==0");
will print the values of var1, var2 and var3 for the entries where var1 is exactly 0.
TTree::Scan returns the number of entries passing the selection. By default 50 rows are shown before TTree::Scan
pauses and ask you to press the Enter key to see the next 50 rows. You can change the default number of rows to be
shown before <CR> via mytree->SetScanfield(maxrows) where maxrows is 50 by default. If maxrows is set to 0 all
rows of the Tree are shown. This option is interesting when dumping the contents of a Tree to an ascii file, eg from the
command line:
root[] tree->SetScanField(0);
root[] tree->Scan("*"); >tree.log
will create a file tree.log.
Arrays (within an entry) are printed in their linear forms. If several arrays with multiple dimensions are printed
together, they will NOT be synchronized. For example, with a tree containing arr1[4][2]and arr2[2][3],
root[] MyTree("arr1:arr2");
will results in a printing similar to:
************************************************
*
Row
* Instance *
arr1 *
arr2 *
***********************************************
*
x *
0 * arr1[0][0]* arr2[0][0]*
*
x *
1 * arr1[0][1]* arr2[0][1]*
*
x *
2 * arr1[1][0]* arr2[0][2]*
*
x *
3 * arr1[1][1]* arr2[1][0]*
*
x *
4 * arr1[2][0]* arr2[1][1]*
*
x *
5 * arr1[2][1]* arr2[1][2]*
*
x *
6 * arr1[3][0]*
*
*
x *
7 * arr1[3][1]*
*
However, if there is a selection criterium which is an array, then all the formulas will be synchronized with the selection
criterium (see TTree::Draw for more information).
The third parameter of TTree::Scan can be use to specific the layout of the table:

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

lenmax=dd - where dd is the maximum number of elements per array that should be printed. If dd is 0, all
elements are printed (this is the default).
colsize=ss - where ss will be used as the default size for all the column. If this options is not specified, the
default column size is 9.
precision=pp - where pp will be used as the default precision for the printing format.
col=xxx - where xxx is colon (:) delimited list of printing format for each column if no format is specified for a
column, the default is used.
For example:
tree->Scan("a:b:c","","colsize=30 precision=3 col=::20.10");
will print 3 columns, the first 2 columns will be 30 characters long, the third columns will be 20 characters long. The
printf format for the columns (assuming they are numbers) will be respectively: %30.3g %30.3g %20.10g.

12.20.10

TEventList and TEntryList

The TTree::Drawmethod can also be used to build a list of the entries. When the first argument is preceded by ">>"
ROOT knows that this command is not intended to draw anything, but to save the entries in a list with the name
given by the first argument. As a result, a TEventList or a TEntryList object is created in the current directory. For
example, to create a TEventList of all entries with more than 600 tracks, do:
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("Event.root");
root[] T->Draw(">> myList","fNtrack > 600");
To create a TEntryList, use the option entrylist.
root[] T->Draw(">>myList", "fNtrack>600", "entrylist");
This list contains the entry number of all entries with more than 600 tracks. To see the entry numbers use the
Print("all") command.
root[] myList->Print("all");
When using the >> whatever was in the list is overwritten. The list can be grown by using the >>+ syntax. For
example to add the entries, with exactly 600 tracks:
root[] T->Draw(">>+ myList","fNtrack == 600", "entrylist");
If the Draw command generates duplicate entries, they are not added to the list.
root[] T->Draw(">>+ myList"," fNtrack > 610", "entrylist");
This command does not add any new entries to the list because all entries with more than 610 tracks have already
been found by the previous command for entries with more than 600 tracks.
12.20.10.1

Main Differences between TEventList and TEntryList

The functionality is essentialy the same: both are used to store entry numbers. TEntryList, however, uses considerably
less memory for storage, and is optimized for both very high and very low selectivity of cuts (see TEntryListBlock
class description for the details of internal storage). Unlike the TEventList, TEntryList makes a distinction between
indices from a TChain and from a TTree. While a TEntryList for a TTree can be seen as just a list of numbers, a
TEntryList for a TChain is a collection of TEntryList(s) for the TTree(s) that constitute this TChain. Such sub-lists
can be extracted by calling the function
TEntryList::GetEntryList(const char *treename, const char *filename)
and then be used to construct a new TEntryList for a new TChain, or processed independently as normal TEntryList(s)
for TTree(s). This modularity makes TEntryList much better suited for PROOF processing than the TEventList.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

12.20.10.2

337

Using an Event List

A TEventList or a TEntryList can be used to limit the TTree to the events in the list. The methods SetEventList
and SetEntryList tell the tree to use the list and hence limit all subsequent calls to Draw, Scan, Process, Query,
Principal and CopyTree methods to the entries in the list. In general, it affects the GetEntryNumber method and all
functions using it for looping over the tree entries. The GetEntry and GetEntries methods are not affected. Note,
that in the SetEventList method, the TEventList argument is internally transformed into a TEntryList, and this
operation, in case of a TChain, requires loading of all the tree headers. In this example, we create a list with all entries
with more than 600 tracks and then set it so that the tree will use this list. To reset the TTree to use all events use
SetEventList(0) or SetEntryList(0).
1. Lets look at an example. First, open the file and draw the fNtrack.
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("Event.root");
root[] TTree *T = (TTree*)f->Get("T");
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack");
2. Now, put the entries with over 600 tracks into a TEntryList called myList. We get the list from the current
directory and assign it to a variable list.
root[] T->Draw(">>myList","fNtrack > 600","entrylist");
root[] TEntryList *list=(TEntryList*)gDirectory->Get("myList");
3. Instruct the tree T to use the new list and draw it again. Note that this is exactly the same Draw command. The
list limits the entries.
root[] T->SetEntryList(list);
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack");
You should now see a canvas similar to this one.

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

12.20.10.3

Operations on TEntryLists

If you have entry lists that were created using different cuts, you can combine the lists to get a new list, with entries
passing at least one of the cuts. Example:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

T->Draw(">>list1","fNtrack>600","entrylist");
TEntryList *list1 = (TEntryList*)gDirectory->Get("list1");
T->Draw(">>list2","fNtrack<590","entrylist");
TEntryList *list2 = (TEntryList*)gDirectory->Get("list2");
list1->Add(list2);

list1 now contains entries with more than 600 or less than 590 tracks. Check this by calling:
root[] T->SetEntryList(list1);
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack");
You can also subtract TEntryList from each other, so that the first list contains only the entries, passing the selection
of the first list and not present in the second list.
To add some individual entries, use TEntryList::Enter() function. To remove the entries you dont like, use
TEntryList::Remove(). To see if the entry is in the list, use TEntryList::Contains(). Remember, that all operation
in a TEntryList for a TChain are on the TTree level. This is illustrated by the following example:
root[] TEntryList *list1 = new TEntryList("list1","list1");
root[] list1->SetTree("tree1","file1")
root[] list1->Enter(0);
root[] list1->Enter(2);
root[] TEntryList *list2 = new TEntryList("list2", "list2");
root[] list2->SetTree("tree2", "file2");
root[] list2->Enter(0);
root[] list2->Enter(3);
root[] list1->Add(list2);
root[] list1->Print("all")
tree1 file1
0
2
tree2 file2
0
3
The result is a TEntryList for a TChain of tree1 and tree2. If the second list was for the same TTree in the same
file as the first list, the result would be as follows:
root[] TEntryList *list2_2 = new TEntryList("list2_2", "list2_2");
root[] list2_2->SetTree("tree2", "file2");
root[] list2_2->Enter(1);
root[] list2_2->Enter(2);
root[] list2->Add(list2_2);
root[] list2->Print("all")
tree2 file2
0
1
2
3
12.20.10.4

TEntryListFromFile

This is a special kind of TEntryList, used only when processing TChain objects (see the method TChain::SetEntryListFile()).
It is used in the case, when the entry lists, corresponding to the trees of this chain, are stored in separate files. It
allows to load the entry lists in memory one by one, keeping only the list for the currently processed tree loaded.
For more details on entry lists, see TEntryList, TEntryListBlock and TEntryListFromFile class descriptions, functions TChain::SetEntryList(), TChain::SetEntryListFile(), and the macro $ROOTSYS/test/stressEntryList.C.

12.20. SIMPLE ANALYSIS USING TTREE::DRAW

12.20.11

339

Filling a Histogram

The TTree::Draw method can also be used to fill a specific histogram. The syntax is:
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("Event.root")
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack >> myHisto")
root[] myHisto->Print()
TH1.Print Name= myHisto, Entries= 100, Total sum= 100
As we can see, this created a TH1, called myHisto. If you want to append more entries to the histogram, you can use
this syntax:
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack >>+ myHisto")
If you do not create a histogram ahead of time, ROOT will create one at the time of the Draw command (as is the case
above). If you would like to draw the variable into a specific histogram where you, for example, set the range and bin
number, you can define the histogram ahead of time and use it in the Draw command. The histogram has to be in the
same directory as the tree.
root[] TH1 *h1 = new TH1("h1","h1",50,0.,150.);
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack>> h1");
When you project a TTree into a histogram, the histogram inherits the TTree attributes and not the current style
attributes. This allows you to project two Trees with different attributes into the same picture. You can call the
method TTree::UseCurrentStyle to change the histogram to use the current style gStyle . See Graphics and the
Graphical User Interface.
The binning of the newly created histogram can be specified in two ways. You can set a default in the .rootrc and/or
you can add the binning information in the TTree::Draw command.
To set number of bins default for the 1-D, 2-D, 3-D histograms can be specified in the .rootrc file via the environment
variables, e.g.:
# default binnings

Hist.Binning.1D.x: 100

Hist.Binning.2D.x: 40
Hist.Binning.2D.y: 40
Hist.Binning.2D.Prof: 100
Hist.Binning.3D.x: 20
Hist.Binning.3D.y: 20
Hist.Binning.3D.z: 20
Hist.Binning.3D.Profx: 100
Hist.Binning.3D.Profy: 100
To set the number of bins for a specific histogram when using TTree::Draw, add up to nine numbers following the
histogram name. The numbers meaning is:
1 bins in x-direction
2 lower limit in x-direction
3upper limit in x-direction
4-6 same for y-direction
7-9 same for z-direction
When a bin number is specified, the value becomes the default. Any of the numbers can be skipped. For example:
tree.Draw("sqrt(x)>>hsqrt(500,10,20)";
// plot sqrt(x) between 10 and 20 using 500 bins
tree.Draw("sqrt(x):sin(y)>>hsqrt(100,10,,50,.1,.5)";
// plot sqrt(x) against sin(y) 100 bins in x-direction;
// lower limit on x-axis is 10; no upper limit
// 50 bins in y-direction; lower limit on y-axis is .1;
// upper limit is .5

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CHAPTER 12. TREES

When the name is followed by binning information, appending the histogram with a +, will not reset hsqrt, but will
continue to fill it.
tree.Draw("sqrt(x)>>+hsqrt","y>0");
This works for 1-D, 2-D and 3-D histograms.
12.20.11.1

Projecting a Histogram

If you would like to fill a histogram, but not draw it you can use the TTree::Project() method.
root[] T->Project("quietHisto","fNtrack")
12.20.11.2

Making a Profile Histogram

In case of a two dimensional expression, you can generate a TProfile histogram instead of a two dimensional histogram
by specifying the prof or profs option. The prof option is automatically selected when the output is redirected
into a TProfile. For example y:x>>pf where pfis an existing TProfile histogram.
12.20.11.3

Tree Information

Once we have drawn a tree, we can get information about the tree. These are the methods used to get information
from a drawn tree TTree:
GetSelectedRows: Returns the number of entries accepted by the selection expression. In case where no selection
was specified, it returns the number of entries processed.
GetV1: Returns a pointer to the float array of the first variable.
GetV2: Returns a pointer to the float array of second variable
GetV3: Returns a pointer to the float array of third variable.
GetW: Returns a pointer to the float array of Weights where the weight equals the result of the selection expression.
To read the drawn values of fNtrack into an array, and loop through the entries follow the lines below. First, open the
file and draw the fNtrack variable:
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("Event.root")
root[] T->Draw("fNtrack")
Then declare a pointer to a float and use the GetV1 method to retrieve the first dimension of the tree. In this example
we only drew one dimension (fNtrack) if we had drawn two, we could use GetV2 to get the second one.
root[] Float_t *a
root[] a = T->GetV1()
Loop through the first 10 entries and print the values of fNtrack:
root[] for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
root[] cout << a[i] << " " << endl
// need an endl to see the values
594 597 606 595 604 610 604 602 603 596
By default, TTree::Draw creates these arrays with fEstimate words where fEstimate can be set via
TTree::SetEstimate. If you have more entries than fEstimate only the first fEstimate selected entries
will be stored in the arrays. The arrays are used as buffers. When fEstimate entries have been processed, ROOT
scans the buffers to compute the minimum and maximum of each coordinate and creates the corresponding histograms.
You can use these lines to read all entries into these arrays:
root[] Int_t nestimate = (Int_t)T->GetEntries();
root[] T->SetEstimate(nestimate);
Obviously, this will not work if the number of entries is very large. This technique is useful in several cases, for example
if you want to draw a graph connecting all the x, y(or z) points. Note that you may have a tree (or chain) with 1
billion entries, but only a few may survive the cuts and will fit without problems in these arrays.

12.21. USING TTREE::MAKECLASS

12.21

341

Using TTree::MakeClass

The TTree::Draw method is convenient and easy to use; however it falls short if you need to do some programming
with the variable.
For example, for plotting the masses of all oppositely changed pairs of tracks, you would need to write a program that
loops over all events, finds all pairs of tracks, and calculates the required quantities. We have shown how to retrieve
the data arrays from the branches of the tree in the previous section, and you could just write that program from
scratch. Since this is a very common task, ROOT provides a utility that generates a skeleton class designed to loop
over the entries of the tree.
This is the TTree::MakeClass method. We will now go through the steps of using MakeClass with a simplified example.
The methods used here obviously work for complex event loop calculations.
These are our assumptions: we would like to do selective plotting and loop through each entry of the tree and tracks.
We chose a simple example: we want to plot fPx of the first 100 tracks of each entry. We have a ROOT tree with a
branch for each data member in the Event object. To build this file and tree follow the instructions on how to build
the examples in $ROOTSYS/test. Execute Event and instruct it to split the object with this command (from the UNIX
command line).
> $ROOTSYS/test/Event 400 1 2 1
This creates an Event.root file with 400 events, compressed, split, and filled.
See $ROOTSYS/test/MainEvent.cxx for more info.
The person who designed the tree makes a shared library available to you, which defines the classes needed. In this case,
the classes are Event, EventHeader, and Track and they are defined in the shared library libEvent.so. The designer
also gives you the Event.h file to see the definition of the classes. You can locate Event.h in $ROOTSYS/test, and if
you have not yet built libEvent.so, please see the instructions of how to build it (typing make in $ROOTSYS/test is
enough). If you have already built it, you can now use it again.

12.21.1

Creating a Class with MakeClass

First, we load the shared library and open Event.root.

root[] .L libEvent.so
root[] TFile *f = new TFile("Event.root");
root[] f->ls();
TFile**
Event.root
TTree benchmark ROOT file
TFile*
Event.root
TTree benchmark ROOT file
KEY: TH1F
htime;1 Real-Time to write versus time
KEY: TTree
T;1
An example of a ROOT tree
We can see there is a tree T, and just to verify that we are working with the correct one, we print the tree, which will
show us the header and branches.
root[] T->Print();
From the output of print we can see that the tree has one branch for each data member of Event, Track, and
EventHeader. Now we can use TTree::MakeClass on our tree T. MakeClass takes one parameter, a string containing
the name of the class to be made. In the command below, the name of our class will be MyClass.
root[] T->MakeClass("MyClass")
Files: MyClass.h and MyClass.C generated from Tree: T
CINT informs us that it has created two files. MyClass.h contains the class definition and MyClass.C contains the
MyClass::Loop() method. MyClass has more methods than just Loop(). The other methods are a constructor, a
destructor, GetEntry(), LoadTree(), Notify(), Cut() and Show(). The implementations of these methods are in the
.h file. This division of methods was done intentionally. The .C file is kept as short as possible, and contains only
code that is intended for you to customize. The .h file contains all the other methods. It is clear that you want to be
as independent as possible of the header file (i.e. MyClass.h) generated by MakeClass. The solution is to implement
a derived class, for example MyRealClass deriving from MyClass such that a change in your Treeor regeneration of
MyClass.h does not force you to change MyRealClass.h. You can imagine deriving several classes from MyClass.h,
each with a specific algorithm. To understand both files, lets start with MyClass.h and the class declaration:

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12.21.2

CHAPTER 12. TREES

MyClass.h

class MyClass {
public :
// Pointer to the analyzed TTree or TChain
TTree
*fChain;
// Current Tree number in a TChain
Int_t
fCurrent;
// Declaration of leaves types
UInt_t
fUniqueID;
UInt_t
fBits;
Char_t
fType[20];
Int_t
fNtrack;
Int_t
fNseg;
Int_t
fNvertex;
UInt_t
fFlag;
Float_t
fTemperature;
Int_t
fEvtHdr_fEvtNum;
// List of branches
TBranch
*b_fUniqueID;
TBranch
*b_fBits;
TBranch
*b_fType;
TBranch
*b_fNtrack;
TBranch
*b_fNseg;
TBranch
*b_fNvertex;
TBranch
*b_fFlag;
TBranch
*b_fTemperature;
TBranch
*b_fEvtHdr_fEvtNum;
...
MyClass(TTree *tree=0);
~MyClass();
Int_t Cut(Int_t entry);
Int_t GetEntry(Int_t entry);
Int_t LoadTree(Int_t entry);
void
Init(TTree *tree);
void
Loop();
Bool_t Notify();
void
Show(Int_t entry = -1);
};
We can see data members in the generated class. The first data member is fChain. Once this class is instantiated,
fChain will point to the original tree or chain this class was made from. In our case, this is T in Event.root. If
the class is instantiated with a tree as a parameter to the constructor, fChain will point to the tree named in the
parameter. Next is fCurrent, which is also a pointer to the current tree/chain. Its role is only relevant when we have
multiple trees chained together in a TChain. The class definition shows us that this tree has one branch and one leaf
per data member. The methods of MyClass are:
MyClass(TTree *tree=0) - this constructor has an optional tree for a parameter. If you pass a tree, MyClass
will use it rather than the tree from which it was created.
void Init(TTree *tree) - it is called by the constructor to initialize the tree for reading. It associates each
branch with the corresponding leaf data member.
~MyClass() -the destructor, nothing special.
Int_t GetEntry(Int_t entry) - it loads the class with the entry specified. Once you have executed GetEntry,
the leaf data members in MyClass are set to the values of the entry. For example, GetEntry(12) loads the 13th
event into the event data member of MyClass (note that the first entry is 0). GetEntry returns the number of
bytes read from the file. In case the same entry is read twice, ROOT does not have to do any I/O. In this case
GetEntry returns 1. It does not return 0, because many people assume a return of 0 means an error has occurred
while reading.
Int_t LoadTree(Int_t entry) and void Notify() - these two methods are related to chains. LoadTree will
load the tree containing the specified entry from a chain of trees. Notify is called by LoadTree to adjust the
branch addresses.

12.21. USING TTREE::MAKECLASS

343

void Loop() - it is the skeleton method that loops through each entry of the tree. This is interesting to us,
because we will need to customize it for our analysis.

12.21.3

MyClass.C

MyClass::Loop consists of a for-loop calling GetEntry for each entry. In the template, the numbers of bytes are added
up, but it does nothing else. If we were to execute it now, there would be no output.
void MyClass::Loop() {
if (fChain == 0) return;

Int_t nentries = Int_t(fChain->GetEntries());

Int_t nbytes = 0, nb = 0;
for (Int_t jentry=0; jentry<nentries;jentry++) {
Int_t ientry = LoadTree(jentry);
// in case of a TChain
, ientry is the entry number in the
// current file
nb = fChain->GetEntry(jentry);
nbytes += nb;
// if (Cut(ientry) < 0) continue;
}

At the beginning of the file are instructions about reading selected branches. They are not reprinted here, but please
read them from your own file

12.21.4

Modifying MyClass::Loop

Let us continue with the goal of going through the first 100 tracks of each entry and plot Px. To do this we change the
Loop method.
...
if (fChain == 0)
Int_t nentries =
TH1F *myHisto =
TH1F *smallHisto
...

return;
Int_t(fChain->GetEntries());
new TH1F("myHisto","fPx", 100, -5,5);
= new TH1F("small","fPx", 100, -5,5);

In the for-loop, we need to add another for-loop to go over all the tracks. In the outer for-loop, we get the entry
and the number of tracks. In the inner for-loop, we fill the large histogram (myHisto) with all tracks and the small
histogram (smallHisto) with the track if it is in the first 100.
...
for (Int_t jentry=0; jentry<nentries;jentry++) {
GetEntry(jentry);
for (Int_t j = 0; j < 100; j++) {
myHisto->Fill(fTracks_fPx[j]);
if (j < 100) {
smallHisto->Fill(fTracks_fPx[j]);
}
}
}
...
Outside of the for-loop, we draw both histograms on the same canvas.
...
myHisto->Draw();
smallHisto->Draw("Same");
...
Save these changes to MyClass.C and start a fresh root session. We will now load MyClass and experiment with its
methods.

344

12.21.5

CHAPTER 12. TREES

Loading MyClass

The first step is to load the library and the class file. Then we can instantiate a MyClass object.
root[] .L libEvent.so
root[] .L MyClass.C
root[] MyClass m
Now we can get a specific entry and populate the event leaf. In the code snipped below, we get entry 0, and print the
number of tracks (594). Then we get entry 1 and print the number of tracks (597).
root[] m.GetEntry(0)
(int)57503
root[] m.fNtrack()
(Int_t)594
root[] m.GetEntry(1)
(int)48045
root[] m.fNtrack()
(Int_t)597
Now we can call the Loop method, which will build and display the two histograms.
root[] m.Loop()
You should now see a canvas that looks like this.

To conclude the discussion on MakeClass let us lists the steps that got us here.
Call TTree::MakeClass, which automatically creates a class to loop over the tree.
Modify the MyClass::Loop() method in MyClass.C to fit your task.
Load and instantiate MyClass, and run MyClass::Loop().

12.22. USING TTREE::MAKESELECTOR

12.22

345

Using TTree::MakeSelector

With a TTree we can make a selector and use it to process a limited set of entries. This is especially important in a
parallel processing configuration where the analysis is distributed over several processors and we can specify which
entries to send to each processor. The TTree::Process method is used to specify the selector and the entries. Before
we can use TTree::Process we need to make a selector. We can call the TTree::MakeSelector method. It creates
two files similar to TTree::MakeClass.
In the resulting files is a class that is a descendent of TSelector and implements the following methods:
TSelector::Begin() - this method is called every time a loop over the tree starts. This is a convenient place to
create your histograms.
TSelector::Notify() - it is called at the first entry of a new tree in a chain.
TSelector::Process() - it is called to process an event. It is the users responsibility to read the corresponding
entry in memory (may be just a partial read). Once the entry is in memory one can apply a selection and if
the event is selected histograms can be filled. Processing stops when this function returns kFALSE. It combines
the methods TSelector::ProcessCut() and TSelector::ProcessFill() in one, avoiding the necessity to
maintain the state in the class to communicate between these two functions. It reduces the information that
needs to be shared between them and promotes a more granular data access by reading branches as they are
needed.
TSelector::Terminate() - it is called at the end of a loop on a TTree. This is a convenient place to draw and
fit your histograms.
TSelector::Version() - this function provides backward compatibility for old versions and support for the
future upgrades.
The TSelector, unlike the resulting class from MakeClass, separates the processing into a ProcessCut() and
ProcessFill(), so we can limit reading of branches to the ones we need.
When a selector is used with a TChain in methods Process(), ProcessFill(), ProcessCut(), you must use
the pointer to the current TTree to call the method GetEntry(entry). The parameter entry is always the local
entry number in the current tree. Assuming that fChain is the pointer to the TChain being processed, use
fChain->GetTree()->GetEntry(entry);
To create a selector call:
root[] T->MakeSelector("MySelector");
Where T is the TTree and MySelector is the name of created class and the name of the .h and .C files. The resulting
TSelector is the argument to TTree::Process. The argument can be the file name or a pointer to the selector object.
root[] T->Process("MySelector.C","",1000,100);
This call will interpret the class defined in MySelector.C and process 1000 entries beginning with entry 100. The file
name can be appended with a + or a ++ to use ACLiC.
root[] T->Process("MySelector.C++","",1000,100);
When appending a ++, the class will be compiled and dynamically loaded.
root[] T->Process("MySelector.C+","",1000,100);
When appending a +, the class will also be compiled and dynamically loaded. When it is called again, it recompiles
only if the macro (MySelector.C) has changed since it was compiled last. If not, it loads the existing library. The next
example shows how to create a selector with a pointer:
MySelector *selector = (MySelector *)TSelector::GetSelector("MySelector.C+");
T->Process(selector);

346

CHAPTER 12. TREES

Using this form, you can do things like:

selector->public_attribute1 = init_value;
for (int i=0; i<limit; i++) {
T->Process(selector);
selector->public_attribute1 =
function(selector->public_attribute2);
}
TTree::Process() is aware of PROOF, ROOT parallel processing facility. If PROOF is setup, it divides the processing
amongst the slave CPUs.

12.22.1

Performance Benchmarks

The program $ROOTSYS/test/bench.cxx compares the I/O performance of STL vectors to the ROOT native
TClonesArrays collection class. It creates trees with and without compression for the following cases: vector<THit>,
vector<THit*>, TClonesArray(TObjHit) not split TClonesArray(TObjHit) split.
The next graphs show the two columns on the right which represent the split and non-split TClonesArray, are
significantly lower than the vectors. The most significant difference is in reading a file without compression.
The file size with compression, write times with and without compression and the read times with and without
compression all favor the TClonesArray.

12.23

Impact of Compression on I/O

This benchmark illustrates the pros and cons of the compression option. We recommend using compression when the
time spent in I/O is small compared to the total processing time. In this case, if the I/O operation is increased by a
factor of 5 it is still a small percentage of the total time and it may very well save a factor of 10 on disk space. On the
other hand if the time spend on I/O is large, compression may slow down the programs performance. The standard
test program $ROOTSYS/test/Event was used in various configurations with 400 events. The data file contains a TTree.
The program was invoked with:
Event 400 comp split

comp = 0 means: no compression at all.

comp = 1 means: compress everything if split = 0.
comp = 1 means: compress only the tree branches with integers if split = 1.
comp = 2 means: compress everything if split=1.
split = 0 : the full event is serialized into one single buffer.
split = 1 : the event is split into branches. One branch for each data member of the Event class. The list of
tracks (a TClonesArray) has the data members of the Track class also split into individual buffers.

These tests were run on Pentium III CPU with 650 MHz.
Event
Parameters

File Size

Total Time to
Write (MB/sec)

Effective Time to
Write (MB/sec)

Total Time to
Read All (MB/sec)

Comp = 0
Split = 1
Comp = 1
Split = 1
Comp = 2
Split = 1

19.75 MB

6.84 s.(2.8 MB/s)

3.56 s.(5.4 MB/s)

0.79s.(24.2 MB/s)

Total Time to
Read Sample
(MB/sec)
0.79 s.(24.2 MB/s)

17.73 MB

6.44 s.(3.0 MB/s)

4.02 s.(4.8 MB/s)

0.90 s.(21.3 MB/s)

0.90 s.(21.3 MB/s)

13.78 MB

11.34s.(1.7 MB/s)

9.51 s.(2.0 MB/s)

2.17 s.(8.8 MB/s)

2.17 s.(8.8 MB/s)

The Total Time is the real time in seconds to run the program. Effective time is the real time minus the time spent
in non I/O operations (essentially the random number generator). The program Event generates in average 600 tracks
per event. Each track has 17 data members. The read benchmark runs in the interactive version of ROOT. The Total
Time to Read All is the real time reported by the execution of the script &ROOTSYS/test/eventa.

12.24. CHAINS

347

We did not correct this time for the overhead coming from the interpreter itself. The Total time to read sample is
the execution time of the script $ROOTSYS/test/eventb. This script loops on all events. For each event, the branch
containing the number of tracks is read. In case the number of tracks is less than 585, the full event is read in memory.
This test is obviously not possible in non-split mode. In non-split mode, the full event must be read in memory. The
times reported in the table correspond to complete I/O operations necessary to deal with machine independent
binary files. On Linux, this also includes byte-swapping operations. The ROOT file allows for direct access to any
event in the file and direct access to any part of an event when split=1.
Note also that the uncompressed file generated with split=0 is 48.7 Mbytes and only 47.17 Mbytes for the option
split=1. The difference in size is due to the object identification mechanism overhead when the event is written to a
single buffer. This overhead does not exist in split mode because the branch buffers are optimized for homogeneous
data types. You can run the test programs on your architecture. The program Event will report the write performance.
You can measure the read performance by executing the scripts eventa and eventb. The performance depends not
only of the processor type, but also of the disk devices (local, NFS, AFS, etc.).

12.24

Chains

A TChain object is a list of ROOT files containing the same tree. As an example, assume we have three files called
file1.root, file2.root, file3.root. Each file contains one tree called T. We can create a chain with the
following statements:
TChain chain("T");
// name of the tree is the argument
chain.Add("file1.root");
chain.Add("file2.root");
chain.Add("file3.root");
The name of the TChain will be the same as the name of the tree; in this case it will be "T". Note that twoobjects
can have the same name as long as they are not histograms in the same directory, because there, the histogram names
are used to build a hash table. The class TChain is derived from the class TTree. For example, to generate a histogram
corresponding to the attribute x in tree T by processing sequentially the three files of this chain, we can use the
TChain::Draw method.
chain.Draw("x");
When using a TChain, the branch address(es) must be set with:
chain.SetBranchAdress(branchname,...)

// use this for TChain

rather than:
branch->SetAddress(...);

// this will not work

The second form returns the pointer to the branch of the current TTree in the chain, typically the first one. The
information is lost when the next TTree is loaded. The following statements illustrate how to set the address of the
object to be read and how to loop on all events of all files of the chain.
{

TChain chain("T"); // create the chain with tree "T"

chain.Add("file1.root"); // add the files
chain.Add("file2.root");
chain.Add("file3.root");
TH1F *hnseg = new TH1F("hnseg",
"Number of segments for selected tracks",
5000,0,5000);
// create an object before setting the branch address
Event *event = new Event();
// Specify the address where to read the event object
chain.SetBranchAddress("event", &event);
// Start main loop on all events In case you want to read only a few

348

CHAPTER 12. TREES

// branches, use TChain::SetBranchStatus to activate a branch.
Int_t nevent = chain.GetEntries();
for (Int_t i=0;i<nevent;i++) {
// read complete accepted event in memory
chain.GetEvent(i);
// Fill histogram with number of segments
hnseg->Fill(event->GetNseg());
}
// Draw the histogram
hnseg->Draw();

12.24.1

TChain::AddFriend

ATChain has a list of friends similar to a tree (see TTree::AddFriend). You can add a friend to a chain with the
TChain::AddFriend method. With TChain::GetListOfFriends you can retrieve the list of friends. The next example
has four chains each has 20 ROOT trees from 20 ROOT files.
TChain
TChain
TChain
TChain

ch("t");
ch1("t1");
ch2("t2");
ch3("t3");

// a chain with 20 trees from 20 files

Now we can add the friends to the first chain.

ch.AddFriend("t1");
ch.AddFriend("t2");
ch.AddFriend("t3");
The parameter is the name of friend chain (the name of a chain is always the name of the tree from which it was
created). The original chain has access to all variables in its friends. We can use the TChain::Draw method as if the
values in the friends were in the original chain. To specify the chain to use in the Draw method, use:
<chainname>.<branchname>.<varname>
If the variable name is enough to identify uniquely the variable, you can leave out the chain and/or branch name. For
example, this generates a 3-d scatter plot of variable var in the TChain ch versus variable v1 inTChain t1 versus
variable v2 in TChaint2.
ch.Draw("var:t1.v1:t2.v2");
When a TChain::Draw is executed, an automatic call to TTree::AddFriendconnects the trees in the chain. When a
chain is deleted, its friend elements are also deleted.

The number of entries in the friend must be equal or greater to the number of entries of the original chain. If the friend
has fewer entries a warning is given and the resulting histogram will have missing entries. For additional information see
TTree::AddFriends(). A full example of a tree and friends is in Example #3 ($ROOTSYS/tutorials/tree/tree3.C)
in the Trees section above.

Chapter 13

Math Libraries in ROOT

The aim of Math libraries in ROOT is to provide and to support a coherent set of mathematical and statistical functions.
The latest developments have been concentrated in providing first versions of the MathCore and MathMore libraries,
included in ROOT v5.08. Other recent developments include the new version of MINUIT, which has been re-designed
and re-implemented in the C++ language. It is integrated in ROOT. In addition, an optimized package for describing
small matrices and vector with fixed sizes and their operation has been developed (SMatrix). The structure is shown
in the following picture.

Figure 13.1: Math libraries and packages

13.1

TMath

In the namespace, TMath a collection of free functions is provided for the following functionality:
numerical constants (like pi, e, h, etc.);
elementary and trigonometric functions;
functions to find min and max of arrays;
statistic functions to find mean and rms of arrays of data;
algorithms for binary search/hashing sorting;
349

350

CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

special mathematical functions like Bessel, Erf, Gamma, etc.;

statistical functions, like common probability and cumulative (quantile) distributions
For more details, see the reference documentation of TMath at http://root.cern.ch/root/htmldoc/TMath.html.

13.2

Random Numbers

In ROOT pseudo-random numbers can be generated using the TRandom classes. 4 different types exist: TRandom,
TRandom1, TRandom2 and TRandom3. All they implement a different type of random generators. TRandom is the base
class used by others. It implements methods for generating random numbers according to pre-defined distributions,
such as Gaussian or Poisson.

13.2.1

TRandom

Pseudo-random numbers are generated using a linear congruential random generator. The multipliers used are the
same of the BSD rand() random generator. Its sequence is:
xn+1 = (axn + c) mod m with a = 1103515245, c = 12345 and m = 231 .
This type of generator uses a state of only a 32 bit integer and it has a very short period, 231 ,about 109 , which can be
exhausted in just few seconds. The quality of this generator is therefore BAD and it is strongly recommended to NOT
use for any statistical study.

13.2.2

TRandom1

This random number generator is based on the Ranlux engine, developed by M. Lsher and implemented in Fortran by
F. James. This engine has mathematically proven random proprieties and a long period of about 10171 . Various luxury
levels are provided (1,2,3,4) and can be specified by the user in the constructor. Higher the level, better random
properties are obtained at a price of longer CPU time for generating a random number. The level 3 is the default,
where any theoretical possible correlation has very small chance of being detected. This generator uses a state of 24
32-bits words. Its main disadvantage is that is much slower than the others (see timing table). For more information
on the generator see the following article:
F. James, RANLUX: A Fortran implementation of the high quality pseudo-random number generator of Lscher,
Computer Physics Communication, 79 (1994) 111.

13.2.3

TRandom2

This generator is based on the maximally equidistributed combined Tausworthe generator by LEcuyer. It uses only 3
32-bits words for the state and it has a period of about 1026 . It is fast and given its small states, it is recommended for
applications, which require a very small random number size. For more information on the generator see the following
article:
P. LEcuyer, Maximally Equidistributed Combined Tausworthe Generators, Mathematics of Computation, 65,
213 (1996), 203-213.

13.2.4

TRandom3

This is based on the Mersenne and Twister pseudo-random number generator, developed in 1997 by Makoto Matsumoto
and Takuji Nishimura. The newer implementation is used, referred in the literature as MT19937. It is a very fast and
very high quality generator with a very long period of 106000 . The disadvantage of this generator is that it uses a state
of 624 words. For more information on the generator see the following article:
M. M. Matsumoto and T. Nishimura, Mersenne twister: A 623-dimensionally equidistributed uniform pseudorandom number generator, ACM Trans. on Modeling and Computer Simulations, 8, 1, (1998), 3-20.
TRandom3 is the recommended random number generator, and it is used by default in ROOT using the global gRandom
object (see chapter gRandom).

13.2. RANDOM NUMBERS

13.2.5

351

Seeding the Generators

The seeds for the generators can be set in the constructor or by using the SetSeed method. When no value is given
the generator default seed is used, like 4357 for TRandom3. In this case identical sequence will be generated every time
the application is run. When the 0 value is used as seed, then a unique seed is generated using a TUUID, for TRandom1,
TRandom2 and TRandom3. For TRandom the seed is generated using only the machine clock, which has a resolution of
about 1 sec. Therefore identical sequences will be generated if the elapsed time is less than a second.

13.2.6

Examples of Using the Generators

The method Rndm() is used for generating a pseudo-random number distributed between 0 and 1 as shown in the
following example:
// use default seed
// (same random numbers will be generated each time)
TRandom3 r; // generate a number in interval ]0,1] (0 is excluded)
r.Rndm();
double x[100];
r.RndmArray(100,x); // generate an array of random numbers in ]0,1]
TRandom3 rdm(111);
// construct with a user-defined seed
// use 0: a unique seed will be automatically generated using TUUID
TRandom1 r1(0);
TRandom2 r2(0);
TRandom3 r3(0);
// seed generated using machine clock (different every second)
TRandom r0(0);

13.2.7

Random Number Distributions

The TRandom base class provides functions, which can be used by all the other derived classes for generating random
variates according to predefined distributions. In the simplest cases, like in the case of the exponential distribution, the
non-uniform random number is obtained by applying appropriate transformations. In the more complicated cases,
random variates are obtained using acceptance-rejection methods, which require several random numbers.
TRandom3 r;
// generate a gaussian distributed number with:
// mu=0, sigma=1 (default values)
double x1 = r.Gaus();
double x2 = r.Gaus(10,3);
// use mu = 10, sigma = 3;
The following table shows the various distributions that can be generated using methods of the TRandom classes. More
information is available in the reference documentation for TRandom. In addition, random numbers distributed according
to a user defined function, in a limited interval, or to a user defined histogram, can be generated in a very efficient way
using TF1::GetRandom() or TH1::GetRandom().
Distributions
Double_t Uniform(Double_t x1,Double_t x2 )
Double_t Gaus(Double_t mu,Double_t sigma )
Double_t Exp(Double_t tau)
Double_t Landau(Double_t mean,Double_t s igma)
Double_t BreitWigner(Double_t mean,
Double_t gamma)
Int_t Poisson(Double_t mean)
Double_t PoissonD(Double_t mean)
Int_t Binomial(Int_t ntot,Double_t prob )
Circle(Double_t &x,Double_t &y,Double_t r)
Sphere(Double_t &x,Double_t &y,
Double_t &z,Double_t r)
Rannor(Double_t &a,Double_t &b)

Description
Uniform random numbers between x1,x2
Gaussian random numbers.
Default values: mu=0, sigma=1
Exponential random numbers with mean tau.
Landau distributed random numbers.
Default values: mean=0, sigma=1
Breit-Wigner distributed random numbers.
Default values mean=0, gamma=1
Poisson random numbers
Binomial Random numbers
Generate a random 2D point (x,y) in
a circle of radius r
Generate a random 3D point (x,y,z) in
a sphere of radius r
Generate a pair of Gaussian random
numbers with mu=0 and sigma=1

352

CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

13.2.8

UNURAN

An interface to a new package, UNU.RAN, (Universal Non Uniform Random number generator for generating
non-uniform pseudo-random numbers) was introduced in ROOT v5.16.
UNU.RAN is an ANSI C library licensed under GPL. It contains universal (also called automatic or black-box)
algorithms that can generate random numbers from large classes of continuous (in one or multi-dimensions), discrete
distributions, empirical distributions (like histograms) and also from practically all standard distributions. An extensive
online documentation is available at the UNU.RAN Web Site http://statmath.wu-wien.ac.at/unuran/
The ROOT class TUnuran is used to interface the UNURAN package. It can be used as following:
With the UNU.RAN native, string API for pre-defined distributions (see UNU.RAN documentation for the
allowed string values at http://statistik.wu-wien.ac.at/unuran/doc/unuran.html ):
TUnuran unr;
// initialize unuran to generate normal random numbers using
// a "arou" method
unr.Init("normal()","method=arou");
...
// sample distributions N times (generate N random numbers)
for (int i = 0; i<N; ++i)
double x = unr.Sample();
For continuous 1D distribution object via the class TUnuranContDist that can be created for example from a TF1
function providing the pdf (probability density function) . The user can optionally provide additional information
via TUnuranContDist::SetDomain(min,max) like the domain() for generating numbers in a restricted region.
// 1D case: create a distribution from two TF1 object
// pointers pdfFunc
TUnuranContDist dist( pdfFunc);
// initialize unuran passing the distribution and a string
// defining the method
unr.Init(dist, "method=hinv");
// sample distribution N times (generate N random numbers)
for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
double x = unr.Sample();
For multi-dimensional distribution via the class TUnuranMultiContDist, which can be created from a the
multi-dimensional pdf.
// Multi- dimensional case from a TF1 (TF2 or TF3) objects
TUnuranMultiContDist dist( pdfFuncMulti);
// the recommended method for multi-dimensional function is "hitro"
unr.Init(dist,"method=hitro");
// sample distribution N times (generate N random numbers)
double x[NDIM];
for (int i = 0; i<N; ++i)
unr.SampleMulti(x);
For discrete distribution via the class TUnuranDiscrDist, which can be initialized from a TF1 or from a vector of
probabilities.
// Create distribution from a vector of probabilities
double pv[NSize] = {0.1,0.2,...};
TUnuranDiscrDist dist(pv,pv+NSize);
// the recommended method for discrete distribution is
unr.Init(dist, "method=dgt");
// sample N times (generate N random numbers)
for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
int k = unr.SampleDiscr();

13.3. MATHCORE LIBRARY

353

For empirical distribution via the class TUnuranEmpDist. In this case one can generate random numbers from a
set of un-bin or bin data. In the first case the parent distribution is estimated by UNU.RAN using a gaussian
kernel smoothing algorithm. The TUnuranEmpDist distribution class can be created from a vector of data or from
TH1 (using the bins or from its buffer for un-binned data).
// Create distribution from a set of data
// vdata is an std::vector containing the data
TUnuranEmpDist dist(vdata.begin(),vdata.end());
unr.Init(dist);
// sample N times (generate N random numbers)
for (int i = 0; i<N; ++i)
double x = unr.Sample();
For some predefined distributions, like Poisson and Binomial, one can use directly a function in the TUnuran
class. This is more convenient in passing distribution parameters than using directly the string interface.
TUnuran unr;
// Initialize unuran to generate normal random numbers from the
// Poisson distribution with parameter mu
unr.InitPoisson(mu);
...
// Sample distributions N times (generate N random numbers)
for (int i = 0; i<N; ++i)
int k = unr.SampleDiscr();
Functionality is also provided via the C++ classes for using a different random number generator by passing a TRandom
pointer when constructing the TUnuran class (by default the ROOT gRandom is passed to UNURAN).

13.2.9

Performances of Random Numbers

Here are the CPU times obtained using the four random classes on an lxplus machine with an Intel 64 bit architecture
and compiled using gcc 3.4:
Rndm()
Gaus()
Rannor()
Poisson(m-10)
Poisson(m=10)
UNURAN

13.3

TRandom (ns/call)

31
116
147
80

TRandom1 (ns/call)

161
216
1161
294

TRandom2 (ns/call)
6
35
126
162
89

TRandom3 (ns/call)
9
42
130
239
99

MathCore Library

MathCore provides a collection of functions and C++ classes for numerical computing. This library includes only the
basic mathematical functions and algorithms and not all the functionality required by the physics community. A more
advanced mathematical functionality is provided by the MathMore library. The current set included classes are:
Basic special functions like the gamma, beta and error function.
Mathematical functions used in statistics, such as the probability density functions and the cumulative distributions
functions (lower and upper integral of the pdfs).
GenVector: physics and geometry vectors for 3 and 4 dimensions with their transformations (rotations and
boost).
Generic (ROOT::Math::IFunction) and parametric (ROOT::Math::IParamFunction) function interfaces for one
and multi dimensions.
A detailed description for all MathCore classes is available in the online reference documentation. The MathCore library
presented in the ROOT distribution contains the CINT dictionary for I/O and interactive usage. For the template

354

CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

classes, the dictionary is provided for some of the possible types, such as those based on double and Double32_t. For
the I/O or interactive use of other types, the dictionary must be first generated. An example on how to generate the
required dictionary is provided in the tutorial mathcoreVectorFloatIO.C (in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/math). MathCore
can also be built as an independent package using configure/make. In this case the library will not contain the
dictionary information and cannot be used interactively in ROOT.

13.4

Generic Vectors for 2, 3 and 4 Dimensions (GenVector)

GenVector is a package intended to represent vectors and their operations and transformations, such as rotations and
Lorentz transformations, in 3 and 4 dimensions. The 3D space is used to describe the geometry vectors and points,
while the 4D space-time is used for physics vectors representing relativistic particles. These 3D and 4D vectors are
different from vectors of the linear algebra package, which describe generic N-dimensional vectors. Similar functionality
is currently provided by the CLHEP and packages and the ROOT Physics vector classes (See Physics Vectors). It
also re-uses concepts and ideas from the CMS Common Vector package. In contrast to CLHEP or the ROOT physics
libraries, GenVector provides class templates for modeling the vectors. The user can control how the vector is internally
represented. This is expressed by a choice of coordinate system, which is supplied as a template parameter when
the vector is constructed. Furthermore, each coordinate system is itself a template, so that the user can specify the
underlying scalar type.
The GenVector classes do not inherit from TObject, therefore cannot be used as in the case of the physics vector
classes in ROOT collections.
In addition, to optimize performances, no virtual destructors are provided. In the following paragraphs, the main
characteristics of GenVector are described. A more detailed description of all the GenVector classes is available also at
http://seal.cern.ch/documents/mathlib/GenVector.pdf

13.4.1

Main Characteristics

13.4.1.1

Optimal Runtime Performances

We try to minimize any overhead in the run-time performance. We have deliberately avoided the use of any virtual
function and even virtual destructors in the classes. In addition, as much as possible functions are defined as inline.
For this reason, we have chosen to use template classes to implement the GenVector concepts instead of abstract or
base classes and virtual functions. It is then recommended to avoid using the GenVector classes polymorphically and
developing classes inheriting from them.
13.4.1.2

Points and Vector Concept

Mathematically vectors and points are two distinct concepts. They have different transformations, as vectors only
rotate while points rotate and translate. You can add two vectors but not two points and the difference between two
points is a vector. We then distinguish for the 3 dimensional case, between points and vectors, modeling them with
different classes:
ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector2D and ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D template classes describing 2
and 3 component direction and magnitude vectors, not rooted at any particular point;
ROOT::Math::PositionVector2D and ROOT::Math::PositionVector3D template classes modeling the points in
2 and 3 dimensions.
For the 4D space-time vectors, we use the same class to model them, ROOT::Math::LorentzVector, since we have
recognized a limited need for modeling the functionality of a 4D point.
13.4.1.3

Generic Coordinate System

The vector classes are based on a generic type of coordinate system, expressed as a template parameter of the class.
Various classes exist to describe the various coordinates systems:
2D coordinate system classes:
ROOT::Math::Cartesian2D, based on (x,y);

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355

ROOT::Math::Polar2D, based on (r,phi);

3D coordinate system classes:
ROOT::Math::Cartesian3D, based on (x,y,z);
ROOT::Math::Polar3D, based on (r,theta,phi);
ROOT::Math::Cylindrical3D, based on (rho,z,phi)
ROOT::Math::CylindricalEta3D, based on (rho,eta,phi), where eta is the pseudo-rapidity;
4D coordinate system classes:
ROOT::Math::PxPyPzE4D, based on based on (px,py,pz,E);
ROOT::Math::PxPyPzM4D, based on based on (px,py,pz,M);
ROOT::Math::PtEtaPhiE4D, based on based on (pt,eta,phi,E);
ROOT::Math::PtEtaPhiM4D, based on based on (pt,eta,phi,M);
Users can define the vectors according to the coordinate type, which is the most efficient for their use. Transformations
between the various coordinate systems are available through copy constructors or the assignment (=) operator. For
maximum flexibility and minimize memory allocation, the coordinate system classes are templated on the scalar type.
To avoid exposing templated parameter to the users, typedefs are defined for all types of vectors based on doubles.
See in the examples for all the possible types of vector classes, which can be constructed by users with the available
coordinate system types.
13.4.1.4

Coordinate System Tag

The 2D and 3D points and vector classes can be associated to a tag defining the coordinate system. This can be used to
distinguish between vectors of different coordinate systems like global or local vectors. The coordinate system tag is a template parameter of the ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D and ROOT::Math::PositionVector3D (and also for 2D
classes). A default tag exists for users who do not need this functionality, ROOT::Math::DefaultCoordinateSystemTag.
13.4.1.5

Transformations

The transformations are modeled using simple (non-template) classes, using double as the scalar type to avoid too
large numerical errors. The transformations are grouped in rotations (in 3 dimensions), Lorentz transformations and
Poincare transformations, which are translation/rotation combinations. Each group has several members which may
model physically equivalent transformations but with different internal representations. Transformation classes can
operate on all type of vectors by using the operator ()or the operator * and the transformations can be combined via
the operator *. The available transformations are:
3D rotation classes
rotation described by a 3x3 matrix (ROOT::Math::Rotation3D)
rotation described by Euler angles (ROOT::Math::EulerAngles)
rotation described by a direction axis and an angle (ROOT::Math::AxisAngle)
rotation described by a quaternion (ROOT::Math::Quaternion)
optimized rotation around x (ROOT::Math::RotationX), y (ROOT::Math::RotationY) and z (ROOT::Math::RotationZ)
and described by just one angle.
3D transformation: we describe the transformations defined as a composition between a rotation and a translation
using the class ROOT::Math::Transform3D. It is important to note that transformations act differently on vectors
and points. The vectors only rotate, therefore when applying a transformation (rotation + translation) on a
vector, only the rotation operates while the translation has no effect. The Transform3D class interface is similar
to the one used in the CLHEP Geometry package (class ).
Lorentz rotation:

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generic Lorentz rotation described by a 4x4 matrix containing a 3D rotation part and a boost part (class
ROOT::Math::LorentzRotation)
a pure boost in an arbitrary direction and described by a 4x4 symmetric matrix or 10 numbers (class
ROOT::Math::Boost)
boost along the axis:x(ROOT::Math::BoostX), y(ROOT::Math::BoostY) and z(ROOT::Math::BoostZ).
13.4.1.6

Minimal Vector Classes Interface

We have tried to keep the interface to a minimal level by:

Avoiding methods that provide the same functionality but use different names (like getX() and x()).
Minimizing the number of setter methods, avoiding methods, which can be ambiguous and can set the vector
classes in an inconsistent state. We provide only methods which set all the coordinates at the same time or set
only the coordinates on which the vector is based, for example SetX() for a Cartesian vector. We then enforce
the use of transformations as rotations or translations (additions) for modifying the vector contents.
The majority of the functionality, which is present in the CLHEP package, involving operations on two vectors,
is moved in separated helper functions (see ROOT::Math::VectorUtil). This has the advantage that the basic
interface will remain more stable with time while additional functions can be added easily.
13.4.1.7

Naming Convention

As part of ROOT, the GenVector package adheres to the prescribed ROOT naming convention, with some (approved)
exceptions, as described here:
Every class and function is in the ROOT::Math namespace.
Member function names start with upper-case letter, apart some exceptions (see the next section about CLHEP
compatibility).
13.4.1.8

Compatibility with CLHEP Vector Classes

For backward compatibility with CLHEP the vector classes can be constructed from a CLHEP HepVector
or HepLorentzVector, by using a template constructor, which requires only that the classes implement the
accessorsx(), y(), and z() (and t() for the 4D).
We provide vector member function with the same naming convention as CLHEP for the most used functions like
x(), y() and z().
13.4.1.9

Connection to Linear Algebra Package

In some use cases, like in track reconstruction, it is needed to use the content of the vector and rotation classes in
conjunction with linear algebra operations. We prefer to avoid any direct dependency to any linear algebra package.
However, we provide some hooks to convert to and from linear algebra classes. The vector and the transformation
classes have methods which allow to get and set their data members (like SetCoordinates and GetCoordinates)
passing either a generic iterator or a pointer to a contiguous set of data, like a C array. This allows an easy connection
with the linear algebra package, which in turn, allows creation of matrices using C arrays (like the ROOT TMatrix
classes) or iterators (SMatrix classes). Multiplication between linear algebra matrices and GenVector vectors is possible
by using the template free functions ROOT::Math::VectorUtil::Mult. This function works for any linear algebra
matrix, which implements the operator (i,j) and with first matrix element at i=j=0.

13.4.2

Example: 3D Vector Classes

To avoid exposing template parameter to the users, typedefs are defined for all types of vectors based on doubles and floats. To use them, one must include the header file Math/Vector3D.h. The following typedefs, defined in the header file Math/Vector3Dfwd.h, are available for the different instantiations of the template class
ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D:

13.4. GENERIC VECTORS FOR 2, 3 AND 4 DIMENSIONS (GENVECTOR)

357

ROOT::Math::XYZVector vector based on x,y,z coordinates (Cartesian) in double precision

ROOT::Math::XYZVectorF vector based on x,y,z coordinates (Cartesian) in float precision
ROOT::Math::Polar3DVector vector based on r,theta,phi coordinates (polar) in double precision
ROOT::Math::Polar3DVectorF vector based on r,theta,phi coordinates (polar) in float precision
ROOT::Math::RhoZPhiVector vector based on rho,z,phi coordinates (cylindrical) in double precision
ROOT::Math::RhoZPhiVectorF vector based on rho,z,phi coordinates (cylindrical) in float precision
ROOT::Math::RhoEtaPhiVector vector based on rho,eta,phi coordinates (cylindrical using eta instead of z)
in double precision
ROOT::Math::RhoEtaPhiVectorF vector based on rho,eta,phi coordinates (cylindrical using eta instead of z)
in float precision
13.4.2.1

Constructors and Assignment

The following declarations are available:

XYZVector
XYZVector
Polar3DVector
RhoEtaPHiVector

v1;
v2(1,2,3);
v3(1,PI/2,PI);
v4(1,2, PI);

//an empty vector (x=0, y=0, z=0)

//vector with x=1, y=2, z=3;
//vector with r=1, theta=PI/2, phi=PI
//vector with rho=1, eta=2, phi=PI

Note that each vector type is constructed by passing its coordinate representation, so a XYZVector(1,2,3) is different
from a Polar3DVector(1,2,3). In addition, the vector classes can be constructed by any vector, which implements
the accessors x(), y() and z(). This can be another 3D vector based on a different coordinate system type. It can be
even any vector of a different package, like the CLHEP HepThreeVector that implements the required signature.
XYZVector
v1(1,2,3);
RhoEtaPhiVector
r2(v1);
CLHEP::HepThreeVector q(1,2,3);
XYZVector
v3(q);
13.4.2.2

Coordinate Accessors

All coordinate accessors are available through the class ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D:

//returns cartesian components for the cartesian vector v1
v1.X(); v1.Y(); v1.Z();
//returns cylindrical components for the cartesian vector v1
v1.Rho(); v1.Eta(); v1.Phi();
//returns cartesian components for the cylindrical vector r2
r2.X(); r2.Y(); r2.Z()
In addition, all the 3 coordinates of the vector can be retrieved with the GetCoordinates method:
double d[3];
//fill d array with (x,y,z) components of v1
v1.GetCoordinates(d);
//fill d array with (r,eta,phi) components of r2
r2.GetCoordinates(d);
std::vector vc(3);
//fill std::vector with (x,y,z) components of v1
v1.GetCoordinates(vc.begin(),vc.end());
See the reference documentation of ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D for more details on all the coordinate
accessors.

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13.4.2.3

Setter Methods

One can set only all the three coordinates via:

v1.SetCoordinates(c1,c2,c3); // (x,y,z) for a XYZVector
r2.SetCoordinates(c1,c2,c3); // r,theta,phi for a Polar3DVector
r2.SetXYZ(x,y,z);
// 3 cartesian components for Polar3DVector
Single coordinate setter methods are available for the basic vector coordinates, like SetX() for a XYZVector or SetR()
for a polar vector. Attempting to do a SetX() on a polar vector will not compile.
XYZVector v1;
v1.SetX(1);
Polar3DVector
v2.SetX(1);
//Method will
v2.SetR(1);

//OK setting x for a Cartesian vector

v2;
//ERROR: cannot set X for a Polar vector.
not compile
//OK setting r for a Polar vector

In addition, there are setter methods from C arrays or iterator

double d[3] = {1.,2.,3.};
XYZVector v;
// set (x,y,z) components of v using values from d
v.SetCoordinates(d);
or, for example, from an std::vector using the iterator
std::vector w(3);
// set (x,y,z) components of v using values from w
v.SetCoordinates(w.begin(),w.end());

13.4.2.4

Arithmetic Operations

The following operations are possible between vector classes, even of different coordinate system types: (v1,v2 are any
type of ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D classes, v3 is the same type of v1; a is a scalar value)
v1
v1
v1
v1
v1
v2
v2
v2
v3
v3

+= v2;
-= v2;
= - v2;
*= a;
/= a;
= a * v1;
= v1 / a;
= v1 * a;
= v1 + v2;
= v1 - v2;

13.4.2.5

Comparison

For v1 and v2 of the same type (same coordinate system and same scalar type):
v1 == v2;
v1 != v2;

13.4. GENERIC VECTORS FOR 2, 3 AND 4 DIMENSIONS (GENVECTOR)

13.4.2.6

359

Dot and Cross Product

We support the dot and cross products, through the Dot() and Cross() method, with any vector (q) implementing
x(), y() and z().
XYZVector v1(x,y,z);
double s = v1.Dot(q);
XYZVector v2 = v1.Cross(q);
Note that the multiplication between two vectors using the operator * is not supported because it is ambiguous.
13.4.2.7

Other Methods

XYZVector u = v1.Unit(); //return unit vector parallel to v1

13.4.3

Example: 3D Point Classes

To use all possible types of 3D points one must include the header file Math/Point3D.h. The following typedefs defined in the header file Math/Point3Dfwd.h, are available for different instantiations of the template class
ROOT::Math::PositionVector3D:
ROOT::Math::XYZPoint point based on x, y, z coordinates (Cartesian) in double precision
ROOT::Math::XYZPointF point based on x, y, z coordinates (Cartesian) in float precision
ROOT::Math::Polar3DPoint point based on r, theta, phi coordinates (polar) in double precision
ROOT::Math::Polar3DPointF point based on r, theta, phi coordinates (polar) in float precision
ROOT::Math::RhoZPhiPoint point based on rho, z, phi coordinates (cylindrical using z) in double precision
ROOT::Math::RhoZPhiPointF point based on rho, z, phi coordinates (cylindrical using z) in float precision
ROOT::Math::RhoEtaPhiPoint point based on rho, eta, phi coordinates (cylindrical using eta instead of z) in
double precision
ROOT::Math::RhoEtaPhiPointF point based on rho, eta, phi coordinates (cylindrical using eta instead of z) in
float precision
13.4.3.1

Constructors and Assignment

The following declarations are available:

XYZPoint
XYZPoint

p1;
p2(1,2,3);

//an empty vector (x=0, y=0, z=0)

//

Note that each point type is constructed by passing its coordinate representation, so a XYZPoint(1,2,3) is different
from a Polar3DPoint(1,2,3). In addition the point classes can be constructed by any vector, which implements the
accessors x(), y() and z(). This can be another 3D point based on a different coordinate system type or even any
vector of a different package, like the CLHEP HepThreePoint that implements the required signatures.
XYZPoint
RhoEtaPHiPoint
CLHEP::HepThreePoint
XYZPoint
13.4.3.2

p1(1,2,3);
r2(v1);
q(1,2,3);
p3(q);

Coordinate Accessors and Setter Methods

For the points classes we have the same getter and setter methods as for the vector classes. See Example: 3D Vector
Classes.

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13.4.3.3

Point-Vector Operations

The following operations are possible between points and vector classes: (p1, p2 and p3 are instantiations of the ROOT::Math::PositionVector3D objects with p1 and p3 of the same type; v1 and v2 are
ROOT::Math::DisplacementVector3D objects).
p1
p1
p3
p3
p3
p3
v2

+= v1;
-= v1;
= p1 +
= v1 +
= p1 = v1 = p1 -

v1;
p1;
v1;
p1;
p2;

// p1 and p3 are the same type

// p3 is based on the same coordinate system as v1
// difference between points returns a vector v2
// based on the same coordinate system as p1

Note that the addition between two points is NOT possible and the difference between points returns a vector.
13.4.3.4

Other Operations

Exactly as for the 3D Vectors, the following operations are allowed:

comparison of points
scaling and division of points with a scalar
dot and cross product with any type of vector

13.4.4

Example: LorentzVector Classes

As in the 3D case, typedefs are defined for user convenience. and can be used by including the header file
Math/Vector4D.h. The following typedefs, defined in the header file Math/Vector4Dfwd.h, are available for the
different instantiations of the template class ROOT::Math::LorentzVector:
ROOT::Math::XYZTVector vector based on x, y, z, t coordinates (Cartesian) in double precision
ROOT::Math::XYZTVectorF vector based on x, y, z, t coordinates (Cartesian) in float precision
ROOT::Math::PtEtaPhiEVector vector based on pt(rho), eta, phi and E(t) coordinates in double precision
ROOT::Math::PtEtaPhiMVector vector based on pt(rho), eta, phi and M(t) coordinates in double precision
ROOT::Math::PxPyPzMVector vector based on px, py, pz and M(mass) coordinates in double precision
The metric used for all the LorentzVector is (-,-,-,+) .
13.4.4.1

Constructors and Assignment

The following declarations are available:

// create an empty vector (x=0, y=0, z=0, t=0)
XYZTVector
v1;
// vector with x=1, y=2, z=3, t=4
XYZTVector
v2(1,2,3,4);
// vector with pt=1, eta=2, phi=PI, E=5
PtEtaPhiEVector v3(1,2,PI,5);
Note that each type of vector is constructed by passing its coordinate representation, so a XYZTVector(1,2,3,4) is
different from a PtEtaPhiEVector(1,2,3,4). In addition, the Vector classes can be constructed by any vector, which
implements the accessors x(), y(), z() and t().
This can be another ROOT::Math::LorentzVector based on a different coordinate system or any vector of a different
package, like the CLHEP HepLorentzVector that implements the required signature.

13.4. GENERIC VECTORS FOR 2, 3 AND 4 DIMENSIONS (GENVECTOR)

XYZTVector
PtEtaPhiEVector
CLHEP::HepLorentzVector
XYZTVector
13.4.4.2

361

v1(1,2,3,4);
v2(v1);
q(1,2,3,4);
v3(q);

Coordinate Accessors

All the same coordinate accessors are available through the interface of ROOT::Math::LorentzVector. For example:
//returns cartesian components for the cartesian vector v1
v1.X(); v1.X(); v1.Z(); v1.T();
//returns cartesian components for the cylindrical vector v2
v2.Px(); v2.Py(); v2.Pz(); v2.E();
//returns other components for the cartesian vector v1
v1.Pt(); v1.Eta(); v1.Phi(); v1.M()
In addition, all 4 vector coordinates can be retrieved with the GetCoordinates method:
double d[4];
//fill d array with (x,y,z,t) components of v1
v1.GetCoordinates(d);
//fill d array with (pt,eta,phi,e) components of v2
v2.GetCoordinates(d);
std::vector w(4);
//fill std::vector with (x,y,z,t)
v1.GetCoordinates(w.begin(),w.end());
//components of v1
To get information on all the coordinate accessors see the ROOT::Math::LorentzVector reference documentation.
13.4.4.3

Setter Methods

One can set only all the three coordinates via:

//sets the (x,y,z,t) for a XYZTVector
v1.SetCoordinates(c1,c2,c3,c4);
//sets pt,eta,phi,e for a PtEtaPhiEVector
v2.SetCoordinates(c1,c2,c3,c4);
//sets cartesian components for PtEtaPhiEVector
v2.SetXYZ(x,y,z,t);
Single coordinate setter methods are available for the basic vector coordinates, like SetX() for a XYZTVector or SetPt()
for a PtEtaPhiEVector. Attempting to do a SetX() on a non-Cartesian vector will not compile.
XYZTVector
v1;
v1.SetX(1); //OK setting x for a cartesian vector
PtEtaPhiEVector v2;
v2.SetX(1); //ERROR: cannot set X for a non-cartesian
//vector. Method will not compile.
v2.SetR(1)
// OK setting Pt for a PtEtaPhiEVector vector
In addition, there are setter methods from C arrays or iterators.
double d[4] = {1.,2.,3.,4.};
XYZTVector v;
//set (x,y,z,t) components of v using values from d
v.SetCoordinates(d);
or for example from an std::vectorusing the iterators
std::vector w(4);
//set (x,y,z,t) components of v using values from w
v.SetCoordinates(w.begin(),w.end());

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13.4.4.4

Arithmetic Operations

The following operations are possible between Lorentz vectors classes, even of different coordinate system types: (v
andw are two Lorentz vector of the same type, qis a generic Lorentz vector implementing x(), y(), z() and t(), and a
is a generic scalar type: double, float, int, etc.) .
v
v
v
v
v
w
w
w
w
w

+= q;
-= q;
= -q;
*= a;
/= a;
= v + q;
= v - q;
= v * a;
= a * v;
= v / a;

13.4.4.5

Comparison

v == w;
v != w;
13.4.4.6

Other Methods

a = v.Dot(q); //dot product in metric(+,+,+,-) of 2 LorentzVectors

XYZVector s = v.Vect() //return the spatial components (x,y,z)
v.Beta(); //return beta and gamma value (vector must
v.Gamma() // be time-like otherwise result is meaningless)
XYZVector b = v.BoostToCM(); //return boost vector which will bring
//the Vector in its mas frame (P=0)

13.4.5

Example: Vector Transformations

Transformation classes are grouped in rotations (in three dimensions), Lorentz transformations and Poincarre transformations, which are translation/rotation combinations. Each group has several members which may model physically
equivalent transformations but with different internal representations. All the classes are non-template and use double
precision as the scalar type. The following types of transformation classes are defined:
3D rotations:
ROOT::Math::Rotation3D, rotation described by a 3x3 matrix of doubles
ROOT::Math::EulerAngles rotation described by the three Euler angles (phi, theta and psi) following the
GoldStein definition.
ROOT::Math::RotationZYX rotation described by three angles defining a rotation first along the Z axis, then
along the rotated Y axis and then along the rotated X axis.
ROOT::Math::AxisAngle, rotation described by a vector (axis) and an angle
ROOT::Math::Quaternion, rotation described by a quaternion (4 numbers)
ROOT::Math::RotationX, specialized rotation along the X axis
ROOT::Math::RotationY, specialized rotation along the Y axis
ROOT::Math::RotationZ, specialized rotation along the Z axis
3D transformations (rotations + translations)
ROOT::Math::Transform3D, (rotations and then translation) described by a 3x4 matrix (12 double numbers)
ROOT::Math::Translation3D (only translation) described by a 3D Vector

13.4. GENERIC VECTORS FOR 2, 3 AND 4 DIMENSIONS (GENVECTOR)

363

Lorentz rotations and boosts

ROOT::Math::LorentzRotation, 4D rotation (3D rotation plus a boost) described by a 4x4 matrix
ROOT::Math::Boost, a Lorentz boost in an arbitrary direction and described by a 4x4 symmetrix matrix (10
numbers)
ROOT::Math::BoostX, a boost in the X axis direction
ROOT::Math::BoostY, a boost in the Y axis direction
ROOT::Math::BoostZ, a boost in the Z axis direction
13.4.5.1

Constructors

All rotations and transformations are default constructible (giving the identity transformation). All rotations are
constructible taking a number of scalar arguments matching the number (and order of components).
Rotation3D rI;
RotationX
rX(PI);
EulerAngles rE(phi,theta,psi);
XYZVector
AxisAngle

u(ux,uy,uz);
rA(u,delta);

//a summy rotation (Identity matrix)

//a RotationX with an angle PI
//an Euler rotation with phi,
//theta,psi angles
//a rotation based on direction u,
//angle delta

In addition, all rotations and transformations (other than the axial rotations) and transformations are constructible
from (begin,end) iterators or from pointers behave like iterators.
double
data[9];
//create a rotation from a rotation matrix
Rotation3D r(data,data+9);
std::vector w(12);
//create Transform3D from std::vector content
Transform3D t(w.begin(),w.end());
All rotations, except the axial rotations, are constructible and assigned from any other type of rotation (including the
axial):
//create a rotation 3D from a rotation along X axis of angle PI
Rotation3D r(ROOT::Math::RotationX(PI));
//construct an Euler rotation from A Rotation3D
EulerAngles r2(r);
//assign an Axis rotation from an Euler Rotation
AxisAngle
r3; r3 = r2;
Transform3D (rotation + translation) can be constructed from a rotation and a translation vector:
Rotation3D r;
XYZVector
v;
Transform3D t1(r,v);
Transform3D t2(v,r);
Transform3D t3(r);
Transform3D t4(v);

//construct from rotation and then

//translation
//construct inverse from first translation
//then rotation
//construct from only a rotation
//(zero translation)
//construct from only translation
//(identity rotation)

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13.4.5.2

Operations

All transformations can be applied to vector and points using the operator * or using the operator()
XYZVector v1(...);
Rotation3D r(...);
XYZVector v2 = r*v1;
v2 = r(v1);

//rotate vector v1 using r

//equivalent

Transformations can be combined using the operator *. Rotation, translation and Transform3D classes can be all
combined with the operator *. The result of a combination of a rotation and a translation will be a Transform3D class.
Note that the rotations are not commutative, the order is then important.
Rotation3D
Rotation3D
Rotation3D

r1(...);
r2(...);
r3 = r2*r1; //a combine rotation r3 by
//applying first r1 then r2

We can combine rotations of different types, like Rotation3D with any other type of rotations. The product of two
different axial rotations returns a Rotation3D:
RotationX
RotationY
Rotation3D

rx(1.);
ry(2.);
r = ry * rx;

//rotation along X and then Y axis

It is also possible to invert all the transformation or return their inverse:

Rotation3D r1(...);
r1.Invert(); //invert the rotation modifying its content
Rotation3D r2 =r1.Inverse(); //return the inverse in a new
//rotation class
We have used rotation as examples, but all these operations can be applied to all the transformation classes.

13.4.5.3

Set/GetComponents Methods

Common methods to all transformations are Get and SetComponents. They can be used to retrieve all the scalar
values on which the transformation is based.
RotationX rx;
rx.SetComponents(1.);
double d[9] = {........};
Rotation3D r;
r.SetComponents(d,d+9);
double d[16];
LorentzRotation lr;
lr.GetComponents(d,d+16);
TMatrixD(3,4) m;
Transform3D t;
t.GetComponens(m);

//set agle of the X rotation

//set 9 components of 3D rotation
//get 16 components of a LorentzRotation
//fill 3x4 matrix with components of t

TheGetComponents and SetComponents methods can be used with a signature based iterators or by using any foreign
matrix which implements the operator(i,j) or a different signatures depending on the transformation type. For more
details on all methods see the reference documentation of any specific transformation class.

13.5. MATHMORE LIBRARY

365

13.4.6

Example with External Packages

13.4.6.1

Connection to Linear Algebra Classes

It is possible to use the vector and rotation classes together with the linear algebra classes and to set and get the
contents of any 3D or 4D vector from a linear algebra vector class which implements an iterator or something which
behaves like an iterator. For example a pointer to a C array (double*) behaves like an iterator. It is then assumed that
the coordinates, like (x,y,z) will be stored contiguously.
TVectorD

r2(N); //ROOT Linear Algebra Vector containing

//many vectors
XYZVector v2;
//construct vector from x=r[INDEX], y=r[INDEX+1], z=r[INDEX+2]
v2.SetCoordinates(&r2[INDEX],&r2[index]+3);
To fill a linear algebra vector from a 3D or 4D vector, with GetCoordinates() one can get the internal coordinate
data.
HepVector
c(3);
//CLHEP Linear algebra vector
//fill HepVector c with c[0]=x, c[1]=y, c[2]=z
v2.GetCoordinates(&c[0],&c[index]+3)
or using TVectorD:
double
*data[3];
v2.GetCoordinates(data,data+3);
TVectorD r1(3,data); //create a new Linear Algebra vector
//copying the data
In the case of transformations, constructor and method to set/get components exist with linear algebra matrices. The
requisite is that the matrix data are stored, for example in the case of a Lorentz rotation, from (0,0) thru (3,3)
TMatrixD(4,4)
m;
LorentzRotation r(m);
13.4.6.2

//create Lorentz r

Connection to Other Vector Classes

The 3D and 4D vectors of the GenVector package can be constructed and assigned from any vector which satisfies the
following requisites:
for 3D vectors implementing the x(), y() and z() methods
for Lorentz vectors implementing the x(), y(), z() and t() methods.
CLHEP::Hep3Vector hv;
XYZVector
v1(hv);
HepGeom::Point3D
XYZPoint

13.5

hp;
p1(hp);

//create 3D vector from

//CLHEP 3D Vector
//create a 3D p

MathMore Library

The MathMore library provides an advanced collection of functions and C++ classes for numerical computing. This is
an extension of the functionality provided by the MathCore library. The current set includes:
Special functions (see Special Functions in MathMore)
Mathematical functions used in statistics such as probability density functions, cumulative distributions functions
and their inverse.

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CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

Numerical algorithms for one dimensional functions based on implementation of the GNU Scientific Library
(GSL):
Numerical integration using the class ROOT::Math::Integrator which is based on the Adaptive integration
algorithms of QUADPACK
Numerical differentiation via ROOT::Math::Derivator
Root finder via ROOT::Math::RootFinder which uses different solver algorithms from GSL
Minimization via ROOT::Math::Minimizer1D
Interpolation via ROOT::Math::Interpolation. All the GSL interpolation types are supported
Function approximation based on Chebyshev polynomials via the class ROOT::Math::Chebyshev
Random number generators and distributions
Polynomial evaluation and root solvers
The mathematical functions are implemented as a set of free functions in the namespace ROOT::Math. The naming
used for the special functions is the same proposed for the C++ standard (see C++ standard extension proposal
document).The MathCore library is implemented wrapping in C++ the GNU Scientific Library ( ). Building MathMore
requires a version of GSL larger or equal 1.8. The source code of MathMore is distributed under the GNU General
Public License.
MathMore (and its ROOT CINT dictionary) can be built within ROOT whenever a GSL library is found in the system.
The GSL library and header file location can be specified in the ROOT configure script, by doing:
./configure --with-gsl-incdir=... --with-gsl-libdir=...
MathMore can be built also a stand-alone library (without requiring ROOT) downloding the tar file from the Web at
this link. In this case the library will not contain the dictionary information and therefore cannot be used interactively
More information on the classes and functions present in MathMore is available in the online reference documentation.

13.6

Mathematical Functions

The mathematical functions are present in both MathCore and MathMore libraries. All mathematical functions are
implemented as free functions in the namespace ROOT::Math. The most used functions are in the MathCore library
while the others are in the MathMore library. The functions in MathMore are all using the implementation of the GNU
Scientific Library (GSL). The naming of the special functions is the same defined in the C++ Technical Report on
Standard Library extensions. The special functions are defined in the header file Math/SpecFunc.h.

13.6.1

Special Functions in MathCore

ROOT::Math::beta(double x,double y) -evaluates the beta function:

B(x, y) =

(x)(y)
(x + y)

double ROOT::Math::erf(double x) - evaluates the error function encountered in integrating the normal
distribution:
Z x
2
2
erf (x) =
et dt
0
double ROOT::Math::erfc(double x) - evaluates the complementary error function:
Z
2
2
et dt
erf c(x) = 1 erf (x) =
x
double ROOT::Math::tgamma(double x) - calculates the gamma function:
Z
(x) =
tx1 et dt
0

13.6. MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS

13.6.2

367

Special Functions in MathMore

double ROOT::Math::assoc_legendre(unsigned l,unsigned m,double x) -computes the associated Legendre polynomials (with m>=0, l>=m and |x|<1):
Plm (x) = (1 x2 )m/2

dm
Pl (x)
dxm

double ROOT::Math::comp_ellint_1(double k) - calculates the complete elliptic integral of the first kind
(with 0 k 2 1:
Z /2
d
p
K(k) = F (k, /2) =
0
1 k 2 sin2
double ROOT::Math::comp_ellint_2(double k) - calculates the complete elliptic integral of the second kind
(with 0 k 2 1):
Z /2 p
1 k 2 sin2 d
E(k) = E(k, /2) =
0

double ROOT::Math::comp_ellint_3(double n,double k) - calculates the complete elliptic integral of the

third kind (with 0 k 2 1):
Z /2
d
p
(n, k, /2) =
2
0
(1 n sin ) 1 k 2 sin2
double ROOT::Math::conf_hyperg(double a,double b,double z) - calculates the confluent hyper-geometric
functions of the first kind:

(b) X (a + n) z n
F
(a;
b;
z)
=
1 1
(a) n=0 (b + n) n!
double ROOT::Math::conf_hypergU(double a,double b,double z) - calculates the confluent hyper-geometric
functions of the second kind, known also as Kummer function of the second type. It is related to the confluent
hyper-geometric function of the first kind:



z 1b 1 F1 (a b + 1, 2 b, z)
1 F1 (a, b, z)
U (a, b, z) =

sin b (a b + 1)
(a)
double ROOT::Math::cyl_bessel_i(double nu,double x) - calculates the modified Bessel function of the first
kind, also called regular modified (cylindrical) Bessel function:
I (x) = i J (ix) =

X
k=0

( 12 x)+2k
k!( + k + 1)

double ROOT::Math::cyl_bessel_j(double nu,double x) - calculates the (cylindrical) Bessel function of the

first kind, also called regular (cylindrical) Bessel function:
J (x) =

X
(1)k ( 1 x)+2k
2

k=0

k!( + k + 1)

double ROOT::Math::cyl_bessel_k(double nu,double x) - calculates the modified Bessel function of the

second kind, also called irregular modified (cylindrical) Bessel function for x > 0, v > 0:
(
I (x)I (x)
for non-integral
+1
2
sin
(J (ix) + iN (ix)) =
K (x) = i
I (x)I (x)

2
lim

for integral
2
sin
double ROOT::Math::cyl_neumann(double nu,double x) - calculates the (cylindrical) Bessel function of the
second kind, also called irregular (cylindrical) Bessel function or (cylindrical) Neumann function:
(
J cos J (x)
for non-integral
sin
N (x) = Y (x) =
J cos J (x)
lim
for integral
sin
double ROOT::Math::ellint_1(double k,double phi) - calculates incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind
(with 0 k 2 1):
Z /2
d
p
K(k) = F (k, /2) =
0
1 k 2 sin2

368

CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

double ROOT::Math::ellint_2(double k,double phi) - calculates the complete elliptic integral of the second
kind (with 0 k 2 1):
Z /2 p
1 k 2 sin2 d
E(k) = E(k, /2) =
0

double ROOT::Math::ellint_3(double n,double k,double phi) - calculates the complete elliptic integral of
the third kind (with 0 k 2 1):
Z /2
d
p
(n, k, /2) =
2
0
(1 n sin ) 1 k 2 sin2
double ROOT::Math::expint(double x) - calculates the exponential integral:
Z t
e
Ei(x) =
dt
x t
double ROOT::Math::hyperg(double a,double b,double c,double x) - calculates Gauss hyper-geometric
function:

(c) X (a + n)(b + n) xn
2 F1 (a, b; c; x) =
(a)(b) n=0
(c + n)
n!
double ROOT::Math::legendre(unsigned l,double x) - calculates the Legendre polynomials for l 0, |x| 1
in the Rodrigues representation:
1 dl 2
(x 1)l
Pl (x) = l
2 l! dxl
double ROOT::Math::riemann_zeta(double x) - calculates the Riemann zeta function:

P x
for x > 1
k=1 k
(x) =
2x x1 sin ( 12 x)(1 x)(1 x) for x < 1
double ROOT::Math::sph_bessel(unsigned n,double x) - calculates the spherical Bessel functions of the first
kind (also called regular spherical Bessel functions):
r

jn (x) =
Jn+1/2 (x)
2x
double ROOT::Math::sph_neumann(unsigned n,double x) - calculates the spherical Bessel functions of the
second kind (also called irregular spherical Bessel functions or spherical Neumann functions):
r

nn (x) = yn (x) =
Nn+1/2 (x)
2x

13.6.3

Probability Density Functions (PDF)

Probability density functions of various distributions. All the functions, apart from the discrete ones, have the extra
location parameter x0, which by default is zero. For example, in the case of a gaussian pdf, x0 is the mean, mu, of the
distribution. All the probability density functions are defined in the header file Math/DistFunc.h and are part of the
MathCore libraries. The definition of these functions is documented in the reference doc for statistical functions:
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double
double

ROOT::Math::beta_pdf(double x,double a, double b);

ROOT::Math::binomial_pdf(unsigned int k,double p,unsigned int n);
ROOT::Math::breitwigner_pdf(double x,double gamma,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::cauchy_pdf(double x,double b=1,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::chisquared_pdf(double x,double r,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::exponential_pdf(double x,double lambda,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::fdistribution_pdf(double x,double n,double m,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::gamma_pdf(double x,double alpha,double theta,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::gaussian_pdf(double x,double sigma,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::landau_pdf(double x,double s,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::lognormal_pdf(double x,double m,double s,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::normal_pdf(double x,double sigma,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::poisson_pdf(unsigned int n,double mu);
ROOT::Math::tdistribution_pdf(double x,double r,double x0=0);
ROOT::Math::uniform_pdf(double x,double a,double b,double x0=0);

13.6. MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS

13.6.4

369

Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDF)

For all the probability density functions, we have the corresponding cumulative distribution functions and their
complements. The functions with extension _cdf calculate the lower tail integral of the probability density function:
Z

D(x) =

p(x0 )dx0

while those with the cdf_c extension calculate the upper tail of the probability density function, so-called in statistics
the survival function. For example, the function:
double ROOT::Math::gaussian_cdf(double x,double sigma,double x0=0);
evaluates the lower tail of the Gaussian distribution:
Z x
0
2
2
1

D(x) =
e(x x0 ) /2 dx0
2
2

while the function:

double ROOT::Math::gaussian_cdf_c(double x, double sigma, double x0=0);
evaluates the upper tail of the Gaussian distribution:
Z

D(x) =
x

1
2 2

e(x x0 )

/2 2

dx0

The cumulative distributions functions are defined in the header file Math/ProbFunc.h. The majority of the CDFs are
present in the MathCore, apart from the chisquared, fdistribution, gamma and tdistribution, which are in the
MathMore library.
13.6.4.1

Inverse of the Cumulative Distribution Functions(Quantiles)

For almost all the cumulative distribution functions (_cdf) and their complements (_cdf_c) present in the library, we
provide the inverse functions. The inverse of the cumulative distribution function is called in statistics quantile function.
The functions with the extension _quantile calculate the inverse of the cumulative distribution function (lower tail
integral of the probability density function), while those with the quantile_c extension calculate the inverse of the
complement of the cumulative distribution (upper tail integral). All the inverse distributions are in the MathMore
library and are defined in the header file Math/ProbFuncInv.h.
The following picture illustrates the available statistical functions (PDF, CDF and quantiles) in the case of the normal
distribution.

Figure 13.2: PDF, CDF and quantiles in the case of the normal distribution

370

CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

13.7

Linear Algebra: SMatrix Package

The ROOT Linear algebra package is documented in a separate chapter (see Linear Algebra in ROOT). SMatrix
is a C++ package, for high performance vector and matrix computations. It has been introduced in ROOT v5.08.
It is optimized for describing small matrices and vectors and It can be used only in problems when the size of the
matrices is known at compile time, like in the tracking reconstruction of physics experiments. It is based on a C++
technique, called expression templates, to achieve an high level optimization. The C++ templates can be used to
implement vector and matrix expressions such that these expressions can be transformed at compile time to code which
is equivalent to hand optimized code in a low-level language like FORTRAN or C (see for example T. Veldhuizen,
Expression Templates, C++ Report, 1995).
The SMatrix has been developed initially by T. Glebe in Max-Planck-Institut, Heidelberg, as part of the HeraB analysis
framework. A subset of the original package has been now incorporated in the ROOT distribution, with the aim to
provide a stand-alone and high performance matrix package. The API of the current package differs from the original
one, in order to be compliant to the ROOT coding conventions.
SMatrix contains the generic ROOT::Math::SMatrix and ROOT::Math::SVector classes for describing matrices and
vectors of arbitrary dimensions and of arbitrary type. The classes are templated on the scalar type and on the size, like
number of rows and columns for a matrix . Therefore, the matrix/vector dimension has to be known at compile time.
An advantage of using the dimension as template parameters is that the correctness of dimension in the matrix/vector
operations can be checked at compile time.
SMatrix supports, since ROOT v5.10, symmetric matrices using a storage class (ROOT::Math::MatRepSym) which
contains only the N*(N+1)/2 independent element of a NxN symmetric matrix. It is not in the mandate of this package
to provide complete linear algebra functionality. It provides basic matrix and vector functions such as matrix-matrix,
matrix-vector, vector-vector operations, plus some extra functionality for square matrices, like inversion and determinant
calculation. The inversion is based on the optimized Cramer method for squared matrices of size up to 6x6.
The SMatrix package contains only header files. Normally one does not need to build any library. In the ROOT
distribution a library, libSmatrix is produced with the C++ dictionary information for squared and symmetric
matrices and vectors up to dimension 7 and based on Double_t, Float_t and Double32_t. The following paragraphs
describe the main characteristics of the matrix and vector classes. More detailed information about the SMatrix classes
API is available in the online reference documentation.

13.7.1

Example: Vector Class (SVector)

The template class ROOT::Math::SVector represents n-dimensional vectors for objects of arbitrary type. This class
has 2 template parameters, which define at compile time, its properties: 1) type of the contained elements (for example
float or double); 2) size of the vector. The use of this dictionary is mandatory if one want to use Smatrix in CINT and
with I/O.

13.7.1.1

Creating a Vector

The following constructors are available to create a vector:

Default constructor for a zero vector (all elements equal to zero).
Constructor (and assignment) from a vector expression, like v=p*q+w. Due to the expression template technique,
no temporary objects are created in this operation.
Constructor by passing directly the elements. This is possible only for vectors up to size 10.
Constructor from an iterator copying the data referred by the iterator. It is possible to specify the begin and end
of the iterator or the begin and the size. Note that for the Vector the iterator is not generic and must be of type
T*, where T is the type of the contained elements.
In the following example we assume that we are using the namespace ROOT::Math
//create an empty vector of size 3 ( v[0]=v[1]=v[2]=0)
SVector<double,3> v;
double d[3] = {1,2,3};
SVector<double,3> v(d,3); //create a vector from a C array

13.7. LINEAR ALGEBRA: SMATRIX PACKAGE

13.7.1.2

371

Accessing and Setting Methods

The single vector elements can be set or retrieved using the operator[i], operator(i) or the iterator interface. Notice
that the index starts from zero and not from one as in FORTRAN. Also no check is performed on the passed index.
The full vector elements can be set also by using the SetElements function passing a generic iterator.
double x = m(i);
x = *(m.begin()+i);
v[0] = 1;
v(1) = 2;
*(v.begin()+3) = 3;
std::vector<double> w(3);

//
//
//
//
//

return the i-th element

return the i-th element
set the first element
set the second element
set the third element

// set vector elements from a std::vector<double>::iterator

v.SetElements(w.begin(),w.end());
In addition there are methods to place a sub-vector in a vector. If the size of the sub-vector is larger than the vector
size a static assert (a compilation error) is produced.
SVector>double,N> v;
SVector>double,M> w;
// M <= N otherwise a compilation error is obtained later
// place a vector of size M starting from
// element ioff, v[ioff+i]=w[i]
v.Place_at(w,ioff);
// return a sub-vector of size M starting from
// v[ioff]: w[i]=v[ioff+i]
w = v.Sub < SVector>double,M> > (ioff);
For the vector functions see later in the Matrix and Vector Operators and Functions paragraph.

13.7.2

Example: Matrix Class (SMatrix)

The template class ROOT::Math::SMatrix represents a matrix of arbitrary type with nrows x ncol dimension. The
class has 4 template parameters, which define at compile time, its properties:
type of the contained elements, T, for example float or double;
number of rows;
number of columns;
representation type. This is a class describing the underlined storage model of the Matrix. Presently exists only
two types of this class:
ROOT::Math::MatRepStd for a general nrows x ncols matrix. This class is itself a template on the contained
type T, the number of rows and the number of columns. Its data member is an array T[nrows*ncols] containing
the matrix data. The data are stored in the row-major C convention. For example, for a matrix M, of size 3x3,
the data {a0,a1,...,a8} are stored in the following order:

a0
M = a3
a6

a1
a4
a7

a2
a5
a8

ROOT::Math::MatRepSym for a symmetric matrix of size NxN. This class is a template on the contained type and
on the symmetric matrix size N. It has as data member an array of type T of size N*(N+1)/2, containing the lower
diagonal block of the matrix. The order follows the lower diagonal block, still in a row-major convention. For
example for a symmetric 3x3 matrix the order of the 6 independent elements {a0,a1,...,a5} is:

a0
M = a1
a3

a1
a2
a4

a3
a4
a5

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CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

13.7.2.1

Creating a Matrix

The following constructors are available to create a matrix:

Default constructor for a zero matrix (all elements equal to zero).
Constructor of an identity matrix.
Copy constructor (and assignment) for a matrix with the same representation, or from a different one when
possible, for example from a symmetric to a general matrix.
Constructor (and assignment) from a matrix expression, like D=A*B+C. Due to the expression template technique,
no temporary objects are created in this operation. In the case of an operation like A=A*B+C, a temporary object
is needed and it is created automatically to store the intermediary result in order to preserve the validity of this
operation.
Constructor from a generic STL-like iterator copying the data referred by the iterator, following its order. It
is both possible to specify the begin and end of the iterator or the begin and the size. In case of a symmetric
matrix, it is required only the triangular block and the user can specify whether giving a block representing the
lower (default case) or the upper diagonal part.
Here are some examples on how to create a matrix. We use typedefs in the following examples to avoid the full
C++ names for the matrix classes. Notice that for a general matrix the representation has the default value,
ROOT::Math::MatRepStd, and it is not needed to be specified. Furthermore, for a general square matrix, the number
of column may be as well omitted.
// typedef definitions used in the following declarations
typedef ROOT::Math::SMatrix<double,3>
SMatrix33;
typedef ROOT::Math::SMatrix<double,2>
SMatrix22;
typedef ROOT::Math::SMatrix<double,3,3,
ROOT::Math::MatRepSym<double,3>> SMatrixSym3;
typedef ROOT::Math::SVector>double,2>
SVector2;
typedef ROOT::Math::SVector>double,3>
SVector3;
typedef ROOT::Math::SVector>double,6>
SVector6;
SMatrix33
m0;
// create a zero 3x3 matrix
// create an 3x3 identity matrix
SMatrix33
i = ROOT::Math::SMatrixIdentity();
double
a[9] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
// input matrix data
// create a matrix using the a[] data
SMatrix33
m(a,9);
// this will produce the 3x3 matrix
//
( 1
2
3 )
//
( 4
5
6 )
//
( 7
8
9 )
Example to fill a symmetric matrix from an std::vector:
std::vector<double> v(6);
for (int i = 0; i<6; ++i) v[i] = double(i+1);
SMatrixSym3 s(v.begin(),v.end())
// this will produce the
// symmetric matrix
//
( 1
2
4 )
//
( 2
3
5 )
//
( 4
5
6 )
//create a general matrix from a symmetric matrix (the opposite
// will not compile)
SMatrix33
m2 = s;
13.7.2.2

Accessing and Setting Methods

The matrix elements can be set using the operator()(irow,icol), where irow and icol are the row and column
indexes or by using the iterator interface. Notice that the indexes start from zero and not from one as in FORTRAN.
Furthermore, all the matrix elements can be set also by using the SetElements function passing a generic iterator. The
elements can be accessed by the same methods as well as by using the function ROOT::Math::SMatrix::apply. The
apply(i) has exactly the same behavior for general and symmetric matrices; in contrast to the iterator access methods
which behave differently (it follows the data order).

13.7. LINEAR ALGEBRA: SMATRIX PACKAGE

373

SMatrix33
m;
m(0,0) = 1;
// set the element in first row and first column
*(m.begin()+1) = 2;
// set the second element (0,1)
double d[9]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
m.SetElements(d,d+9);
// set the d[] values in m
double x = m(2,1);
// return the element in 3
x = m.apply(7);
// return the 8-th element (row=2,col=1)
x = *(m.begin()+7);
// return the 8-th element (row=2,col=1)
// symmetric matrices
//(note the difference in behavior between apply and the iterators)
x = *(m.begin()+4)
// return the element (row=2,col=1)
x = m.apply(7);
// returns again the (row=2,col=1) element
There are methods to place and/or retrieve ROOT::Math::SVector objects as rows or columns in (from) a matrix.
In addition one can put (get) a sub-matrix as another ROOT::Math::SMatrix object in a matrix. If the size of the
sub-vector or sub-matrix is larger than the matrix size a static assert (a compilation error) is produced. The non-const
methods are:
SMatrix33 m;
SVector2 v2(1,2);
// place a vector in the first row from
// element (0,1) : m(0,1)=v2[0]
m.Place_in_row(v2,0,1);
// place the vector in the second column from
// (0,1) : m(0,1) = v2[0]
m.Place in_col(v2,0,1);
SMatrix22 m2;
// place m2 in m starting from the
// element (1,1) : m(1,1) = m2(0,0)
m.Place_at(m2,1,1);
SVector3 v3(1,2,3);
// set v3 as the diagonal elements
// of m : m(i,i) = v3[i] for i=0,1,2
m.SetDiagonal(v3)
The const methods retrieving contents (getting slices of a matrix) are:
a = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
SMatrix33
m(a,a+9);
SVector3 irow = m.Row(0);
SVector3 jcol = m.Col(1);

// return as vector the first row

// return as vector the second column

// return a slice of the first row from

// (0,1): r2[0]= m(0,1); r2[1]=m(0,2)
SVector2 r2
= m.SubRow<SVector2> (0,1);
// return a slice of the second column from
// (0,1): c2[0] = m(0,1); c2[1] = m(1,1)
SVector2 c2
= m.SubCol<SVector2> (1,0);
// return a sub-matrix 2x2 with the upper left corner at(1,1)
SMatrix22 subM = m.Sub<SMatrix22>
(1,1);
// return the diagonal element in a SVector
SVector3 diag = m.Diagonal();
// return the upper(lower) block of the matrix m
SVector6 vub = m.UpperBlock();
// vub = [ 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 ]
SVector6 vlb = m.LowerBlock();
// vlb = [ 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 ]
13.7.2.3

Linear Algebra Matrix Functions (Inversion, Determinant)

Only limited linear algebra functionality is available for SMatrix. It is possible for squared matrices NxN, to find the
inverse or to calculate the determinant. Different inversion algorithms are used if the matrix is smaller than 6x6 or if

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CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

it is symmetric. In the case of a small matrix, a faster direct inversion is used. For a large (N>6)symmetric matrix
the Bunch-Kaufman diagonal pivoting method is used while for a large (N>6) general matrix an LU factorization is
performed using the same algorithm as in the CERNLIB routine dinv.
// Invert a NxN matrix.
// The inverted matrix replaces the existing one if the
// result is successful
bool ret = m.Invert();
// return the inverse matrix of m.
// If the inversion fails ifail is different than zero
int ifail = 0;
ifail = m.Inverse(ifail);

???

// determinant of a square matrix - calculate the determinant

// modyfing the matrix content and returns it if the calculation
// was successful
double det;
bool ret = m.Det(det);
// calculate determinant by using a temporary matrix; preserves
// matrix content
bool ret = n.Det2(det);

13.7.3

Example: Matrix and Vector Functions and Operators

13.7.3.1

Matrix and Vector Operators

The ROOT::Math::SVector and ROOT::Math::SMatrix classes define the following operators described below. The m1,
m2, m3 are vectors or matrices of the same type (and size) and a is a scalar value:
m1 == m2
m1 != m2
m1 < m2
m1 > m2

//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//

returns whether m1 is equal to m2

(element by element comparison)
returns whether m1 is NOT equal to m2
(element by element comparison)
returns whether m1 is less than m2
(element wise comparison)
returns whether m1 is greater than m2
(element wise comparison)

// in the following m1 and m3 can be general and m2 symmetric,

// but not vice-versa
m1
m1
m3
m1

+= m2
-= m2
= m1 + m2
- m2

//
//
//
//

add m2 to m1
subtract m2 to m1
addition
subtraction

// Multiplication and division via a scalar value a

m3 = a*m1; m3 = m1*a; m3 = m1/a;
Vector-Vector multiplication: The operator * defines an element by element multiplication between vectors.
For the standard vector-vector algebraic multiplication returning a scalar, vTv (dot product), one must use the
ROOT::Math::Dot function. In addition, the Cross (only for vector sizes of 3), ROOT::Math::Cross, and the
Tensor product, ROOT::Math::TensorProd, are defined.
P
Matrix - Vector multiplication: The operator * defines the matrix-vector multiplication: yi = j Mi,j xj . The
operation compiles only if the matrix and the vectors have the right sizes.
//M is a N1xN2 matrix, x is a N2 size vector, y is a N1 size vector
y = M * x

13.8. MINUIT2 PACKAGE

Matrix - Matrix multiplication: The operator * defines the matrix-matrix multiplication: Ci,j =

375
P

Ai,k Bk,j .

// A is a N1xN2 matrix, B is a N2xN3 matrix and C is a N1xN3 matrix

C = A * B
The operation compiles only if the matrices have the right size. In the case that A and B are symmetric matrices, C is a
general one, since their product is not guaranteed to be symmetric.

13.7.4

Matrix and Vector Functions

The most used matrix functions are:

ROOT::Math::Transpose(M) returns the transpose matrix MT
ROOT::Math::Similarity(v,M) returns the scalar value resulting from the matrix-vector product vTMv
ROOT::Math::Similarity(U,M) returns the matrix resulting from the product: U M UT. If M is symmetric, the
returned resulting matrix is also symmetric
ROOT::Math::SimilarityT(U,M) returns the matrix resulting from the product: UT M U. If M is symmetric, the
returned resulting matrix is also symmetric
The major vector functions are:
ROOT::Math::Dot(v1,v2) returns the scalar value resulting from the vector dot product
ROOT::Math::Cross(v1,v2) returns the vector cross product for two vectors of size 3. Note that the Cross
product is not defined for other vector sizes
ROOT::Math::Unit(v) returns unit vector. One can use also the v.Unit()method.
ROOT::Math::TensorProd(v1,v2) returns a general matrix Mof size N1xN2 resulting from the tensor product
between the vector v1 of size N1 and v2 of size N2:
For a list of all the available matrix and vector functions see the SMatrix online reference documentation.
13.7.4.1

Matrix and Vector I/O

One can print (or write in an output stream) Vectors and Matrices) using the Print method or the << operator:
// m is a SMatrix or a SVector object
m.Print(std::cout);
std::cout << m << std::endl;
In the ROOT distribution, the CINT dictionary is generated for SMatrix and SVector for for Double_t, Float_t and
Double32_t up to dimension 7. This allows the possibility to store them in a ROOT file.

13.8

Minuit2 Package

Minuit2 is a new object-oriented implementation, written in C++, of the popular MINUIT minimization package.
Compared with the TMinuit class, which is a direct conversion from FORTRAN to C++, Minuit2 is a complete
redesign and re-implementation of the package. This new version provides all the functionality present in the old
FORTRAN version, with almost equivalent numerical accuracy and computational performances. Furthermore, it
contains new functionality, like the possibility to set single side parameter limits or the FUMILI algorithm (see FUMILI
Minimization Package in Fitting Histograms chapter), which is an optimized method for least square and log
likelihood minimizations. Minuit2 has been originally developed by M. Winkler and F. James in the SEAL project.
More information can be found on the MINUIT Web Site and in particular at the following documentation page at
http://www.cern.ch/minuit/doc/doc.html.
The API has been then changed in this new version to follow the ROOT coding convention (function names starting with capital letters) and the classes have been moved inside the namespace ROOT::Minuit2. In addition, the
ROOT distribution contains classes needed to integrate Minuit2 in the ROOT framework, like TFitterMinuit and
TFitterFumili. Minuit2 can be used in ROOT as another fitter plug-in. For example for using it in histogram fitting,
one only needs to do:

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CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

TVirtualFitter::SetDefaultFitter("Minuit2"); //or Fumili2 for the
// FUMILI algorithmhistogram->Fit();

For minimization problem, providing an FCN function to minimize, one can do:
TVirtualFitter::SetDefaultFitter("Minuit2");
TVirtualFitter * minuit2 = TVirtualFitter::Fitter(0,2);
Then set the parameters, the FCN and minimize using the TVirtualFitter methods: SetParameter, SetFCN and
ExecuteCommand. The FCN function can also be given to Minuit2 as an instance of a class implementing the
ROOT::Minuit2::FCNBase interface. In this case one must use directly the TFitterMinuit class via the method
SetMinuitFCN.
Examples on how to use the Minuit2 and Fumili2 plug-ins are provided in the tutorials directory $ROOTSYS/tutorials/fit:
minuit2FitBench.C, minuit2FitBench2D.C and minuit2GausFit.C. More information on the classes and functions present in Minuit2 is available at online reference documentation. In addition, the C++ MINUIT User
Guide provides all the information needed for using directly the package without TVirtualFitter interface (see
http://seal.cern.ch/documents/minuit/mnusersguide.pdf). Useful information on MINUIT and minimization in general
is provided in the following documents:
F. James, Minuit Tutorial on Function Minimization ( http://seal.cern.ch/documents/minuit/mntutorial.pdf); F.
James, The Interpretation of Errors in Minuit ( http://seal.cern.ch/documents/minuit/mnerror.pdf);

13.9

ROOT Statistics Classes

13.9.1

Classes for Computing Limits and Confidence Levels

TFeldmanCousins class calculates the CL upper/lower limit for a Poisson process using the Feldman-Cousins method
(as described in PRD V57 #7, p3873-3889). No treatment is provided in this method for the uncertainties in the signal
or the background.
TRolke computes confidence intervals for the rate of a Poisson process in the presence of background and efficiency,
using the profile likelihood technique for treating the uncertainties in the efficiency and background estimate. The
signal is always assumed to be Poisson; background may be Poisson, Gaussian, or user-supplied; efficiency may be
Binomial, Gaussian, or user-supplied. See publication at Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A551:493-503,2005.
TLimit class computes 95% C.L. limits using the Likelihood ratio semi-Bayesian method ( method; see e.g. T. Junk,
NIM A434, p. 435-443, 1999). It takes signal background and data histograms wrapped in a TLimitDataSource as
input, and runs a set of Monte Carlo experiments in order to compute the limits. If needed, inputs are fluctuated
according to systematic.

13.9.2

Specialized Classes for Fitting

TFractionFitter fits Monte Carlo (MC) fractions to data histogram (a la HMCMLL, R. Barlow and C. Beeston, Comp.
Phys. Comm. 77 (1993) 219-228). It takes into account both data and Monte Carlo statistical uncertainties through a
likelihood fit using Poisson statistics. However, the template (MC) predictions are also varied within statistics, leading
to additional contributions to the overall likelihood. This leads to many more fit parameters (one per bin per template),
but the minimization with respect to these additional parameters is done analytically rather than introducing them as
formal fit parameters. Some special care needs to be taken in the case of bins with zero content.
TMultiDimFit implements multi-dimensional function parameterization for multi-dimensional data by fitting them to
multi-dimensional data using polynomial or Chebyshev or Legendre polynomial
TSpectrum contains advanced spectra processing functions for 1- and 2-dimensional background estimation, smoothing,
deconvolution, peak search and fitting, and orthogonal transformations.

RooFit is a complete toolkit for fitting and data analysis modeling (see the RooFit User Guide at ftp://root.cern.ch/root/doc/RooFi
29.pdf)
TSplot to disentangle signal from background via an extended maximum likelihood fit and with a tool to access the
quality and validity of the fit producing distributions for the control variables. (see M. Pivk and F.R. Le Diberder,
Nucl. Inst. Meth.A 555, 356-369, 2005).

13.9. ROOT STATISTICS CLASSES

13.9.3

377

Multi-variate Analysis Classes

TMultiLayerPerceptron is a Neural Network class (see for more details the chapter Neural Networks).
TPrincipal provides the Principal Component Analysis.
TRobustEstimator is a robust method for minimum covariance determinant estimator (MCD).
TMVA is a package for multivariate data analysis (see http://tmva.sourceforge.net/docu/TMVAUsersGuide.pdf the
Users Guide).

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CHAPTER 13. MATH LIBRARIES IN ROOT

Chapter 14

Linear Algebra in ROOT

The linear algebra package is supposed to give a complete environment in ROOT to perform calculations like equation
solving and eigenvalue decompositions. Most calculations are performed in double precision. For backward compatibility,
some classes are also provided in single precision like TMatrixF, TMatrixFSym and TVectorF. Copy constructors exist
to transform these into their double precision equivalent, thereby allowing easy access to decomposition and eigenvalue
classes, only available in double precision.
The choice was made not to provide the less frequently used complex matrix classes. If necessary, users can always
reformulate the calculation in 2 parts, a real one and an imaginary part. Although, a linear equation involving complex
numbers will take about a factor of 8 more computations, the alternative of introducing a set of complex classes in this
non-template library would create a major maintenance challenge.
Another choice was to fill in both the upper-right corner and the bottom-left corner of a symmetric matrix. Although
most algorithms use only the upper-right corner, implementation of the different matrix views was more straightforward
this way. When stored only the upper-right part is written to file.
For a detailed description of the interface, the user should look at the root reference guide at: http://root.cern.ch/root/
Reference.html

14.1

Overview of Matrix Classes

The figure below shows an overview of the classes available in the linear algebra library,libMatrix.so. At the
center is the base class TMatrixDBase from which three different matrix classes, TMatrixD, TMatrixDSym and
TMatrixDFSparse derive. The user can define customized matrix operations through the classes TElementActionD
and TElementsPosActionD.
Reference to different views of the matrix can be created through the classes on the right-hand side, see Matrix Views.
These references provide a natural connection to vectors.
Matrix decompositions (used in equation solving and matrix inversion) are available through the classes on the left-hand
side (see Matrix Decompositions). They inherit from the TDecompBase class. The Eigen Analysis is performed
through the classes at the top, see Matrix Eigen Analysis. In both cases, only some matrix types can be analyzed.
For instance, TDecompChol will only accept symmetric matrices as defined TMatrixDSym. The assignment operator
behaves somewhat different than of most other classes. The following lines will result in an error:
TMatrixD a(3,4);
TMatrixD b(5,6);
b = a;
It required to first resize matrix b to the shape of a.
TMatrixD a(3,4);
TMatrixD b(5,6);
b.ResizeTo(a);
b = a;
379

380

CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

Figure 14.1: Overview of matrix classes

14.2. MATRIX PROPERTIES

14.2

381

Matrix Properties

A matrix has five properties, which are all set in the constructor:
precision - float or double. In the first case you will use the TMatrixF class family, in the latter case the
TMatrixD one;
type - general (TMatrixD), symmetric (TMatrixDSym) or sparse (TMatrixDSparse);
size - number of rows and columns;
index - range start of row and column index. By default these start at zero;
sparse map - this property is only relevant for a sparse matrix. It indicates where elements are unequal zero.

14.2.1

Accessing Properties

The following table shows the methods to access the information about the relevant matrix property:
Method
Int_t GetRowLwb ()
Int_t GetRowUpb ()
Int_t GetNrows ()
Int_t GetColLwb ()
Int_t GetColUpb ()
Int_t GetNcols ()
Int_t GetNoElements ()
Double_t GetTol ()
Int_t *GetRowIndexArray ()
Int_t *GetColIndexArray ()

Descriptions
row lower-bound index
row upper-bound index
number of rows
column lower-bound index
column upper-bound index
number of columns
number of elements, for a dense matrix this equals: fNrows x
fNcols
tolerance number which is used in decomposition operations
for sparse matrices, access to the row index of fNrows+1 entries
for sparse matrices, access to the column index of fNelems entries

The last two methods in this table are specific to the sparse matrix, which is implemented according to the HarwellBoeing format. Here, besides the usual shape/size descriptors of the matrix like fNrows, fRowLwb, fNcols and fColLwb,
we also store a row index, fRowIndex and column index, fColIndex for the elements unequal zero:
fRowIndex[0,..,fNrows]:
fColIndex[0,..,fNelems-1]:

Stores for each row the index range of the elements in the data and
column array
Stores the column number for each data element != 0.

The code to print all matrix elements unequal zero would look like:
TMatrixDSparse a;
const Int_t *rIndex = a.GetRowIndexArray();
const Int_t *cIndex = a.GetColIndexArray();
const Double_t *pData = a.GetMatrixArray();
for (Int_t irow = 0; irow < a.getNrows(); irow++) {
const Int_t sIndex = rIndex[irow];
const Int_t eIndex = rIndex[irow+1];
for (Int_t index = sIndex; index < eIndex; index++) {
const Int_t icol = cIndex[index];
const Double_t data = pData[index];
printf("data(%d,%d) = %.4en",irow+a.GetfRowLwb(),
icol+a.GetColLwb(),data);
}
}

14.2.2

Setting Properties

The following table shows the methods to set some of the matrix properties. The resizing procedures will maintain the
matrix elements that overlap with the old shape. The optional last argument nr_zeros is only relevant for sparse

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

matrices. If supplied, it sets the number of non-zero elements. If it is smaller than the number overlapping with the old
matrix, only the first (row-wise)nr_zeros are copied to the new matrix.
Method
SetTol (Double_t tol)
ResizeTo (Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols,
Int_t nr_nonzeros=-1)
ResizeTo(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,
Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb,
Int_t nr_nonzeros=-1)
SetRowIndexArray (Int_t *data)
SetColIndexArray (Int_t *data)
SetSparseIndex (Int_t nelems new)
SetSparseIndex (const TMatrixDBase &a)
SetSparseIndexAB (const TMatrixDSparse &a, const
TMatrixDSparse &b)

Descriptions
set the tolerance number
change matrix shape to nrows x ncols. Index will
start at zero
change matrix shape to
row_lwb:row_upb x col_lwb:col_upb
for sparse matrices, set the row index. The array
data should contains at leastfNrows+1 entries
column lower-bound index
for sparse matrices, set the column index. The
array data should contains at least fNelems entries
allocate memory for a sparse map of nelems_new
elements and copy (if exists) at most nelems_new
matrix elements over to the new structure
copy the sparse map from matrix a Note that this
can be a dense matrix!
set the sparse map to the same of the map of
matrix a and b

The second half of the table is only relevant for sparse matrices. These methods define the sparse structure. It should
be clear that a call to any of these methods has to be followed by a SetMatrixArray (. . . ) which will supply the
matrix data, see the next chapter Creating and Filling a Matrix.

14.3

Creating and Filling a Matrix

The matrix constructors are listed in the next table. In the simplest ones, only the number of rows and columns is
given. In a slightly more elaborate version, one can define the row and column index range. Finally, one can also define
the matrix data in the constructor. In Matrix Operators and Methods we will encounter more fancy constructors that
will allow arithmetic operations.
TMatrixD(Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols)
TMatrixD(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb)
TMatrixD(Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols,const Double_t *data, Option_t option= "")
TMatrixD(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb,
const Double_t *data,Option_t *option="")
TMatrixDSym(Int_t nrows)
TMatrixDSym(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb)
TMatrixDSym(Int_t nrows,const Double_t *data,Option_t *option="")
TMatrixDSym(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,const Double_t *data, Option_t *opt="")
TMatrixDSparse(Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols)
TMatrixDSparse(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb, Int_t col_upb )
TMatrixDSparse(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb,
Int_t nr_nonzeros,Int_t *row,Int_t *col,Double_t *data)
If only the matrix shape is defined in the constructor, matrix data has to be supplied and possibly the sparse structure.
In Setting Properties was discussed how to set the sparse structure.
Several methods exist to fill a matrix with data:
SetMatrixArray(const Double_t*data,Option_t*option=""), copies the array data. If option="F", the array fills
the matrix column-wise else row-wise. This option is only implemented for TMatrixD and TMatrixDSym. It is expected
that the array data contains at least fNelems entries.
SetMatrixArray(Int_t nr,Int_t *irow,Int_t *icol,Double_t *data), is only available for sparse matrices. The
three arrays should each contain nr entries with row index, column index and data entry. Only the entries with
non-zero data value are inserted!
operator()or operator[], these operators provide the easiest way to fill a matrix but are in particular for a sparse
matrix expensive. If no entry for slot (i,j) is found in the sparse index table it will be entered, which involves some
memory management! Therefore, before invoking this method in a loop it is wise to set the index table first through a
call to the SetSparseIndex method.

14.4. MATRIX OPERATORS AND METHODS

383

SetSub(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t col_lwb,const TMatrixDBase &source), the matrix to be inserted at position

(row_lwb,col_lwb) can be both, dense or sparse.
Use(...) allows inserting another matrix or data array without actually copying the data. Next table shows the
different flavors for the different matrix types.
Use(TMatrixD &a)
Use(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb,Double_t *d ata)
Use(Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols,Double_t *data)
Use(TMatrixDSym &a)
Use(Int_t nrows,Double_t *data)
Use(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Double_t *data)
Use(TMatrixDSparse &a)
Use(Int_t row_lwb,Int_t row_upb,Int_t col_lwb,Int_t col_upb,Int_t nr_no nzeros,
Int_t *pRowIndex,Int_t *pColIndex,Double_t *pData)
Use(Int_t nrows,Int_t ncols,Int_t nr_nonzeros,Int_t *pRowIndex,
Int_t *pColIndex,Double_t *pData)
Below follow a few examples of creating and filling a matrix. First we create a Hilbert matrix by copying an array.
TMatrixD h(5,5);
TArrayD data(25);
for (Int_t = 0; i < 25; i++) {
const Int_t ir = i/5;
const Int_t ic = i%5;
data[i] = 1./(ir+ic);
}
h.SetMatrixArray(data.GetArray());
We also could assign the data array to the matrix without actually copying it.
TMatrixD h; h.Use(5,5,data.GetArray());
h.Invert();
The array data now contains the inverted matrix. Finally, create a unit matrix in sparse format.
TMatrixDSparse unit1(5,5);
TArrayI row(5),col(5);
for (Int_t i = 0; i < 5; i++) row[i] = col[i] = i;
TArrayD data(5); data.Reset(1.);
unit1.SetMatrixArray(5,row.GetArray(),col.GetArray(),data.GetArray());
TMatrixDSparse unit2(5,5);
unit2.SetSparseIndex(5);
unit2.SetRowIndexArray(row.GetArray());
unit2.SetColIndexArray(col.GetArray());
unit2.SetMatrixArray(data.GetArray());

14.4

Matrix Operators and Methods

It is common to classify matrix/vector operations according to BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines) levels, see
following table:
BLAS level
1
2
3

operations
vector-vector
matrix-vector matrix
matrix-matrix

example
xT y
Ax
AB

floating-point operations
n
n2
n3

Most level 1, 2 and 3 BLAS are implemented. However, we will present them not according to that classification
scheme it is already boring enough.

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

14.4.1

Arithmetic Operations between Matrices

Description
element
wise sum
element wise subtraction
matrix multiplication

element wise multiplication

element wise division

14.4.2

Format
C=A+B
A+=B
Add (A,alpha,B)
TMatrixD(A,TMatrixD::kPlus,B)
C=A-B A-=B
TMatrixD(A,TMatrixD::kMinus,B)
C=A*B
A*=B
C.Mult(A,B)
TMatrixD(A,TMatrixD::kMult,B)
TMatrixD(A, TMatrixD::kTransposeMult,B)
TMatrixD(A, TMatrixD::kMultTranspose,B)
ElementMult(A,B)
ElementDiv(A,B)

Comment
overwrites A
A = A + B constructor
overwrites A
constructor
overwrites A
constructor of A.B
constructor of AT .B
constructor of A.B T
A(i,j)*= B(i,j)
A(i,j)/= B(i,j)

Arithmetic Operations between Matrices and Real Numbers

Description
element wise sum
element wise subtraction
matrix multiplication

14.4.3

Format
C=r+A C=A+r A+=r
C=r-A C=A-r A-=r
C=r*A C=A*r A*=r

Comment
overwrites A
overwrites A
overwrites A

Comparisons and Boolean Operations

The following table shows element wise comparisons between two matrices:
Format
A == B
A != B
A > B
A >= B
A < B
A <= B
AreCompatible(A,B)
Compare(A,B)
VerifyMatrixIdentity(A,B,verb, maxDev)

Output
Bool_t
matrix
matrix
matrix
matrix
matrix
Bool_t
Bool_t

Description
equal to
Not equal
Greater than
Greater than or equal to
Smaller than
Smaller than or equal to
Compare matrix properties
return summary of comparison
Check matrix identity within maxDev
tolerance

The following table shows element wise comparisons between matrix and real:
Format
A == r
A != r
A>r
A >= r
A<r
A <= r
VerifyMatrixValue(A,r,verb, maxDev)

14.4.4
Format

Output
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t

Matrix Norms
Output

Description

Description
equal to
Not equal
Greater than
Greater than or equal to
Smaller than
Smaller than or equal to
Compare matrix value with r within
maxDev tolerance

14.5. MATRIX VIEWS

385

A.RowNorm()
A.NormInf()
A.ColNorm()
A.Norm1()
A.E2Norm()
A.NonZeros()
A.Sum()
A.Min()
A.Max()

Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t
Int_t
Double_t
Double_t
Double_t

A.NormByColumn (v,"D")
A.NormByRow (v,"D")

TMatrixD
TMatrixD

14.4.5

P
normP
induced by the infinity vector norm, maxi i |Aij |
maxi i |Aij |
P
normP
induced by the 1 vector norm, maxj i |Aij |
maxj i |Aij |
Square
of the Euclidean norm,
P
2
ji (Aij )
number
of elements unequal zero
P
ji (Aij )
minij (Aij )
maxij (Aij )
Aij / = i , divide each matrix column by vector v. If
the second argument is M, the column is multiplied.
Aij / = j , divide each matrix row by vector v. If the
second argument is M, the row is multiplied.

Miscellaneous Operators

Format
A.Zero()
A.Abs()
A.Sqr()
A.Sqrt()
A.UnitMatrix()
A.Randomize
(alpha,beta,seed)
A.T()
A.Transpose(B)
A.Invert(&det)

Output
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX
TMatrixX

A.InvertFast(&det)

TMatrixX

A.Rank1Update(v,alpha)

TMatrixX

A.RandomizePD(alpha,beta,seed)

TMatrixX

Description
Aij = 0
Aij = |Aij |
2
Aij = A
pij
Aij = (Aij )
Aij = 1 for i ==j
S else 0
Aij = ( ) (0, 1) + a random matrix is generated
with elements uniformly distributed between and
Aij = Aji
Aij = Bji
Invert matrix A. If the optional pointer to the Double_t
argument det is supplied, the matrix determinant is
calculated.
like Invert but for matrices i =(6x6)a faster but less
accurate Cramer algorithm is used
Perform with vector v a rank 1 operation on the matrix:
T
A = A + ..S
Aij = ( ) (0, 1) + a random symmetric
positive-definite matrix is generated with elements
uniformly distributed between and

Output TMatrixX indicates that the returned matrix is of the same type as A, being TMatrixD, TMatrixDSym or
TMatrixDSparse. Next table shows miscellaneous operations for TMatrixD.
Format
A.Rank1Update(v1,v2,alpha)

14.5

Output
TMatrixD

Description
Perform with vector v1 and v2, a rank 1
operation on the matrix: A = A + ..2T

Matrix Views

Another way to access matrix elements is through the matrix-view classes, TMatrixDRow, TMatrixDColumn,
TMatrixDDiag and TMatrixDSub (each has also a const version which is obtained by simply appending const to the
class name). These classes create a reference to the underlying matrix, so no memory management is involved. The
next table shows how the classes access different parts of the matrix:
class
TMatrixDRow const(X,i) TMatrixDRow(X,i)

view

x00

xi0

xn0

x0n
...

xij

...

xin

xnn

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

TMatrixDColumn const(X,j)
TMatrixDColumn(X,j)

x00

x0j
...
xij
...
xnj

xn0

TMatrixDDiag const(X) TMatrixDDiag(X)

...
...
xn0

xnn

x00

x0n
xij
xlj

...
...

...

xn0

14.5.1

xnn
x0n

x00

TMatrixDSub const(X,i,l,j,k)
TMatrixDSub(X,i,l,j,k)

x0n

xik
xlk
xnn

View Operators

For the matrix views TMatrixDRow, TMatrixDColumn and TMatrixDDiag, the necessary assignment operators are
available to interact with the vector class TVectorD. The sub matrix view TMatrixDSub has links to the matrix classes
TMatrixD and TMatrixDSym. The next table summarizes how the access individual matrix elements in the matrix
views:
Format
TMatrixDRow(A,i)(j) TMatrixDRow(A,i)[j]
TMatrixDColumn(A,j)(i) TMatrixDColumn(A,j)[i]
TMatrixDDiag(A(i) TMatrixDDiag(A[i]
TMatrixDSub(A(i) TMatrixDSub(A,rl,rh,cl,ch)(i,j)

Comment
element Aij
element Aij
element Aij
element Aij
element Arl+i,cl+j

The next two tables show the possible operations with real numbers, and the operations between the matrix views:
Description
assign real

Format
TMatrixDRow(A,i) = r
TMatrixDColumn(A,j) = r
TMatrixDDiag(A) = r
TMatrixDSub(A,i,l,j,k) = r

Comment
row i
column j
matrix diagonal
sub matrix

add real

TMatrixDRow(A,i) += r
TMatrixDColumn(A,j) += r
TMatrixDDiag(A) += r
TMatrixDSub(A,i,l,j,k) +=r

row i
column j
matrix diagonal
sub matrix

multiply with real

TMatrixDRow(A,i) *= r
TMatrixDColumn(A,j) *= r
TMatrixDDiag(A) *= r
TMatrixDSub(A,i,l,j,k) *= r

row i
column j
matrix diagonal
sub matrix

Description
add matrix slice

Format
TMatrixDRow(A,i1) +=
TMatrixDRow const(B,i2)
TMatrixDColumn(A,j1) +=
TMatrixDColumn const(A,j2)
TMatrixDDiag(A) += TMatrixDDiag
const(B)

Comment
add row i2 to row i1
add column j2 to column j1
add B diagonal to A diagonal

14.6. MATRIX DECOMPOSITIONS

multiply matrix slice

TMatrixDRow(A,i1) *=
TMatrixDRow const(B,i2)
TMatrixDColumn(A,j1) *=
TMatrixDColumn const(A,j2)
TMatrixDDiag(A) *= TMatrixDDiag
const(B)
TMatrixDSub(A,i1,l1,j1,k1) *=
TMatrixDSub(B,i2,l2,j2,k2)
TMatrixDSub(A,i,l,j,k) *= B

387
multiply row i2 with row i1 element wise
multiply column j2 with column j1 element
wise
multiply B diagonal with A diagonal
element wise
multiply sub matrix of A with sub matrix
of B
multiply sub matrix of A with matrix of B

In the current implementation of the matrix views, the user could perform operations on a symmetric matrix that
violate the symmetry. No checking is done. For instance, the following code violates the symmetry.
TMatrixDSym A(5);
A.UnitMatrix();
TMatrixDRow(A,1)[0] = 1;
TMatrixDRow(A,1)[2] = 1;

14.5.2

View Examples

Inserting row i1into rowi2 of matrix A can easily accomplished through:

TMatrixDRow(A,i1) = TMatrixDRow(A,i2)
Which more readable than:
const Int_t ncols = A.GetNcols();
Double_t *start = A.GetMatrixArray();
Double_t *rp1 = start+i*ncols;
const Double_t *rp2 = start+j*ncols;
while (rp1 < start+ncols) *rp1++ = *rp2++;
Check that the columns of a Haar -matrix of order order are indeed orthogonal:
const TMatrixD haar = THaarMatrixD(order);
TVectorD colj(1<<order);
TVectorD coll(1<<order);
for (Int_t j = haar.GetColLwb(); j <= haar.GetColUpb(); j++) {
colj = TMatrixDColumn_const(haar,j);
Assert(TMath::Abs(colj*colj-1.0) <= 1.0e-15);

for (Int_t l = j+1; l <= haar.GetColUpb(); l++) {

coll = TMatrixDColumn_const(haar,l);
Assert(TMath::Abs(colj*coll) <= 1.0e-15);
}

Multiplying part of a matrix with another part of that matrix (they can overlap)
TMatrixDSub(m,1,3,1,3) *= m.GetSub(5,7,5,7);

14.6

Matrix Decompositions

The linear algebra package offers several classes to assist in matrix decompositions. Each of the decomposition methods
performs a set of matrix transformations to facilitate solving a system of linear equations, the formation of inverses as
well as the estimation of determinants and condition numbers. More specifically the classes TDecompLU, TDecompBK,
TDecompChol, TDecompQRH and TDecompSVD give a simple and consistent interface to the LU, Bunch-Kaufman, Cholesky,
QR and SVD decompositions. All of these classes are derived from the base class TDecompBase of which the important
methods are listed in next table:

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

Method
Bool_t Decompose()
Double_t Condition()
void Det(Double_t &d1,Double_t &d2)
Bool_t Solve(TVectorD &b)
TVectorD Solve(const TVectorD &b,Bool_t &ok)
Bool_t Solve(TMatrixDColumn &b)
Bool_t TransSolve(TVectorD &b)
TVectorD TransSolve(const TVectorD b, Bool_t &ok)
Bool_t TransSolve(TMatrixDColumn &b)
Bool_t MultiSolve(TMatrixD &B)
void Invert(TMatrixD &inv)
TMatrixD Invert()

Action
perform the matrix decomposition
calculate ||A||1 ||A-1||1, see Condition
number
the determinant is d1 2d2 . Expressing the
determinant this way makes under/over-flow
very unlikely
solve Ax=b; vectorb is supplied through the
argument and replaced with solution x
solve Ax=b; x is returned
solve Ax=column(B,j);column(B,j) is
supplied through the argument and replaced
with solution
x
solve AT x = b; vector b is supplied through
the argument and replaced with solution x
solve AT x = b; vector x is returned
solve ATx=column(B,j); column(B,j) is
supplied through the argument and replaced
with solution
x
solve AT x = b;. matrix B is supplied through
the argument and replaced with solution X
call to MultiSolve with as input argument
the unit matrix. Note that for a matrix (m x n)
- A with m > n, a pseudo-inverse is calculated
call to MultiSolve with as input argument
the unit matrix. Note that for a matrix (m x n)
- A with m > n, a pseudo-inverse is calculated

Through TDecompSVD and TDecompQRH one can solve systems for a (m x n) - A with m>n. However, care has to be taken
for methods where the input vector/matrix is replaced by the solution. For instance in the method Solve(b), the
input vector should have length m but only the first n entries of the output contain the solution. For the Invert(B)
method, the input matrix B should have size (m x n) so that the returned (m x n) pseudo-inverse can fit in it.
The classes store the state of the decomposition process of matrix A in the user-definable part of TObject::fBits, see
the next table. This guarantees the correct order of the operations:
kMatrixSet
kDecomposed
kDetermined
kCondition
kSingular

A assigned
A decomposed, bit kMatrixSet must have been set.
det A calculated, bit kDecomposed must have been set.
||A||1 ||A-1||1 is calculated bit kDecomposed must have been set.
A is singular

The state is reset by assigning a new matrix through SetMatrix(TMatrixD &A) for TDecompBK and TDecompChol
(actually SetMatrix(TMatrixDSym &A) and SetMatrix(TMatrixDSparse &A) for TMatrixDSparse).
As the code example below shows, the user does not have to worry about the decomposition step before calling a solve
method, because the decomposition class checks before invoking Solve that the matrix has been decomposed.
TVectorD b = ..;
TMatrixD a = ..;
.
TDecompLU lu(a);
Bool_t ok;
lu.Solve(b,ok);
In the next example, we show again the same decomposition but now performed in a loop and all necessary steps are
manually invoked. This example also demonstrates another very important point concerning memory management! Note
that the vector, matrix and decomposition class are constructed outside the loop since the dimensions of vector/matrix
are constant. If we would have replaced lu.SetMatrix(a) by TDecompLU lu(a), we would construct/deconstruct the
array elements of lu on the stack.
TVectorD b(n);
TMatrixD a(n,n);
TDecompLU lu(n);

14.6. MATRIX DECOMPOSITIONS

389

Bool_t ok;
for (....) {
b = ..;
a = ..;
lu.SetMatrix(a);
lu.Decompose();
lu.Solve(b,ok);
}

14.6.1

Tolerances and Scaling

The tolerance parameter fTol (a member of the base class TDecompBase) plays a crucial role in all operations of the
decomposition classes. It gives the user a tool to monitor and steer the operations its default value is where 1 + = 1.
If you do not want to be bothered by the following considerations, like in most other linear algebra packages, just set
the tolerance with SetTol to an arbitrary small number. The tolerance number is used by each decomposition method
to decide whether the matrix is near singular, except of course SVD that can handle singular matrices. This will be
checked in a different way for any decomposition. For instance in LU, a matrix is considered singular in the solving
stage when a diagonal element of the decomposed matrix is smaller than fTol. Here an important point is raised. The
Decompose() method is successful as long no zero diagonal element is encountered. Therefore, the user could perform
decomposition and only after this step worry about the tolerance number.
If the matrix is flagged as being singular, operations with the decomposition will fail and will return matrices or vectors
that are invalid. If one would like to monitor the tolerance parameter but not have the code stop in case of a number
smaller than fTol, one could proceed as follows:
TVectorD b = ..;
TMatrixD a = ..;
.
TDecompLU lu(a);
Bool_t ok;
TVectorD x = lu.Solve(b,ok);
Int_t nr = 0;
while (!ok) {
lu.SetMatrix(a);
lu.SetTol(0.1*lu.GetTol());
if (nr++ > 10) break;
x = lu.Solve(b,ok);
}
if (x.IsValid())
cout << "solved with tol =" << lu.GetTol() << endl;
else
cout << "solving failed " << endl;
The observant reader will notice that by scaling the complete matrix by some small number the decomposition will
detect a singular matrix. In this case, the user will have to reduce the tolerance number by this factor. (For CPU time
saving we decided not to make this an automatic procedure).

14.6.2

Condition number

The numerical accuracy of the solution x in Ax = b can be accurately estimated by calculating the condition number k
of matrix A, which is defined as:
P
k = ||A||1 ||A1 ||1 where ||A||1 = max( i |Aij |)
j

A good rule of thumb is that if the matrix condition number is 10n, the accuracy in x is 15 - n digits for double
precision.
Hager devised an iterative method (W.W. Hager, Condition estimators, SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comp., 5 (1984), pp. 311-316)
to determine ||A1 ||1 without actually having to calculate A1 . It is used when calling Condition().
A code example below shows the usage of the condition number. The matrix A is a (10x10) Hilbert matrix that is
badly conditioned as its determinant shows. We construct a vector b by summing the matrix rows. Therefore, the

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

components of the solution vector x should be exactly 1. Our rule of thumb to the 2.1012 condition number predicts
that the solution accuracy should be around
15 - 12 = 3
digits. Indeed, the largest deviation is 0.00055 in component 6.
TMatrixDSym H = THilbertMatrixDSym(10);
TVectorD rowsum(10);
for (Int_t irow = 0; irow < 10; irow++)
for (Int_t icol = 0; icol < 10; icol++)
rowsum(irow) += H(irow,icol);
TDecompLU lu(H);
Bool_t ok;
TVectorD x = lu.Solve(rowsum,ok);
Double_t d1,d2;
lu.Det(d1,d2);
cout << "cond:" << lu.Condition() << endl;
cout << "det :" << d1*TMath:Power(2.,d2) << endl;
cout << "tol :" << lu.GetTol() << endl;
x.Print();
cond:3.9569e+12
det :2.16439e-53
tol :2.22045e-16
Vector 10 is as follows
|
1
|
-----------------0 |1
1 |1
2 |0.999997
3 |1.00003
4 |0.999878
5 |1.00033
6 |0.999452
7 |1.00053
8 |0.999723
9 |1.00006

14.6.3

LU

Decompose an nxn matrix A.

PA = LU
P permutation matrix stored in the index array fIndex: j=fIndex[i] indicates that row j and rowishould be swapped.
Sign of the permutation, 1n , where n is the number of interchanges in the permutation, stored in fSign.
L is lower triangular matrix, stored in the strict lower triangular part of fLU. The diagonal elements of L are unity
and are not stored.
U is upper triangular matrix, stored in the diagonal and upper triangular part of fU.
The decomposition fails if a diagonal element of fLU equals 0.

14.6.4

Bunch-Kaufman

Decompose a real symmetric matrix A

A = UDUT
D is a block diagonal matrix with 1-by-1 and 2-by-2 diagonal blocks Dk.
U is product of permutation and unit upper triangular matrices:

14.6. MATRIX DECOMPOSITIONS

391

U = Pn-1Un-1 PkUk where k decreases from n - 1 to 0 in steps of 1 or 2. Permutation matrix Pk is stored

in fIpiv. Uk is a unit upper triangular matrix, such that if the diagonal block Dk is of order s (s = 1, 2), then

1 v 0
Uk = 0 1 0
0 0 1
ks s nk

ks
s
nk

If s = 1, Dk overwrites A(k, k), and v overwrites A(0: k - 1, k).

If s = 2, the upper triangle of Dk overwrites A(k-1, k-1), A(k-1,k), and A(k, k), and v overwrites A(0 : k - 2, k - 1 : k).

14.6.5

Cholesky

Decompose a symmetric, positive definite matrix A

A = UTU
U is an upper triangular matrix. The decomposition fails if a diagonal element of fU<=0, the matrix is not positive
negative.

14.6.6

QRH

Decompose a (m xn) - matrix A with m >= n.

A = QRH
Q orthogonal (m x n) - matrix, stored in fQ;
R upper triangular (n x n) - matrix, stored in fR;
H (n x n) - Householder matrix, stored through;
fUp n - vector with Householder ups;
fW n - vector with Householder betas.
The decomposition fails if in the formation of reflectors a zero appears, i.e. singularity.

14.6.7

SVD

Decompose a (m x n) - matrix A with m >= n.

A = USVT
U (m x m) orthogonal matrix, stored in fU;
S is diagonal matrix containing the singular values. Diagonal stored in vector fSig which is ordered so that fSig[0]
>= fSig[1] >= ... >= fSig[n-1];
V (n x n) orthogonal matrix, stored in fV.
The singular value decomposition always exists, so the decomposition will (as long as m >= n) never fail. If m < n,
the user should add sufficient zero rows to A, so that m == n. In the SVD, fTol is used to set the threshold on the
minimum allowed value of the singular values: min singular = fTol maxi(Sii).

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CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

14.7

Matrix Eigen Analysis

Classes TMatrixDEigen and TMatrixDSymEigen compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors for general dense and symmetric
real matrices, respectively. If matrix A is symmetric, then A = V.D.V T , where the eigenvalue matrix D is diagonal
and the eigenvector matrix V is orthogonal. That is, the diagonal values of D are the eigenvalues, and V.V T = I,
where I - is the identity matrix. The columns of V represent the eigenvectors in the sense that A.V = V.D. If A is
not symmetric, the eigenvalue matrix D is block diagonal with the real eigenvalues in 1-by-1 blocks and any complex
eigenvalues, a+i*b, in 2-by-2 blocks, [a,b;-b,a]. That is, if the complex eigenvalues look like:

u + iv
.
.
.
.
.

then D looks like:

.
u iv
.
.
.
.

u
v
.
.
.
.

.
.
a + ib
.
.
.

v .
.
u .
.
. a b
. . b
. .
.
. .
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
a ib .
.
x
.
.
.
.
.
a
x
.

.
.
.
.
.
y

.
.
.
.
.
y

This keeps V a real matrix in both symmetric and non-symmetric cases, and A.V = V.D. The matrix V may be badly
conditioned, or even singular, so the validity of the equation A = V.D.V 1 depends upon the condition number of V .
Next table shows the methods of the classes TMatrixDEigen and TMatrixDSymEigen to obtain the eigenvalues and
eigenvectors. Obviously, MatrixDSymEigen constructors can only be called with TMatrixDSym:
Format
eig.GetEigenVectors ()

Output
TMatrixD

eig.GetEigenValues ()
eig.GetEigenValues()
eig.GetEigenValuesRe ()
eig.GetEigenValuesIm ()

TVectorD
TMatrixD
TVectorD
TVectorD

Description
eigenvectors for both TMatrixDEigen and
TMatrixDSymEigen
eigenvalues vector for TMatrixDSymEigen
eigenvalues matrix for TMatrixDEigen
real part of eigenvalues for TMatrixDEigen
imaginary part of eigenvalues for
TMatrixDEigen

Below, usage of the eigenvalue class is shown in an example where it is checked that the square of the singular values of
a matrix c are identical to the eigenvalues of cT . c:
const TMatrixD m = THilbertMatrixD(10,10);
TDecompSVD svd(m);
TVectorD sig = svd.GetSig(); sig.Sqr();
// Symmetric matrix EigenVector algorithm
TMatrixDSym mtm(TMatrixDBase::kAtA,m);
const TMatrixDSymEigen eigen(mtm);
const TVectorD eigenVal = eigen.GetEigenValues();
const Bool_t ok = VerifyVectorIdentity(sig,eigenVal,1,1.-e-14);

14.8

Speed Comparisons

Speed of four matrix operations have been compared between four matrix libraries, GSL CLHEP, ROOT v3.10 and ROOT
v4.0. Next figure shows the CPU time for these four operations as a function of the matrix size:
1. A*B The execution time is measured for the sum of A * Bsym, Bsym* A and A * B. Notice the matrix_size3
dependence of execution time. CLHEP results are hampered by a poor implementation of symmetric matrix
multiplications. For instance, for general matrices of size 100x100, the time is 0.015 sec. while A * Bsym takes
0.028 sec and Bsym* A takes 0.059 sec.

14.8. SPEED COMPARISONS

393

Both GSL and ROOT v4.0 can be setup to use the hardware-optimized multiplication routines of the BLAS libraries. It
was tested on a G4 PowerPC. The improvement becomes clearly visible around sizes of (50x50) were the execution
speed improvement of the Altivec processor becomes more significant than the overhead of filling its pipe.
2. A1 Here, the time is measured for an in-place matrix inversion.
Except for ROOT v3.10, the algorithms are all based on an LUfactorization followed by forward/back-substitution. ROOT
v3.10 is using the slower Gaussian elimination method. The numerical accuracy of the CLHEP routine is poor:
up to 6x6 the numerical imprecise Cramer multiplication is hard-coded. For instance, calculating U=H*H-1, where
H is a (5x5) Hilbert matrix, results in off-diagonal elements of 107 instead of the 1013 using an LUaccording to
Crout.
scaling protection is non-existent and limits are hard-coded, as a consequence inversion of a Hilbert matrix for
sizes>(12x12) fails. In order to gain speed the CLHEP algorithm stores its permutation info of the pivots points
in a static array, making multi-threading not possible.
GSL uses LU decomposition without the implicit scaling of Crout. Therefore, its accuracy is not as good. For instance
a (10x10) Hilbert matrix has errors 10 times larger than the LU Crout result. In ROOT v4.0, the user can choose
between the Invert() and IvertFast() routines, where the latter is using the Cramer algorithm for sizes<7x7. The
speed graph shows the result for InvertFast().
3. A*x=b the execution time is measured for solving the linear equation A*x=b. The same factorizations are used
as in the matrix inversion. However, only 1 forward/back-substitution has to be used instead of msize as in
the inversion of (msize x msize) matrix. As a consequence the same differences are observed but less amplified.
CLHEP shows the same numerical issues as in step the matrix inversion. Since ROOT3.10 has no dedicated
equation solver, the solution is calculated through x=A-1*b. This will be slower and numerically not as stable.
4. (AT A)1 AT timing results for calculation of the pseudo inverse of matrix a. The sequence of operations
measures the impact of several calls to constructors and destructors in the C++ packages versus a C library like
GSL.

394

CHAPTER 14. LINEAR ALGEBRA IN ROOT

Figure 14.2: Speed comparison between the different matrix packages

Chapter 15

Adding a Class
15.1

The Role of TObject

The light-weight TObject class provides the default behavior and protocol for the objects in the ROOT system.
Specifically, it is the primary interface to classes providing object I/O, error handling, inspection, introspection, and
drawing. The interface to this service is via abstract classes.

15.1.1

Introspection, Reflection and Run Time Type Identification

Introspection, which is also referred to as reflection, or run time type identification (RTTI) is the ability of a class
to reflect upon itself or to look inside itself. ROOT implements reflection with the TClass class. It provides all the
information about a class, a full description of data members and methods, including the comment field and the method
parameter types. A class with the ClassDef macro has the ability to obtain a TClass with the IsA method.
TClass *cl = obj->IsA();
It returns a TClass. In addition, an object can directly get the class name and the base classes by:
const char* name = obj->ClassName();
If the class is a descendent of TObject, you can check if an object inherits from a specific class, you can use the
InheritsFrom method. This method returns kTrue if the object inherits from the specified class name or TClass.
Bool_t b = obj->InheritsFrom("TLine");
Bool_t b = obj->InheritsFrom(TLine::Class());
ROOT and CINT rely on reflection and the class dictionary to identify the type of a variable at run time. With TObject
inheritance come some methods that use Introspection to help you see the data in the object or class. For instance:
obj->Dump();
// lists all data members and their current valsue
obj->Inspect();
// opens a window to browse data members
obj->DrawClass(); // Draws the class inheritance tree
For an example of obj->Inspect(), see Inspecting Objects.

15.1.2

Collections

To store an object in a ROOT collection, it must be a descendent of TObject. This is convenient if you want to store
objects of different classes in the same collection and execute the method of the same name on all members of the
collection. For example, the list of graphics primitives are in a ROOT collection called TList. When the canvas is
drawn, the Paint method is executed on the entire collection. Each member may be a different class, and if the Paint
method is not implemented, TObject::Paint will be executed.
395

396

15.1.3

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

Input/Output

The TObject::Write method is the interface to the ROOT I/O system. It streams the object into a buffer using the
Streamer method. It supports cycle numbers and automatic schema evolution. See Input/Output.

15.1.4

Paint/Draw

These graphics methods are defaults; their implementation in TObject does not use the graphics subsystem. The
TObject::Draw method is simply a call to AppendPad. The Paint method is empty. The default is provided so that
one can call Paint in a collection. The method GetDrawOption returns the draw option that was used when the object
was drawn on the canvas. This is especially relevant with histograms and graphs.

15.1.5

Clone/DrawClone

Two useful methods are Clone and DrawClone. The Clone method takes a snapshot of the object with the Streamer
and creates a new object. The DrawClone method does the same thing and in addition draws the clone.

15.1.6

Browse

This method is called if the object is browse-able and is to be displayed in the object browser. For example the TTree
implementation of Browse, calls the Browse method for each branch. The TBranch::Browse method displays the name
of each leaf. For the objects Browse method to be called, the IsFolder() method must be overridden to return true.
This does not mean it has to be a folder, it just means that it is browse-able.

15.1.7

SavePrimitive

This method is called by a canvas on its list of primitives, when the canvas is saved as a script. The purpose of
SavePrimitve is to save a primitive as a C++ statement(s). Most ROOT classes implement the SavePrimitive
method. It is recommended that the SavePrimitive is implemented in user defined classes if it is to be drawn on
a canvas. Such that the command TCanvas::SaveAs(Canvas.C) will preserve the user-class object in the resulting
script.

15.1.8

GetObjectInfo

This method is called when displaying the event status in a canvas. To show the event status window, select the
Options menu and the EventStatus item. This method returns a string of information about the object at position
(x, y). Every time the cursor moves, the object under the cursor executes the GetObjectInfo method. The string is
then shown in the status bar. There is a default implementation in TObject, but it is typically overridden for classes
that can report peculiarities for different cursor positions (for example the bin contents in a TH1).

15.1.9

IsFolder

By default an object inheriting from TObject is not brows-able, because TObject::IsFolder() returns kFALSE. To
make a class browse-able, the IsFolder method needs to be overridden to return kTRUE. In general, this method
returns kTRUE if the object contains browse-able objects (like containers or lists of other objects).

15.1.10

Bit Masks and Unique ID

A TObject descendent inherits two data members: fBits and fUniqueID. fBitsis 32-bit data member used with a
bit mask to get object information. Bits 0 - 13 are reserved as global bits, bits 14 - 23 can be used in different class
hierarchies.
enum EObjBits {
kCanDelete
kMustCleanup
kObjInCanvas
kIsReferenced

=
=
=
=

BIT(0),
BIT(3),
BIT(3),
BIT(4),

//
//
//
//

if can be deleted
if destructor must call RecursiveRemove()
for backward compatibility only
if referenced by TRef or TRefArray

15.2. MOTIVATION

};

kHasUUID
kCannotPick
kNoContextMenu
kInvalidObject

=
=
=
=

397
BIT(5),
BIT(6),
BIT(8),
BIT(13)

//
//
//
//

if has a TUUID, fUniqueID=UUIDNumber

if cannot be picked in a pad
if does not want a context menu
object ctor succeeded but the object should not be used

For example, the bits kMustCleanup and kCanDelete are used in TObject. See The kCanDelete Bit and The
kMustCleanup Bit. They can be set by any object and should not be reused. Make sure to no overlap in any given
hierarchy them. The bit 13 (kInvalidObject) is set when an object could not be read from a ROOT file. It will check
this bit and will skip to the next object on the file.
The TObject constructor initializes the fBits to zero depending if the object is created on the stack or allocated on
the heap. When the object is created on the stack, the kCanDelete bit is set to false to protect from deleting objects
on the stack. The high 8 bits are reserved for the system usage; the low 24 bits are user settable. fUniqueID is a data
member used to give a unique identification number to an object. It is initialized to zero by the TObject constructor.
ROOT does not use this data member. The two data members (fBits and fUniqueID) are streamed out when writing
an object to disk. If you do not use them, you can save some space and time by specifying:
MyClass::Class()->IgnoreTObjectStreamer();
This sets a bit in the TClass object. If the file is compressed, the savings are minimal since most values are zero;
however, it saves some space when the file is not compressed. A call toIgnoreTObjectStreamer also prevents the
creation of two additional branches when splitting the object. If left alone, two branches called fBits and fUniqueID
will appear.

15.2

Motivation

If you want to integrate and use your classes with ROOT, to enjoy features like, extensive RTTI (Run Time Type
Information) and ROOT object I/O and inspection, you have to add the following line to your class header files:
ClassDef(ClassName,ClassVersionID);

//The class title

For example in TLine.h we have:

ClassDef(TLine,1);

//A line segment

The ClassVersionID is used by the ROOT I/O system. It is written on the output stream and during reading you
can check this version ID and take appropriate action depending on the value of the ID. See Streamers. Every time
you change the data members of a class, you should increase its ClassVersionID by one. The ClassVersionID should
be >=1. Set ClassVersionID=0 in case you dont need object I/O. To be able to generate properly documentation for
your classes using THtml you must add the statement:
ClassImp(ClassName)
For example in TLine.cxx:
ClassImp(TLine)
Note that you should provide a default constructor for your classes, i.e. a constructor with zero parameters or with
one or more parameters all with default values in case you want to use object I/O. If do not provide such a default
contructor, you MUST implement an I/O constructor. If not you will get a compile time error. See the The Default
Constructor paragraph in this chapter. The ClassDef and ClassImp macros are defined in the file Rtypes.h. This
file is referenced by all ROOT include files, so you will automatically get them if you use a ROOT include file.

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15.2.1

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

Template Support

In ROOT version 3.03 and older, ROOT provided special ClassDef and ClassImp macros for classes with two and
three template arguments. In ROOT version 3.04 and above, the macros ClassDef and ClassImp can be used directly
even for a class template. ClassImp is used to register an implementation file in a class. For class templates, the
ClassImp can only be used for a specific class template instance.
ClassImp(MyClass1<double>);
For multiple template arguments, you will need to use an intermediary typedef:
typedef MyClass2<int,float> myc_i_f;
ClassImp(myc_i_f);
You can also register an implementation for all instances of a class template by using templateClassImp:
templateClassImp(MyClass3);
Here are examples of a header and a LinkDef file:
// in header file MyClass.h
template <typename T> class MyClass1 {
private:
T fA;
...
public:
...
ClassDef(MyClass1,1)
};
template <typename T1, typename T2> class MyClass2 {
private:
T1 fA;
T2 fB;
public:
...
ClassDef(MyClass2,1)
};
template <typename T1, typename T2, typename T3> class MyClass3 {
private:
T1 fA;
T2 fB;
T3 fC;
...
public:
...
ClassDef(MyClass3,1)
};
// A LinkDef.h file with all the explicit template instances
// that will be needed at link time
#ifdef __CINT__
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#pragma
#endif

link
link
link
link
link
link

C++
C++
C++
C++
C++
C++

class
class
class
class
class
class

MyClass1<float>+;
MyClass1<double>+;
MyClass2<float,int>+;
MyClass2<float,double>+;
MyClass3<float,int,TObject*>+;
MyClass3<float,TEvent*,TObject*>+;

15.3. THE DEFAULT CONSTRUCTOR

15.3

399

The Default Constructor

ROOT object I/O requires every class to have either a default constructor or an I/O constructor. A default constructor
is a constructor with zero parameters or with one or more parameters all with default values. An I/O constructor is a
constructor with exactly one parameter which type is a pointer to one of the type marked as an io constructor type.
We will come back to this context in a few paragraphs. This default or I/O constructor is called whenever an object is
being read from a ROOT database. Be sure that you do not allocate any space for embedded pointer objects in this
constructor. This space will be lost (memory leak) while reading in the object. For example:
class T49Event : public TObject {
private:
Int_t
fId;
TCollection *fTracks;
...
public:
// Error space for TList pointer will be lost
T49Event() { fId = 0; fTrack = new TList; }
// Correct default initialization of pointer
T49Event() { fId = 0; fTrack = 0; }
...
};
The memory will be lost because during reading of the object the pointer will be set to the object it was pointing to at
the time the object was written. Create the fTrack list when you need it, e.g. when you start filling the list or in a
not-default constructor.
...
if (!fTrack) fTrack = new TList;
...
The constructor actually called by the ROOT I/O can be customized by using the rootcint pragma:
#pragma link C++ ioctortype UserClass;
For example, with this pragma and a class named MyClass, the ROOT I/O will call the first of the following 3
constructors which exists and is public:
MyClass(UserClass*);MyClass(TRootIOCtor*);
MyClass();
// Or a constructor with all its arguments defaulted.
When more than one pragma ioctortype is used, the first seen as priority. For example with:
#pragma link C++ ioctortype UserClass1;
#pragma link C++ ioctortype UserClass2;
We look for the first existing public constructor in the following order:
MyClass(UserClass1*);
MyClass(UserClass2*);
MyClass(TRootIoCtor*);
MyClass();
// Or a constructor with all its arguments defaulted.

15.4

rootcint: The CINT Dictionary Generator

In the following example, we walk through the steps necessary to generate a dictionary, I/O, and inspect member
functions. Lets start with a TEvent class, which contains a collection of TTracks.
The TEvent.h header is:

400

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

#ifndef __TEvent__
#define __TEvent__
#include "TObject.h"
class TCollection;
class TTrack;
class TEvent : public TObject {
private:
Int_t
fId;
// event sequential id
Float_t
fTotalMom;
// total momentum
TCollection *fTracks;
// collection of tracks
public:
TEvent() { fId = 0; fTracks = 0; }
TEvent(Int_t id);
~TEvent();
void
AddTrack(TTrack *t);
Int_t
GetId() const { return fId; }
Int_t
GetNoTracks() const;
void
Print(Option_t *opt="");
Float_t TotalMomentum();
ClassDef(TEvent,1);
};

//Simple event class

The things to notice in these header files are:

The usage of the ClassDef macro
The default constructors of the TEvent and TTrack classes
Comments to describe the data members and the comment after the ClassDef macro to describe the class
These classes are intended for you to create an event object with a certain id, and then add tracks to it. The track
objects have a pointer to their event. This shows that the I/O system correctly handles circular references.
The TTrack.h header is:
#ifndef __TTrack__
#define __TTrack__
#include "TObject.h"
class TEvent;
class TTrack : public TObject {
private:
Int_t
fId;
//track sequential id
TEvent *fEvent;
//event to which track belongs
Float_t fPx;
//x part of track momentum
Float_t fPy;
//y part of track momentum
Float_t fPz;
//z part of track momentum
public:
TTrack() { fId = 0; fEvent = 0; fPx = fPy = fPz = 0; }
TTrack(Int_t id, Event *ev, Float_t px,Float_t py,Float_t pz);
Float_t Momentum() const;
TEvent *GetEvent() const { return fEvent; }
void
Print(Option_t *opt="");
};

ClassDef (TTrack,1);

//Simple track class

#endif
Next is the implementation of these two classes.
TEvent.cxx:

15.4. ROOTCINT: THE CINT DICTIONARY GENERATOR

401

#include <iostream.h>
#include "TOrdCollection.h"
#include "TEvent.h"
#include "TTrack.h"
ClassImp(TEvent)
...
TTrack.cxx:
#include <iostream.h>
#include "TMath.h"
#include "Track.h"
#include "Event.h"
ClassImp(TTrack)
...
Now using rootcint we can generate the dictionary file.

Make sure you use a unique filename, because rootcint appends it to the name of static function (G__cpp_reset_tabableeventdic
andG__set_cpp_environmenteventdict ()).
rootcint eventdict.cxx -c TEvent.h TTrack.h
Looking in the file eventdict.cxx we can see, besides the many member function calling stubs (used internally by
the interpreter), theStreamer() andShowMembers()methods for the two classes. Streamer() is used to stream an
object to/from a TBuffer and ShowMembers() is used by the Dump() and Inspect() methods of TObject. Here is the
TEvent::Streamer method:
void TEvent::Streamer(TBuffer &R__b) {
// Stream an object of class TEvent.
if (R__b.IsReading()) {
Version_t R__v = R__b.ReadVersion();
TObject::(R__b);
R__b >> fId;
R__b >> fTotalMom;
R__b >> fTracks;
} else {
R__b.WriteVersion(TEvent::IsA());
TObject::Streamer(R__b);
R__b << fId;
R__b << fTotalMom;
R__b << fTracks;
}
}
The TBuffer class overloads the operator<<() and operator>>() for all basic types and for pointers to objects.
These operators write and read from the buffer and take care of any needed byte swapping to make the buffer machine
independent. During writing, the TBuffer keeps track of the objects that have been written and multiple references to
the same object are replaced by an index. In addition, the objects class information is stored. TEvent and TTracks
need manual intervention. Cut and paste the generated Streamer() from the eventdict.cxx into the class source file
and modify as needed (e.g. add counter for array of basic types) and disable the generation of the Streamer() when
using the LinkDef.h file for next execution of rootcint. In case you do not want to read or write this class (no I/O)
you can tell rootcint to generate a dummy Streamer()by changing this line in the source file:
ClassDef(TEvent,0);
If you want to prevent the generation of Streamer(), see the section Adding a Class with a Shared Library.

402

15.4.1

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

Dictionaries for STL

Usually, headers are passed to rootcint at the command line. To generate a dictionary for a class from the STL, e.g.
std::vector<MyClass>, you would normally pass the header defining MyClass and std::vector. The latter is a
compiler specific header and cannot be passed to rootcint directly. Instead, create a little header file that includes both
headers, and pass that to rootcint.
Often ROOT knows where MyClass and the templated class (e.g. vector) are defined, for example because the files got
#included. Knowing these header files ROOT can automatically generate the dictionary for any template combination
(e.g. vector<myClass>) when it is needed, by generating files starting with AutoDict*. You can toggle this feature
on or off at the ROOT prompt by executing .autodict.

15.5

Adding a Class with a Shared Library

Step 1: Define your own class in SClass.h and implement it in SClass.cxx. You must provide a default constructor
or an I/O constructor for your class. See the The Default Constructor paragraph in this chapter.
#include <iostream.h>
#include "TObject.h"
class SClass : public TObject {
private:
Float_t
fX;
//x
Float_t
fY;
//y
Int_t
fTempValue; //!
public:
SClass()
{ fX
void Print() const;
void SetX(float x) { fX =
void SetY(float y) { fY =

position in centimeters
position in centimeters
temporary state value
= fY = -1; }
x; }
y; }

ClassDef(SClass, 1)
};
Step 2: Add a call to the ClassDef macro to at the end of the class definition (in the SClass.h file).
ClassDef(SClass,1). Add a call to the ClassImp macro in the implementation file (SClass.cxx): ClassImp(SClass).
// SClass.cxx:
#include "SClass.h"
ClassImp(SClass);
void SClass::Print() const {
cout << "fX = " << fX << ", fY = " << fY << endl;
}
You can add a class without using the ClassDef and ClassImp macros; however, you will be limited. Specifically the
object I/O features of ROOT will not be available to you for these classes. See CINT the C++ Interpreter. The
ShowMembers and Streamer method, as well as the >> operator overloads, are implemented only if you use ClassDef
and ClassImp. See $ROOTSYS/include/Rtypes.h for the definition of ClassDef and ClassImp. To exclude a data
member from the Streamer, add a ! as the first character in the comments of the field:
Int_t

15.5.1

fTempValue; //! temporary state value

The LinkDef.h File

Step 3: The LinkDef.h file tells rootcint for which classes to generate the method interface stubs.
#ifdef __CINT__
#pragma link C++ class SClass;
#endif

15.5. ADDING A CLASS WITH A SHARED LIBRARY

403

Three options can trail the class name:

- : tells rootcint not to generate the Streamer method for this class. This is necessary for those classes that
need a customized Streamer method.
#pragma link C++ class SClass-;

// no streamer

! : tells rootcint not to generate the operator>>(TBuffer &b,MyClass *&obj) method for this class. This is
necessary to be able to write pointers to objects of classes not inheriting from TObject.
#pragma link C++ class SClass!;
// no >> operator
// or
#pragma link C++ class SClass-!; // no streamer, no >> operator
+ : in ROOT version 1 and 2 tells rootcint to generate a Streamer with extra byte count information. This
adds an integer to each object in the output buffer, but it allows for powerful error correction in case a Streamer
method is out of sync with data in the file. The + option is mutual exclusive with both the - and ! options.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In ROOT Version 3 and later, a + after the class name tells rootcint to use the new I/O
system. The byte count check is always added. The new I/O system has many advantages including support automatic
schema evolution, full support for STL collections and better run-time performance. We strongly recommend using it.
#pragma link C++ class SClass+; // add byte count
For information on Streamers see Input/Output. To get help on rootcint type on the UNIX command line:
rootcint -h
15.5.1.1

The Order Matters

When using template classes, the order of the pragma statements matters. For example, here is a template class Tmpl
and a normal class Norm, which holds a specialized instance of a Tmpl:
class Norm {
private:
Tmpl<int>* fIntTmpl;
public:
...
};
Then in Linkdef.h, the pragma statements must be ordered by listing all specializations before any classes that need
them:
// Correct Linkdef.h ordering
...
#pragma link C++ class Tmpl<int>;
#pragma link C++ class Norm;
...
And not vice versa:
// Bad Linkdef.h ordering
...
#pragma link C++ class Norm;
#pragma link C++ class Tmpl<int>;
...
In this case, rootcint generates Norm::Streamer() that makes reference to Tmpl<int>::Streamer(). Then rootcint
gets to process Tmpl<int> and generates a specialized Tmpl<int>::Streamer() function. The problem is, when the
compiler finds the first Tmpl<int>::Streamer(), it will instantiate it. However, later in the file it finds the specialized
version that rootcint generated. This causes the error. However, if the Linkdef.h order is reversed then rootcint
can generate the specialized Tmpl<int>::Streamer() before it is needed (and thus never instantiated by the compiler).

404
15.5.1.2

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

Other Useful Pragma Statements

The complete list of pragma statements currently supported by CINT is:

#pragma link [C|C++|off] all [class|function|global|typedef];
#pragma link [C|C++|off]
[class|struct|union|enum|namespace|protected][name];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] [global|typedef][name];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] [nestedclass|nestedtypedef];
#pragma link [C++|C|off|MACRO] function [name]<(argtypes)>;
#pragma link
[C++|C|off|MACRO] function [classname]::[name]<(argtypes)>;
#pragma link off all methods;
#pragma link [C|C++|off] defined_in [filename];
#pragma link
[C|C++|off] defined_in [class|struct|namespace] [name];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] all_function
[classname];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] all_datamember [classname];
The [classname] and the [name] can also contain wildcards. For example:
#pragma link C++ class MyClass*;
This will request the dictionary for all the class whose name start with MyClass and are already known to CINT
(class templates need to have already been instantiated to be considered).
#pragma link [C|C++|off] all [class|function|global|typedef];
This pragma statement turns on or off the dictionary generation for all classes, structures, namespaces, global variables,
global functions and typedefs seen so far by CINT. Example:
// some C++ header definition
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
// turns off dictionary generation for all
#pragma link off all class;
#pragma link off all function;
#pragma link off all global;
#pragma link off all typedef;
#endif
The next pragma statement selectively turns on or off the dictionary generation for the specified classs, struct,
union, enum or namespace:
#pragma link
[C|C++|off][class|class+protected|
struct|union|enum|namespace][name];
The Dictionary of all public members of class and struct will be generated. If the class+protected flag is used, the
dictionary for protected members will also be generated. However, dictionary for protected constructor and destructor
will not be generated. This class+protected flag will help you only for plain protected member access, but not for
virtual function resolution.
If you use the namespace flag, it is recommended to add also:
#pragma link nestedclass;
#pragma link nestedtypedef;
The behavior of class, struct and namespace flag are identical. Example:

15.5. ADDING A CLASS WITH A SHARED LIBRARY

405

// some C++ header definition

#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all class;
#pragma link C++ class A;
#pragma link C++ class B;
#pragma link C++ class C<int>;
#pragma link C++ class+protected D;
#pragma link C++ namespace project1;
#pragma link C++ nestedclass;
#pragma link C++ nestedtypedef;
#endif
The next pragma statement selectively turns on or off the dictionary generation for global variables and typedef.
#pragma link [C|C++|off] [global|typedef] [name];
Example:
// some C/C++ header definition
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all global;
#pragma link off all typedef;
#pragma link C++ global a;
#pragma link C++ typedef Int_t;
#endif
This pragma statement turns on the dictionary generation for nested classes and nested typedefs.
#pragma link [C|C++|off] [nestedclass|nestedtypedef];
Example:
// some C/C++ header definition
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all global;
#pragma link off all typedef;
#pragma link C++ global a;
#pragma link C++ typedef Int_t;
#endif
The next pragma statements turn on or off the dictionary generation for the specified function(s) or member function(s).
The list of arguments type is optional. If you omit argument types, all function with specified [name] will be affected.
If the list of arguments type is specified, only the function that has exactly same argument list will be affected.
#pragma link [C++|C|off|MACRO] function [fname]<(argtypes)>;
#pragma link
[C++|C|off|MACRO] function [classname]::[fname]<(argtypes)>;
The #pragma link [C++|C] function and #pragma link MACRO function behaves similarly. The #pragma link
[C++|C] function assumes the target to be a real function which has pointer to it. A pointer to registered function
is registered. On the other hand, #pragma link MACRO function assumes target to be macro function. Pointer to
function cannot be referenced in this case.
For the next example:
void f(int a);
void f(double a);
int g(int a,double b);
int g(double x);
#define max(a,b) (a>b?a:b)

406

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

class A {
public:
int h(double y);
int h(int a,double b);
};
The pragma statements are:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all functions;
#pragma link C++ function f;
#pragma link C++ function g(int,double);
#pragma link C++ MACRO max;
#pragma link C++ class A;
#pragma link off function A::h(double);
#endif
Until CINT version 5.15.60, in order to generate dictionary for a member function, not only the member function but
also the class itself has to be turned on for the linkage. There was an inconvenience when generating dictionary for
template member function afterwards.
From CINT v.5.15.61, a new behavior is introduced. If link for a member function is specified, dictionary is generated
even if link to the belonging class is off. For example, if you originally have A.h as follows:
// A.h
template<class T> class A {
public:
template<class E> void f(E& x) { ... }
};
And generate dictionary for that:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link C++ class A<int>;
#endif
Then prepare another header file and instantiate the template member function of A.:
// B.h
#include "A.h"
class B {
...
};
You can generate dictionary for the newly instantiated template member function only.
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off defined_in A.h;
#pragma link C++ function A<int>::f(B&);
#endif
The next pragma turns off the dictionary generation of all the member functions in all classes.
#pragma link off all methods;
Example:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all methods;
#endif

15.5. ADDING A CLASS WITH A SHARED LIBRARY

407

The next pragma statements control the linking of all the member functions or data members for a specified class.
#pragma link [C|C++|off] all_function
[classname];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] all_datamember [classname];
At this moment, there should be no needs to use those statements. Example:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all_function
A;
#pragma link off all_datamember A;
#endif
See also: #pragma link function.
The next pragma statement turns on/off dictionary generation of the object defined in specific file. The filename has to
be the full pathname of the file.
#pragma link [C|C++|off] defined_in [filename];
Example:
// file1.h
// any C++ header definition
// file2.h
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link off all classes;
#pragma link off all functions;
#pragma link off all globals;
#pragma link off all typedef;
#pragma link C++ defined_in file1.h;
#endif
The next pragma statements turn on or off the dictionary generation of the object defined in a specific scope. The
[scope_name] should be class name, struct name or namespace name. When using these pragmas, it is recommended
to use also:
#pragma link C++ nestedclass
Otherwise, definitions in enclosed scope do not appear in the dictionary.
#pragma link [C|C++|off] defined_in [scope_name];
#pragma link [C|C++|off] defined_in
[class|struct|namespace] [scope_name];
Example:
namespace ns {
int a;
double b;
};
The pragma statements are:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link C++ defined_in ns;
#pragma link C++ nestedclass;
#endif

408

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

This statements controls default link mode for makecint(cint -c-1|-c-2) and rootcint.
#pragma link default [on|off]
By turning default on, all language constructs in given header files will be included in generated CINT dictionary
(interface method source file). If default is set to off, nothing will be included in the generated dictionary. The next
statement explicitly set linkage to each item:
#pragma link [C|C++|off] [class|function|global]
This pragma statement must be given before cint/rootcint reads any C/C++ definitions from header files. For pure
CINT, default is on. For ROOT, including $ROOTSYSDIR/bin/cint, default is off. This feature was added from CINT
v.5.15.57. Before this version, you had to use explicitly in the ROOT LinkDef.h file the next statement:
#pragma link off [class|function|global];
From 5.15.57, you can omit them. Example:
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link default off;
#endif
class A {
int a;
double b;
};
class B {
int d;
double e;
};
#ifdef __MAKECINT__
#pragma link C++ class A;
#endif

// only class A is linked, not B

15.5.1.2.1 Compilation Step 4: Compile the class using the Makefile.In the Makefile call rootcint to make
the dictionary for the class. Call it SClassDict.cxx. The rootcint utility generates the methods Streamer, TBuffer
&operator>>() and ShowMembersfor ROOT classes.
gmake -f Makefile
Load the shared library:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

.L SClass.so
SClass *sc = new SClass()
TFile *f = new TFile("Afile.root","UPDATE");
sc->Write();

For more information on rootcint see the $ROOTSYS/test directory Makefile, Event.cxx, and Event.h for an
example, or follow this link: http://root.cern.ch/root/RootCintMan.html

15.6

Adding a Class with ACLiC

Step 1: Define your class

15.6. ADDING A CLASS WITH ACLIC

#include "TObject.h"
// define the ABC class and make it inherit from TObject so that
// we can write ABC to a ROOT file
class ABC : public TObject {
public:
Float_t a, b, c, p;
ABC() : a(0), b(0), c(0), p(0){};
// Define the class for the cint dictionary
ClassDef (ABC,1)
};
// Call the ClassImp macro to give the ABC class RTTI and
// full I/O capabilities.
#if !defined(__CINT__)
ClassImp(ABC);
#endif
Step 2: Load the ABC class in the script.
// Check if ABC is already loaded
if (!TClass::GetDict("ABC")) {
gROOT->ProcessLine(".L ABCClass.C++");
}
// Use the Class
ABC *v = new ABC;
v->p = (sqrt((v->a * v->a)+ (v->b * v->b)+(v->c * v->c)));

409

410

CHAPTER 15. ADDING A CLASS

Chapter 16

Collection Classes
Collections are a key feature of the ROOT system. Many, if not most, of the applications you write will use collections.
If you have used parameterized C++ collections or polymorphic collections before, some of this material will be review.
However, much of this chapter covers aspects of collections specific to the ROOT system. When you have read this
chapter, you will know
How to create instances of collections
The difference between lists, arrays, hash tables, maps, etc.
How to add and remove elements of a collection
How to search a collection for a specific element
How to access and modify collection elements
How to iterate over a collection to access collection elements
How to manage memory for collections and collection elements
How collection elements are tested for equality (IsEqual())
How collection elements are compared (Compare()) in case of sorted collections
How collection elements are hashed (Hash()) in hash tables

16.1

Understanding Collections

A collection is a group of related objects. You will find it easier to manage a large number of items as a collection. For
example, a diagram editor might manage a collection of points and lines. A set of widgets for a graphical user interface
can be placed in a collection. A geometrical model can be described by collections of shapes, materials and rotation
matrices. Collections can themselves be placed in collections. Collections act as flexible alternatives to traditional data
structures of computers science such as arrays, lists and trees.

16.1.1

General Characteristics

The ROOT collections are polymorphic containers that hold pointers to TObjects, so:
They can only hold objects that inherit from TObject
They return pointers to TObjects, that have to be cast back to the correct subclass
Collections are dynamic; they can grow in size as required. Collections themselves are descendants of TObject so can
themselves be held in collections. It is possible to nest one type of collection inside another to any level to produce
structures of arbitrary complexity.
Collections do not own the objects they hold for the very good reason that the same object could be a member of more
than one collection. Object ownership is important when it comes to deleting objects; if nobody owns the object it
could end up as wasted memory (i.e. a memory leak) when no longer needed. If a collection is deleted, its objects are
not. The user can force a collection to delete its objects, but that is the users choice.
411

412

16.1.2

CHAPTER 16. COLLECTION CLASSES

Determining the Class of Contained Objects

Most containers may hold heterogeneous collections of objects and then it is left to the user to correctly cast the
TObject pointer to the right class. Casting to the wrong class will give wrong results and may well crash the program!
Therefore, the user has to be very careful. Often a container only contains one class of objects, but if it really contains
a mixture, it is possible to ask each object about its class using the InheritsFrom method.
For example if myObject is a TObject pointer:
if (myObject->InheritsFrom("TParticle") {
printf("myObject is a TParticlen");
}
As the name suggests, this test works even if the object is a subclass of TParticle. The member function IsA() can
be used instead of InheritsFrom to make the test exact. The InheritsFrom and IsA methods use the extensive Run
Time Type Information (RTTI) available via the ROOT meta-classes.

16.1.3

Types of Collections

The ROOT system implements the following basic types of collections: unordered collections, ordered collections and
sorted collections. Next figure shows the inheritance hierarchy for the primary collection classes. All primary collection
classes derive from the abstract base class TCollection.

Figure 16.1: The inheritance hierarchy of the primary collection classes

16.1.4

Ordered Collections (Sequences)

Sequences are collections that are externally ordered because they maintain internal elements according to the order in
which they were added. The following sequences are available:
TList
THashList
TOrdCollection
TObjArray
TClonesArray

16.2. ITERATORS: PROCESSING A COLLECTION

413

The TOrdCollection, TObjArray as well as the TClonesArray can be sorted using their Sort() member function (for
this, the stored objects must provide a comparison function by overriding TObject::Compare() and also must enable
sorting by overriding TObject::IsSortable() to return true). Ordered collections all derive from the abstract base class
TSeqCollection. Sorted collections are ordered by an internal (automatic) sorting mechanism. The following sorted
collections are available (the stored items must be sortable):
TSortedList
TBtree
Unordered collections dont maintain the order in which the elements were added, i.e. when you iterate over an
unordered collection, you are not likely to retrieve elements in the same order they were added to the collection. The
following unordered collections are available:
THashTable
TMap

16.2

Iterators: Processing a Collection

The concept of processing all the members of a collection is generic, i.e. independent of any specific representation of a
collection. To process each object in a collection one needs some type of cursor that is initialized and then steps over
each member of the collection in turn. Collection objects could provide this service but there is a snag: as there is only
one collection object per collection there would only be one cursor. Instead, to permit the use of as many cursors as
required, they are made separate classes called iterator. For each collection class there is an associated iterator class
that knows how to sequentially retrieve each member in turn. The relationship between a collection and its iterator is
very close and may require that the iterator has full access to the collection (i.e. it is a friend class). In general iterator
will be used via the TIter wrapper class. For example:
TList TListIter
TMap TMapIter

16.3

Foundation Classes

All collections are based on the fundamental classes: TCollection and TIterator. They are so generic that it is not
possible to create objects from them; they are only used as base classes for other classes (i.e. they are abstract base
classes).
The TCollection class provides the basic protocol (i.e. the minimum set of member functions) that all collection
classes have to implement. These include:
Add Adds another object to the collection.
GetSize Returns the number of objects in the collection.
Clear Clears out the collection, but does not delete the removed objects.
Delete Clears out the collection and deletes the removed objects. This should only be used
if the collection owns its objects (which are not normally the case).
FindObject Finds an object given either its name or address.
MakeIterator Returns an iterator associated with the collection.
Remove Removes an object from the collection.
The code example below shows a class containing three lists, where the fTracks list is the owning collection and the
other two lists are used to store a sub-set of the track objects. In the destructor of the class, the method Delete is
called for the owning collection to delete correctly its entire track objects. To delete the objects in the container use
fTrack->Delete(). To delete the container itself, do delete fTracks.

414

CHAPTER 16. COLLECTION CLASSES

class TEvent : public TObject {

private:
TList *fTracks; //list of all tracks
TList *fVertex1; //subset of tracks part of vertex1
TList *fVertex2; //subset of tracks part of vertex2
};
TEvent::~TEvent()
{
fTracks->Delete();
delete fTracks;
delete fVertex1;
delete fVertex2;
}
The TIterator class defines the minimum set of member functions that all iterators must support. These include:
Next Returns the next member of the collection or 0 if no more members.
Reset Resets the iterator so that Next returns the first object.

16.4

A Collectable Class

By default, all objects of TObject derived classes can be stored in ROOT containers. However, the TObject class
provides some member functions that allow you to tune the behavior of objects in containers. For example, by default
two objects are considered equal if their pointers point to the same address. This might be too strict for some classes
where equality is already achieved if some or all of the data members are equal. By overriding the following TObject
member functions, you can change the behavior of objects in collections:
IsEqual()is used by the FindObject()collection method. By default, IsEqual() compares the two object
pointers.
Compare()returns -1, 0 or 1 depending if the object is smaller, equal or larger than the other object. By default,
a TObject has not a valid Compare() method.
IsSortable()returns true if the class is sort able (i.e. if it has a valid Compare() method). By default, a TObject
is not sort able.
Hash()returns a hash value. It needs to be implemented if an object has to be stored in a collection using a
hashing technique, like THashTable, THashList and TMap. By default, Hash() returns the address of the object.
It is essential to choose a good hash function.
The example below shows how to use and override these member functions.
class TObjNum : public TObject {
private:
Int_t num; // TObjNum is a simple container for an integer.
public:
TObjNum(Int_t i = 0) : num(i) { }
~TObjNum() { }
void
SetNum(Int_t i) { num = i; }
Int_t
GetNum() const { return num; }
void
Print(Option_t *) const
{ printf("num = %dn", num); }
Bool_t
IsEqual(TObject *obj) const
{ return num == ((TObjNum*)obj)->num; }
Bool_t
IsSortable() const { return kTRUE; }
Int_t
Compare(const TObject *obj) const
{ if (num < ((TObjNum*)obj)->num) return -1;
else if (num > ((TObjNum*)obj)->num) return 1;
else return 0; }
ULong_t Hash() const { return num; }
};

16.5. THE TITER GENERIC ITERATOR

16.5

415

The TIter Generic Iterator

As stated above, the TIterator class is abstract; it is not possible to create TIterator objects. However, it should be
possible to write generic code to process all members of a collection so there is a need for a generic iterator object. A
TIter object acts as generic iterator. It provides the same Next() and Reset() methods as TIterator although it
has no idea how to support them! It works as follows:
To create a TIter object its constructor must be passed an object that inherits from TCollection. The TIter
constructor calls the MakeIterator() method of this collection to get the appropriate iterator object that inherits
from TIterator.
The Next() and Reset() methods of TIter simply call the Next() and Reset() methods of the iterator object.
Therefore, TIter simply acts as a wrapper for an object of a concrete class inheriting from TIterator.
To see this working in practice, consider the TObjArray collection. Its associated iterator is TObjArrayIter. Suppose
myarray is a pointer to a TObjArray that contains MyClass objects, i.e.
TObjArray *myarray;
To create a TIter object called myiter:
TIter myiter(myarray);

As shown in the diagram, this results in several methods being called:

The TIter constructor is passed a TObjArray
TIter asks embedded TCollection to make an iterator
TCollection asks TObjArray to make an iterator
TObjArray returns a TObjArrayIter.
Now define a pointer for MyClass objects and set it to each member of the TObjArray:
MyClass *myobject;
while ((myobject = (MyClass *)myiter.Next())) {
// process myobject
}
The heart of this is the myiter.Next() expression which does the following:
The Next() method of the TIter object myiter is called
The TIter forwards the call to the TIterator embedded in the TObjArrayIter
TIterator forwards the call to the TObjArrayIter
TObjArrayIter finds the next MyClass object and returns it
TIter passes the MyClass object back to the caller
Sometimes the TIter object is called next, and then instead of writing: next.Next()which is legal, but looks rather
odd, iteration is written as next(). This works because the function operator() is defined for the TIter class to be
equivalent to the Next() method.

416

16.6

CHAPTER 16. COLLECTION CLASSES

The TList Collection

A TList is a doubly linked list. Before being inserted into the list the object pointer is wrapped in a TObjLink object
that contains, besides the object pointer also a previous and next pointer.
Objects are typically added using:
Add()
AddFirst(), AddLast()
AddBefore(), AddAfter()
Main features of TList: very low cost of adding/removing elements anywhere in the list.
Overhead per element: 1 TObjLink, i.e. two 4 (or 8) byte pointers + pointer to vtable = 12 (or 24) bytes.
Next figure shows the internal data structure of a TList.

Figure 16.2: The internal data structure of a TList

16.6.1

Iterating Over a TList

There are four ways to iterate over a TList:

Using the ForEach script:
GetListOfPrimitives()->ForEach(TObject,Draw)();

16.7. THE TOBJARRAY COLLECTION

417

Using the TList iterator TListIter (via the wrapper class TIter):
TIter next(GetListOfTracks());
while ((TTrack *obj = (TTrack *)next()))
obj->Draw();
Using the TObjLink list entries (that wrap the TObject*):
TObjLink *lnk = GetListOfPrimitives()->FirstLink();
while (lnk) {
lnk->GetObject()->Draw();
lnk = lnk->Next();
}
Using the TLists After() and Before() member functions:
TFree *idcur = this;
while (idcur) {
...
idcur = (TFree*)GetListOfFree()->After(idcur);
}
Method 1 uses internally method 2.
Method 2 works for all collection classes. TIter overloads operator().
Methods 3 and 4 are specific for TList.
Methods 2, 3 and 4 can also easily iterate backwards using either a backward TIter (using argument kIterBackward)
or by using LastLink() and lnk>Prev() or by using the Before() method.

16.7

The TObjArray Collection

A TObjArray is a collection which supports traditional array semantics via the overloading of operator[]. Objects
can be directly accessed via an index. The array expands automatically when objects are added. At creation time one
specifies the default array size (default = 16) and lower bound (default = 0). Resizing involves a re-allocation and a
copy of the old array to the new. This can be costly if done too often. If possible, set initial size close to expected
final size. Index validity is always checked (if you are 100% sure and maximum performance is needed you can use
UnCheckedAt() instead of At() or operator[]). If the stored objects are sort able the array can be sorted using
Sort(). Once sorted, efficient searching is possible via the BinarySearch() method. The figure shows the internal
data structure of a TObjArray:

Figure 16.3: The internal data structure of a TObjArray

Iterating can be done using a TIter iterator or via a simple for loop:

418

CHAPTER 16. COLLECTION CLASSES

for (int i = 0; i <= fArr.GetLast(); i++)

if ((track = (TTrack*)fArr[i]))
// or fArr.At(i)
track->Draw();
Main features of TObjArray are simple, well-known array semantics. Overhead per element: none, except possible
over sizing of fCont.

16.8

TClonesArray An Array of Identical Objects

A TClonesArray is an array of identical (clone) objects. The memory for the objects stored in the array is allocated
only once in the lifetime of the clones array. All objects must be of the same class. For the rest this class has the same
properties as a TObjArray.

Figure 16.4: The internal data structure of a TClonesArray

The figure above shows the internal data structure of a TClonesArray. The class is specially designed for repetitive
data analysis tasks, where in a loop many times the same objects, are created and deleted. The only supported way to
add objects to a TClonesArray is via the new with placement method. The different Add() methods of TObjArray
and its base classes are not supported.

16.8.1

The Idea Behind TClonesArray

To reduce the very large number of new and delete calls in large loops like this (O(100000) x O(10000) times new/delete):
TObjArray a(10000);
while (TEvent *ev = (TEvent *)next()) {
for (int i = 0; i < ev->Ntracks; i++) {
a[i] = new TTrack(x,y,z,...);
...
}
...
a.Delete();
}

// O(100000)
// O(10000)

You better use a TClonesArray which reduces the number of new/delete calls to only O(10000):
TClonesArray a("TTrack", 10000);
while (TEvent *ev = (TEvent *)next()) {

// O(100000)

16.9. TEMPLATE CONTAINERS AND STL

419

for (int i = 0; i < ev->Ntracks; i++) {

// O(10000)
TTrack *track = (Track*)a.ConstructedAt(i);
track->Set(x,y,z,...);
...
}
...
a.Clear(); // Or Clear("C") if the track objects must be returned (via Track::Clear) to a default state

Considering that a pair of new/delete calls on average cost about 70 ms, O(109) new/deletes will save about 19 hours.
For the other collections, see the class reference guide on the web and the test program $ROOTSYS/test/tcollex.cxx.

16.9

Template Containers and STL

Some people dislike polymorphic containers because they are not truly type safe. In the end, the compiler leaves it
the user to ensure that the types are correct. This only leaves the other alternative: creating a new class each time a
new (container organization) / (contained object) combination is needed. To say the least this could be very tedious.
Most people faced with this choice would, for each type of container:
Define the class leaving a dummy name for the contained object type. When a particular container was needed, copy
the code and then do a global search and replace for the contained class. C++ has a built in template scheme that
effectively does just this. For example:
template<class T>
class ArrayContainer {
private:
T *member[10];
...
};
This is an array container with a 10-element array of pointers to T, it could hold up to 10 T objects. This array is
flawed because it is static and hard-coded, it should be dynamic. However, the important point is that the template
statement indicates that T is a template, or parameterized class. If we need an ArrayContainer for Track objects, it
can be created by:
ArrayContainer<Track> MyTrackArrayContainer;
C++ takes the parameter list and substitutes Track for T throughout the definition of the class ArrayContainer, then
compiles the code so generated, effectively doing the same we could do by hand, but with a lot less effort.
This produces code that is type safe, but does have different drawbacks:
Templates make code harder to read.
At the time of writing this documentation, some compilers can be very slow when dealing with templates.
It does not solve the problem when a container has to hold a heterogeneous set of objects.
The system can end up generating a great deal of code; each container/object combination has its own code, a
phenomenon that is sometimes referred to as code bloat.
The Standard Template Library (STL) is part on ANSI C++, and includes a set of template containers.

420

CHAPTER 16. COLLECTION CLASSES

Chapter 17

Physics Vectors
The physics vector classes describe vectors in three and four dimensions and their rotation algorithms. The classes
were ported to root from CLHEP see:
http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/asd/lhc++/clhep/manual/UserGuide/Vector/vector.html

17.1

The Physics Vector Classes

In order to use the physics vector classes you will have to load the Physics library:
gSystem.Load("libPhysics.so");
There are four classes in this package. They are:
TVector3 is a general three-vector. A TVector3 may be expressed in Cartesian, polar, or cylindrical coordinates.
Methods include dot and cross products, unit vectors and magnitudes, angles between vectors, and rotations and
boosts. There are also functions of particular use to HEP, like pseudo-rapidity, projections, and transverse part of a
TVector3, and kinetic methods on 4-vectors such as Invariant Mass of pairs or containers of particles.
TLorentzVector is a general four-vector class, which can be used either for the description of position and time (x,
y, z, t) or momentum and energy (px, py, pz, E). TRotation is a class describing a rotation of a TVector3 object.
TLorentzRotation is a class to describe the Lorentz transformations including Lorentz boosts and rotations. In
addition, a TVector2 is a basic implementation of a vector in two dimensions and is not part of the CLHEP translation.

17.2

TVector3

TVector3 is a general three-vector class, which can be used for description of different vectors in 3D. Components of
three vectors:
x, y, z = basic components
= azimuth angle
= polar angle
magnitude = mag =

x2 + y 2 + z 2

transverse component = perp =

x2 + y 2

Using the TVector3 class, you should remember that it contains only common features of three vectors and lacks
methods specific for some particular vector values. For example, it has no translated function because translation has
no meaning for vectors.
421

422

17.2.1

CHAPTER 17. PHYSICS VECTORS

Declaration / Access to the Components

TVector3 has been implemented as a vector of three Double_t variables, representing the Cartesian coordinates. By
default the values are initialized to zero, however you can change them in the constructor:
TVector3
TVector3
TVector3
TVector3

v1;
v2(1);
v3(1,2,3);
v4(v2);

//
//
//
//

v1
v2
v3
v4

=
=
=
=

(0,0,0)
(1,0,0)
(1,2,3)
v2

It is also possible (but not recommended) to initialize a TVector3 with a Double_t or Float_t C array. You can get
the components by name or by index:
xx = v1.X();
yy = v1.Y();
zz = v1.Z();

or

xx = v1(0);
yy = v1(1);
zz = v1(2);

The methods SetX(), SetY(), SetZ() and SetXYZ() allow you to set the components:
v1.SetX(1.); v1.SetY(2.); v1.SetZ(3.);
v1.SetXYZ(1.,2.,3.);

17.2.2

Other Coordinates

To get information on the TVector3 in spherical (rho, phi, theta) or cylindrical (z, r, theta) coordinates, the following
methods can be used.
Double_t m = v.Mag();
// get magnitude (=rho=Sqrt(x*x+y*y+z*z)))
Double_t m2 = v.Mag2();
// get magnitude squared
Double_t t = v.Theta();
// get polar angle
Double_t ct = v.CosTheta();// get cos of theta
Double_t p = v.Phi();
// get azimuth angle
Double_t pp = v.Perp();
// get transverse component
Double_t pp2= v.Perp2();
// get transverse squared
It is also possible to get the transverse component with respect to another vector:

17.2. TVECTOR3

423

Double_t ppv1 = v.Perp(v1);

Double_t pp2v1 = v.Perp2(v1);
The pseudo-rapidity (eta = -ln (tan (theta/2))) can be obtained by Eta() or PseudoRapidity():
Double_t eta = v.PseudoRapidity();
These setters change one of the non-Cartesian coordinates:
v.SetTheta(.5);
v.SetPhi(.8);
v.SetMag(10.);
v.SetPerp(3.);

17.2.3

//
//
//
//

keeping
keeping
keeping
keeping

rho and phi

rho and theta
theta and phi
z and phi

Arithmetic / Comparison

The TVector3 class has operators to add, subtract, scale and compare vectors:
v3 =
v1 =
v1 +=
v1 =
v1 -=
v1 *=
v1 =
if(v1
if(v1

-v1;
v2+v3;
v3;
v1 - v3;
v3;
10;
5*v2;
== v2) {...}
!= v2) {...}

17.2.4

Related Vectors

v2 = v1.Unit();
v2 = v1.Orthogonal();

17.2.5

// get unit vector parallel to v1

// get vector orthogonal to v1

Scalar and Vector Products

s = v1.Dot(v2);
// scalar product
s = v1 * v2;
// scalar product
v = v1.Cross(v2); // vector product

17.2.6

Angle between Two Vectors

Double_t a = v1.Angle(v2);

17.2.7

Rotation around Axes

v.RotateX(.5);
v.RotateY(TMath::Pi());
v.RotateZ(angle);

17.2.8

Rotation around a Vector

v1.Rotate(TMath::Pi()/4, v2); // rotation around v2

424

CHAPTER 17. PHYSICS VECTORS

17.2.9

Rotation by TRotation Class

TVector3 objects can be rotated by TRotation objects using the Transform() method, the operator *=, or the operator
* of the TRotation class. See the later section on TRotation.
TRotation m;
...
v1.Transform(m);
v1 = m*v1;
v1 *= m;

17.2.10

// v1 = m*v1

Transformation from Rotated Frame

This code transforms v1 from the rotated frame (z parallel to direction, x in the theta plane and y in the xy plane as
well as perpendicular to the theta plane) to the (x, y, z) frame.
TVector3 direction = v.Unit()
v1.RotateUz(direction);
// direction must be TVector3 of unit length

17.3

TRotation

The TRotation class describes a rotation of TVector3 object. It is a 3 * 3 matrix of Double_t:


 xx

 yx

 zx

xy
yy
zy

xz
yz
zz

It describes a so-called active rotation, i.e. a rotation of objects inside a static system of coordinates. In case you want
to rotate the frame and want to know the coordinates of objects in the rotated system, you should apply the inverse
rotation to the objects. If you want to transform coordinates from the rotated frame to the original frame you have
to apply the direct transformation. A rotation around a specified axis means counterclockwise rotation around the
positive direction of the axis.

17.3.1

Declaration, Access, Comparisons

TRotation r;
TRotation m(r);

// r initialized as identity
// m = r

There is no direct way to set the matrix elements - to ensure that a TRotation always describes a real rotation. But
you can get the values by with the methods XX()..ZZ() or the (,) operator:
Double_t xx = r.XX();
xx = r(0,0);
if (r==m) {...}
if (r!=m) {..}
if (r.IsIdentity()) {...}

17.3.2

// the same as xx=r(0,0)

// test for equality
// test for inequality
// test for identity

Rotation around Axes

The following matrices describe counter-clockwise rotations around the coordinate axes and are implemented in:
RotateX(),RotateY() and RotateZ():

 1

Rx(a) =  0
 0







 cos(a) 0 sin(a) 
 cos(a) sin(a) 0 
0
0





 Rz(a) =  sin(a) cos(a) 0 
cos(a) sin(a)  Ry(a) = 
0
1
0



 sin(a) 0 cos(a) 

sin(a) cos(a) 
0
0
1 

r.RotateX(TMath::Pi()); // rotation around the x-axis

17.3. TROTATION

17.3.3

425

Rotation around Arbitrary Axis

The Rotate() method allows you to rotate around an arbitrary vector (not necessary a unit one) and returns the
result.
r.Rotate(TMath::Pi()/3,TVector3(3,4,5));
It is possible to find a unit vector and an angle, which describe the same rotation as the current one:
Double_t angle;
TVector3 axis;
r.GetAngleAxis(angle,axis);

17.3.4

Rotation of Local Axes

The RotateAxes()method adds a rotation of local axes to the current rotation and returns the result:
TVector3 newX(0,1,0);
TVector3 newY(0,0,1);
TVector3 newZ(1,0,0);
a.RotateAxes(newX,newX,newZ);
Methods ThetaX(), ThetaY(), ThetaZ(), PhiX(), PhiY(), PhiZ() return azimuth and polar angles of the rotated
axes:
Double_t tx,ty,tz,px,py,pz;
tx= a.ThetaX();
...
pz= a.PhiZ();

17.3.5

Inverse Rotation

TRotation a,b;
...
b = a.Inverse();// b is inverse of a, a is unchanged
b = a.Invert();// invert a and set b = a

17.3.6

Compound Rotations

The operator * has been implemented in a way that follows the mathematical notation of a product of the two
matrices which describe the two consecutive rotations. Therefore, the second rotation should be placed first:
r = r2 * r1;

17.3.7

Rotation of TVector3

The TRotation class provides an operator * which allows expressing a rotation of a TVector3 analog to the
mathematical notation:
 0  
 x   xx
 0  
 y  =  yx
 0  
 z   zx

xy
yy
zy

xz
yz
zz

 

  x 
 

 y 
 

  z 

TRotation r;
TVector3 v(1,1,1);
v = r * v;
You can also use the Transform() method or the operator *= of the TVector3 class:
TVector3 v;
TRotation r;
v.Transform(r);

426

CHAPTER 17. PHYSICS VECTORS

17.4

TLorentzVector

TLorentzVector is a general four-vector class, which can be used either for the description of position and time (x, y,
z, t) or momentum and energy (px, py, pz, E).

17.4.1

Declaration

TLorentzVector has been implemented as a set a TVector3 and a Double_t variable. By default, all components are
initialized by zero.
TLorentzVector
TLorentzVector
TLorentzVector
TLorentzVector

v1; // initialized by (0.,0.,0.,0.)

v2(1.,1.,1.,1.);
v3(v1);
v4(TVector3(1.,2.,3.),4.);

For backward compatibility there are two constructors from a Double_t and Float_t array.

17.4.2

Access to Components

There are two sets of access functions to the components of a TLorentzVector: X(), Y(), Z(), T() and Px(), Py(),
Pz() and E(). Both sets return the same values but the first set is more relevant for use where TLorentzVector
describes a combination of position and time and the second set is more relevant where TLorentzVector describes
momentum and energy:
Double_t
...
Double_t
Double_t
...
Double_t

xx =v.X();
tt = v.T();
px = v.Px();
ee = v.E();

The components of TLorentzVector can also accessed by index:

xx
yy
zz
tt

=
=
=
=

v(0);orxx
v(1);yy =
v(2);zz =
v(3);tt =

= v[0];
v[1];
v[2];
v[3];

You can use the Vect() method to get the vector component of TLorentzVector:
TVector3 p = v.Vect();
For setting components there are two methods: SetX(),.., SetPx(),..:
v.SetX(1.); orv.SetPx(1.);
......
v.SetT(1.);v.SetE(1.);
To set more the one component by one call you can use the SetVect() function for the TVector3 part or SetXYZT(),
SetPxPyPzE(). For convenience there is also a SetXYZM():
v.SetVect(TVector3(1,2,3));
v.SetXYZT(x,y,z,t);
v.SetPxPyPzE(px,py,pz,e);
v.SetXYZM(x,y,z,m);
// v = (x,y,z,e = Sqrt(x*x+y*y+z*z+m*m))

17.4. TLORENTZVECTOR

17.4.3

427

Vector Components in Non-Cartesian Coordinates

There are a couple of methods to get and set the TVector3 part of the parameters in spherical coordinate systems:
Double_t m, theta, cost, phi, pp, pp2, ppv2, pp2v2;
m = v.Rho();
t = v.Theta();
cost = v.CosTheta();
phi = v.Phi();
v.SetRho(10.);
v.SetTheta(TMath::Pi()*.3);
v.SetPhi(TMath::Pi());
or get information about the r-coordinate in cylindrical systems:
Double_t pp, pp2, ppv2,
pp
= v.Perp();
//
pp2 = v.Perp2();
//
ppv2 = v.Perp(v1);
//
//
pp2v2 = v.Perp(v1);

pp2v2;
get transverse component
get transverse component squared
get transverse component with respect
to another vector

there are two more set functions SetPtEtaPhiE(pt,eta,phi,e) and SetPtEtaPhiM(pt,eta,phi,m) for convenience.

17.4.4

Arithmetic and Comparison Operators

The TLorentzVector class provides operators to add subtract or compare four-vectors:

v3 = -v1;
v1 = v2+v3;
v1+= v3;
v1 = v2 + v3;
v1-= v3;
if (v1 == v2) {...}
if (v1 != v3) {...}

17.4.5

Magnitude/Invariant mass, beta, gamma, scalar product

The scalar product of two four-vectors is calculated with the (-,-,-,+)metric:

s = v1*v2 = t1*t2-x1*x2-y1*y2-z1*z2
The magnitude squared mag2 of a four-vector is therefore:
mag2 = v*v = t*t-x*x-y*y-z*z
If mag2 is negative: mag = -Sqrt(-mag*mag). The methods are:
Double_t s, s2;
s = v1.Dot(v2);// scalar product
s = v1*v2;// scalar product
s2 = v.Mag2();ors2 = v.M2();
s = v.Mag();s = v.M();
Since in case of momentum and energy the magnitude has the meaning of invariant mass TLorentzVector provides the more meaningful aliases M2() and M(). The methods Beta() and Gamma() returns beta and gamma =
1/Sqrt(1-beta*beta).

428

CHAPTER 17. PHYSICS VECTORS

17.4.6

Lorentz Boost

A boost in a general direction can be parameterized with three parameters which can be taken as the components of a
three vector b=(bx,by,bz). With x=(x,y,z) and gamma=1/Sqrt(1-beta*beta) (beta being the module of vector b),
an arbitrary active Lorentz boost transformation (from the rod frame to the original frame) can be written as:
x = x + (gamma-1)/(beta*beta)*(b*x)*b + gamma*t*b
t = gamma(t+ b*x)
The Boost() method performs a boost transformation from the rod frame to the original frame. BoostVector()
returns a TVector3 of the spatial components divided by the time component:
TVector3 b;
v.Boost(bx,by,bz);
v.Boost(b);
b = v.BoostVector();// b=(x/t,y/t,z/t)

17.4.7

Rotations

There are four sets of functions to rotate the TVector3 component of a TLorentzVector:
Around Axes:
v.RotateX(TMath::Pi()/2.);
v.RotateY(.5);
v.RotateZ(.99);
Around an arbitrary axis:
v.Rotate(TMath::Pi()/4., v1); // rotation around v1
Transformation from rotated frame:
v.RotateUz(direction); // direction must be a unit TVector3
Rotation by TRotation:
TRotation r;
v.Transform(r);//or v *= r;

17.4.8

(v = r*v)

Miscellaneous

Angle between two vectors:

Double_t a = v1.Angle(v2);// get angle between v1 and v2
Methods Plus() and Minus() return the positive and negative light-cone components:
Double_t pcone = v.Plus();
Double_t mcone = v.Minus();
A general Lorentz transformation (see class TLorentzRotation) can be used by the Transform() method, the *=, or
* operator of the TLorentzRotation class:
TLorentzRotation l;
v.Transform(l);
v = l*v;orv *= l;// v = l*v

17.5. TLORENTZROTATION

17.5

429

TLorentzRotation

The TLorentzRotation class describes Lorentz transformations including Lorentz boosts and rotations (see TRotation)




lambda = 



17.5.1

xx
yx
zx
tx

xy
yy
zy
ty

xz
yz
zz
tz

xt
yt
zt
tt

Declaration

By default it is initialized to the identity matrix, but it may also be initialized by other TLorentzRotation, by a pure
TRotation or by a boost:
TLorentzRotation
TLorentzRotation
TRotation r;
TLorentzRotation
TLorentzRotation
TVector3 b;
TLorentzRotation

l;
// l is initialized as identity
m(l);// m = l
lr(r);
lb1(bx,by,bz);
lb2(b);

The Matrix for a Lorentz boosts is:


 1 + gamma0 bx bx
gamma0 bx by

0
 gamma bx bz
1 + gamma0 by by

0
 gamma bz bx
gamma0 bz by


gamma bx
gamma by

gamma0 bx bz
gamma0 by by
1 + gamma0 bz bz
gamma bz

gamma bx
gamma by
gamma bz
gamma

with the boost vector b=(bx,by,bz); gamma=1/Sqrt(1-beta*beta);gamma=(gamma-1)/beta*beta.

17.5.2

Access to the Matrix Components/Comparisons

The access to the matrix components is possible with the methods XX(), XY() . . . TT(), and with the operator(int,int):
Double_t xx;
TLorentzRotation l;
xx = l.XX();
xx = l(0,0);
if (l == m) {...}
if (l != m) {...}
if (l.IsIdentity()) {...}

17.5.3

//
//
//
//
//

gets
gets
test
test
test

the
the
for
for
for

xx component
xx component
equality
inequality
identity

Transformations of a Lorentz Rotation

There are four possibilities to find the product of two TLorentzRotation transformations:
TLorentzRotation a,b,c;
c = b*a;
c = a.MatrixMultiplication(b);
a *= b;
c = a.Transform(b)
Lorentz boosts:
Double_t bx, by, bz;
TVector3 v(bx,by,bz);
TLorentzRotation l;
l.Boost(v);
l.Boost(bx,by,bz);

//
//
//
//

product
a is unchanged
a=a*b
a=b*a then c=a

430

CHAPTER 17. PHYSICS VECTORS

Rotations:
TVector3 axis;
l.RotateX(TMath::Pi()); // rotation around x-axis
l.Rotate(.5,axis);
// rotation around specified vector
Inverse transformation: use the method Inverse()to return the inverse transformation keeping the current one
unchanged. The method Invert() inverts the current TLorentzRotation:
l1 = l2.Inverse(); // l1 is inverse of l2, l2 unchanged
l1 = l2.Invert(); // invert l2, then l1=l2
The matrix for the inverse transformation of a TLorentzRotation is as follows:









17.5.4

xx
yx
zx
xt


xy
xz tx 
yy
yz ty 
zy
zz tz 
yt zt tt 

Transformation of a TLorentzVector

To apply TLorentzRotation to TLorentzVector you can use either the VectorMultiplication() method or the *
operator. You can also use the Transform() function and the *=operator of the class TLorentzVector.
TLorentzVector v;
TLorentzRotation l;
...
v = l.VectorMultiplication(v);
v = l * v;
v.Transform(l);
v *= l;
// v = l*v

17.5.5

Physics Vector Example

The test file $ROOTSYS/test/TestVectors.cxx is an example of using physics vectors. The vector classes are not
loaded by default, and to run it, you will need to load libPhysics.so first:
root[] .L $ROOTSYS/lib/libPhysics.so
root[] .x TestVectors.cxx
To load the physics vector library in a ROOT application use:
gSystem->Load("libPhysics");
The example $ROOTSYS/test/TestVectors.cxx does not return much, especially if all went well, but when you look
at the code you will find examples for many calls.

Chapter 18

The Geometry Package

The new ROOT geometry package is a tool for building, browsing, navigating and visualizing detector geometries. The
code works standalone with respect to any tracking Monte-Carlo engine; therefore, it does not contain any constraints
related to physics. However, the navigation features provided by the package are designed to optimize particle transport
through complex geometries, working in correlation with simulation packages such as GEANT3, GEANT4 and FLUKA.

18.1

Quick Start: Creating the world

This chapter will provide a detailed description on how to build valid geometries as well as the ways to optimize them.
There are several components gluing together the geometrical model, but for the time being let us get used with the
most basic concepts.
The basic bricks for building-up the model are called volumes.These represent the un-positioned pieces of the geometry
puzzle. The difference is just that the relationship between the pieces is not defined by neighbors, but by containment.
In other words, volumes are put one inside another making an in-depth hierarchy. From outside, the whole thing looks
like a big pack that you can open finding out other smaller packs nicely arranged waiting to be opened at their turn.
The biggest one containing all others defines the world of the model. We will often call this master reference
system (MARS). Going on and opening our packs, we will obviously find out some empty ones, otherwise, something is
very wrong. . . We will call these leaves (by analogy with a tree structure).
On the other hand, any volume is a small world by itself - what we need to do is to take it out and to ignore all the
rest since it is a self-contained object. In fact, the modeller can act like this, considering a given volume as temporary
MARS, but we will describe this feature later on. Let us focus on the biggest pack - it is mandatory to define one.
Consider the simplest geometry that is made of a single box. Here is an example on how to build it:

18.1.1

Example 1: Creating the World

We first need to load the geometry library. This is not needed if one does make map in root folder.
root[] gSystem->Load("libGeom");
Second, we have to create an instance of the geometry manager class. This takes care of all the modeller components,
performing several tasks to insure geometry validity and containing the user interface for building and interacting with
the geometry. After its creation, the geometry manager class can be accessed with the global gGeoManager :
root[] new TGeoManager("world", "the simplest geometry");
We want to create a single volume in our geometry, but since any volume needs to have an associated medium, we will
create a dummy one. You can safely ignore the following lines for the time being, since materials and media will be
explained in detail later on.
root[] TGeoMaterial *mat = new TGeoMaterial("Vacuum",0,0,0);
root[] TGeoMedium
*med = new TGeoMedium("Vacuum",1,mat);
431

432

CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

We can finally make our volume having a box shape. Note that the world volume does not need to be a box - it can be
any other shape. Generally, boxes and tubes are the most recommendable shapes for this purpose due to their fast
navigation algorithms.
root[] TGeoVolume *top=gGeoManager->MakeBox("Top",med,10.,10.,10.);
The default units are in centimeters. Now we want to make this volume our world. We have to do this operation
before closing the geometry.
root[] gGeoManager->SetTopVolume(top);
This should be enough, but it is not since always after defining some geometry hierarchy, TGeo needs to build some
optimization structures and perform some checks. Note the messages posted after the statement is executed. We will
describe the corresponding operations later.
root[] gGeoManager->CloseGeometry();
Now we are really done with geometry building stage, but we would like to see our simple world:
root[] top->SetLineColor(kMagenta);
root[] gGeoManager->SetTopVisible(); // the TOP is invisible
root[] top->Draw();

18.1.2

Example 2: A Geometrical Hierarchy Look and Feel

Before going further, let us get a look and feel of interacting with the modeller. For this, we will use one of the examples
illustrating the geometry package. To get an idea on the geometry structure created in this example, just look at the
link: http://root.cern.ch/root/html/tutorials/geom/rootgeom.C.html. You will notice that this is a bit more complex
that just creating the world since several other volumes are created and put together in a hierarchy. The purpose
here is just to learn how to interact with a geometry that is already built, but just few hints on the building steps in
this example might be useful. The geometry here represents the word ROOT that is replicated in some symmetric
manner. You might for instance ask some questions after having a first look:
Q: "OK, I understand the first lines that load the libGeom library and create a geometry manager
object. I also recognize from the previous example the following lines creating some materials
and media, but what about the geometrical transformations below?"
A: As explained before, the model that we are trying to create is a hierarchy of volumes based on containment . This
is accomplished by positioning some volumes inside others. Any volume is an un-positioned object in the sense
that it defines only a local frame (matching the one of its shape ). In order to fully define the mother-daughter
relationship between two volumes one has to specify how the daughter will be positioned inside. This is accomplished
by defining a local geometrical transformation of the daughter with respect to the mother coordinate system.
These transformations will be subsequently used in the example.
Q: "I see the lines defining the top level volume as in the previous example, but what about the
other volumes named REPLICA and ROOT?"
A: You will also notice that several other volumes are created by using lines like:
TGeoVolume *someVolume = gGeoManager->MakeXXX("someName",
ptrMedium, /* parameters coresponding to XXX ...*/ )
In the method above XXX represent some shape name (Box, Tube, etc.). This is just a simple way of creating a volume
having a given shape in one-step (see also section: Creating and Positioning Volumes). As for REPLICA and ROOT
volumes, they are just some virtual volumes used for grouping and positioning together other real volumes . See
Positioned Volumes (Nodes). The same structure represented by (a real or) a virtual volume can be replicated
several times in the geometry.
Q: "Fine, so probably the real volumes are the ones composing the letters R, O and T. Why one
have to define so many volumes to make an R?"
A: Well, in real life some objects have much more complex shapes that an R . The modeller cannot just know all of them;
the idea is to make a complex object by using elementary building blocks that have known shapes (called primitive
shapes ). Gluing these together in the appropriate way is the user responsibility.

18.1. QUICK START: CREATING THE WORLD

Q: "I am getting the global picture but not making much out of it...
calls to TGeoVolume::AddNode() that I do not understand."

433
There are also a lot of

A: A volume is positioned inside another one by using this method. The relative geometrical transformation as
well as a copy number must be specified. When positioned, a volume becomes a node of its container and a new
object of the class TGeoNode is automatically created. This method is therefore the key element for the creation of a
hierarchical link between two volumes. As it will be described further on in this document, there are few other methods
performing similar actions, but let us keep things simple for the time being. In addition, notice that there are some
visualization-related calls in the example followed by a final TGeoVolume::Draw()call for the top volume. These are
explained in details in the section Visualization Settings and Attributes. At this point, you will probably like to see
how this geometry looks like. You just need to run the example and you will get the following picture that you can
rotate using the mouse; or you can zoom / move it around (see what the Help menu of the GL window displays).
% root rootgeom.C

Now let us browse the hierarchy that was just created. Start a browser and double-click on the item simple1 representing
the gGeoManager object. Note that right click opens the context menu of the manager class where several global
methods are available.
root[] new TBrowser;

The folders Materials, Media and Local transformations are in fact the containers where the geometry manager
stores the corresponding objects. The Illegal overlaps folder is empty but can be filled after performing a geometry
validity check (see section: Checking the Geometry). If tracking is performed using TGeo, the folder Tracks might
contain user-defined tracks that can be visualized/animated in the geometry context (see section: Creating and
Visualizing Tracks). Since for the time being we are interested more in the geometrical hierarchy, we will focus on the
last two displayed items TOPand TOP_1. These are the top volume and the corresponding top node in the hierarchy.
Double clicking on the TOP volume will unfold all different volumes contained by the top volume. In the right panel, we
will see all the volumes contained by TOP (if the same is positioned 4 times we will get 4 identical items). This rule will
apply to any clicked volume in the hierarchy. Note that right clicking a volume item activates the volume context
menu containing several specific methods. We will call the volume hierarchy developed in this way as the logical
geometry graph. The volume objects are nodes inside this graph and the same volume can be accessed starting from
different branches.

434

CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

On the other hand, the real geometrical objects that are seen when visualizing or tracking the geometry are depicted in
the TOP_1 branch. These are the nodes of the physical tree of positioned volumes represented by TGeoNode objects.
This hierarchy is a tree since a node can have only one parent and several daughters. For a better understanding of the
hierarchy, have a look at http://root.cern.ch/root/htmldoc/TGeoManager.html.
Just close now the X3D window and focus at the wire frame picture drawn in a pad. Activate Options/Event Status.
Moving the mouse in the pad, you will notice that objects are sometimes changing color to red. Volumes are highlighted
in this way whenever the mouse pointer is close enough to one of its vertices. When this happens, the corresponding
volume is selected and you will see in the bottom right size of the ROOT canvas its name, shape type and corresponding
path in the physical tree. Right clicking on the screen when a volume is selected will also open its context menu
(picking). Note that there are several actions that can be performed both at view (no volume selected) and volume
level.
TView (mouse not selecting any volume):

Click-and-drag rotates the view.

Pressing some keys perform different actions:
J/K - zoom / unzoom
H, L, U, I - move the viewpoint
Right click + SetParallel ()/SetPerspective () - switch from parallel to perspective view.
Right click + ShowAxis() - show coordinate axes.
Right click + Centered/Left/Side/Top - change view direction.

TGeoVolume (mouse selecting a volume):

Double click will focus the corresponding volume.

Right click + CheckOverlaps() - run overlap checker on current volume.
Right click + Draw () - draw that volume according current global visualization options
Right click + DrawOnly()- draw only the selected volume.
Right click + InspectShape/Material() - print info about shape or material.
Right click + Raytrace() - initiate a ray tracing algorithm on current view.
Right click + RandomPoints/Rays() - shoot random points or rays inside the bounding box of the clicked volume
and display only those inside visible volumes.
Right click + Weight() - estimates the weight of a volume within a given precision.

Note that there are several additional methods for visibility and line attributes settings.

18.2

Materials and Tracking Media

We have mentioned that volumes are the building blocks for geometry, but they describe real objects having well
defined properties. In fact, there are just two of them: the material they are made from and their geometrical shape.
These have to be created before creating the volume itself, so we will describe the bits and pieces needed for making
the geometry before moving to an architectural point of view.
As far as materials are concerned, they represent the physical properties of the solid from which a volume is made.
Materials are just a support for the data that has to be provided to the tracking engine that uses this geometry package.
Due to this fact, the TGeoMaterial class is more like a thin data structure needed for building the corresponding
native materials of the Monte-Carlo tracking code that uses TGeo.

18.2.1

Elements, Materials and Mixtures

In order to make easier material and mixture creation, one can use the pre-built table of elements owned by TGeoManager
class:
TGeoElementTable *table = gGeoManager->GetElementTable();
TGeoElement *element1 = table->GetElement(Int_t Z);
TGeoElement *element2 = table->FindElement("Copper");
Materials made of single elements can be defined by their atomic mass (A), charge (Z) and density (rho). One can also
create a material by specifying the element that it is made of. Optionally the radiation and absorption lengths can be
also provided; otherwise they can be computed on-demand [G3]. The class representing them is TGeoMaterial:

18.2. MATERIALS AND TRACKING MEDIA

435

TGeoMaterial(const char *name,Double_t a,Double_t z,

Double_t density, Double_t radlen=0,Double_t intlen=0);
TGeoMaterial(const char *name, TGeoElement *elem,
Double_t density);
TGeoMaterial(const char* name, Double_t a, Double_t z,
Double_t rho,
TGeoMaterial::EGeoMaterialState state,
Double_t temperature = STP_temperature,
Double_t pressure = STP_pressure)
Any material or derived class is automatically indexed after creation. The assigned index is corresponding to the last
entry in the list of materials owned by TGeoManager class. This can be changed using the TGeoMaterial::SetIndex()
method, however it is not recommended while using the geometry package interfaced with a transport MC. Radiation
and absorption lengths can be set using:
TGeoMaterial::SetRadLen(Double_t radlen, Double_t intlen);
radlen: radiation length. If radlen<=0 the value is computed using GSMATE algorithm in GEANT3
intlen: absorption length
Material state, temperature and pressure can be changed via setters. Another material property is transparency. It can
be defined and used while viewing the geometry with OpenGL.
void SetTransparency (Char_t transparency = 0)
transparency: between 0 (opaque default) to 100 (fully transparent)
One can attach to a material a user-defined object storing Cerenkov properties. Another hook for material shading
properties is currently not in use. Mixtures are materials made of several elements. They are represented by the class
TGeoMixture, deriving from TGeoMaterial and defined by their number of components and the density:
TGeoMixture(const char *name,Int_t nel,Double_t rho);
Elements have to be further defined one by one:
void TGeoMixture::DefineElement(Int_t iel,Double_t a,Double_t z,
Double_t weigth);
void TGeoMixture::DefineElement(Int_t iel, TGeoElement *elem,
Double_t weight);
void TGeoMixture::DefineElement(Int_t iel, Int_t z, Int_t natoms);
or:
void
void
void
void

AddElement(TGeoMaterial* mat, Double_t weight);

AddElement(TGeoElement* elem, Double_t weight);
AddElement(TGeoElement* elem, Int_t natoms);
AddElement(Double_t a, Double_t z, Double_t weight)
iel: index of the element[0,nel-1]
a and z: the atomic mass and charge
weight: proportion by mass of the elements
natoms: number of atoms of the element in the molecule making the mixture

The radiation length is automatically computed when all elements are defined. Since tracking MC provide several
other ways to create materials/mixtures, the materials classes are likely to evolve as the interfaces to these engines
are being developed. Generally in the process of tracking material properties are not enough and more specific media
properties have to be defined. These highly depend on the MC performing tracking and sometimes allow the definition
of different media properties (e.g. energy or range cuts) for the same material.

436

CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

18.2.2

Radionuclides

A new class TGeoElementRN was introduced in this version to provide support for radioactive nuclides and their decays.
A database of 3162 radionuclides can be loaded on demand via the table of elements (TGeoElementTable class). One
can make then materials/mixtures based on these radionuclides and use them in a geometry
root[] TGeoManager *geom = new TGeoManager("geom","radionuclides");
root[] TGeoElementTable *table = geom->GetElementTable();
root[] TGeoElementRN *c14 = table->GetElementRN(14,6); // A,Z
root[] c14->Print();
6-C-014 ENDF=60140; A=14; Z=6; Iso=0; Level=0[MeV]; Dmass=3.0199[MeV];
Hlife=1.81e+11[s] J/P=0+; Abund=0; Htox=5.8e-10; Itox=5.8e-10; Stat=0
Decay modes:
BetaMinus
Diso:
0 BR:
100.000% Qval: 0.1565
One can make materials or mixtures from radionuclides:
root[] TGeoMaterial *mat = new TGeoMaterial("C14", c14, 2.0);
The following properties of radionulides can be currently accessed via getters in the TGeoElementRN class:
Atomic number and charge (from the base class TGeoElement)

Isomeric number (ISO)

ENDF code - following the convention: ENDF=10000*Z+100*A+ISO
Isomeric energy level [MeV]
Mass excess [MeV]
Half life [s]
Spin/Parity - can be retrieved with: TGeoElementRN::GetTitle()
Hynalation and ingestion toxicities
List of decays - TGeoElementRN::GetDecays()

The radioactive decays of a radionuclide are represented by the class TGeoDecayChannel and they are stored in a
TObjArray. Decay provides:

Decay mode
Variation of isomeric number
Q value for the decay [GeV]
Parent element
Daughter element

Radionuclides are linked one to each other via their decays, until the last element in the decay chain which must be
stable. One can iterate decay chains using the iterator TGeoElemIter:
root[] TGeoElemIter next(c14);
root[] TGeoElementRN *elem;
root[] while ((elem=next())) next.Print();
6-C-014 (100% BetaMinus) T1/2=1.81e+11
7-N-014 stable
To create a radioactive material based on a radionuclide, one should use the constructor:
TGeoMaterial(const char *name, TGeoElement *elem, Double_t density)
To create a radioactive mixture, one can use radionuclides as well as stable elements:
TGeoMixture(const char *name, Int_t nelements, Double_t density);
TGeoMixture::AddElement(TGeoElement *elem,
Double_t weight_fraction);

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Once defined, one can retrieve the time evolution for the radioactive materials/mixtures by using one of the next two
methods:
1. TGeoMaterial::FillMaterialEvolution(TObjArray *population, Double_t precision=0.001)
To use this method, one has to provide an empty TObjArray object that will be filled with all elements coming from
the decay chain of the initial radionuclides contained by the material/mixture. The precision represent the cumulative
branching ratio for which decay products are still considered.

Figure 18.1: Concentration of C14 derived elements

The population list may contain stable elements as well as radionuclides, depending on the initial elements. To test if
an element is a radionuclide:
Bool_t TGeoElement::IsRadioNuclide() const
All radionuclides in the output population list have attached objects that represent the time evolution of their fraction
of nuclei with respect to the top radionuclide in the decay chain. These objects (Bateman solutions) can be retrieved
and drawn:
TGeoBatemanSol *TGeoElementRN::Ratio();
void TGeoBatemanSol::Draw();
Another method allows to create the evolution of a given radioactive material/mixture at a given moment in time:
2. TGeoMaterial::DecayMaterial(Double_t time, Double_t precision=0.001)
The method will create the mixture that result from the decay of a initial material/mixture at time, while all resulting
elements having a fractional weight less than precision are excluded.
A demo macro for radioactive material features is $ROOTSYS/tutorials/geom/RadioNuclides.C It demonstrates also
the decay of a mixture made of radionuclides.

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Figure 18.2: Concentracion of elements derived fromCa53+Sr78

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439

Tracking Media

The class TGeoMedium describes tracking media properties. This has a pointer to a material and the additional data
members representing the properties related to tracking.
TGeoMedium(const char *name,Int_t numed,TGeoMaterial *mat,
Double_t *params=0);
name: name assigned to the medium
mat: pointer to a material
params: array of additional parameters
Another constructor allows effectively defining tracking parameters in GEANT3 style:
TGeoMedium(const char *name,Int_t numed,Int_t imat,Int_t ifield,
Double_t fieldm,Double_t tmaxfd,Double_t stemax,
Double_t deemax,Double_t epsil,Double_t stmin);
This constructor is reserved for creating tracking media from the VMC interface [. . . ]:
numed: user-defined medium index
imat: unique ID of the material
others: see G3 documentation
Looking at our simple world example, one can see that for creating volumes one needs to create tracking media before.
The way to proceed for those not interested in performing tracking with external MCs is to define and use only one
dummy tracking medium as in the example (or a NULL pointer).

18.2.4

User Interface for Handling Materials and Media

The TGeoManager class contains the API for accessing and handling defined materials:
TGeoManager::GetMaterial(name);

18.3

Shapes

Shapes are geometrical objects that provide the basic modeling functionality. They provide the definition of the local
coordinate system of the volume. Any volume must have a shape. Any shape recognized by the modeller has to derive
from the base TGeoShape class, providing methods for:
Finding out if a point defined in their local frame is contained or not by the shape;
Computing the distance to enter/exit the shape from a local point, given a known direction;
Computing the maximum distance in any direction from a local point that does NOT result in a boundary
crossing of the shape (safe distance);
Computing the cosines of the normal vector to the crossed shape surface, given a starting local point and an
ongoing direction.
All the features above are globally managed by the modeller in order to provide navigation functionality. In addition to
those, shapes have also to implement additional specific abstract methods:
Computation of the minimal box bounding the shape, given that this box have to be aligned with the local
coordinates;
Algorithms for dividing the shape along a given axis.

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Figure 18.3: Primitive Shapes - the general inheritance scheme

The modeller currently provides a set of 20 basic shapes, which we will call primitives. It also provides a special
class allowing the creation of shapes as a result of Boolean operations between primitives. These are called composite
shapes and the composition operation can be recursive (combined composites). This allows the creation of a
quite large number of different shape topologies and combinations. You can have a look and run the tutorial:
http://root.cern.ch/root/html/examples/geodemo.C.html
Shapes are named objects and all primitives have constructors like:
TGeoXXX(const char *name,<type> param1,<type> param2, ...);
TGeoXXX(<type> param1,<type> param2, ...);
Naming shape primitive is mandatory only for the primitives used in Boolean composites (see Composite Shapes).
For the sake of simplicity, we will describe only the constructors in the second form.

18.3.1

Units

The length units used in the geometry are arbitrary. However, there are certain functionalities that work with the
assumption that the used lengths are expressed in centimeters. This is the case for shape capacity or volume weight
computation. The same is valid when using the ROOT geometry as navigator for an external transport MC package
(e.g. GEANT) via the VMC interface.
Other units in use: All angles used for defining rotation matrices or some shape parameters are expressed in degrees.
Material density is expressed in [g/cm3].

18.3.2

Primitive Shapes

18.3.2.1

Boxes - TGeoBBox Class

Normally a box has to be build only with 3 parameters: DX,DY,DZ representing the half-lengths on X, Y and Z-axes.
In this case, the origin of the box will match the one of its reference frame and the box will range from: -DX to DX on
X-axis, from -DY to DY on Y and from -DZ to DZ on Z. On the other hand, any other shape needs to compute and store

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the parameters of their minimal bounding box. The bounding boxes are essential to optimize navigation algorithms.
Therefore all other primitives derive from TGeoBBox. Since the minimal bounding box is not necessary centered in
the origin, any box allows an origin translation (Ox,Oy,Oz). All primitive constructors automatically compute the
bounding box parameters. Users should be aware that building a translated box that will represent a primitive shape
by itself would affect any further positioning of other shapes inside. Therefore it is highly recommendable to build
non-translated boxes as primitives and translate/rotate their corresponding volumes only during positioning stage.
TGeoBBox(Double_t dx,Double_t dy,Double_t dz,Double_t *origin=0);

Figure 18.4: TGeoBBox class

18.3.2.2

Parallelepiped - TGeoPara class

A parallelepiped is a shape having 3 pairs of parallel faces out of which one is parallel with the XY plane (Z faces). All
faces are parallelograms in the general case. The Z faces have 2 edges parallel with the X-axis.

Figure 18.5: TGeoPara class

The shape has the center in the origin and it is defined by:
dX, dY, dZ: half-lengths of the projections of the edges on X, Y and Z. The lower Z face is positioned at -dZ,
while the upper at +dZ.
alpha: angle between the segment defined by the centers of the X-parallel edges and Y axis [-90,90] in degrees
theta: theta angle of the segment defined by the centers of the Z faces;
phi: phi angle of the same segment

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TGeoPara(dX,dY,dZ,alpha,theta,phi);
A box is a particular parallelepiped having the parameters: (dX,dY,dZ,0.,0.,0.).

18.3.2.3

Trapezoids

In general, we will call trapezoidall shapes having 8 vertices and up to 6 trapezoid faces. Besides that, two of the
opposite faces are parallel to XY plane and are positioned at dZ. Since general trapezoids are seldom used in detector
geometry descriptions, there are several primitives implemented in the modeller for particular cases.
Trd1 is a trapezoid with only X varying with Z. It is defined by the half-length in Z, the half-length in X at the lowest
and highest Z planes and the half-length in Y:
TGeoTrd1(Double_t dx1,Double_t dx2,Double_t dy,Double_t dz);

Figure 18.6: TGeoTrd1 class

Trd2 is a trapezoid with both X and Y varying with Z. It is defined by the half-length in Z, the half-length in X at the
lowest and highest Z planes and the half-length in Y at these planes:
TGeoTrd2(Double_t dx1,Double_t dx2,Double_t dy1,Double_t dy2, Double_t dz);

Figure 18.7: TGeoTrd2 class

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443

General Trapezoid - TGeoTrap Class

A general trapezoid is one for which the faces perpendicular to z are trapezes but their centers are not necessary at the
same x, y coordinates.

Figure 18.8: TGeoTrap Class

It has eleven parameters: the half length in z, the polar angles from the center of the face at low z to that at high z, H1
the half length in y at low z, LB1 the half length in x at low z and y low edge, LB2 the half length in x at low z and y
high edge, TH1 the angle with respect to the y axis from the center of low y edge to the center of the high y edge, and
H2,LB2,LH2,TH2, the corresponding quantities at high z.
TGeoTrap(Double_t dz,Double_t theta,Double_t phi,
Double_t h1,Double_t bl1,Double_t tl1,Double_t alpha1,
Double_t h2,Double_t bl2,Double_t tl2,Double_t alpha2);
18.3.2.5

Twisted Trapezoid - TGeoGtra class

A twisted trapezoid is a general trapezoid defined in the same way but that is twisted along the Z-axis. The twist is
defined as the rotation angle between the lower and the higher Z faces.
TGeoGtra(Double_t dz,Double_t theta,Double_t phi,Double_t twist,
Double_t h1,Double_t bl1,Double_t tl1,Double_t alpha1,
Double_t h2,Double_t bl2,Double_t tl2,Double_t alpha2 );

18.3.2.6

Arbitrary 8 vertices shapes - TGeoArb8 class

An Arb8 is defined by two quadrilaterals sitting on parallel planes, at dZ. These are defined each by 4 vertices having
the coordinates (Xi,Yi,+/-dZ),i=0,3. The lateral surface of the Arb8 is defined by the 4 pairs of edges corresponding
to vertices (i,i+1) on both -dZ and +dZ. If M and M are the middles of the segments (i,i+1) at -dZ and +dZ, a
lateral surface is obtained by sweeping the edge at -dZ along MM so that it will match the corresponding one at +dZ.
Since the points defining the edges are arbitrary, the lateral surfaces are not necessary planes - but twisted planes
having a twist angle linear-dependent on Z.
TGeoArb8::TGeoArb8(Double_t dz,Double_t ivert);
dz: half-length in Z;
ivert = [0,7]
Vertices have to be defined clockwise in the XY pane, both at +dz and -dz. The quadrilateral at -dz is defined by
indices [0,3], whereas the one at +dz by vertices [4,7]. The vertex with index=7 has to be defined last, since it triggers
the computation of the bounding box of the shape. Any two or more vertices in each Z plane can have the same (X,Y)
coordinates. It this case, the top and bottom quadrilaterals become triangles, segments or points. The lateral surfaces
are not necessary defined by a pair of segments, but by pair segment-point (making a triangle) or point-point (making
a line). Any choice is valid as long as at one of the end-caps is at least a triangle.

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Figure 18.9: TGeoGtra class

Figure 18.10: TGeoArb8 class

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445

Tubes - TGeoTube Class

Tubes have Z as their symmetry axis. They have a range in Z, a minimum and a maximum radius:
TGeoTube(Double_t rmin,Double_t rmax,Double_t dz);
The full Z range is from -dz to +dz.

Figure 18.11: TGeoTube Class

18.3.2.8

Tube Segments - TGeoTubeSeg Class

A tube segment is a tube having a range in phi. The tube segment class derives from TGeoTube, having 2 extra
parameters: phi1 and phi2.
TGeoTubeSeg(Double_t rmin,Double_t rmax,Double_t dz,
Double_t phi1,Double_t phi2);
Here phi1 and phi2are the starting and ending phivalues in degrees. The general phi convention is that the shape
ranges from phi1 to phi2 going counterclockwise. The angles can be defined with either negative or positive values.
They are stored such that phi1 is converted to [0,360] and phi2 > phi1.

Figure 18.12: TGeoTubeSeg Class

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Cut Tubes - TGeoCtub Class

The cut tubes constructor has the form:

TGeoCtub(Double_t rmin,Double_t rmax,Double_t dz,
Double_t phi1,Double_t phi2,
Double_t nxlow,Double_t nylow,Double_t nzlow, Double_t nxhi,
Double_t nyhi,Double_t nzhi);

Figure 18.13: TGeoCtub Class

A cut tube is a tube segment cut with two planes. The centers of the 2 sections are positioned at dZ. Each cut plane is
therefore defined by a point (0,0,dZ) and its normal unit vector pointing outside the shape:
Nlow=(Nx,Ny,Nz<0), Nhigh=(Nx,Ny,Nz>0).
18.3.2.10

Elliptical Tubes - TGeoEltu Class

An elliptical tube is defined by the two semi-axes A and B. It ranges from -dZ to +dZ as all other tubes:
TGeoEltu(Double_t a,Double_t b,Double_t dz);

Figure 18.14: TGeoEltu Class

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447

Hyperboloids - TGeoHype Class

A hyperboloid is represented as a solid limited by two planes perpendicular to the Z axis (top and bottom planes) and
two hyperbolic surfaces of revolution about Z axis (inner and outer surfaces). The class describing hyperboloids is
TGeoHype has 5 input parameters:
TGeoHype(Double_t rin,Double_t stin,Double_t rout,
Double_t stout,Double_t dz);

Figure 18.15: TGeoHype Class

The hyperbolic surface equation is taken in the form:
r2 - z2tan2() = r2min
r,z: cylindrical coordinates for a point on the surface
: stereo angle between the hyperbola asymptotic lines and Z axis
r2min: minimum distance between hyperbola and Z axis (at z=0)
The input parameters represent:
rin, stin: minimum radius and tangent of stereo angle for inner surface
rout, stout: minimum radius and tangent of stereo angle for outer surface
dz: half length in Z (bounding planes positions at +/-dz)
The following conditions are mandatory in order to avoid intersections between the inner and outer hyperbolic surfaces
in the range +/-dz:
rin<rout
rout>0
rin2 + dz2*stin2 > rout2 + dz2*stout2
Particular cases:
rin=0, stin0: the inner surface is conical
stin=0 / stout=0: cylindrical surface(s)

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18.3.2.12

Cones - TGeoCone Class

The cones are defined by 5 parameters:

TGeoCone(Double_t dz,Double_t rmin1,Double_t rmax1,
Double_t rmin2,Double_t rmax2);

rmin1: internal radius at Z is -dz

rmax1: external radius at Z is -dz
rmin2: internal radius at Z is +dz
rmax2: external radius at Z is +dz
dz: half length in Z (a cone ranges from -dz to +dz)

A cone has Z-axis as its symmetry axis.

Figure 18.16: TGeoCone Class

18.3.2.13

Cone Segments - TGeoConeSeg Class

A cone segment is a cone having a range in phi. The cone segment class derives from TGeoCone, having two extra
parameters: phi1 and phi2.
TGeoConeSeg(Double_t dz,Double_t rmin1,Double_t rmax1,
Double_t rmin2,Double_t rmax2,Double_t phi1,Double_t phi2);
Parametersphi1 and phi2 have the same meaning and convention as for tube segments.
18.3.2.14

Sphere - TGeoSphere Class

Spheres in TGeo are not just balls having internal and external radii, but sectors of a sphere having defined theta and
phi ranges. The TGeoSphere class has the following constructor.
TGeoSphere(Double_t rmin,Double_t rmax,Double_t theta1,
Double_t theta2,Double_t phi1, Double_t phi2);

rmin: internal radius of the spherical sector

rmax: external radius
theta1: starting theta value [0, 180) in degrees
theta2: ending theta value (0, 180] in degrees (theta1<theta2)

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Figure 18.17: TGeoConeSeg Class

Figure 18.18: TGeoSphere Class

Figure 18.19: TGeoTorus Class

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18.3.2.15

Torus : TGeoTorus Class

The torus is defined by its axial radius, its inner and outer radius.
It may have a phirange:
TGeoTorus(Double_t R,Double_t Rmin,Double_t Rmax,Double_t Phi1,
Double_t Dphi);

R: axial radius of the torus

Rmin: inner radius
Rmax: outer radius
Phi1: starting phi angle
Dphi: total phi range

18.3.2.16

Paraboloid : TGeoParaboloid Class

A paraboloid is defined by the revolution surface generated by a parabola and is bounded by two planes perpendicular
to Z axis. The parabola equation is taken in the form: z = ar2 + b, where: r2 = x2 + y2. Note the missing linear
term (parabola symmetric with respect to Z axis).
The coefficients a and b are computed from the input values which are the radii of the circular sections cut by the
planes at +/-dz:
-dz = a*r2low + b
dz = a*r2high + b
TGeoParaboloid(Double_t rlo,Double_t rhi,Double_t dz);

Figure 18.20: TGeoParaboloid Class

18.3.2.17

Polycone : TGeoPcon Class

A polycone is represented by a sequence of tubes/cones, glued together at defined Z planes. The polycone might have a
phi segmentation, which globally applies to all the pieces. It has to be defined in two steps:
1. First call the TGeoPcon constructor to define a polycone:
TGeoPcon(Double_t phi1,Double_t dphi,Int_t nz

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451

phi1: starting phi angle in degrees

dphi: total phi range
nz: number of Z planes defining polycone sections (minimum 2)
2. Define one by one all sections [0, nz-1]
void TGeoPcon::DefineSection(Int_t i,Double_t z,
Double_t rmin, Double_t rmax);

i: section index [0, nz-1]

z: z coordinate of the section
rmin: minimum radius corresponding too this section
rmax: maximum radius.

The first section (i=0) has to be positioned always the lowest Z coordinate. It defines the radii of the first cone/tube
segment at its lower Z. The next section defines the end-cap of the first segment, but it can represent also the beginning
of the next one. Any discontinuity in the radius has to be represented by a section defined at the same Z coordinate as
the previous one. The Z coordinates of all sections must be sorted in increasing order. Any radius or Z coordinate of a
given plane have corresponding getters:
Double_t TGeoPcon::GetRmin(Int_t i);
Double_t TGeoPcon::GetRmax(Int_t i);
Double_t TGeoPcon::GetZ(Int_t i);
Note that the last section should be defined last, since it triggers the computation of the bounding box of the polycone.

Figure 18.21: TGeoPcon Class

18.3.2.18

Polygon: TGeoPgon Class

Polygons are defined in the same way as polycones, the difference being just that the segments between consecutive Z
planes are regular polygons. The phi segmentation is preserved and the shape is defined in a similar manner, just that
rmin and rmax represent the radii of the circles inscribed in the inner/outer polygon.
The constructor of a polygon has the form:
TGeoPgon(Double_t phi1,Double_t dphi,Int_t nedges,Int_t nz);
The extra parameter nedges represent the number of equal edges of the polygons, between phi1 and phi1+dphi.

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Figure 18.22: TGeoPgon Class

18.3.2.19

Polygonal extrusion: TGeoXtru Class

A TGeoXtru shape is represented by the extrusion of an arbitrary polygon with fixed outline between several Z sections.
Each Z section is a scaled version of the same blueprint polygon. Different global XY translations are allowed from
section to section. Corresponding polygon vertices from consecutive sections are connected.
An extruded polygon can be created using the constructor:
TGeoXtru::TGeoXtru(Int_t nplanes);
nplanes:number of Z sections (minimum 2)

Figure 18.23: TGeoXtru Class

The lists of X and Y positions for all vertices have to be provided for the blueprint polygon:

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TGeoXtru::DefinePolygon (Int_t nvertices, Double_t *xv,

Double_t *yv);
nvertices:number of vertices of the polygon
xv,yv:arrays of X and Y coordinates for polygon vertices
The method creates an object of the class TGeoPolygon for which the convexity is automatically determined . The
polygon is decomposed into convex polygons if needed.
Next step is to define the Z positions for each section plane as well as the XY offset and scaling for the corresponding
polygons.
TGeoXtru::DefineSection(Int_t snum,Double_t zsection,Double_t x0,
Double_t y0, Double_t scale);
snum:Z section index (0, nplanes-1). The section with snum = nplanes-1 must be defined last and triggers the
computation of the bounding box for the whole shape
zsection:Z position of section snum. Sections must be defined in increasing order of Z (e.g. snum=0 correspond
to the minimum Z and snum=nplanes-1 to the maximum one).
x0,y0:offset of section snum with respect to the local shape reference frame T
scale:factor that multiplies the X/Y coordinates of each vertex of the polygon at section snum:
x[ivert] = x0 + scale*xv[ivert]
y[ivert] = y0 + scale*yv[ivert]
18.3.2.20

Half Spaces: TGeoHalfSpace Class

A half space is limited just by a plane, defined by a point and the normal direction. The point lies on the plane
and the normal vector points outside the half space. The half space is the only shape which is infinite and can
be used only in Boolean operations that result in non-infinite composite shapes (see also Composite Shapes
below). A half space has to be defined using the constructor:
TGeoHalfSpace (const char *name, Double_t *point[3],
Double_t *norm[3]);

18.3.3

Composite Shapes

Composite shapes are Boolean combinations of two or more shape components. The supported Boolean operations
are union (+), intersection (*) and subtraction(-). Composite shapes derive from the base TGeoShape class, therefore
providing all shape features: computation of bounding box, finding if a given point is inside or outside the combination,
as well as computing the distance to entering/exiting. They can be directly used for creating volumes or used in the
definition of other composite shapes.
Composite shapes are provided in order to complement and extend the set of basic shape primitives. They have a
binary tree internal structure, therefore all shape-related geometry queries are signals propagated from top level down
to the final leaves, while the provided answers are assembled and interpreted back at top. This CSG (composite solid
geometry) hierarchy is effective for small number of components, while performance drops dramatically for large
structures. Building a complete geometry in this style is virtually possible but highly not recommended.
18.3.3.1

The Structure of Composite Shapes

A composite shape can always be looked as the result of a Boolean operation between only two shape components. All
information identifying these two components as well as their positions with respect to the frame of the composite is
represented by an object called Boolean node. A composite shape has a pointer to such a Boolean node. Since the
shape components may also be composites, they will also contain binary Boolean nodes branching out other two shapes
in the hierarchy. Any such branch ends-up when the final leaves are no longer composite shapes, but basic primitives.
The figure shows the composite shapes structure.
Suppose that A, B, C and D represent basic shapes, we will illustrate how the internal representation of few combinations
look like. We do this only for understanding how to create them in a proper way, since the user interface for this
purpose is in fact very simple. We will ignore for the time being the positioning of components. The definition of a
composite shape takes an expression where the identifiers are shape names. The expression is parsed and decomposed
in 2 sub-expressions and the top-level Boolean operator.

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Figure 18.24: The composite shapes structure

1. Union: A+B+C
Just to illustrate the Boolean expression parsing and the composite shape structure, lets take a simple example. We
will describe the union of A, B and C. Both union operators are at the same level. Since:
A+B+C = (A+B)+C = A+(B+C)
The first(+) is taken as separator, hence the expression split in: A and (B+C). A Boolean node of type
TGeoUnion("A","B+C") is created. This tries to replace the 2 expressions by actual pointers to corresponding shapes.
The first expression (A) contains no operators therefore is interpreted as representing a shape. The shape named
A is searched into the list of shapes handled by the manager class and stored as the left shape in the Boolean
union node. Since the second expression is not yet fully decomposed, the right shape in the combination is created
as a new composite shape. This will split at its turn B+C into B and C and create a TGeoUnion("B","C"). The B
and C identifiers will be looked for and replaced by the pointers to the actual shapes into the new node. Finally, the
composite A+B+C will be represented as shown in Fig.17-23.**
To build this composite shape:
TGeoCompositeShape *cs1 = new TGeoCompositeShape("CS1","A+B+C");
Any shape entering a Boolean combination can be prior positioned. In order to do so, one has to attach a matrix name
to the shape name by using a colon (:). As for shapes, the named matrix has to be prior defined:
TGeoMatrix *mat;
// ... code creating some geometrical transformation
mat->SetName("mat1");
mat->RegisterYourself(); // see Geometrical transformations
An identifier shape:matrix have the meaning: shape is translated or rotated with matrix with respect to the Boolean
combination it enters as operand. Note that in the expression A+B+C no matrix identifier was provided, therefore the
identity matrix was used for positioning the shape components. The next example will illustrate a more complex case.
2. (A:m1+B):m2-(C:m3*D:m4):m5

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Figure 18.25: Representation of A+B+C

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Lets try to understand the expression above. This expression means: subtract the intersection of C and D from the
union of A and B. The usage of parenthesis to force the desired precedence is always recommended. One can see that
not only the primitive shapes have some geometrical transformations, but also their intermediate compositions.

Figure 18.26: Internal representation for composite shapes

TGeoCompositeShape *cs2 = new TGeoCompositeShape("CS2",
"(A:m1+B):m2-(C:m3*D:m4):m5");
Building composite shapes as in the first example is not always quite useful since we were using un-positioned shapes.
When supplying just shape names as identifiers, the created Boolean nodes will assume that the shapes are positioned
with an identity transformation with respect to the frame of the created composite. In order to provide some positioning
of the combination components, we have to attach after each shape identifier the name of an existing transformation,
separated by a colon. Obviously all transformations created for this purpose have to be objects with unique names in
order to be properly substituted during parsing.
18.3.3.2

Composite Shape Example

One should have in mind that the same shape or matrix identifiers can be used many times in the same expression, as
in the following example:
const Double_t sq2 = TMath::Sqrt(2.);
gSystem->Load("libGeom");
TGeoManager *mgr =
new TGeoManager("Geom","composite shape example");
TGeoMedium *medium = 0;
TGeoVolume *top = mgr->MakeBox("TOP",medium,100,250,250);
mgr->SetTopVolume(top);
// make shape components
TGeoBBox *sbox = new TGeoBBox("B",100,125*sq2,125*sq2);
TGeoTube *stub = new TGeoTube("T",0,100,250);
TGeoPgon *spgon = new TGeoPgon("P",0.,360.,6,2);
spgon->DefineSection(0,-250,0,80);
spgon->DefineSection(1,250,0,80);

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457

// define some rotations

TGeoRotation *r1 = new TGeoRotation("r1",90,0,0,180,90,90);
r1->RegisterYourself();
TGeoRotation *r2 = new TGeoRotation("r2",90,0,45,90,45,270);
r2->RegisterYourself();
// create a composite
TGeoCompositeShape *cs = new TGeoCompositeShape("cs",
"((T+T:r1)-(P+P:r1))*B:r2");
TGeoVolume *comp = new TGeoVolume("COMP",cs);
comp->SetLineColor(5);
// put it in the top volume
top->AddNode(comp,1);
mgr->CloseGeometry();
// visualize it with ray tracing
top->Raytrace();

Figure 18.27: A composite shape example

Composite shapes can be subsequently used for defining volumes. Moreover, these volumes contain other volumes,
following the general criteria. Volumes created based on composite shapes cannot be divided.

18.3.4

Navigation Methods Performed By Shapes

Shapes are named objects and register themselves to the manager class at creation time. This is responsible for their
final deletion. Shapes can be created without name if their retrieval by name is no needed. Generally shapes are
objects that are useful only at geometry creation stage. The pointer to a shape is in fact needed only when referring to
a given volume and it is always accessible at that level. Several volumes may reference a single shape; therefore its
deletion is not possible once volumes were defined based on it.
The navigation features related for instance to tracking particles are performed in the following way: Each shape
implement its specific algorithms for all required tasks in its local reference system. Note that the manager class
handles global queries related to geometry. However, shape-related queries might be sometimes useful:
Bool_t TGeoShape::Contains(Double_t *point[3]);
The method above returns kTRUE if the point *point is actually inside the shape. The point has to be defined in the
local shape reference. For instance, for a box having DX,DY and DZhalf-lengths a point will be considered inside if:
-DX <= point[0] <= DX

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-DY <= point[1] <= DY

-DZ <= point[2] <= DZ
Double_t TGeoShape::DistFromInside(Double_t *point[3],
Double_t *dir[3], Int_t iact,Double_t step,Double_t *safe);
The method computes the distance to exiting a shape from a given point inside, along a given direction. This direction
is given by its director cosines with respect to the local shape coordinate system. This method provides additional
information according the value of iact input parameter:
iact = 0computes only safe distance and fill it at the location given by SAFE;
iact = 1a proposed STEP is supplied. The safe distance is computed first. If this is bigger than STEP than the
proposed step is approved and returned by the method since it does not cross the shape boundaries. Otherwise,
the distance to exiting the shape is computed and returned;
iact = 2computes both safe distance and distance to exiting, ignoring the proposed step;
iact > 2computes only the distance to exiting, ignoring anything else
Double_t TGeoShape::DistFromOutside(Double_t *point[3],
Double_t *dir[3],Int_t iact,Double_t step,Double_t *safe);
This method computes the distance to entering a shape from a given point outside. It acts in the same way as the
previous method.
Double_t TGeoShape::Safety(Double_t *point[3],Bool_t inside);
This computes the maximum shift of a point in any direction that does not change its inside/outsidestate (does not
cross shape boundaries). The state of the point has to be properly supplied.
Double_t *TGeoShape::ComputeNormal(Double_t *point[3],
Double_t *dir[3],Double_t *norm[3]);
The method above computes the director cosines of normal to the crossed shape surface from a given point towards
direction. This is filled into the norm array, supplied by the user. The normal vector is always chosen such that its dot
product with the direction is positive defined.

18.3.5

Creating Shapes

Shape objects embeds only the minimum set of parameters that are fully describing a valid physical shape. For instance,
the half-length, the minimum and maximum radius represent a tube. Shapes are used together with media in order to
create volumes, which in their turn are the main components of the geometrical tree. A specific shape can be created
stand-alone:
TGeoBBox *box = new TGeoBBox("s_box",halfX,halfY,halfZ); // named
TGeoTube *tub = new TGeoTube(rmin,rmax,halfZ); // no name
//... (See all specific shape constructors)
Sometimes it is much easier to create a volume having a given shape in one step, since shapes are not directly linked in
the geometrical tree but volumes are:
TGeoVolume *vol_box = gGeoManager->MakeBox("BOX_VOL",pmed,halfX,
halfY,halfZ);
TGeoVolume *vol_tub = gGeoManager->MakeTube("TUB_VOL",pmed,rmin,
rmax,halfZ);
// ...(See MakeXXX() utilities in TGeoManager class)

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18.3.6

459

Dividing Shapes

Shapes can generally be divided along a given axis. Supported axes are: X, Y, Z, Rxy, Phi, Rxyz. A given shape cannot
be divided however on any axis. The general rule is that that divisions are possible on whatever axis that produces still
known shapes as slices. The division of shapes are performed by the call TGeoShape::Divide(), but this operation
can be done only via TGeoVolume::Divide() method. In other words, the algorithm for dividing a specific shape is
known by the shape object, but is always invoked in a generic way from the volume level. Details on how to do that
can be found in the paragraph Dividing volumes. One can see how all division options are interpreted and which their
result inside specific shape classes is.

18.3.7

Parametric Shapes

Shapes generally have a set of parameters that is well defined at build time. In fact, when the final geometrical hierarchy
is assembled and the geometry is closed, all constituent shapes MUST**have well defined and valid parameters. In order
to ease-up geometry creation, some parameterizations are however allowed.
For instance lets suppose that we need to define several volumes having exactly the same properties but different sizes.
A way to do this would be to create as many different volumes and shapes. The modeller allows however the definition
of a single volume having undefined shape parameters.
TGeoManager::Volume(const char *name,const char *shape,Int_t nmed);
name: the name of the newly created volume;
shape:the type of the associated shape. This has to contain the case-insensitive first 4 letters of the corresponding
class name (e.g. tubs will match TGeoTubeSeg, bbox will match TGeoBBox)
nmed: the medium number.
This will create a special volume that will not be directly used in the geometry, but whenever positioned will require
a list of actual parameters for the current shape that will be created in this process. Such volumes having shape
parameters known only when used have to be positioned only with TGeoManager::Node() method (see Creating
and Positioning Volumes).
Other case when shape parameterizations are quite useful is scaling geometry structures. Imagine that we would like
to enlarge/shrink a detector structure on one or more axes. This happens quite often in real life and is handled by
fitting mother parameters. This is accomplished by defining shapes with one or more invalid (negative) parameters.
For instance, defining a box having dx=10., dy=10., and dz=-1 will not generate an error but will be interpreted in
a different way: A special volume TGeoVolumeMulti will be created. Whenever positioned inside a mother volume,
this will create a normal TGeoVolume object having as shape a box with dz fitting the corresponding dzof the mother
shape. Generally, this type of parameterization is used when positioning volumes in containers having a matching
shape, but it works also for most reasonable combinations.

18.4

Geometry Creation

A given geometry can be built in various ways, but one has to follow some mandatory steps. Even if we might use
some terms that will be explained later, here are few general rules:
Volumes need media and shapes in order to be created.
Both containers and contained volumes must be created before linking them together, and the relative transformation matrix must be provided.
Any volume have to be positioned somewhere otherwise it will not be considered as part of the geometry.
Visibility or tracking properties of volumes can be provided both at build time or after geometry is closed, but
global visualization settings (see section: The Drawing Package) should not be provided at build time, otherwise
the drawing package will be loaded.
There is also a list of specific rules:
Positioned volumes should not extrude their container or intersect with others within this unless it is specified
(see section: Overlapping Volumes).
The top volume (containing all geometry trees) must be specified before closing the geometry and must not be
positioned - it represents the global reference frame.

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After building the full geometry tree, the geometry must be closed (see the method TGeoManager::CloseGeometry()).
Voxelization can be redone per volume after this process.
The list is much bigger and we will describe in more detail the geometry creation procedure in the following sections.
Provided that geometry was successfully built and closed, the TGeoManager class will register itself to ROOT and the
logical/physical structures will become immediately browsable.

18.4.1

The Volume Hierarchy

The basic components used for building the logical hierarchy of the geometry are the positioned volumes called nodes.
Volumes are fully defined geometrical objects having a given shape and medium and possibly containing a list of nodes.
Nodes represent just positioned instances of volumes inside a container volume but users do not directly create them.
They are automatically created as a result of adding one volume inside other or dividing a volume. The geometrical
transformation held by nodes is always defined with respect to their mother (relative positioning). Reflection matrices
are allowed.
A hierarchical element is not fully defined by a node since nodes are not directly linked to each other, but through
volumes (a node points to a volume, which at its turn points to a list of nodes):
NodeTop VolTop NodeA VolA ...
One can therefore talk about the node or volume hierarchy, but in fact, an element is made by a pair volume-node.
In the line above is represented just a single branch, but of course from any volume other branches can also emerge.
The index of a node in such a branch (counting only nodes) is called depth. The top node have always depth=0.
Volumes need to have their daughter nodes defined when the geometry is closed. They will build additional structures
(called voxels ) in order to fasten-up the search algorithms. Finally, nodes can be regarded as bi-directional links
between containers and contained volumes.
The structure defined in this way is a graph structure since volumes are replicable (same volume can become daughter
node of several other volumes), every volume becoming a branch in this graph. Any volume in the logical graph
can become the actual top volume at run time (see TGeoManager::SetTopVolume()). All functionalities of the
modeller will behave in this case as if only the corresponding branch starting from this volume is the
active geometry.
Nodes are never instantiated directly by users, but created as a result of volume operations. Adding a volume named A
with a given user id inside a volume B will create a node named A_id. This will be added to the list of nodes stored
by B. In addition, when applying a division operation in N slices to a volume A, a list of nodes B_1, B_2, . . . , B_N is
also created. A node B_i does not represent a unique object in the geometry because its container A might be at its
turn positioned as node inside several other volumes. Only when a complete branch of nodes is fully defined up to the
top node in the geometry, a given path:/TOP_1/. . . /A_3/B_7 will represent a unique object. Its global transformation
matrix can be computed as the pile-up of all local transformations in its branch. We will therefore call logical graph
the hierarchy defined by nodes and volumes. The expansion of the logical graph by all possible paths defines a tree
structure where all nodes are unique touchable objects. We will call this the physical tree. Unlike the logical graph,
the physical tree can become a huge structure with several millions of nodes in case of complex geometries; therefore,
it is not always a good idea to keep it transient in memory. Since the logical and physical structures are correlated,
the modeller rather keeps track only of the current branch, updating the current global matrix at each change of the
level in geometry. The current physical node is not an object that can be asked for at a given moment, but rather
represented by the combination: current node/current global matrix. However, physical nodes have unique IDs that
can be retrieved for a given modeller state. These can be fed back to the modeller in order to force a physical node to
become current. The advantage of this comes from the fact that all navigation queries check first the current node;
therefore the location of a point in the geometry can be saved as a starting state for later use.
Nodes can be declared as overlapping in case they do overlap with other nodes inside the same container or extrude
this container (see also Checking the Geometry). Non-overlapping nodes can be created with:
TGeoVolume::AddNode(TGeoVolume *daughter,Int_t copy_No,
TGeoMatrix *matr);
The creation of overlapping nodes can be done with a similar prototype:
TGeoVolume::AddNodeOverlap(/*same arguments*/ );
When closing the geometry, overlapping nodes perform a check of possible overlaps with their neighbors. These are
stored and checked all the time during navigation; therefore, navigation is slower when embedding such nodes into
geometry. Nodes have visualization attributes as the volume has. When undefined by users, painting a node on a pad
will take the corresponding volume attributes.

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461

Figure 18.28: A geometry hierarchy in memory

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18.4.2

Creating and Positioning Volumes

18.4.2.1

Making Volumes

As mentioned before, volumes are the basic objects used in building the geometrical hierarchy. They represent objects
that are not positioned, but store all information about the placement of the other volumes they may contain. Therefore
a volume can be replicated several times in the geometry. As it was explained, in order to create a volume, one has to
put together a shape and a medium, which are already defined.
Volumes have to be named by users at creation time. Every different name may represent a unique volume object,
but may also represent more general a family (class) of volume objects having the same shape type and medium, but
possibly different shape parameters. It is the users task to provide different names for different volume families in
order to avoid ambiguities at tracking time.
A generic family rather than a single volume is created only in two cases: when a parametric shape is used or when a
division operation is applied. Each volume in the geometry stores a unique ID corresponding to its family. In order to
ease-up their creation, the manager class is providing an API that allows making a shape and a volume in a single step.
18.4.2.2

Example of Volume Creation

// Making a volume out of a shape and a medium.

TGeoVolume *vol = new TGeoVolume("VNAME",ptrShape,ptrMed);
// Making a volume out of a shape but without a defined medium.
TGeoVolume *vol = new TGeoVolume("VNAME",ptrShape);
// Making a volume with a given shape in one step
TGeoVolume *vol = gGeoManager->MakeBox("VNAME",ptrMed,dx,dy,dz);
TGeoVolume *vol = gGeoManager->MakeTubs("VNAME",ptrMed,rmin,rmax,
dz,phi1,phi2);
// See class TGeoManager for the rest of shapes.
// Making a volume with a given shape with a unique prototype
TGeoVolume *vol = gGeoManager->Volume("VNAME","XXXX",nmed,upar,
npar);
//
//
//
//
//
//

Where XXXX stands for the first 4 letters of the specific shape
classes, nmed is the medium number, upar is an Double_t * array
of the shape parameters and npar is the number of parameters.
This prototype allows (npar = 0) to define volumes with shape
defined only at positioning time (volumes defined in this way
need to be positioned using TGeoManager::Node() method)

18.4.2.3

Positioned Volumes (Nodes)

Geometrical modeling is a difficult task when the number of different geometrical objects is 106-108. This is more or
less the case for detector geometries of complex experiments, where a flat CSG model description cannot scale with
the current CPU performances. This is the reason why models like GEANT [1] introduced an additional dimension
(depth) in order to reduce the complexity of the problem. This concept is also preserved by the ROOT modeller and
introduces a pure geometrical constraint between objects (volumes in our case) - containment. This means in fact that
any positioned volume has to be contained by another. Now what means contained and positioned?
We will say that a volume contains a point if this is inside the shape associated to the volume. For instance, a
volume having a box shape will contain all points P=(X,Y,Z) verifying the conditions: Abs(Pi)dXi. The points
on the shape boundaries are considered as inside the volume. The volume contains a daughter if it contains all
the points contained by the daughter.
The definition of containment works of course only with points defined in the local coordinate system of the
considered volume. Positioning a volume inside another have to introduce a geometrical transformation between
the two. If M defines this transformation, any point in the daughter reference can be converted to the mother
reference by: Pmother = MPdaughter
When creating a volume one does not specify if this will contain or not other volumes. Adding daughters to a volume
implies creating those and adding them one by one to the list of daughters. Since the volume has to know the position

18.4. GEOMETRY CREATION

463

of all its daughters, we will have to supply at the same time a geometrical transformation with respect to its local
reference frame for each of them.
TGeoVolume::AddNode(TGeoVolume *daughter,Int_t usernumber,
TGeoMatrix *matrix=gGeoIdentity)
The objects referencing a volume and a transformation are called NODES and their creation is fully handled by the
modeller. They represent the link elements in the hierarchy of volumes. Nodes are unique and distinct geometrical
objects ONLY from their container point of view. Since volumes can be replicated in the geometry, the same node may
be found on different branches.
In order to provide navigation features, volumes have to be able to find the proper container of any point defined in
the local reference frame. This can be the volume itself, one of its positioned daughter volumes or none if the point
is actually outside. On the other hand, volumes have to provide also other navigation methods such as finding the
distances to its shape boundaries or which daughter will be crossed first. The implementation of these features is done
at shape level, but the local mother-daughters management is handled by volumes. These build additional optimization
structures upon geometry closure. In order to have navigation features properly working one has to follow some rules
for building a valid geometry.
The daughter volume(s) must not extrude the mother shape. They are allowed however to have a common
boundaries.
The volumes positioned in the same container must not overlap with each other. They may touch on one
boundaries or shape vertex.
The daughter nodes of a volume can be also removed or replaced with other nodes:
void RemoveNode(TGeoNode* node)
TGeoNode*ReplaceNode(TGeoNode* nodeorig, TGeoShape* newshape = 0,
TGeoMatrix* newpos = 0, TGeoMedium* newmed = 0)
The last method allows replacing an existing daughter of a volume with another one. Providing only the node to be
replaced will just create a new volume for the node but having exactly the same parameters as the old one. This helps
in case of divisions for decoupling a node from the logical hierarchy so getting new content/properties. For non-divided
volumes, one can change the shape and/or the position of the daughter.
18.4.2.4

Virtual Containers and Assemblies of Volumes

Virtual containers are volumes that do not represent real objects, but they are needed for grouping and positioning
together other volumes. Such grouping helps not only geometry creation, but also optimizes tracking performance;
therefore, it is highly recommended. Virtual volumes need to inherit material/medium properties from the volume they
are placed into in order to be invisible at tracking time.
Let us suppose that we need to group together two volumes A and B into a structure and position this into several
other volumes D,E, and F. What we need to do is to create a virtual container volume C holding A and B, then position
C in the other volumes.
Note that C is a volume having a determined medium. Since it is not a real volume, we need to manually set its
medium the same as that of D,E or F in order to make it invisible (same physics properties). In other words, the
limitation in proceeding this way is that D,E, and F must point to the same medium. If this was not the case, we
would have to define different virtual volumes for each placement: C, C and C", having the same shape but different
media matching the corresponding containers. This might not happen so often, but when it does, it forces the creation
of several extra virtual volumes. Other limitation comes from the fact that any container is directly used by navigation
algorithms to optimize tracking. These must geometrically contain their belongings (positioned volumes) so that these
do not extrude its shape boundaries. Not respecting this rule generally leads to unpredictable results. Therefore A
and B together must fit into C that has to fit also into D,E, and F. This is not always straightforward to accomplish,
especially when instead of A and B we have many more volumes.
In order to avoid these problems, one can use for the difficult cases the class TGeoVolumeAssembly, representing an
assembly of volumes. This behaves like a normal container volume supporting other volumes positioned inside, but it
has neither shape nor medium. It cannot be used directly as a piece of the geometry, but just as a temporary structure
helping temporary assembling and positioning volumes.
If we define now C as an assembly containing A and B, positioning the assembly into D,E and F will actually position
only A and Bdirectly into these volumes, taking into account their combined transformations A/B to C and C to D/E/F.

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This looks much nicer, is it? In fact, it is and it is not. Of course, we managed to get rid of the unnecessary volume C
in our geometry, but we end-up with a more flat structure for D,E and F (more daughters inside). This can get much
worse when extensively used, as in the case: assemblies of assemblies.
For deciding what to choose between using virtual containers or assemblies for a specific case, one can use for both
cases, after the geometry was closed:
gGeoManager->SetTopVolume(ptr_D);
gGeoManager->Test();
gGeoManager->RestoreMasterVolume();
The ptr_D is a pointer to volume D containing the interesting structure. The test will provide the timing for classifying
1 million random points inside D.
18.4.2.5

Examples of Volume Positioning

Now let us make a simple volume representing a copper wire. We suppose that a medium is already created (see
TGeoMedium class on how to create media).
We will create a TUBE shape for our wire, having Rmin=0cm, Rmax=0.01cm and a half-length dZ=1cm:
TGeoTube *tube = new TGeoTube("wire_tube",0,0.01,1);
One may omit the name for the shape wire_tube, if no retrieving by name is further needed during geometry building.
Different volumes having different names and materials can share the same shape.
Now lets make the volume for our wire:
TGeoVolume *wire_co = new TGeoVolume("WIRE_CO",tube,
ptrCOPPER); //(*)
(*) Do not bother to delete the media, shapes or volumes that you have created since all will be automatically cleaned
on exit by the manager class.
If we would have taken a look inside TGeoManager::MakeTube() method, we would have been able to create our wire
with a single line:
TGeoVolume *wire_co = gGeoManager->MakeTube("WIRE_CO",ptrCOPPER,
0,0.01,1); //(*)
(*) The same applies for all primitive shapes, for which there can be found corresponding MakeSHAPE() methods. Their
usage is much more convenient unless a shape has to be shared between more volumes.
Let us make now an aluminum wire having the same shape, supposing that we have created the copper wire with the
line above:
TGeoVolume *wire_al = new TGeoVolume("WIRE_AL",wire_co>GetShape(),
ptrAL);
We would like now to position our wire in the middle of a gas chamber. We need first to define the gas chamber:
TGeoVolume *chamber = gGeoManager->MakeTube("CHAMBER",ptrGAS,
0,1,1);
Now we can put the wire inside:
chamber->AddNode(wire_co,1);
If we inspect now the chamber volume in a browser, we will notice that it has one daughter. Of course, the gas has
some container also, but let us keeps it like that for the sake of simplicity. Since we did not supply the third argument,
the wire will be positioned with an identity transformation inside the chamber.

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18.4.2.6

465

Overlapping Volumes

Positioning volumes that does not overlap their neighbors nor extrude their container is sometimes quite strong
constraint. Having a limited set of geometric shapes might force sometimes overlaps. Since overlapping is contradictory
to containment, a point belonging to an overlapping region will naturally belong to all overlapping partners. The
answer provided by the modeller to Where am I? is no longer deterministic if there is no priority assigned.
There are two ways out provided by the modeller in such cases and we will illustrate them by examples.
Suppose we have 2 crossing tubes that we have to describe. Such a structure cannot be decomposed in a
containment schema. This is a typical example of simple structure that can be handled by using composite
shapes. What we have to do is to define as shapes the inner and outer parts of the tubes (tubes having
Rmin=0,Rmax=inner/outer radius), then to make a composite:
C = (Tub1out+Tub2out)-(Tub1in+Tub2in)
On the other hand, if we have an EM calorimeter having a honeycomb structure, Boolean combinations do not
help anymore. Here the problem is that we usually have a very large number of cells that are naturally belonging
to the same container. This result in a very flat and slow structure for that particular container, which we
would very much want to avoid by introducing additional levels in depth. We can describe the basic cell as a
hexahedron that we can represent by using a polygon primitive shape. Instead of putting one by one all cells
in the same container, we can define rows of such elements, fitting in box-shaped containers. Then we can put
row-beside-row inside the container, making life much easier for its navigation algorithms. The problem is that in
order to reproduce the honeycomb structure out of rows of cells, we have to overlap row containers. Woops - we
have not obeyed rule No. 2 in positioning. The way out is to position our rows with a special prototype:
ptrCAL->AddNodeOverlap("ROW",nRow,matrixRow);
This will instruct the modeller that the daughter ROW inside CAL overlaps with something else. The modeller will
check this at closure time and build a list of possibly overlapping candidates. This option is equivalent with the option
MANY in GEANT3.
The modeller supports such cases only if user declares the overlapping nodes. In order to do that, one should use
TGeoVolume::AddNodeOverlap() instead of TGeoVolume::AddNode(). When two or more positioned volumes are
overlapping, not all of them have to be declared so, but at least one. A point inside an overlapping region equally
belongs to all overlapping nodes, but the way these are defined can enforce the modeller to give priorities.
The general rule is that the deepest node in the hierarchy containing a point has the highest priority. For the same
geometry level, non-overlapping is prioritized over overlapping. In order to illustrate this, we will consider few examples.
We will designate non-overlapping nodes as ONLY and the others MANY as in GEANT3, where this concept was
introduced:
1. The part of a MANY node B extruding its container A will never be seen during navigation, as if B was in fact
the result of the intersection of A and B.
2. If we have two nodes A (ONLY) and B (MANY) inside the same container, all points in the overlapping region of
A and B will be designated as belonging to A.
3. If A an B in the above case were both MANY, points in the overlapping part will be designated to the one defined
first. Both nodes must have the same medium.
4. The slices of a divided MANY will be as well MANY.
One needs to know that navigation inside geometry parts MANY nodes is much slower. Any overlapping part can be
defined based on composite shapes - might be in some cases a better way out.
18.4.2.7

Replicating Volumes

What can we do if our chamber contains two identical wires instead of one? What if then we would need 1000 chambers
in our detector? Should we create 2000 wires and 1000 chamber volumes? No, we will just need to replicate the ones
that we have already created.
chamber->AddNode(wire_co,1,new TGeoTranslation(0.2,0,0));
chamber->AddNode(wire_co,2,new TGeoTranslation(0.2,0,0));

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The 2 nodes that we have created inside chamber will both point to a wire_co object, but will be completely distinct:
WIRE_CO_1 and WIRE_CO_2. We will want now to place symmetrically 1000 chambers on a pad, following a pattern of
20 rows and 50 columns. One way to do this will be to replicate our chamber by positioning it 1000 times in different
positions of the pad. Unfortunately, this is far from being the optimal way of doing what we want. Imagine that we
would like to find out which of the 1000 chambers is containing a (x,y,z) point defined in the pad reference. You
will never have to do that, since the modeller will take care of it for you, but lets guess what it has to do. The most
simple algorithm will just loop over all daughters, convert the point from mother to local reference and check if the
current chamber contains the point or not. This might be efficient for pads with few chambers, but definitely not
for 1000. Fortunately the modeller is smarter than that and creates for each volume some optimization structures
called voxels to minimize the penalty having too many daughters, but if you have 100 pads like this in your geometry
you will anyway loose a lot in your tracking performance. The way out when volumes can be arranged according
to simple patterns is the usage of divisions. We will describe them in detail later on. Lets think now at a different
situation: instead of 1000 chambers of the same type, we may have several types of chambers. Lets say all chambers
are cylindrical and have a wire inside, but their dimensions are different. However, we would like all to be represented
by a single volume family, since they have the same properties.
18.4.2.8

Volume Families

A volume family is represented by the class TGeoVolumeMulti. It represents a class of volumes having the same shape
type and each member will be identified by the same name and volume ID. Any operation applied to a TGeoVolumeMulti
equally affects all volumes in that family. The creation of a family is generally not a user task, but can be forced in
particular cases:
TGeoManager::Volume(const char *vname,const char *shape,
Int_t nmed);
Where: vname is the family name, nmed is the medium number and shape is the shape type that can be:

boxfor TGeoBBox
trd1for TGeoTrd1
trd2for TGeoTrd2
trapfor TGeoTrap
gtrafor TGeoGtra
parafor TGeoPara
tube, tubsfor TGeoTube, TGeoTubeSeg
cone, consfor TGeoCone, TGeoCons
eltufor TGeoEltu
ctubfor TGeoCtub
pconfor TGeoPcon
pgonfor TGeoPgon

Volumes are then added to a given family upon adding the generic name as node inside other volume:
TGeoVolume *box_family = gGeoManager->Volume("BOXES","box",nmed);
//
...
gGeoManager->Node("BOXES",Int_t copy_no,"mother_name",Double_t x,
Double_t y,Double_t z,Int_t rot_index,Bool_t is_only,
Double_t *upar,Int_t npar);

BOXES- name of the family of boxes

copy_no- user node number for the created node
mother_name- name of the volume to which we want to add the node
x,y,z- translation components
rot_index- index of a rotation matrix in the list of matrices
upar- array of actual shape parameters
npar- number of parameters

The parameters order and number are the same as in the corresponding shape constructors. Another particular case
where volume families are used is when we want that a volume positioned inside a container to match one ore more
container limits. Suppose we want to position the same box inside 2 different volumes and we want the Z size to match
the one of each container:

18.4. GEOMETRY CREATION

467

TGeoVolume *container1 = gGeoManager->MakeBox("C1",imed,10,10,30);

TGeoVolume *container2 = gGeoManager->MakeBox("C2",imed,10,10,20);
TGeoVolume *pvol
= gGeoManager->MakeBox("PVOL",jmed,3,3,-1);
container1->AddNode(pvol,1);
container2->AddNode(pvol,1);
Note that the third parameter of PVOL is negative, which does not make sense as half-length on Z. This is interpreted
as: when positioned, create a box replacing all invalid parameters with the corresponding dimensions of the container.
This is also internally handled by the TGeoVolumeMulti class, which does not need to be instantiated by users.
18.4.2.9

Dividing Volumes

Volumes can be divided according a pattern. The simplest division can be done along one axis that can be:
X,Y,Z,Phi,Rxy or Rxyz. Lets take a simple case: we would like to divide a box in N equal slices along X coordinate, representing a new volume family. Supposing we already have created the initial box, this can be done
like:
TGeoVolume *slicex = box->Divide("SLICEX",1,N);
Here SLICEX is the name of the new family representing all slices and 1 is the slicing axis. The meaning of the axis
index is the following: for all volumes having shapes like box, trd1, trd2, trap, gtraorpara -1, 2, 3 mean X, Y, Z;
for tube, tubs, cone, cons -1 means Rxy, 2 means phi and 3 means Z; for pcon and pgon - 2 means phi and 3 means
Z; for spheres 1 means Rand 2 means phi.
In fact, the division operation has the same effect as positioning volumes in a given order inside the divided container the advantage being that the navigation in such a structure is much faster. When a volume is divided, a volume family
corresponding to the slices is created. In case all slices can be represented by a single shape, only one volume is added
to the family and positioned N times inside the divided volume, otherwise, each slice will be represented by a distinct
volume in the family.
Divisions can be also performed in a given range of one axis. For that, one has to specify also the starting coordinate
value and the step:
TGeoVolume *slicex = box->Divide("SLICEX",1,N,start,step);
A check is always done on the resulting division range: if not fitting into the container limits, an error message is
posted. If we will browse the divided volume we will notice that it will contain N nodes starting with index 1 up to N.
The first one has the lower X limit at START position, while the last one will have the upper X limit at START+N*STEP.
The resulting slices cannot be positioned inside another volume (they are by default positioned inside the divided one)
but can be further divided and may contain other volumes:
TGeoVolume *slicey = slicex->Divide("SLICEY",2,N1);
slicey->AddNode(other_vol,index,some_matrix);
When doing that, we have to remember that SLICEY represents a family, therefore all members of the family will be
divided on Y and the other volume will be added as node inside all.
In the example above all the resulting slices had the same shape as the divided volume (box). This is not always the
case. For instance, dividing a volume with TUBE shape on PHIaxis will create equal slices having TUBESEG shape. Other
divisions can also create slices having shapes with different dimensions, e.g. the division of a TRD1 volume on Z.
When positioning volumes inside slices, one can do it using the generic volume family (e.g. slicey). This should be
done as if the coordinate system of the generic slice was the same as the one of the divided volume. The generic slice
in case of PHI division is centered with respect to X-axis. If the family contains slices of different sizes, any volume
positioned inside should fit into the smallest one.
Examples for specific divisions according to shape types can be found inside shape classes.
TGeoVolume::Divide(N,Xmin,Xmax,"X");
Create a new volume by dividing an existing one (GEANT3 like).
Divides MOTHER into NDIV divisions called NAME along axis IAXIS starting at coordinate value START and having size
STEP. The created volumes will have tracking media ID=NUMED (if NUMED=0 -> same media as MOTHER).
The behavior of the division operation can be triggered using OPTION (case insensitive):

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Ndivide all range in NDIV cells (same effect as STEP<=0) (GSDVN in G3)
NXdivide range starting with START in NDIV cells (GSDVN2 in G3)
Sdivide all range with given STEP; NDIV is computed and divisions will be centered in full range (same effect as
NDIV<=0) (GSDVS, GSDVT in G3)
SXsame as DVS, but from START position (GSDVS2, GSDVT2 in G3)
18.4.2.10

Volume Assemblies

In general, geometry contains structures of positioned volumes that have to be grouped and handled together, for
different possible reasons. One of these is that the structure has to be replicated in several parts of the geometry, or it
may simply happen that they really represent a single object, too complex to be described by a primitive shape.
Usually handling structures like these can be easily done by positioning all components in the same container volume,
then positioning the container itself. However, there are many practical cases when defining such a container is not
straightforward or even possible without generating overlaps with the rest of the geometry. There are few ways out of
this:
Defining the container for the structure as overlapping (see also " Overlapping Volumes ****)
Representing the container as a composite shape - the Boolean union of all components (see also " Composite
Shapes )
Using an assembly volume - this will be described in the following.
The first two approaches have the disadvantage of penalizing the navigation performance with a factor increasing
more than linear of the number of components in the structure. The best solution is the third one because it uses all
volume-related navigation optimizations. The class TGeoVolumeAssembly represents an assembly volume. Its shape is
represented by TGeoShapeAssembly class that is the union of all components. It uses volume voxelization to perform
navigation tasks.
An assembly volume creates a hierarchical level and it geometrically insulates the structure from the rest (as a normal
volume). Physically, a point that is INSIDE a TGeoShapeAssembly is always inside one of the components, so a
TGeoVolumeAssembly does not need to have a medium. Due to the self-containment of assemblies, they are very
practical to use when a container is hard to define due to possible overlaps during positioning. For instance, it is
very easy creating honeycomb structures. A very useful example for creating and using assemblies can be found at:
http://root.cern.ch/root/html/examples/assembly.C.html.
Creation of an assembly is very easy: one has just to create a TGeoVolumeAssembly object and position the components
inside as for any volume:
TGeoVolume *vol = new TGeoVolumeAssembly(name);
vol->AddNode(vdaughter1, cpy1, matrix1);
vol->AddNode(vdaughter2, cpy2, matrix2);
Note that components cannot be declared as overlapping and that a component can be an assembly volume. For
existing flat volume structures, one can define assemblies to force a hierarchical structure therefore optimizing the
performance. Usage of assemblies does NOT imply penalties in performance, but in some cases, it can be observed
that it is not as performing as bounding the structure in a container volume with a simple shape. Choosing a normal
container is therefore recommended whenever possible.

18.4.3

Geometrical Transformations

All geometrical transformations handled by the modeller are provided as a built-in package. This was designed
to minimize memory requirements and optimize performance of point/vector master-to-local and local-to-master
computation. We need to have in mind that a transformation in TGeo has two major use-cases. The first one is for
defining the placement of a volume with respect to its container reference frame. This frame will be called master
and the frame of the positioned volume - local. If T is a transformation used for positioning volume daughters, then:
MASTER = T * LOCAL
Therefore Tis used to perform a local to master conversion, while T-1 for a master to local conversion. The second
use case is the computation of the global transformation of a given object in the geometry. Since the geometry is
built as volumes-inside-volumes, the global transformation represents the pile-up of all local transformations in the
corresponding branch. Once a given object in the hierarchy becomes the current one, the conversion from master to
local coordinates or the other way around can be done from the manager class.

18.4. GEOMETRY CREATION

469

Figure 18.29: Assemblies of volumes

A general homogenous transformation is defined as a 4x4 matrix embedding a rotation, a translation and a scale. The
advantage of this description is that each basic transformation can be represented as a homogenous matrix, composition
being performed as simple matrix multiplication.






 r11 r12 r13 0 
 1 0 0 0 
 sx 0 0 0 






 r21 r22 r23 0 
 0 1 0 0 
 0 sy 0 0 






Rotation: 
 Translation:  0 0 1 0  Scale:  0 0 sz 0 
 r31 r32 r33 0 




 0
 tx ty tz 1 
 0 0 0 1 
0
0 1 
 1





 1
 s
 r11 r21 r31 0 
0
0 0 
0
0
0 
 x 1




 0 s
 r12 r22 r32 0 
 0
0 0 
1
0
0 
y




Inverse scale: 
Inverse rotation: 
 Inverse translation:  0
0
1
0 
0 s1z 0 
 0
 r13 r23 r33 0 

 tx ty tz 1 
 0
 0
0
0 1 
0
0 1 
rij are the 3x3 rotation matrix components
tx ,ty ,tz are the translation components
sx , sy , sz are arbitrary scale constants on each axis
The disadvantage in using this approach is that computation for 4x4 matrices is expensive. Even combining two
translations would become a multiplication of their corresponding matrices, which is quite an undesired effect. On
the other hand, it is not a good idea to store a translation as a block of 16 numbers. We have therefore chosen to
implement each basic transformation type as a class deriving from the same basic abstract class and handling its
specific data and point/vector transformation algorithms.
The base class TGeoMatrix defines abstract methods for:
Translation, rotation and scale getters. Every derived class stores only its specific data, e.g. a translation stores
an array of 3 doubles and a rotation an array of 9. However, getting the TGeoTranslation rotation array through
the base TGeoMatrix interface is a legal operation. The answer in this case is a pointer to a global constant array
representing an identity rotation.
Double_t *TGeoMatrix::GetTranslation() const;
Double_t *TGeoMatrix::GetRotation() const;
Double_t *TGeoMatrix::GetScale() const;
Master-to-local and local-to-master point and vector transformations :
void TGeoMatrix::MasterToLocal(const Double_t *master,
Double_t *local)

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CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

void TGeoMatrix::LocalToMaster(const Double_t *local,

Double_t *master)
void TGeoMatrix::MasterToLocalVect(const Double_t *master,
Double_t *local)
void TGeoMatrix::LocalToMasterVect(const Double_t *local,
Double_t *master)
Here master and local are arrays of size 3. These methods allow correct conversion also for reflections.
Transformation type finding:
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t
Bool_t

TGeoMatrix::IsIdentity() const;
TGeoMatrix::IsTranslation() const;
TGeoMatrix::IsRotation() const;
TGeoMatrix::IsScale() const;
TGeoMatrix::IsCombi() const;
// (tr. + rot.)
TGeoMatrix::IsGeneral() const; // (tr. + rot. + scale)

Specific classes deriving from TGeoMatrix represent combinations of basic transformations. In order to define a matrix
as a combination of several others, a special class TGeoHMatrix is provided. Here is an example of matrix creation:

18.4.3.1

Matrix Creation Example

TGeoRotation r1,r2;
r1.SetAngles(90,0,30);
//rotation defined by Euler angles
r2.SetAngles(90,90,90,180,0,0); //rotation defined by GEANT3 angles
TGeoTranslation t1(-10,10,0);
TGeoTranslation t2(10,-10,5);
TGeoCombiTrans c1(t1,r1);
TGeoCombiTrans c2(t2,r2);
TGeoHMatrix h = c1 * c2; // composition is done via TGeoHMatrix
TGeoHMatrix *ph = new TGeoHMatrix(hm); // class it is what we want
// to use for positioning
// a volume
ph->Print();
...
pVolume->AddNode(pVolDaughter,id,ph) // now ph is owned by
the manager

18.4.3.2

Rule for Creation of Transformations

Unless explicitly used for positioning nodes (TGeoVolume::AddNode()) all matrices deletion have to be managed by
users. Matrices passed to geometry have to be created by using new() operator and TGeoManager class is responsible
for their deletion. Matrices that are used for the creation of composite shapes have to be named and registered to the
manager class:
transf->SetName(name); // if not already named in the constructor
transf->RegisterYourself();
Generally, it is advisable to create all intermediate transformations used for making the final combined one on the heap:
TGeoRotation r1(...);
TGeoRotation r2(...);
TGeoHMatrix *mat = new TGeoHMatrix("name"); // we want to use only
// this one in geometry
*mat = r1 * r2;

18.4. GEOMETRY CREATION

18.4.3.3

471

Available Geometrical Transformations

Translations (TGeoTranslation class) represent a (dx,dy,dz) translation. The only data member is: Double_t
fTranslation[3]. Translations can be added or subtracted.
TGeoTranslation t1;
t1->SetTranslation(-5,10,4);
TGeoTranslation *t2 = new TGeoTranslation(4,3,10);
t2->Subtract(&t1);
Rotations (TGeoRotation class) represent a pure rotation. Data members are Double_t fRotationMatrix[3*3].
Rotations can be defined either by Euler angles, either, by GEANT3 angles:
TGeoRotation *r1 = new TGeoRotation();
r1->SetAngles(phi,theta,psi);
// all angles in degrees
This represents the composition of: first a rotation about Z axis with angle phi, then a rotation with theta about the
rotated X axis, and finally a rotation with psiabout the new Z axis.
r1->SetAngles(th1,phi1,th2,phi2,th3,phi3)
This is a rotation defined in GEANT3 style. Theta and phi are the spherical angles of each axis of the rotated coordinate
system with respect to the initial one. This construction allows definition of malformed rotations, e.g. not orthogonal.
A check is performed and an error message is issued in this case.
Specific utilities: determinant, inverse.
Scale transformations (TGeoScale class) - represent a scaled shrinking/enlargement, possibly different on all axes.
Data members: Double_t fScale[3]. Not implemented yet.
Combined transformations - represent a rotation followed by a translation. Data members: Double_t
fTranslation[3],TGeoRotation *fRotation.
TGeoRotation *rot = new TGeoRotation("rot",10,20,30);
TGeoTranslation trans;
...
TGeoCombiTrans *c1 = new TGeoCombiTrans(trans,rot);
TGeoCombiTrans *c2 = new TGeoCombiTrans("somename",10,20,30,rot)
General transformations: (TGeoHMatrix class) represent combined transformations in any order.
Identity transformation: (TGeoIdentity class) is a generic identity transformation represented by a singleton
class object gGeoIdentity.

18.4.4

Ownership of Geometry Objects

The class TGeoManager class contains the entire API needed for building and tracking geometry. It defines a global
pointer gGeoManager in order to be fully accessible from external code. The manager class is the owner of all geometry
objects defined in a session; therefore, users must not try to control their deletion. It contains lists of media, materials,
transformations, shapes and volumes. A special case is the one of geometrical transformations. When creating
a matrix or a translation, this is by default owned by external objects. The manager class becomes owner of all
transformations used for positioning volumes. In order to force the ownership for other transformations, one can use
TGeoMatrix::RegisterYourself() method. Do not be therefore surprised that some transformations cannot be found
by name when creating a composite shape for instance if you did not register them after creation.
Logical nodes (positioned volumes) are created and destroyed by the TGeoVolume class. Physical nodes and their global
transformations are subjected to a caching mechanism due to the sometimes very large memory requirements of logical
graph expansion. The total number of physical instances of volumes triggers the caching mechanism and the cache
manager is a client of TGeoManager. The manager class also controls the drawing/checking package (TGeoPainter
client). This is linked with ROOT graphical libraries loaded on demand in order to control visualization actions.

472

18.5

CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

Navigation and Tracking

Tracking is the feature allowing the transport of a given particle knowing its kinematics. A state is determined by any
combination of the position ~r and direction ~n with respect to the world reference frame. The direction ~n must be a
unit vector having as components the director cosines. The full classification of a given state will provide the following
information: the deepest physical node containing the position vector, the distance to the closest boundary along the
direction vector, the next physical node after propagating the current point with this distance and the safety distance
to the nearest boundary. This information allows the propagation of particles inside a detector geometry by taking into
account both geometrical and physical constraints.
We will hereby describe the user interface of TGeo to access tracking functionality. This allows either developing a
tracker for simple navigation within a given geometry, either interfacing to an external tracking engine such as GEANT.
Note that the abstract interface for external trackers can be found in $ROOTSYS/vmc folder and it can be used to run
GEANT3, GEANT4 and FLUKA-based simulations (*) by using directly a geometry described with ROOT.
The interface methods related to tracking are incorporated into TGeoManager class and implemented in the navigator
class TGeoNavigator. In order to be able to start tracking, one has to define the initial state providing the starting
point r~0 and direction n~0 . There are several ways of doing that.

18.5.1

TGeoNavigator Class

One geometry may have several independent navigators to query to localize points or compute distances. The geometry
manager holds a list of active navigators accessible via:
TObjArray *navigators = gGeoManager->GetListOfNavigators();
Upon closing the geometry a default navigator is provided as first one in this list, but one may add its own via:
TGeoNavigator *navig = new TGeoNavigator(gGeoManager);
// Store the index of the user navigator
Int_t inav = gGeoManager->AddNavigator(navig);
// Make its own navigator the active one
gGeoManager->SetCurrentNavigator(inav);
// Switch between navigators
gGeoManager->SetCurrentNavigator(0);
A navigator holds several variables describing the current navigation state: current point position, current direction
distance to next boundary, isotropic safety, pointer to current and next nods as well as several tracking flags related to
volume boundary conditions or other properties required for track propagation in geometry. Each geometry query affects
these variables, so the only way in testing several navigation alternatives and remembering the active navigation state is
to use parallel navigation. The following paragraphs will describe the usage of a single navigator. All setters/getters for
navigation state parameters as well as navigation queries provided by TGeoNavigator are interfaced by TGeoManager
and will act on the current navigator.

18.5.2

Initializing the Starting Point

The current point (x,y,z) known by the modeller is stored as Double_t fCurrentPoint[3] by the navigator class.
This array of the three coordinates is defined in the current global reference system and can be retrieved any time:
Const Double_t *cpoint = gGeoManager->GetCurrentPoint();
Initializing this point can be done like:
gGeoManager->SetCurrentPoint(x,y,z);
// or:
gGeoManager->SetCurrentPoint(Double_t *point[3]);

18.5. NAVIGATION AND TRACKING

18.5.3

473

Initializing the Direction

In order to move inside geometry starting with the current point, the modeller needs to know the current direction
(nx,ny,nz). This direction is stored as Double_t fCurrentDirection[3] by the navigator and it represents a
direction in the global frame. It can be retrieved with:
Const Double_t *cdir = gGeoManager->GetCurrentDirection();
The direction can be initialized in a similar manner as the current point:
gGeoManager->SetCurrentDirection(nx,ny,nz);
// or:
gGeoManager->SetCurrentDirection(Double_t *dir);

18.5.4

Initializing the State

Setting the initial point and direction is not enough for initializing tracking. The modeller needs to find out where the
initial point is located in the geometrical hierarchy. Due to the containment based architecture of the model, this is the
deepest positioned object containing the point. For illustrating this, imagine that we have a simple structure with a top
volume A and another one Bpositioned inside. Since Ais a top volume, its associated node A_1 will define MARS and our
simple hierarchy of nodes (positioned volumes) will be: /A_1/B_1. Suppose now that the initial point is contained by
B_1. This implies by default that the point is also contained by A_1, since B_1 have to be fully contained by this. After
searching the point location, the modeller will consider that the point is located inside B_1, which will be considered as
the representative object (node) for the current state. This is stored as: TGeoNode *TGeoManager::fCurrentNodeand
can be asked from the manager class only after the Where am I? was completed:
TGeoNode *current = gGeoManager->GetCurrentNode();
In order to find the location of the current point inside the hierarchy of nodes, after setting this point it is mandatory
to call the Where am I? method:
gGeoManager->FindNode();
In order to have more flexibility, there are in fact several alternative ways of initializing a modeller state:
// Setting the point and finding the state in one step:
gGeoManager->FindNode(Double_t x,Double_t y,Double_t z);
gGeoManager->FindNode(Double_t *point[3]);
// Setting both initial point and direction and finding the state:
gGeoManager->InitTrack(Double_t x,Double_t y,Double_t z,
Double_t nx, Double_t ny, Double_t nz);
gGeoManager->InitTrack(Double_t *point[3],Double_t *dir[3]);
Note that the current point coordinates can be changed and the state re-initialized at any time. This represents the
Where am I? geometrical query representing the basic navigation functionality provided by the modeller.

18.5.5

Checking the Current State

The current state and all variables related to this are essential during tracking and have to be checked several times.
Besides the current point and direction, the following additional information can be retrieved from TGeoManager
interface:
The current path. This represents a string containing the names and copy numbers of all positioned objects in
the current branch written in the /folder/folder/. . . /folder/file fashion. The final node pointed by the path is the
deepest object containing the current point and is representative for the current state. All intermediate folders
in the path are in fact also nodes touched by the current point, but having some touched containment. The
current path can be retrieved only after the state was initialized and is useful for getting an idea of the current
point location.

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CHAPTER 18. THE GEOMETRY PACKAGE

const char *path = gGeoManager->GetPath();

cout << "Current path is: " << path << endl;
/A_1/B_34/C_3/D_1
The current node, volume and material. In order to take decisions on post-step or further stepping actions,
one has to know these. In order to get a pointer to the current node one can do:
TGeoNode *cnode = gGeoManager->GetCurrentNode();
// then:
TGeoVolume *cvol = gGeoManager->GetCurrentVolume();
// or:
cvol = cnode->GetVolume();
// (*)
// then:
TGeoMaterial *cmat = cvol->GetMedium()->GetMaterial();
(*) Note: If the current point is in fact outside the geometry, the current node pointer will not be NULL, but pointing
to the top node.
In order to take decisions in such case one needs always to test:
if (gGeoManager->IsOutside()) {
// current point is actually outside
... // corresponding action
}
Specific information related to the current volume/node like IDs or shape can be then retrieved from the corresponding
objects.
Current state index. The number of possible different states of the modeller corresponds to the number of
different objects/paths in the geometry. This has nothing to do with the number of nodes, since the same node
can be found on different branches. In other words, the number of states corresponds to the number of nodes in
the expanded geometry tree. Since unfortunately this expansion from logical to physical hierarchy cannot be
stored on regular basis due to the large size of the latter, one cannot directly assign state numbers. If the size of
the expansion proves however to be small enough (less than about 50 million objects), a parallel structure storing
these state indices is built and stored in memory. In such case each state automatically gets an index that can be
retrieved after any state initialization. These indices can prove to be quite useful for being able to keep track of
the navigation history and force certain states. Lets illustrate how this works with a simple example:
Suppose we have a simple geometry with a volume B positioned twice inside a container A. Then A is positioned
twice in a top container T. The complete list of logical nodes is: T_1, A_1, A_2, B_1, B_2. On the other hand we
will have more states than logical nodes:
/T_1- 1 state at level = 0
/T_1/A_1,/T_1/A_2- 2 states at level = 1
/T_1/A_1/B_1,/T_1/A_1/B_2,/T_1/A_2/B_1,/T_1/A_2/B_2 - 4 states at level = 2
All these states will get automatic numbers, starting with 0 corresponding to the top-level state and ending
with an integer corresponding to Ntotal_states-1. The mapping from a given logical node to a state number is
generally not possible, as for the node B_1 that appears as current node for 2 different states. The numbering
order of states is therefore not important, but it can be used as in the following lines:
gGeoManager->InitTrack(pt,dir); // anything to initialize a state
Int_t istate = gGeoManager->GetCurrentNodeId(); // in fact state Id
{
//... code changing the current state
}
gGeoManager->CdNode(istate); // forces state's re-initialization
Current global transformation. This represents the transformation from MARS to the local reference of
the current node, being the product of all local mother-daughter transformations in the branch. The global
transformation can be referenced or copied:
const TGeoHMatrix *global = gGeoManager->GetCurrentMatrix();
TGeoHMatrix *copy = new TGeoHMatrix(*global);

18.5. NAVIGATION AND TRACKING

475

One often needs to perform master-to-local and local-to-master point and vector conversions to get from
MARS to the local node coordinates. This can be done by using the global transformation or directly the
TGeoManager corresponding interfaces:
Double_t *glob_pt = gGeoManager->GetCurrentPoint();
Double_t *glob_dir = gGeoManager->GetCurrentDirection();
Double_t loc_pt[3], loc_dir[3];
// Go from MARS to local coordinates:
gGeoManager->MasterToLocal(glob_pt,loc_pt); // or:
global->MasterToLocal(glob_pt,loc_pt); // will be omitted from now

18.5.6

Saving and Restoring the Current State

As we already described, saving and restoring modeller states can be quite useful during tracking and is a feature
extensively used by external tracking engines. We will call this navigation history management, which in most of
the cases can be performed by handling the state identifiers. For quite big geometries, state indexing is not possible
anymore and will be automatically disabled by the modeller. Fortunately there is a backup solution working in any
condition: the modeller maintains a stack of states that is internally used by its own navigation algorithms, but user
code is also allowed to access it. This works on any stack principle by using PUSH and POP calls and user code is
responsible for popping the pushed states in order to keep the stack clean.
// push the current state in the stack
Int_t index = gGeoManager->PushPath();
// push state and current point
Int_t index = gGeoManager->PushPoint();
// retrieves the last pushed state (decrements stack index)
gGeoManager->PopPath();
// the same but retrieves also the point location
gGeoManager->PopPoint();
// just decrement stack index without changing state
gGeoManager->PopDummy();
// retrieves a state at given index without changing stack index
gGeoManager->PopPath(Int_t index);

18.5.7

Navigation Queries

After initializing the current state related to a given point and direction defined in MARS (Where am I?), one can
query for several geometrical quantities. All the related algorithms work in the assumption that the current point has
been localized inside the geometry (by the methods TGeoManager::FindNode() or TGeoManager::InitTrack()) and
the current node or path has not been changed by the user.
18.5.7.1

Finding If Current State Is Changed For a New Point

One can find fast if a point different from the current one has or not the same location inside the geometry tree. To
do that, the new point should not be introduced by using TGeoManager::SetCurrentPoint() method, but rather by
calling the specific method:
Bool_t TGeoManager::IsSameLocation(Double_t x,Double_t y,
Double_t z,Bool_t change=kFALSE);
In the prototype above, x, y and z are the coordinates of the new point. The modeller will check whether the current
volume still contains the new point or its location has changed in the geometry hierarchy. If the new location is different,
two actions are possible according to the value of change:
change = kFALSE (default) - the modeller does not change the current state but just inform the caller about this
change.
change = kTRUE - the modeller will actually perform a new Where am I?search after finding out that the
location has changed. The current state will be actualized accordingly.

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Note that even when performing a normal search on the current state after changing the current point coordinates
(e.g. gGeoManager->FindNode(newX,newY,newZ)), users can always query if the previous state has changed by using
a method having the same name but without parameters:
Bool_t TGeoManager::IsSameLocation();

18.5.7.2

Finding the Distance to the Next Boundary

All tracking engines need to compare the currently proposed physical step with the maximum allowed distance in the
current material. The modeller provides this information by computing the distance to the first boundary starting from
the current point along a straight line. The starting point and direction for this procedure are the ones corresponding
to the current state. The boundary search is initialized inside the current volume and the crossed boundary can belong
either to the current node or to one of its daughters. The full prototype of the method is:
TGeoNode *TGeoManager::FindNextBoundary(Double_t step=kBig);
In the prototype above, besides the current point and direction that are supposed already initialized, the only input
parameter is step. This represents the maximum step allowed by the tracking algorithm or the physical step. The
modeller will search for a boundary crossing only up to a distance equal to this value. If a boundary is found, a pointer
to the object (node) having it is returned; otherwise the method returns NULL.
The computed value for the computed distance can be subsequently retrieved from the manager class:
Double_t snext = gGeoManager->GetStep();
Double_t safety = gGeoManager->GetSafeDistance();
According the step value, two use cases are possible:
step = TGeoShape::kBig(default behavior; kBig = 1030). In this case, there is no limitation on the search
algorithm, the first crossed node is returned and the corresponding distance computed. If the current point is
outside geometry and the top node is not crossed, the corresponding distance will be set to kBig and a NULL
pointer returned. No additional quantity will be computed.
step < kBig. In this case, the progressive search starting from the current point will be stopped after a distance
equal with the supplied step. In addition to the distance to the first crossed boundary, the safety radius is
also computed. Whenever the information regarding the maximum required step is known it is recommended to
be provided as input parameter in order to speed-up the search.
In addition to the distance computation, the method sets an additional flag telling if the current track will enter inside
some daughter of the current volume or it will exit inside its container:
Bool_t TGeoManager::IsStepEntering() const;
A combined task is to first find the distance to the next boundary and then extrapolate the current point/direction
with this distance making sure that the boundary was crossed. Finally the goal would be to find the next state after
crossing the boundary. The problem can be solved in principle using FindNextBoundary, but the boundary crossing can
give unpredictable results due to numerical roundings. The manager class provides a method that allows this combined
task and ensures boundary crossing. This should be used instead of the method FindNextBoundary() whenever the
tracking is not imposed in association with an external MC transport engine (which provide their own algorithms for
boundary crossing).
TGeoNode *TGeoManager::FindNextBoundaryAndStep(Double_t stepmax,
Bool_t comp_safe=kFALSE);
The meaning of the parameters here is the same as for FindNextBoundary, but the safety value is triggered by an
input flag. The output is the node after the boundary crossing.

18.5. NAVIGATION AND TRACKING

18.5.7.3

477

Computing the Safe Radius

Other important navigation query for tracking is the computation of the safe distance. This represents the maximum step
that can be made from the current point in any direction that assures that no boundary will be crossed. Knowing
this value gives additional freedom to the stepping algorithm to propagate the current track on the corresponding
range without checking if the current state has changed. In other words, the modeller insures that the current state
does not change in any point within the safety radius around the current point.
The computation of the safe radius is automatically computed any time when the next boundary is queried within a
limited step:
TGeoNode *crossed = gGeoManager->FindNextBoundary(pstep);
Double_t safety = gGeoManager->GetSafeDistance();
Otherwise, the computation of safety can always be forced:
Double_t safety = gGeoManager->Safety();
18.5.7.4

Making a Step

The modeller is able to make steps starting from the current point along the current direction and having the current
step length. The new point and its corresponding state will be automatically computed:
TGeoNode *TGeoManager::Step(Bool_t is_geom = kTRUE,
Bool_t cross = kTRUE);
We will explain the method above by its use cases. The input flag is_geom allows specifying if the step is limited by
geometrical reasons (a boundary crossing) or is an arbitrary step. The flag cross can be used in case the step is made
on a boundary and specifies if user wants to cross or not the boundary. The returned node represents the new current
node after the step was made.
Making a geometrically contained step with boundary crossing (is_geom=kTRUE, cross=kTRUE) - This is
the default method behavior. In this case, the step size is supposed to be already set by a previous
TGeoManager::FindNextBoundary() call. Due to floating-point boundary uncertainties, making a step
corresponding exactly to the distance to next boundary does not insure boundary crossing. If the method is
called with this purpose, an extra small step will be made in order to make the crossing the most probable event
(epsil=10-6cm). Even with this extra small step cannot insure 100% boundary crossing for specific crossed
shapes at big incident angles. After such a step is made, additional cross-checks become available:
gGeoManager->FindNextBoundary(pstep);
Double_t snext = gGeoManager->GetStep();
// The geometrical step is taken
TGeoNode *newNode = gGeoManager->Step();
// The step=snext+epsil is made
Bool_t hasCrossed = gGeoManager->IsEntering();
// Is the boundary crossed or not?
Bool_t isOnBoundary = gGeoManager->IsOnBoundary(); // The proposed
// geometrically limited step to be made was smaller
// than epsil value.
Bool_t isOutside = gGeoManager->IsOutside();
//Did we exit geometry ?
In case the desired end-point of the step should be in the same starting volume, the input flag cross should be set to
kFALSE. In this case, the epsil value will be subtracted from the current step.
Making a step of arbitrary value (is_geom=kFALSE, cross=no matter). In this case, the step to be made can be
either resulting from a next computation, either set by hand:
gGeoManager->SetStep(stepvalue);
gGeoManager->Step(kFALSE);
The step value in this case will exactly match the desired step. In case a boundary crossing failed after geometrically
limited stepping, one can force as many small steps as required to really cross the boundary. This is not what generally
happens during the stepping, but sometimes small rounding of boundary positions may occur and cause problems.
These have to be properly handled by the stepping code.

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The Normal Vector to the Next Crossed Surface at Crossing Point

Supposing we have found out that a particle will cross a boundary during the next step, it is sometimes useful to
compute the normal to the crossed surface. The modeller uses the following convention: we define as normal (~n) the
unit vector perpendicular to a surface in the next crossing point, having the orientation such that: ~n.d~ > 0. Here d~
represents the current direction. The next crossing point represents the point where a ray shot from the current point
along the current direction crosses the surface.
Double_t *TGeoManager::FindNormal(Bool_t forward=kTRUE);
The method above computes the normal to the next crossed surface in forward or backward direction (i.e. the current
one), assuming the state corresponding to a current arbitrary point is initialized. An example of usage of normal
computation is ray tracing.
The two most important features of the geometrical modeller concerning tracking are scalability and performance as
function of the total number of physical nodes. The first refers to the possibility to make use of the available memory
resources and at the same time be able to resolve any geometrical query, while the second defines the capability of
the modeller to respond quickly even for huge geometries. These parameters can become critical when simulating big
experiments like those at LHC.

18.5.8

Creating and Visualizing Tracks

In case the modeller is interfaced with a tracking engine, one might consider quite useful being able to store and
visualize at least a part of the tracks in the context of the geometry. The base class TVirtualGeoTrack provides this
functionality. It currently has one implementation inside the drawing package (TGeoTrack class). A track can be
defined like:
TVirtualGeoTrack(Int_t id,Int_t pdg,TVirtualGeoTrack *parent=0,
TObject *particle=0);
Where: id is user-defined id of the track, pdg - pdg code, parent - a pointer to parent track, particle - a pointer to
an arbitrary particle object (may be a TParticle).
A track has a list of daughters that have to be filled using the following method:
TVirtualGeoTrack *TVirtualGeoTrack::AddDaughter(Int_t id,Int_t pdg,
TObject *particle=0);
The method above is pure virtual and have to create a track daughter object. Tracks are fully customizable objects
when inheriting from TVirtualGeoTrack class. We will describe the structure and functionality provided by the default
implementation of these, which are TGeoTrack objects.
A TGeoTrack is storing a list of control points (x,y,z) belonging to the track, having also time information (t).
The painting algorithm of such tracks allows drawing them in any time interval after their creation. The track position
at a given time is computed by interpolation between control points.
myTrack->AddPoint(x,y,z,t);
The creation and management of tracks is in fact fully controlled by the TGeoManager class. This holds a list of
primary tracks that is also visible during browsing as Tracks folder. Primary tracks are tracks having no parent
in the tracking history (for instance the output of particle generators may be considered as primaries from tracking
point of view). The manager class holds inTGeoManager::fCurrentTrack a pointer to the current track. When
starting tracking a particle, one can create a track object like:
Int_t track_index = gGeoManager->AddTrack(id,pdg,ptrParticle);
Here track_index is the index of the newly created track in the array of primaries. One can get the pointer of this
track and make it known as current track by the manager class:

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479

TVirtualGeoTrack *track = gGeoManager->GetTrack(track_index);

gGeoManager->SetCurrentTrack(track);
// or directly
gGeoManager->SetCurrentTrack(track_index);
TVirtualGeoTrack *current = gGeoManager->GetCurrentTrack();
One can also look for a track by user id or track index:
ptrTrack = gGeoManager->GetTrackOfId(user_id);
ptrParent = gGeoManager->GetParentTrackOfId(user_id);
ptrTrack = gGeoManager->GetTrack(index);
Supposing a particle represented by a primary track decays or interacts, one should not create new primaries as
described before, but rather add them as secondary:
TVirtualGeoTrack *secondary =
ptrTrack->AddTrack(secondId,pdg,secondParticle);
At any step made by the current track, one is able to add control points to either primary or secondary:
track->AddPoint(x,y,z,t);
After tracks were defined and filled during tracking, one will be able to browse directly the list of tracks held by the
manager class. Any track can be drawn using its Draw() and Animate() methods, but there are also global methods
for drawing or animation that can be accessed from TGeoManager context menu:
TGeoManager::DrawTracks(Option_t *option);
TGeoManager::AnimateTracks(Double_t tmin=0.,Double_t tmax=1E-8,
Int_t nframes=200,Option_t *option="");
The drawing/animation time range is a global variable that can be directly set:
gGeoManager->SetTminTmax(tmin, tmax);
// without arguments resets the time range to the maximum value
Once set, the time range will be active both for individual or global track drawing. For animation, this range is divided
to the desired number of frames and will be automatically updated at each frame in order to get the animation effect.
The option provided to all track-drawing methods can trigger different track selections:
default:A track (or all primary tracks) drawn without daughters
/D: Track and first level descendents only are drawn
/*: Track and all descendents are drawn
/Ntype: All tracks having name=type are drawn
Generally several options can be concatenated in the same string (E.g. "/D /Npion-").
For animating tracks, additional options can be added:
/G:Geometry animate. Generally when drawing or animating tracks, one has to first perform a normal drawing of the
geometry as convenient. The tracks will be drawn over the geometry. The geometryitself will be animated (camera
moving and rotating in order to catch the majority of current track segments.)
/S:Save all frames in gif format in the current folder. This option allows creating a movie based on individual frames.

18.6

Checking the Geometry

Several checking methods are accessible from the context menu of volume objects or of the manager class. They generally
apply only to the visible parts of the drawn geometry in order to ease geometry checking, and their implementation is
in the TGeoChecker class. The checking package contains an overlap checker and several utility methods that generally
have visualization outputs.

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The Overlap Checker

An overlap is any region in the Euclidian space being contained by more than one positioned volume. Due to the
containment scheme used by the modeller, all points inside a volume have to be also contained by the mother therefore
are overlapping in that sense. This category of overlaps is ignored due to the fact that any such point is treated as
belonging to the deepest node in the hierarchy.

Figure 18.30: Extruding volumes

A volume containment region is in fact the result of the subtraction of all daughters. On the other hand, there are two
other categories of overlaps that are considered illegal since they lead to unpredictable results during tracking.
A) If a positioned volume contains points that are not also contained by its mother, we will call the corresponding
region as an extrusion. When navigating from outside to inside (trying to enter such a node) these regions are
invisible since the current track has not yet reached its mother. This is not the case when going the other way
since the track has first to exit the extruding node before checking the mother. In other words, an extrusion
behavior is dependent on the track parameters, which is a highly undesirable effect.
B) We will call overlaps only the regions in space contained by more than one node inside the same container.
The owner of such regions cannot be determined based on hierarchical considerations; therefore they will be
considered as belonging to the node from which the current track is coming from.
When coming from their container, the ownership is totally unpredictable. Again, the ownership of overlapping regions
highly depends on the current track parameters.

18.6. CHECKING THE GEOMETRY

481

We must say that even the overlaps of type A) and B) are allowed in case the corresponding nodes are created
using TGeoVolume::AddNodeOverlap() method. Navigation is performed in such cases by giving priority to the
non-overlapping nodes. The modeller has to perform an additional search through the overlapping candidates. These
are detected automatically during the geometry closing procedure in order to optimize the algorithm, but we will stress
that extensive usage of this feature leads to a drastic deterioration of performance. In the following we will focus on
the non-declared overlaps of type A) and B) since this is the main source of errors during tracking. These are generally
non-intended overlaps due to coding mistakes or bad geometry design. The checking package is loaded together with
the painter classes and contains an automated overlap checker.**

Figure 18.31: Overlap checking

This can be activated both at volume level (checking for illegal overlaps only one level inside a given volume) and from
the geometry manager level (checking full geometry):
myVolume->CheckOverlaps(precision, option);
gGeoManager->CheckOverlaps(precision);
myNode->CheckOverlaps(precision);
Here precision represents the desired maximum accepted overlap value in centimeters (default value is 0.1). This
tool checks all possible significant pairs of candidates inside a given volume (not declared as overlapping or division
volumes). The check is performed by verifying the mesh representation of one candidate against the shape of the other.
This sort of check cannot identify all possible overlapping topologies, but it works for more than 95% and is much
faster than the usual shape-to-shape comparison. For a 100% reliability, one can perform the check at the level of
a single volume by using option=d or option=d<number> to perform overlap checking by sampling the volume

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with <number> random points (default 1 million). This produces also a picture showing in red the overlapping region
and estimates the volume of the overlaps.
An extrusion A) is declared in any of the following cases:
At least one of the vertices of the daughter mesh representation is outside the mother volume (in fact its shape)
and having a safety distance to the mother greater than the desired value;
At least one of the mother vertices is contained also by one of its daughters, in the same conditions.
An overlap B) is declared if:
At least one vertex of a positioned volume mesh is contained (having a safety bigger than the accepted maximum
value) by other positioned volume inside the same container. The check is performed also by inverting the
candidates.
The code is highly optimized to avoid checking candidates that are far away in space by performing a fast check on
their bounding boxes. Once the checking tool is fired-up inside a volume or at top level, the list of overlaps (visible as
Illegal overlaps inside a TBrowser) held by the manager class will be filled with TGeoOverlap objects containing a full
description of the detected overlaps. The list is sorted in the decreasing order of the overlapping distance, extrusions
coming first. An overlap object name represents the full description of the overlap, containing both candidate node
names and a letter (x-extrusion, o-overlap) representing the type. Double-clicking an overlap item in a TBrowser
produces a picture of the overlap containing only the two overlapping nodes (one in blue and one in green) and having
the critical vertices represented by red points. The picture can be rotated/zoomed or drawn in X3d as any other view.
Calling gGeoManager->PrintOverlaps() prints the list of overlaps.

18.6.2

Graphical Checking Methods

Figure 18.32: Safety computation checking

In order to check a given point, CheckPoint(x,y,z) method of TGeoManager draws the daughters of the volume
containing the point one level down, printing the path to the deepest physical node holding this point. It also computes
the closest distance to any boundary.

18.6. CHECKING THE GEOMETRY

483

Figure 18.33: Random points

A method to check the validity of a given geometry is shooting random points. This can be called with the method
TGeoVolume::RandomPoints() and it draws a volume with the current visualization settings. Random points are
generated in the bounding box of the drawn volume. The points are drawn with the color of their deepest container.
Only points inside visible nodes are drawn.

A ray tracing method can be called TGeoVolume::RandomRays(). This shoots rays from a given point in the local
reference frame with random directions. The intersections with displayed nodes appear as segments having the color of
the touched node.

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Figure 18.34: Random rays

18.7. THE DRAWING PACKAGE

18.7

485

The Drawing Package

The
modeller provides a powerful drawing package, supporting several different options of visualization. A library separated
from the main one provides all functionality being linked with the underlying ROOT visualization system. This library
is dynamically loaded by the plug-in manager only when drawing features are requested. The geometrical structures
that can be visualized are volumes and volume hierarchies.
The main component of the visualization system is volume primitive painting in a ROOT pad. Starting from this one,
several specific options or subsystems are available, like: X3D viewing using hidden line and surface removal algorithms,
OpenGL viewing* or ray tracing.
The method TGeoManager::GetGeomPainter()loads the painting library in memory.
This is generally not needed since it is called automatically by TGeoVolume::Draw() as well as by few other methods
setting visualization attributes.

18.7.1

Drawing Volumes and Hierarchies of Volumes

The first thing one would like to do after building some geometry is to visualize the volume tree. This provides the
fastest validation check for most common coding or design mistakes. As soon as the geometry is successfully closed,
one should draw it starting from the top-level volume:
//... code for geometry building
root[] gGeoManager->CloseGeometry();
root[] gGeoManager->GetMasterVolume()->Draw();
Doing this ensures that the original top-level volume of the geometry is drawn, even if another volume is currently the
geometry root. OK, I suppose you already did that with your simple geometry and immediately noticed a new ROOT

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canvas popping-up and having some more or less strange picture inside. Here are few questions that might come:
Q: "The picture is strangely rotated; where are the coordinate axes?"
A: If drawn in a new canvas, any view has some default viewpoint, center of view and size. One can then perform
mouse/keyboard actions to change them:
Mouse left-click and drag will rotate the view;
Some keys can be pressed when the view canvas is selected: J/K zoom/un-zoom, U/I move up/down, L/H move
left/right. The coordinate axes display as well as changing top or side viewpoints can be activated from the
TView context menu: right-click on the picture when no object is selected;
Q: "Every line is black!

I cannot figure out what is what..."

A: Volumes can have different colors (those known by ROOT of course). Think at using them after each volume
creation: myvolume->SetLineColor(Int_t color); otherwise everything is by default black.
Q: "The top volume of my geometry is a box but I see only its content."
A: By default the drawn volume is not displayed just because we do not want to hide its content when changing the view to
HLR or solid mode. In order to see it in the default wire frame picture one has to call TGeoManager::SetTopVisible().
Q: "I do not see all volumes in my tree but just something inside."
A: By default, TGeoVolume::Draw() paints the content of a given volume three levels down. You can change this by
using: gGeoManager ::SetVisLevel(n);
Not only that, but none of the volumes at intermediate levels (0-2) are visible on the drawing unless they are
final leaves on their branch (e.g. have no other volumes positioned inside). This behavior is the default one and
corresponds to leaves global visualization mode (TGeoManager::fVisOption = 1). In order to see on the screen
the intermediate containers, one can change this mode: gGeoManager->SetVisOption(0).
Q: "Volumes are highlighted when moving the mouse over their vertices.

What does it mean?"

A: Indeed, moving the mouse close to some volume vertices selects it. By checking the Event Status entry in the
root canvas Options menu, you will see exactly which is the selected node in the bottom right. Right-clicking when a
volume is selected will open its context menu where several actions can be performed (e.g. drawing it).
Q: "OK, but now I do not want to see all the geometry, but just a particular volume and its
content. How can I do this?"
A: Once you have set a convenient global visualization option and level, what you need is just call the Draw()
method of your interesting volume. You can do this either by interacting with the expanded tree of volumes in a
ROOT browser (where the context menu of any volume is available), either by getting a pointer to it (e.g. by name):
gGeoManager->GetVolume("vol_name")->Draw();

18.7.2

Visualization Settings and Attributes

Supposing you now understand the basic things to do for drawing the geometry or parts of it, you still might be not
happy and wishing to have more control on it. We will describe below how you can tune some fine settings. Since the
corresponding attributes are flags belonging to volume and node objects, you can change them at any time (even when
the picture is already drawn) and see immediately the result.
18.7.2.1

Colors and Line Styles

We have already described how to change the line colors for volumes. In fact, volume objects inherit from TAttLine
class so the line style or width can also be changed:
myVolume->SetLineColor(kRed);
myVolume->SetLineWith(2);
myVolume->SetLineStyle(kDotted);
When drawing in solid mode, the color of the drawn volume corresponds to the line color.

18.7. THE DRAWING PACKAGE

18.7.2.2

487

Visibility Settings

The way geometry is build forces the definition of several volumes that does not represent real objects, but just virtual
containers used for grouping and positioning volumes together. One would not want to see them in the picture. Since
every volume is by default visible, one has to do this sort of tuning by its own:
myVolumeContainer->SetVisibility(kFALSE);
As described before, the drawing package supports two main global options: 1 (default) - only final volume leaves; 0
- all volumes down the drawn one appear on the screen. The global visible level put a limitation on the maximum
applied depth. Combined with visibility settings per volume, these can tune quite well what should appear on the
screen. However, there are situations when users want to see a volume branch displayed down to the maximum depth,
keeping at the same time a limitation or even suppressing others. In order to accomplish that, one should use the
volume attribute: Visible daughters. By default, all daughters of all volumes are displayed if there is no limitation
related with their level depth with respect to the top drawn volume.

18.7.3

Ray Tracing

Ray tracing is a quite known drawing technique based on tracking rays from the eye position through all pixels of a
view port device. The pixel color is derived from the properties of the first crossed surface, according some illumination
model and material optical properties. While there are currently existing quite sophisticated ray tracing models, TGeo is
currently using a very simple approach where the light source is matching the eye position (no shadows or back-tracing
of the reflected ray). In future we are considering providing a base class in order to be able to derive more complex
models.
Due to the fact that the number of rays that have to be tracked matches the size in pixels of the pad, the time required
by this algorithm is proportional to the pad size. On the other hand, the speed is quite acceptable for the default
ROOT pad size and the images produced by using this technique have high quality. Since the algorithm is practically
using all navigation features, producing ray-traced pictures is also a geometry validation check. Ray tracing can be
activated at volume level as the normal Draw().

Figure 18.35: Ray-traced view in a pad

myVolume->Raytrace()
Once ray-tracing a view, this can be zoomed or rotated as a usual one. Objects on the screen are no longer highlighted
when picking the vertices but the corresponding volumes is still accessible.
18.7.3.1

Clipping Ray-traced Images

A ray-traced view can be clipped with any shape known by the modeller. This means that the region inside the
clipping shape is subtracted from the current drawn geometry (become invisible). In order to activate clipping, one has
to first define the clipping shape(s):
1.

TGeoShape *clip1, *clip2, ...

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One might switch between several clipping shapes. Note that these shapes are considered defined in the current MARS.
Composite shapes may be used.
2.

gGeoManager->SetClippingShape(clip1);

One can activate or deactivate clipping at any time: gGeoManager->SetClipping(flag);

3. Perform ray-tracing:gGeoManager->GetTopVolume()->Raytrace();
One can redo the steps 2-3 as many times as needed. Let us look how the rootgeom example looks clipped with a tube.

Figure 18.36: Ray-tracing example with box-clipping

18.8

Representing Misalignments of the Ideal Geometry

The ideal positioning of a detector does not match its position in the experimental hall. This generally happens not only
for the detector modules, but also for their components. The accurate knowledge of the detector real misalignments
can be extremely important for getting close to its designed resolution and the expected tracking efficiency. TGeo offers
tools for representing positioning misalignments, applying them to the ideal geometry and performing navigation under
these conditions. Detector tracking algorithms can then directly query the geometry for navigation purposes or for
retrieving actual misalignment information.

18.8.1

Physical Nodes

Physical nodes are the actual touchable objects in the geometry, representing actually a path of positioned volumes
starting witrh the top node: path=/TOP/A_1/B_4/C_3 , where A, B, C represent names of volumes. The number of
physical nodes is given by the total number of possible of branches in the geometry hierarchy. In case of detector
geometries and specially for calorimeters this number can be of the order 106-109, therefore it is impossible to create
all physical nodes as objects in memory. In TGeo, physical nodes are represented by the class TGeoPhysicalNode and
can be created on demand for alignment purposes:

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489

TGeoPhysicalNode(const char* path)

The knowledge of the path to the objects that need to be misaligned is essential since there is no other way of identifying
them. One can however create symbolic links to any complex path to make it more representable for the object it
designates:
TGeoPNEntry(const char* unique_name, const char* path)
void TGeoPNEntry::SetPhysicalNode(TGeoPhysicalNode *node)
Such a symbolic link hides the complexity of the path to the align object and replaces it with a more meaningful name.
In addition, TGeoPNEntry objects are faster to search by name and they may optionally store an additional user matrix.
// Creating a symlink object.
TGeoPNEntry *TGeoManager::SetAlignableEntry(const char *unique_n,
const char*path)
// Retrieving an existing alignable object.
TGeoPNEntry *TGeoManager::GetAlignableEntry(const char *name)
// Retrieving an existing alignable object at a given index.
TGeoPNEntry *GetAlignableEntry(Int_t index)
Physical nodes store internally the full list of logical nodes corresponding to the elements from the string path, as well
as the global transformation matrix for each of them. The top node corresponds to the level 0 in the stored array,
while the last node will correspond to level n. For each level, the node, volume and global matrix can be retrieved
using corresponding getters:
TGeoHMatrix
TGeoNode
TGeoShape
TGeoVolume

*GetMatrix(Int_t level=-1) const

*GetNode(Int_t level=-1) const
*GetShape(Int_t level=-1) const
*GetVolume(Int_t level=-1) const

By default the object at level n is retrieved (the alignable object).

Once created, a physical node can be misaligned, meaning that its positioning matrix or even the shape.:
void Align(TGeoMatrix* newmat=0, TGeoShape* newshape=0,
Bool_t check=kFALSE)
The convention used is that newmat represents the new local matrix of the last node in the branch with respect to its
mother volume. The Align() method will actually duplicate the corresponding branch within the logical hierarchy,
creating new volumes and nodes. This is mandatory in order to avoid problems due to replicated volumes and can
create exhaustive memory consumption if used abusively.
Once aligned, a physical node is ready to be tracked. The operation can be done only after the geometry was closed.
Important NOTE: Calling the Align() method for a physical node changes the node pointers for the stored node
branch in the active geometry, Due to this the other defined physical nodes containing elements of this path will be
invalid. Example:
TGeoPhysicalNode *pn1 =
gGeoManager->MakePhysicalNode("/A_1/B_1/C_2");
TGeoPhysicalNode *pn2 =
gGeoManager->MakePhysicalNode("/A_1/B_1/C_3");
...
pn1->Align(...);
The call to pn1->Align() will invalidate the pointer to the node B_1 in pn2 object.. The way out is to either call
pn1->Align() before the creation of pn2, eithr to use a global method that will correct all existing physical nodes:
void RefreshPhysicalNodes(Bool_t lock = kTRUE)
The method above will optionally lock the possibility of doing any further misalignment.

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Geometry I/O

Once geometry is successfully built, it can be saved in a root file, as C++ macro or as GDML file by calling:
TGeoManager::Export(const char *filename,const char*keyname="",
Option_t *opt="vg")
Filenameis the name of the file to be written (mandatory). Depending on the extension of the file, the geometry
is exported either as ,root file or .C(.cxx) macro or GDML file in case extension is .gdml.
keynameis the name of the key in the file (default )
opt = "v" is an export voxelization (default), otherwise voxelization is recomputed after loading the geometry,
"g" this option (default) is taken into account only for exporting to gdml file and it ensures compatibility with
Geant4 (e.g. it adds extra plane to incorrectly set polycone, it checks whether offset of Phi division is in (-360;0>
range, . . . ), for this gdml export there are two more option, that are not set by default: "f" and "n". If none
of this two options are set, then names of solids and volumes in resulting gdml file will have incremental suffix
(e.g. TGeoBBox_0x1, TGeoBBox_0x2, . . . ). If "f" option is set then then suffix will contain pointer of object
(e.g. TGeoBBox_0xAAAAA01, . . . ). Finally if option "n" is set then no suffix will be added, though in this case
uniqness of the names is not ensured and it can cause that file will be invalid.
Loading geometry from a root file can be done in the same way as for any other ROOT object, but a static method is
also provided:
TGeoManager::Import(const char *filename,const char *keyname="",
Option_t *opt="")
Example:
// Writing to a file geometry definition ending with:
root[] gGeoManager->CloseGeometry();
// geometry is ready
root[] gGeoManager->Export("MyGeom.root");
// file MyGeom.root produced
root[] gGeoManager->Export("MyGeom.C");
// C++ macro MyGeom.C produced
root[] gGeoManager->Export("MyGeom.gdml");
// GDML file MyGeom.gdml produced
root[] myVolume->SaveAs("MyVolume.C");
// C++ macro for the branch starting
// with MyVolume
// Reading from a file
root[] gSystem->Load("libGeom");
root[] TGeoManager::Import("MyGeom.root"); // geometry is ready
Note that not all-current information held by the modeller is written on the file. For instance, the painter and checker
objects are not written, as well as the temporary current navigation properties: current node path, point or direction.
On the other hand, all objects belonging to the geometrical hierarchy will always be written. The idea is to be able to
retrieve the geometry in a ready state, ignoring what the state variables that can be always re-initialized. When the
code is generated for a given TGeoVolume in the geometry, just the branch starting with that volume will be saved in
the file. Executing the generated code will create a geometry that has MyVolume as top volume. In this case, only the
materials/media/matrices used effectively in the MyVolume branch are exported to file.
Volumes can be made persistent in the same way the full geometry is. Exporting is straightforward (module1, 2 are
pointers to TGeoVolume objects):
module1->Export("file.root");
// by default file is overwritten
module2->Export("file.root","","update");
// to the same file
Importing will append the volume to the current TGeoManager or will create one:

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491

TGeoManager *geom = new TGeoManager("myGeom", "");

TGeoVolume *top = geom->MakeBox(...);
geom->SetTopVolume(top);
//name of volume or key (depending on export usage)
TGeoVolume *module1 = TGeoVolume::Import("file.root", "MOD1");
TGeoVolume *module2 = TGeoVolume::Import("file.root", "MOD2");
top->AddNode(module1, 1, new TGeoTranslation(0,0,100));
top->AddNode(module2, 1, new TGeoTranslation(0,0,-100));
// One should close himself the geometry
geom->CloseGeometry();

18.9.1

GDML

Few lines above word GDML was used. GDML stands for Geometry Description Markup Language. It is an
application-indepedent geometry description format based on XML. It is mainly used for geometry interchange between
ROOT and Geant4 framework. More details about this project can be found http://gdml.web.cern.ch. This feature
(importing/exporting from/to gdml file format) is disabled by default in ROOT installation. To enable this feature add
--enable-gdml option to ./configure script call.

18.10

Navigation Algorithms

This section will describe the main methods and algorithms used for implementing the navigation features within the
geometrical modeller. This includes navigation queries at shape level, global geometrical queries and optimization
mechanisms.

18.10.1

Finding the State Corresponding to a Location (x,y,z)

For reminder, a geometry state is a touchable object in the geometry hierarchy. It is represented by a path like:
/TOP_1/A_1/B_3/C_1, where B_3 for instance is a copy of volume B positioned inside volume A. A state is
always associated to a transformation matrix M of the touchable with respect to the global reference frame (obtained
by piling-up all local transformations of nodes in the branch with respect to their containers). The current state and
the corresponding global matrix are updated whenever the geometry depth is modified. The global transformations
corresponding to all nodes in the current branch are kept in an array: (MTOP_1, MA_1, MB_3, . . . ).
The elementary operations for changing the state are:
TGeoManager::CdUp();
TGeoManager::CdDown(i);
TGeoManager::CdTop()
The current state accounting and global matrix handling after these operations are depicted in the figure below. Now
let us suppose that we have a particle at position P(x,y,z). The first thing needed for transporting it is the current
object our particle is into, so that we can retrieve its material properties. This task is done by:
TGeoNode *TGeoManager::FindNode(x,y,z)
Note that the current particle position can be set using SetCurrentPosition(x,y,z) method of the manager class,
in which case FindNode() can be called without arguments. The method returns a pointer to the deepest node that
geometrically contains P (in our case let us suppose it is B_3 ). Since a node is just a positioned volume, we can then
get a pointer to the volume, medium or material objects related to it. Deepest means that B_3 still contains point P
(as well as A_1 and TOP_1 ), but none of the daughters of volume B does. After finding out the node containing the
particle, one can check if the geometry state is different compared to the last located point:
Bool_t *TGeoManager::IsSameLocation()
The algorithm for finding where a point is located in geometry is presented in the figure 17-36.
It always starts by checking if the last computed modeller state is the answer. This optimizes the search when
continuously tracking a particle. The main actions performed are:

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Figure 18.37: Navigation in the geometry hierarchy

moving up and down in the logical node tree while updating the current node and its global matrix
converting the global position into the local frame of the current node/volume
checking whether the local position lies within the geometrical shape of the current volume - if this is the case
continue the search downwards for the daughters of the current node, otherwise search upwards its containers
until the top level is reached.
the number of candidate nodes to be checked at a given level is minimized by an additional optimization structure:
voxels. This is effective even in case there is only one daughter of the current volume.
in case the current node is declared as possibly overlapping, the method FindInCluster() is invoked. This method
checks all different possibilities within the cluster of overlapping candidates. One of the candidates is prioritized
if one of the following conditions id fulfilled (in order):
Is declared as non-overlapping (these are anyway searched first)
Has at least one daughter that contains the current point
Was already declared as containing the point at a previous step

18.10.2

Finding the Distance to Next Crossed Boundary

The most important feature provided by the modeller related to track propagation is the computation of the distance
to the next boundary along a straight line.
The relevant state parameters used for this task are:
Current particle position and direction (x,y,z,nx,ny,nz), where ni is the direction cosine with axis (i).
Current node (and path) in geometry must be set by calling TGeoManager::FindNode(x,y,z)beforehand The
method computing the distance to next boundary is:
TGeoNode *TGeoManager::FindNextBoundary(stepmax, path)
The output node returned by the method is the object which shape boundary will be crossed first. The distance to the
next crossing can be retrieved after the call:

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Figure 18.38: Finding the location of a point in the geometry hierarchy

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Double_t TGeoManager::GetStep()
The main input parameter is stepmax, which act as a trigger for different features. The absolute value of this
parameter represents the step value proposed by the user. The algorithm will never try o search for boundaries
further than this distance. In case no boundary is found the returned node will be the current one and the
computed step to boundary will be equal to abs (stepmax) having the meaning step approved. The default
value for stepmax is TGeoShape::Bigwith the meaning that boundaries are looked for without limitation.
According the values of the input parameters the method will perform additional optional tasks:
|stepmax| < TGeoShape::Big()
The safe distance in the current volume is also computed. Moving the particle from its current location with this
distance in any direction is safe in the sense that will never change the current state.
stepmax < 0
The global matrix for the object that will have the next crossed boundary is also computed. This can be retrieved for
masterlocal point or vector conversions: TGeoManager::GetNextMatrix()
In case the computation of the normal vector to the next crossed surface is required, using a negative stepmax value is
recommended. In this case one can subsequently call a method for fast normal computation:
Double_t *TGeoManager::FindNormalFast()
path 0
In case a path to a given physical object is specified, the distance to its boundary is computed ignoring the rest of the
geometry
18.10.2.1

Output Values

TGeoManager::GetStep(): distance to next boundary.

TGeoManager::GetSafeDistance(): safe distance (in case it was computed).
TGeoManager::IsOnBoundary(): the initial point (x,y,z) was (or was not) on a boundary within TGeoShape::Tolerance().
The algorithm checks first if the computation of safety was required. If this is the case and the global point coordinates
did not change from the last query, the last computed safety is taken. Otherwise, the method TGeoManager::Safety
() is invoked. A safety value less than TGeoShape::Tolerance() will set the flag IsOnBoundary to true. On the
other hand, a safety value bigger than the proposed step will stop the computation of the distance to next boundary,
returning the current geometry location with the meaning that the proposed step is safe.
The next stage is to check if computation of the distance to a give physical object specified by a path was required.
If this is the case, the modeller changes the state to point to the required object, converts the current point and
direction coordinates to the local frame of this object and c omputes the distance to its shape. The node returned is
the one pointed by the input path in case the shape is crossed; otherwise the returned value is NULL. In case the
distance to next crossed boundary is required, the current point has to be physically INSIDE the shape pointed by
the current volume. This is only insured in case a call to TGeoManager::FindNode() was performed for the current
point. Therefore, the first step is to convert the global current point and direction in the local reference frame of the
current volume and to compute the distance to exit its shape from inside. The returned value is again compared to
the maximum allowed step (the proposed one) and in case the distance is safe no other action is performed and the
proposed step is approved. In case the boundary is closer, the computed distance is taken as maximum allowed step.
For optimization purposed, for particles starting very close to the current volume boundary (less than 0.01 microns)
and exiting the algorithm stops here.
After computing the distance to exit the current node, the distance to the daughter of the current volume which
is crossed next is computed by TGeoManager::FindNextDaughterBoundary(). This computes the distance to all
daughter candidates that can be possibly crossed by using volume voxelization. The algorithm is efficient in average
only in case the number of daughters is greater than 4. For fewer nodes, a simple loop is performed and the minimum
distance (from a point outside each shape) is taken and compared to the maximum allowed step. The step value is
again updated if step<stepmax .
A special case is when the current node is declared as possibly overlapping with something else. If this is the case, the
distance is computed for all possibly overlapping candidates, taking into account the overlapping priorities (see also: "
Overlapping volumes ).

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Figure 18.39: Finding the distance to the next crossed boundary

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The global matrix describing the next crossed physical node is systematically computed in case the value of t he
proposed step is negative. In this case, one can subsequently call TGeoManager::ComputeNormalFast() to get the
normal vector to the crossed surface, after propagating the current point with the TGeoManager::GetStep() value.
This propagation can be done like:

Double_t *current_point = gGeoManager->GetCurrentPoint();

Double_t *current_dir = gGeoManager->GetCurrentDirection();
for (Int_t i=0; i<3; i++)
current_point[i] += step * current_dir[I];

Note: The method TGeoManager::FindNextBoundary() does not modify the current point/direction nor the current
volume/state. The returned node is the next crossed one, but the physical path (state) AFTER crossing the boundary
is not determined. In order to find out this new state, one has to propagate the point with a distance slightly bigger
that the computed step value (which is accurate within numerical precision). A method that performs this task finding
the next location is TGeoManager::Step(), described in " Making a Step , but users may implement more precise
methods to insure post-step boundary crossing.

18.11

Geometry Graphical User Interface

The geombuilder package allows you to create and edit geometries. The package provides a library of all GUI classes
related to geometry. Each editable geometry class TGeoXXX have a correspondent editor TGeoXXXEditor that provides
a graphics user interface allowing to edit some (or all) parameters of a geometry object. The editable objects are
geometry manager, volumes, nodes, shapes, media, materials and matrices. The interfaces provide also access to specific
functionality of geometry objects. The editing mechanism is based on ROOT GED (Graphics Editors) functionality
and the library is loaded using the plug-in mechanism.

18.11.1

Editing a Geometry

There are two different use cases having different ways of invoking the geometry editors. The first one applies when
starting with geometry from scratch and using the builder functionality to create new geometry objects. In this case,
one should use the sequence:

root[] TGeoManager *geom = new TGeoManager("MyGeom",

"Test builder");
root[] geom->Edit(Option_t *option="");

The lines above will create a new TGeoManager class, create an empty canvas and start the editor in the left-sided
editor frame attached to the canvas. To open the editor in a separate frame one should provide a non-empty string as
option to the Edit() method.

18.11. GEOMETRY GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Figure 18.40: The geometry manager editor

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18.11.2

The Geometry Manager Editor

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The second use case applies when starting to edit an existing geometry. Supposing the geometry was loaded into
memory, besides the first method that still applies one can also edit drawn geometry objects. For this, the menu entry
View/Editor of the canvas containing for instance a drawn volume must be activated. For starting the volume editor
one can click on a volume. The GUI of the TGeoManager class can be started by clicking on the top-right 40x40 pixels
corner of the pad with a drawn geometry.
This is the main entry point for editing the geometry or creating new objects. Once the interface is created (using one
of the methods described above), several categories can be accessed via a shutter GUI widget:
General. This allows changing the name/title of the geometry, setting the top volume, closing the geometry and
saving the geometry in a file. The file name is formed by geometry_name.C or .root depending if the geometry
need to be saved as a C macro or a .root file.
Shapes. The category provides buttons for creation of all supported shapes. The new shape name is chosen by
the interface, but can be changed from the shape editor GUI. Existing shapes can be browsed and edited from
the same category.
Volumes. The category allows the creation of a new volume having a given name, shape and medium. For creating
a volume assembly only the name is relevant. Existing volumes can be browsed or edited from this category.
Materials. Allows creation of new materials/mixtures or editing existing ones.
Media. The same for creation/editing of tracking media (materials having a set of properties related to tracking)
Matrices. Allows creation of translations, rotations or combined transformations. Existing matrices can also be
browser/edited.

18.11.3

Editing Existing Objects

For editing an existing object from one of the categories described above, the interface imposes first a selection among
all objects of the corresponding type stored in the geometry. This can be done by clicking the button next to the blue
label Select <object>. The dialog interfaces are generally different for different types of objects. The volume selection
dialog offers the possibility to select either a volume already connected to the geometry hierarchy or non-connected
ones. Selection for shapes and matrices is split into categories represented by top-level list tree items for: boxes, tubes,
translations, rotations, etc.

Figure 18.41: Selection dialogs for different TGeo objects

Once a selection is made and the dialog is closed, the selected item name will appear in the corresponding label and
the button Edit will start the object editor in a transient frame. Closing these transient frames will not delete, but just
hide existing opened editors for later reuse. Their lifetime is determined by the canvas to which the manager editor is
attached to, since these will be destroyed together.

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For most editors, the functionalities Apply and Undo are provided.

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For shapes, changing any of the shape parameters will activate the Apply button only if the check button Delayed
draw is checked, otherwise the changes are immediately applied. Once the apply button is pressed, the changes are
applied to the edited shape and drawn. The Undo button becomes active after the first modification has been applied.
It allows restoring the initial parameters of the shape.

NOTE: In this version the Undo does not allow restoring an intermediate state of the parameters that was applied it will always restore the parameters at the moment the shape was edited.

All material properties changes are undoable. The mixture editor currently allows adding elements one by one in the
mixture composition. This can be done either by element weight fraction or by number of atoms. Once an element was
added using one method the other mehod is not selectable anymore. Summing component fractions up to 1 in the final
mixture is the user responsability. Adding materials as components of a mixture is not supported in this version.

The elements that were added to the mixture appear in the bottom of the mixture editor. The operations performed
on mixture are not undoable.

18.11.4

Creation of New Objects

As described above, all geometry object creators are accessible within the geometry manager editor frame. Generally,
if the new object that needs to be created does not depend on other objects, it will be built with a set of default
parameters. This is the case for all shapes (except composite shapes) and matrices. For all the other objects the
interface forces the selection of components before creating the object.

18.11.5

Editing Volumes

Volumes are hierarchical components in the geometry, therefore their editor is more complex. It provides the following
functionalities:

General. This category allows changing the name of the volume and selecting other shape or medium among
existing ones.

Daughters. The category allows removing existing daughter nodes or adding new ones. The button Position
allows editing the positioning matrix of a given node.

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505

Visualization. This category allows changing the visibility of the edited volume or for its daughters, as well
as other visualization settings. The radio button All allows viewing all volumes down to the selected depth.
Leaves will draw only the deepest nodes that have the selected depth or lower level ones that have no daughters
inside. Only will allow drawing only the edited volume. The check button Raytrace will just draw the current
selection in solid mode using the ray-tracing algorithm provided by TGeo.

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507

Division. Allows dividing the edited volume according a given pattern. The division axes that are allowed are
presented in a radio-button group. The number entries labeled From, Step and Nslices correspond to the
divisioning parameters on the selected axis. The range of the division is between start and start+ndiv*step
values and its validity is checked upon changing one of the values.
NOTE: When changing a value in a number entry by typing a number, press ENTER at the end to validate. This
applies for taking into account and validation of any number change in the geometry editors.

18.11.6

How to Create a Valid Geometry with Geometry Editors

1. Create a new geometry manager and start the editor as described at the beginning.
2. Create at least one material from the Materials shutter item category. Generally, for creating objects, the
interface is always in the TGeoManagerEditor in different categories - one should just provide a name and
requested parameters.
3. Create a shape that will be used for the top volume within the Shapes category. For the moment, the shapes
that have editors are Box, Para, Trd1, Trd2, Tube, Tube segment, Cone, Cone segment, Hype, Pcon, Torus and
Sphere.
4. Create a medium from one of the existing materials from the Medium category. You will notice that some
categories as Volume and Medium are inactive at the beginning because at that time there is no material yet
(for making a medium) and no shape (for making a volume). These categories are dynamically activated once all
the required components are defined.
5. Create a volume from the Volumes category. You will notice that contrary to the other editors, the volume
editor is opened in a tab, not transient - this is because it is more complex.
6. Go back to General category and select the newly created volume as the top one (you can do it also from the
volume category). This is just for starting. To create some hierarchy, one has to create several other volumes and
the matrices to position them. Once this is done, use the volume editor interface to:
add/remove daughters, change shape, edit position of daughters
change visualization settings
divide the volume (only if there are no daughters yet)
7. Close the geometry from the General category.

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Chapter 19

Python and Ruby Interfaces

Python is a popular, open-source, dynamic programming language with an interactive interpreter. Its interoperability
with other programming languages, both for extending Python as well as embedding it, is excellent and many existing
third-party applications and libraries have therefore so-called Python bindings. PyROOT provides Python bindings
for ROOT: it enables cross-calls from ROOT/CINT into Python and vice versa, the intermingling of the two interpreters,
and the transport of user-level objects from one interpreter to the other. PyROOT enables access from ROOT to any
application or library that itself has Python bindings, and it makes all ROOT functionality directly available from the
python interpreter.

19.1

PyROOT Overview

The Python scripting language is widely used for scientific programming, including high performance and distributed
parallel code (see http://www.scipy.org). It is the second most popular scripting language (after Perl) and enjoys a
wide-spread use as a glue language: practically every library and application these days comes with Python bindings
(and if not, they can be easily written or generated).
PyROOT, a Python extension module, provides the bindings for the ROOT class library in a generic way using the CINT
dictionary. This way, it allows the use of any ROOT classes from the Python interpreter, and thus the glue-ing of
ROOT libraries with any non-ROOT library or applications that provide Python bindings. Further, PyROOT can be
loaded into the CINT interpreter to allow (as of now still rudimentary) access to Python classes. The best way to
understand the benefits of PyROOT is through a few examples.

19.1.1

Glue-ing Applications

The PyQt library, see http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt, provides Python bindings for the Qt cross-platform
GUI framework ( http://www.trolltech.com). With PyROOT and PyQt, adding ROOT application layer code to a Qt
GUI, becomes children play. The following example shows how a Python class can be used to have ROOT code respond
to a click on a Qt widget.
# Glue-ing Qt and ROOT through Python
import sys, ROOT
from qt import *
theApp = QApplication( sys.argv)
box = QVBox()
box.resize(QSize(40,10).expandedTo(box.minimumSizeHint()))
class myButton(QPushButton):
def __init__( self,label,master):
QPushButton.__init__(self,label,master)
self.setFont( QFont('Times',18,QFont.Bold))
def browse(self):
self.b = ROOT.TBrowser()
bb = myButton('browser',box)
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QObject.connect( bb,SIGNAL('clicked()'),bb.browse)
theApp.setMainWidget(box)
box.show()
theApp.exec_loop()
When the example is run, a Qt button is displayed, and when the button is clicked, a TBrowser instance is created and
will appear on the screen. PyROOT takes care of feeding system events to ROOT widgets, so the TBrowser instance and
the button behave properly when users interact with them.

19.1.2

Access to ROOT from Python

There are several tools for scientific analysis that come with bindings that allow the use of these tools from the Python
interpreter. PyROOT provides this for users who want to do analysis in Python with ROOT classes. The following
example shows how to fill and display a ROOT histogram while working in Python. Of course, any actual analysis
code may come from somewhere else through other bindings, e.g. from a C++ program.
When run, the next example will display a 1-dimensional histogram showing a Gaussian distribution. More examples
like the one above are distributed with ROOT under the $ROOTSYS/tutorials directory.
# Example: displaying a ROOT histogram from Python
from ROOT import gRandom,TCanvas,TH1F
c1 = TCanvas('c1','Example',200,10,700,500)
hpx = TH1F('hpx','px',100,-4,4)
for i in xrange(25000):
px = gRandom.Gaus()
hpx.Fill(px)
hpx.Draw()
c1.Update()

19.1.3

Access to Python from ROOT

Access to Python objects from CINT is not completely fleshed out. Currently, ROOT objects and built-in types can
cross the boundary between the two interpreters, but other objects are much more restricted. For example, for a
Python object to cross, it has to be a class instance, and its class has to be known to CINT first (i.e. the class has to
cross first, before the instance can). All other cross-coding is based on strings that are run on the Python interpreter
and vise-versa.
With the ROOT v4.00/06 and later, the TPython class will be loaded automatically on use, for older editions,
the libPyROOT.so needs to be loaded first before use. It is possible to switch between interpreters by calling
TPython::Prompt() on the ROOT side, while returning with D (EOF). State is preserved between successive switches,
and string based cross calls can nest as long as shared resources are properly handled.
// Example: accessing the Python interpreter from ROOT
// either load PyROOT explicitly or rely on auto-loading
root[] gSystem->Load( "libPyROOT" );
root[] TPython::Exec("print1+1");
2
// create a TBrowser on the Python side, and transfer it back and forth
root[] TBrowser* b = (void*)TPython::Eval("ROOT.TBrowser()");
(class TObject*)0x8d1daa0
root[] TPython::Bind(b,"b");
// builtin variables can cross-over (after the call i==2)
root[] int i = TPython::Eval( "1+1" );
root[] i
(int)2

19.1. PYROOT OVERVIEW

19.1.4

511

Installation

There are several ways of obtaining PyROOT, and which is best depends on your specific situation. If you work at CERN,
you can use the installation available on afs. Otherwise, you will want to build from source, as PyROOT is not build
by default in the binaries distributed from the ROOT project site. If you download the ROOT binaries, take care to
download and install the Python distribution from http://www.python.org/ against which they were built.
19.1.4.1

Environment Settings

ROOT installations with the build of PyROOT enabled are available from the CERN afs cell /afs/cern.ch/sw/root/<version>/<p
To use them, simply modify your shell environment accordingly. For Unix:
export PATH=$ROOTSYS/bin:$PYTHONDIR/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ROOTSYS/lib:$PYTHONDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PYTHONPATH=$ROOTSYS/lib:$PYTHONPATH
For Windows:
set PATH=%ROOTSYS%/bin;%PYTHONDIR%/bin;%PATH%
set PYTHONPATH=%ROOTSYS%/bin;%PYTHONPATH%

where $ROOTSYS should be set to /afs/cern.ch/sw/root/<version>/<platform>, and PYTHONDIR to /afs/cern.ch/sw/lcg/ext

with <version> and <platform> as appropriate. Note that the latest version of Python is 2.4.1.
19.1.4.2

Building from Source

The standard installation instructions for building ROOT from source apply, with the addition that the build of PyROOT
needs to be enabled at the configuration step. First, follow the instructions for obtaining and unpacking the source,
and setting up the build environment.
Then, use the following command to configure the build process (of course, feel free to add any additional flags you
may need):
$ ./configure <arch> [--with-python-incdir=<dir>][--with-python-libdir=>dir>]
For details on <arch> see the official build pages, the Python include directory should point to the directory that
contains Python.h and the library directory should point to the directory containing libpythonx.y.so, where x and
y are the major and minor version number, respectively. If you do not specify include and library directories explicitly,
the configuration process will try the PYTHONDIR environment variable or, alternatively, the standard locations.
A recent distribution of Python is required: version 2.4.3 is preferred, but the older 2.2.x and 2.3.x versions suffice and
are supported as well. Versions older than 2.2 are not supported and will not work. Note that one problem with 2.2 is
that the shared library of the Python interpreter core is not build by default and the enable-shared flag should thus
be used when building Python from source. If the Python interpreter that is installed on your system is too old, please
obtain a new version from http://www.python.org.
Once configured, you continue the build process the normal way:
$ make
$ make cintdlls
$ make install
After some time, a library called libPyROOT.so (or libPyROOT.dll, on Windows) will be created in the
$ROOTSYS/lib($ROOTSYS/bin on Windows) directory and a top Python module, ROOT.py, will be copied into the
same place. The final step is to setup the shell environment, which is similar to what is described in the chapter
Environment Settings. Note that the $ROOTSYS entries are probably already there if you followed the standard
instructions, and that the PYTHONDIR entries should be replaced as appropriate by your choice at configuration time, or
be left out if you had the configuration script pick up them up from a default location.

19.1.5

Using PyROOT

Since it is an extension module, the usage of PyROOT probably comes naturally if youre used to Python. In general,
PyROOT attempts to allow working in both Python and ROOT style, and although it is succeeding, it isnt perfect: there
are edges. The following sections explain in some detail what you can expect, and what you need to watch out for.

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19.1.5.1

Access to ROOT Classes

Before a ROOT class can be used from Python, its dictionary needs to be loaded into the current process. Starting
with ROOT version 4.00/06, this happens automatically for all classes that are declared to the auto-loading mechanism
through so-called rootmap files. Effectively, this means that all classes in the ROOT distributions are directly available
for import. For example:
from ROOT import TCanvas
c = TCanvas()

# available at startup

from ROOT import TLorentzVector

l = TLorentzVector()

# triggers auto-load of libPhysics

Although it is not recommended, a simple way of working with PyROOT is doing a global import:
from ROOT import *
c = TCanvas()
l = TLorentzVector()
Keeping the ROOT namespace (import ROOT), or only importing from ROOT those classes that you will actually
use (see above), however, will always be cleaner and clearer:
import ROOT
c = ROOT.TCanvas()
l = ROOT.TLorentzVector()
Since it is foreseen that most people will use the simple approach anyway, the request to copy all from module ROOT
will not actually result in copying all ROOT classes into the current namespace. Instead, classes will still be bound
(and possibly loaded) on an as-needed basis. Note carefully how this is different from other Python (extension) modules,
and what to expect if you use the normal inspection tools (such as e.g. dir()). This feature prevents the inspection
tools from being swamped by an enormous amount of classes, but they can no longer be used to explore unknown parts
of the system (e.g. to find out which classes are available). Furthermore, because of this approach, <tab>-completion
will usually not be available until after the first use (and hence creation) of a class.
Access to class static functions, public data members, enums, etc. is as expected. Many more example uses of ROOT
classes from Python can be found in the tutorials directory in the ROOT distribution. The recipes section contains a
description on working with your own classes (see Using Your Own Classes).
19.1.5.2

Access to STL Classes

Before STL classes can be used, you have to make sure that the CINT extension dlls are build (the cintdlls make
target). Note that they do not compile on as many platforms as ROOT itself. Further, if you want to use template
instantiations of STL classes with any of your own classes, make sure that a dictionary is available, e.g. by using ACLiC.
The STL classes live in the ROOT.std namespace (or, if you prefer to get them from there, in the ROOT module
directly, but doing so makes the code less clear, of course). Be careful in their use, because Python already has types
called string and list.
In order to understand how to get access to a templated class, think of the general template as a meta class. By
instantiating the meta class with the proper parameters, you get an actual class, which can then be used to create
object instances. An example usage:
>>>
>>>
>>>
...
...
>>>
...
1 2

from ROOT import std

v = std.vector(int)()
for i in range(0,10):
v.push_back(i)
for i in v:
print(i, end=' ')
3 4 5 6 7 8 9

19.1. PYROOT OVERVIEW

513

>>>
>>> list(v)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>>
The parameters to the template instantiation can either be an actual type or value (as is used here, int), or a string
representation of the parameters (e.g. double ), or a mixture of both (e.g. TCanvas, 0 or double, 0 ).
The std::vector<int> class is one of the classes builtin by default into the CINT extension dlls. You will get a
non-functional class (instances of which can still be passed around to C++) if the corresponding dictionary doesnt
exist.
19.1.5.3

Access to ROOT Globals

Most globals and global functions can be imported directly from the ROOT.py module, but some common ones (most
notably gMinuit, although that variable now exists at startup from release 5.08 onward) do not exist yet at program
startup, as they exist in modules that are loaded later (e.g. through the auto-loading mechanims). An example session
should make this clear:
>>> from ROOT import *
>>> gROOT
#
<ROOT.TROOT object at 0x399c30>
>>> gMinuit
#
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'gMinuit' is not defined
>>> TMinuit
#
<class '__main__.TMinuit'>
>>> gMinuit
#
<__main__.TMinuit object at 0x1458c70>
>>> not not gMinuit
#
False
>>> g = TMinuit()
>>> not not gMinuit
True

directly available
library not yet loaded: not available

use of TMinuit class forces auto-loading

now gMinuit is available
but it is the null pointer, until set

It is also possible to create globals interactively, either by executing a CINT macro, or by a call to gROOT.ProcessLine().
These globals are made available in the same way: either use them directly after creation in from ROOT import *
more, or get them from the ROOT namespace after an import ROOT.
As of 5.08, the behaviour of ROOT globals is the same as python globals, which is sometimes counterintuitive: since
they are references, they can be changed only if done so directly through their containing module. The following session
shows that in detail:
>>>
>>>
0
>>>
>>>
0
>>>
>>>
5
>>>
7
>>>
>>>
7
>>>
>>>
3
>>>

from ROOT import *

print(gDebug)
gROOT.ProcessLine( 'gDebug = 7;' )
print(gDebug)
# local gDebug is unchanged
gDebug = 5
# changes _local_ reference only
print(gDebug)
# locally correct, but ...
gROOT.ProcessLine( 'cout << gDebug << endl;' )
# ... ROOT global unchanged
import ROOT
print(ROOT.gDebug)
# still the old value (not '5')
ROOT.gDebug = 3
# changes ROOT module reference
gROOT.ProcessLine( 'cout << gDebug << endl;' )
# ROOT global properly changed

The above is another good reason to prefer import ROOT over from ROOT import *.

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19.1.5.4

Access to Python

The access to Python from CINT goes through the TPython class, or directly if a Python object or class has crossed
the border. The TPython class, which looks approximately like this:
class TPython {
public:
// load a Python script as if it were a macro
static void LoadMacro(const char* name);
// execute a Python statement (e.g. "import ROOT")
static void Exec(const char* cmd);
// evaluate a Python expression (e.g. "1+1")
static const TPyReturn& Eval(const char* expr);
// bind a ROOT object with, at the Python side, the name "label"
static bool Bind(TObject* obj,const char* label);

};

// enter an interactive Python session (exit with ^D)

static void Prompt();

LoadMacro(const char* name) - the argument is a name of a Python file that is to be executed (execfile), after
which any new classes are automatically made available to CINT. Since it is non-selective, use with care.
ExecScript(const char* name,int argc=0,const char** argv=0) - the argument is a name of a python file that
is to be executed (execfile) in a private namespace to minimize side-effects. Optionally, you can add CLI-style
arguments which are handed to the script through sys.argv in the normal way.
Exec(const char* cmd)- the argument is a string of Python code that is executed as a statement. There is no return
value, but an error message will be printed if there are problems such as syntax errors.
Eval(const char* expr)- the argument is a string of Python code that is evaluated as an expression. The result of
the expression is returned, if it is either a builtin type (int, long, float, double, and const char* are supported), a
Python type that can cross, or a ROOT type. If a ROOT type is returned, an explicit cast to void* is needed to assign
the return value to a local pointer (which may have a different type), whereas builtin types will be cast implicitly, if
possible, to the type of the local variable to which they are assigned.
Bind(TObject* obj,const char* label) - transfer a ROOT object from the CINT to the Python interpreter, where
it will be referenced with a variable called label.
Prompt() - Transfer the interactive prompt to Python.
With the ROOT v4.00/06 and later, the TPython class will be loaded automatically on use, for older editions, the
libPyROOT.so needs to be loaded first with gSystem->Load() before use. Refer back to the other example of the use
of TPython that was given in Access to Python from ROOT.
To show in detail how Python access can be used, an example Python module is needed, as follows:
print('creating class MyPyClass ... ')
class MyPyClass:
def __init__(self):
print('in MyPyClass.__init__')
self._browser = None
def gime(self, what):
return what
This module can now be loaded into a CINT session, the class used to instantiate objects, and their member functions
called for showing how different types can cross:
root[] TPython::LoadMacro("MyPyClass.py");
creating class MyPyClass ...
root[] MyPyClass m;

19.1. PYROOT OVERVIEW

515

in MyPyClass.__init__
root[] char* s = m.gime("aap");
root[] s
(char* 0x41ee7754)"aap"
Note that the LoadMacro() call makes the class automatically available, such that it can be used directly. Otherwise,
a gROOT->GetClass() call is required first.
19.1.5.5

Callbacks

The simplest way of setting a callback to Python from CINT, e.g. for a button, is by providing the execution string.
See for example tutorials/pyroot/demo.py that comes with the ROOT installation:

# [..]
bar = ROOT.TControlBar('vertical','Demos')
bar.AddButton('Help on Demos',r'TPython::Exec("execfile('demoshelp.py')");','Click Here For Help on Runnin
bar.AddButton('browser',r'TPython::Exec("b = Tbrowser()");','Start the ROOT browser')
# [..]
Here, the callback is a string that will be interpreted by CINT to call TPython::Exec(), which will, in turn, interpret
and execute the string given to it. Note the use of raw strings (the r in front of the second argument string), in order
to remove the need of escaping the backslashes.
19.1.5.6

CINT Commands

In interactive mode, the Python exception hook is used to mimic some of the CINT commands available. These are:
.q, .!, .x, .L, .cd, .ls, .pwd, .? and .help. Note that .x translates to Python execfile() and thus accepts only
Python files, not CINT macros.

19.1.6

Memory Handling

The Python interpreter handles memory for the user by employing reference counting and a garbage collector (for
new-style objects, which includes PyROOT objects). In C++, however, memory handling is done either by hand, or
by an application specific, customized mechanism (as is done in ROOT). Although PyROOT is made aware of ROOT
memory management, there are still a few boundary conditions that need to be dealt with by hand. Also, the heuristics
that PyROOT employs to deal with memory management are not infallible. An understanding in some detail of the
choices that are made is thus important.
19.1.6.1

Automatic Memory Management

There are two global policies that can be set: heuristics and strict. By default, the heuristic policy is used, in which
the following rules are observed:
A ROOT object created on the Python interpreter side is owned by Python and will be deleted once the last
Python reference to it goes away. If, however, such an object is passed by non-const address as a parameter to a
C++ function (with the exception of the use as self to a member function), ownership is relinquished.
A ROOT object coming from a ROOT call is not owned, but before it passes to the Python interpreter, its must
cleanup bit is set if its type is a class derived from TObject. When the object goes out of scope on the C++
side, the Python object will change type into an object that largely behaves like None.
The strict policy differs in that it will never relinquish ownership when passing an object as a parameter to a function.
It is then up to the developer to prevent double deletes. Choosing one or the other policy is done by:
ROOT.SetMemoryPolicy( ROOT.kMemoryStrict )
for the strict policy, or for the heuristic policy:
ROOT.SetMemoryPolicy( ROOT.kMemoryHeuristics )

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Care must be taken in the case of graphic objects: when drawn on the current pad, a reference to the graphics is kept
that PyROOT isnt currently aware of, and it is up to the developer to keep at lease one Python reference alive. See
$ROOTSYS/tutorials/pyroot/zdemo.py (available in the latest release) for an example. Alternatively, one can tell
python to give up ownership for individual instances:
o = ROOT.TObject()
ROOT.SetOwnership( o, False )
19.1.6.2

# True to own, False to release

Memory Management by Hand

If needed, you can explicitly destroy a ROOT object that you own through its associated TClass:
myobject.IsA().Destructor(myobject)
which will send out the deletion notification to the system (thus you do not need to care anymore at this point about
Python reference counting, the object will go, even if its reference count it non-zero), and free the memory.

19.1.7

Performance

The performance of PyROOT when programming with ROOT in Python is similar to that of CINT. Differences occur
mainly because of differences in the respective languages: C++ is much harder to parse, but once parsed, it is much
easier to optimize. Consequently, individual calls to ROOT are typically faster from PyROOT, whereas loops are typically
slower.
When programming in Python, the modus operandi is to consider performance generally good enough on the outset,
and when it turns out that, it is not good enough; the performance critical part is converted into C/C++ in an
extension module. The school of thought where pre-mature optimization is the root of all evil should find this way
of working very satisfying. In addition, if you look at their history, you will see that many of the standard Python
modules have followed this path.
Your code should always make maximum use of ROOT facilities; such that most of the time is spending in compiled
code. This goes even for very simple things: e.g. do not compute invariant masses in Python, use TLorentzVector
instead. Moreover, before you start optimizing, make sure that you have run a profiler to find out where the bottlenecks
are. Some performance, without cost in terms of programmer effort, may be gained by using psyco, see the next link:
http://psyco.sourceforge.net, a Python just in time compiler (JIT). Note, however, that psyco is limited to Intel i386
CPUs. Since psyco optimizes Python, not PyROOT calls; it generally does not improve performance that much if most
of your code consists of ROOT API calls. Mathematical computations in Python, on the other hand, benefit a lot.
Every call to a Python member function results in a lookup of that member function and an association of this method
with self. Furthermore, a temporary object is created during this process that is discarded after the method call. In
inner loops, it may be worth your while (up to 30%), to short-cut this process by looking up and binding the method
before the loop, and discarding it afterwards. Here is an example:
hpx = TH1F('hpx','px',100,-4,4)
hpxFill = hpx.Fill
# cache bound method
for i in xrange(25000):
px = gRandom.Gaus()
hpxFill(px)
# use bound method: no lookup needed
del hpxFill
# done with cached method
Note that if you do not discard the bound method, a reference to the histogram will remain outstanding, and it will
not be deleted when it should be. It is therefore important to delete the method when youre done with it.

19.1.8

Use of Python Functions

It is possible to mix Python functions with ROOT and perform such operations as plotting and fitting of histograms
with them. In all cases, the procedure consists of instantiating a ROOT TF1, TF2, or TF3 with the Python function
and working with that ROOT object. There are some memory issues, so it is for example not yet possible to delete
a TF1 instance and then create another one with the same name. In addition, the Python function, once used for
instantiating the TF1, is never deleted.

19.1. PYROOT OVERVIEW

517

Instead of a Python function, you can also use callable instances (e.g., an instance of a class that has implemented
the __call__ member function). The signature of the Python callable should provide for one or two arrays. The first
array, which must always be present, shall contain the x, y, z, and t values for the call. The second array, which is
optional and its size depends on the number given to the TF1 constructor, contains the values that parameterize the
function. For more details, see the TF1 documentation and the examples below.
19.1.8.1

Plotting Python Function

This is an example of a parameter less Python function that is plotted on a default canvas:
from ROOT import TF1, TCanvas
def identity( x ):
return x[0]
# create an identity function
f = TF1('pyf1', identity, -1., 1.)
# plot the function
c = TCanvas()
f.Draw()
Because no number of parameters is given to the TF1 constructor, 0 (the default) is assumed. This way, the identity
function need not handle a second argument, which would normally be used to pass the function parameters. Note
that the argumentx is an array of size 4. The following is an example of a parameterized Python callable instance
that is plotted on a default canvas:
from ROOT import TF1, TCanvas
class Linear:
def __call__( self, x, par ):
return par[0] + x[0]*par[1]
# create a linear function with offset 5, and pitch 2
f = TF1('pyf2',Linear(),-1.,1.,2)
f.SetParameters(5.,2.)
# plot the function
c = TCanvas()
f.Draw()
Note that this time the constructor is told that there are two parameters, and note in particular how these parameters
are set. It is, of course, also possible (and preferable if you only use the function for plotting) to keep the parameters
as data members of the callable instance and use and set them directly from Python.
19.1.8.2

Fitting Histograms

Fitting a histogram with a Python function is no more difficult than plotting: instantiate a TF1 with the Python
callable and supply that TF1 as a parameter to the Fit() member function of the histogram. After the fit, you can
retrieve the fit parameters from the TF1 instance. For example:
from ROOT import TF1, TH1F, TCanvas
class Linear:
def __call__( self, x, par ):
return par[0] + x[0]*par[1]
# create a linear function for fitting
f = TF1('pyf3',Linear(),-1.,1.,2)

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CHAPTER 19. PYTHON AND RUBY INTERFACES

# create and fill a histogram

h = TH1F('h','test',100,-1.,1.)
f2 = TF1('cf2','6.+x*4.5',-1.,1.)
h.FillRandom('cf2',10000)
# fit the histo with the python 'linear' function
h.Fit(f)
# print results
par = f.GetParameters()
print('fit results: const =', par[0], ',pitch =', par[1])

19.1.9

Working with Trees

Next to making histograms, working with trees is probably the most common part of any analysis. The TTree
implementation uses pointers and dedicated buffers to reduce the memory usage and to speed up access. Consequently,
mapping TTree functionality to Python is not straightforward, and most of the following features are implemented in
ROOT release 4.01/04 and later only, whereas you will need 5.02 if you require all of them.
19.1.9.1

Accessing an Existing Tree

Let us assume that you have a file containing TTrees, TChains, or TNtuples and want to read the contents for use in
your analysis code. This is commonly the case when you work with the result of the reconstruction software of your
experiment (e.g. the combined ntuple in ATLAS). The following example code outlines the main steps (you can run it
on the result of the tree1.C macro):
from ROOT import TFile
# open the file
myfile = TFile('tree1.root')
# retrieve the ntuple of interest
mychain = myfile.Get('t1')
entries = mychain.GetEntriesFast()
for jentry in xrange(entries):
# get the next tree in the chain and verify
ientry = mychain.LoadTree(jentry)
if ientry < 0:
break
# copy next entry into memory and verify
nb = mychain.GetEntry(jentry)
if nb<=0:
continue
# use the values directly from the tree
nEvent = int(mychain.ev)
if nEvent<0:
continue
print(mychain.pz, '=', mychain.px*mychain.px, '+', mychain.py*mychain.py)
Access to arrays works the same way as access to single value tree elements, where the size of the array is determined
by the number of values actually read from the file. For example:
# loop over array tree element
for d in mychain.mydoubles:
print(d)
# direct access into an array tree element
i5 = mychain.myints[5]

19.1. PYROOT OVERVIEW

19.1.9.2

519

Writing a Tree

Writing a ROOT TTree in a Python session is a little convoluted, if only because you will need a C++ class to make
sure that data members can be mapped, unless you are working with built-in types. Here is an example for working
with the latter only:
from ROOT import TFile, TTree
from array import array
h = TH1F('h1','test',100,-10.,10.)
f = TFile('test.root','recreate')
t = TTree('t1','tree with histos')
maxn = 10
n = array('i',[0])
d = array('f',maxn*[0.])
t.Branch('mynum',n,'mynum/I')
t.Branch('myval',d,'myval[mynum]/F')
for i in range(25):
n[0] = min(i,maxn)
for j in range(n[0]):
d[j] = i*0.1+j
t.Fill()
f.Write()
f.Close()
The use of arrays is needed, because the pointer to the address of the object that is used for filling must be given
to the TTree::Branch() call, even though the formal argument is declared a void*. In the case of ROOT objects,
similar pointer manipulation is unnecessary, because the full type information is available, and TTree::Branch() has
been Pythonized to take care of the call details. However, data members of such objects that are of built-in types, still
require something extra since they are normally translated to Python primitive types on access and hence their address
cannot be taken. For that purpose, there is the AddressOf() function. As an example:
from ROOT import TFile, TTree
from ROOT import gROOT, AddressOf
gROOT.ProcessLine(
"struct MyStruct { Int_t fMyInt1; Int_t fMyInt2; Int_t fMyInt3; Char_t fMyCode[4]; };" );
from ROOT import MyStruct
mystruct = MyStruct()
f = TFile('mytree.root','RECREATE')
tree = TTree('T','Just A Tree')
tree.Branch('myints',mystruct,'MyInt1/I:MyInt2:MyInt3')
tree.Branch('mycode',AddressOf(mystruct,'fMyCode'),'MyCode/C')
for i in range(0,10):
mystruct.fMyInt1 = i
mystruct.fMyInt2 = i*i
mystruct.fMyInt3 = i*i*i
mystruct.fMyCode = "%03d" % i
# note string assignment
tree.Fill()
f.Write()
f.Close()
The C++ class is defined through the gROOT.ProcessLine() call, and note how the AddressOf() function is used for
data members of built-in type. Most of the above is for ROOT version 5.02 and later only. For older releases, and
without further support, here is an example as to how you can get hold of a pointer-to-pointer to a ROOT object:
h = TH1F()
addressofobject = array('i',[h.IsA().DynamicCast(h.IsA(),h)])

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19.1.10

CHAPTER 19. PYTHON AND RUBY INTERFACES

Using Your Own Classes

A users own classes can be accessed after loading, either directly or indirectly, the library that contains the dictionary.
One easy way of obtaining such a library, is by using ACLiC:
$ cat MyClass.C
class MyClass {
public:
MyClass(int value = 0) {
m_value = value;
}
void SetValue(int value) {
m_value = value;
}
int GetValue() {
return m_value;
}
private:
int m_value;
};
$ echo .L MyClass.C+ | root.exe -b
[...]
Info in <TUnixSystem::ACLiC>: creating shared library [..]/./MyClass_C.so
$
Then you can use it, for example, like so:
from ROOT import gSystem
# load library with MyClass dictionary
gSystem.Load('MyClass_C')
# get MyClass from ROOT
from ROOT import MyClass
# use MyClass
m = MyClass(42)
print(m.GetValue())
You can also load a macro directly, but if you do not use ACLiC, you will be restricted to use the default constructor
of your class, which is otherwise fully functional. For example:
from ROOT import gROOT
# load MyClass definition macro (append '+' to use ACLiC)
gROOT.LoadMacro('MyClass.C')
# get MyClass from ROOT
from ROOT import MyClass
# use MyClass
m = MyClass()
m.SetValue(42)
print(m.GetValue())

19.2

How to Use ROOT with Ruby

Ruby ROOT is a Ruby extension module that allows the user to interact with any ROOT class from the Ruby scripting
language. The Ruby module resolves ROOT Classes and Methods at run-time using the CINT API, so there is no need

19.2. HOW TO USE ROOT WITH RUBY

521

for wrapping specific Classes to be used in Ruby. The Ruby module, also, contains a TRuby class to execute Ruby
statements via CINT and export C++ Objects to Ruby objects, interactively.

19.2.1

Building and Installing the Ruby Module

The Ruby extension module is not built by default when building ROOT from sources. The user should follow the
standard installation instructions and enable the build of the Ruby module. Ruby version >= 1.8 is required.
./configure <arch> --enable-ruby --enable-explicitlink
[--with-ruby-incdir=<dir>] [--with-ruby-libdir=<dir>]
gmake
If you do not specify include and library directories configure will use Ruby to grab the directories where Rubys
headers and library are located. A library called libRuby.so [libRuby.dll] will be created in the $ROOTSYS/lib
[$ROOTSYS/bin].
19.2.1.1

Setting up the Environment

For working with the Ruby module, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH [PATH]and RUBYLIB, need to be set in addition to the
standard $ROOTSYS.
For UNIX Platforms:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ROOTSYS/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export RUBYLIB=$ROOTSYS/lib:$RUBYLIB
For Windows:
set PATH=%ROOTSYS%/bin;%PATH%
set RUBYLIB=%ROOTSYS%/bin;%RUBYLIB%
19.2.1.2

Running ROOT scripts from Ruby

The user should make sure that the ruby command is the one of the installation that has been used to build the Ruby
extension module. If the RUBYLIB environment variable is set correctly, the user can execute a Ruby script with
ROOT functionality in the following way:
ruby -rlibRuby foo.rb
Another way is to start the Ruby script with the Ruby require command:
require libRuby
An example is as follows:
require 'libRuby'
gROOT.Reset
c1 = TCanvas.new('c1','Example with Formula',200,10,700,500)
#
# Create a one dimensional function and draw it
#
fun1 = TF1.new('fun1','abs(sin(x)/x)',0,10)
c1.SetGridx
c1.SetGridy
fun1.Draw
c1.Update
The user can find a number of examples in the $ROOTSYS/tutorials. To run them you need to execute the command:
cd $ROOTSYS/tutorials
ruby demo.rb

522
19.2.1.3

CHAPTER 19. PYTHON AND RUBY INTERFACES

Invoking the Ruby Module from CINT Interpreter

A ROOT user can run any Ruby command and eventually to runIRB, the Interactive Ruby Shell. The commands to
execute are:
root[] TRuby::Exec("require '/usr/local/lib/root/libRuby'");
root[] TRuby::Exec("c1 = TBrowser.new");
root[] TRuby::Eval("c1.GetName");
root[] TRuby::Eval("puts c1.GetName");
Browser
root[] TCanvas *c2 = new TCanvas("ruby test", "test", 10, 10, 100, 100);
root[] TRuby::Bind(c2, "$c");
root[] TRuby::Eval("puts $c.GetTitle");
test
root[] TRuby::Prompt();
root[] TRuby::Prompt();
irb(main):001:0> print 1
1=> nil
irb(main):002:0>
Notice that whenever you bind a ROOT Object in the Ruby side, you need to use a global Ruby variable, that is a
variable with a leading $.

Chapter 20

The Tutorials and Tests

This chapter is a guide to the examples that come with the installation of ROOT. They are located in two directories:
$ROOTSYS/tutorials and $ROOTSYS/test.

20.1

$ROOTSYS/tutorials

The tutorials directory contains many example scripts. To have all examples working you must have write permission
and you will need to executehsimple.C first. If you do not have write permission in the directory$ROOTSYS/tutorials,
copy the entire directory to your area. The script hsimple.C displays a histogram as it is being filled, and creates a
ROOT file used by the other examples.
To execute it type:
> cd $ROOTSYS/tutorials
> root
*******************************************
*
*
*
W E L C O M E to R O O T
*
*
*
*
Version
5.16/00
27 June 2006
*
*
*
* You are welcome to visit our Web site *
*
http://root.cern.ch
*
*
*
*******************************************
FreeType Engine v2.1.9 used to render TrueType fonts.
Compiled on 28 June 2007 for linux with thread support.
CINT/ROOT C/C++ Interpreter version 5.16.21, June 22, 2007
Type ? for help. Commands must be C++ statements.
Enclose multiple statements between { }.
root[0] .x hsimple.C
Now execute demos.C, which brings up the button bar shown on the left. You can click on any button to execute
another example. To see the source, open the corresponding source file (for example fit1.C). Once you are done, and
want to quit the ROOT session, you can do so by typing .q.
root[] .x demos.C
root[] .q

20.2

$ROOTSYS/test

The test directory contains a set of examples that represent all areas of the framework. When a new release is cut, the
examples in this directory are compiled and run to test the new releases backward compatibility.
We see these source files:

523

524

CHAPTER 20. THE TUTORIALS AND TESTS

20.2. $ROOTSYS/TEST
Makefile
hsimple.cxx
MainEvent.cxx

Event.cxx
minexam.cxx
tcollex.cxx
tcollbm.cxx
ctorture.cxx
tstring.cxx
vmatrix.cxx
vvector.cxx
vlazy.cxx
hworld.cxx
guitest.cxx
gui viewer .cxx
Hello.cxx
Aclock.cxx
Tetris.cxx
stress.cxx
stress*.cxx
bench.cxx
QpRandomDriver.cx x
DrawTest.sh
dt_*

525
Makefile to build all test programs.
Simple test program that creates and saves some histograms
Simple test program that creates a ROOT Tree object and fills it with some simple
structures but also with complete histograms. This program uses the files
Event.cxx, EventCint.cxx and Event.h. An example of a procedure to link this
program is in bind_Event. Note that the Makefile invokes the rootcint utility
to generate the CINT interface EventCint.cxx
Implementation for classes Event and Track
Simple test program for data fitting
Example usage of the ROOT collection classes
Benchmarks of ROOT collection classes
Test program for the class TComplex
Example usage of the ROOT string class
Verification program for the TMatrix class
Verification program for the TVectorclass
Verification program for lazy matrices
Small program showing basic graphics
Example usage of the ROOT GUI classes
Another ROOT GUI example program
Dancing text example
Analog clock (a la X11 xclock)
The known Tetris game based on the ROOT graphics
Important ROOT stress testing program
Stress testing of different ROOT classes
STL and ROOT container test and benchmarking program
Verfication program for Quadratic programming classes in Quadp library
Entry script to extensive TTree query test suite
Scripts used by DrawTest.sh

The $ROOTSYS/test directory is a gold mine of root-wisdom nuggets, and we encourage you to explore and exploit it.
These instructions will compile all programs in $ROOTSYS/test:
If you do not have write permission in the $ROOTSYS/test directory, copy the entire $ROOTSYS/test directory to your
area. The Makefile is a useful example of how ROOT applications are linked and built. Edit the Makefile to specify
your architecture by changing the ARCH variable, for example, on an SGI machine type:ARCH = sgikcc.
Now compile all programs:
% gmake
This will build several applications and shared libraries. We are especially interested in Event, stress, and guitest.

20.2.1

Event - An Example of a ROOT Application

Event is created by compiling MainEvent.cxx, and Event.cxx. It creates a ROOT file with a tree and two histograms.
When running Event we have four optional arguments with defaults:
1
2

Argument
Number of Events (1 . . . n)
Compression level:
0: no compression at all.
1: If the split level is set to zero, everything is compressed according to the
gzip level 1. If split level is set to 1, leaves that are not floating point numbers
are compressed using the gzip level 1.
2: If the split level is set to zero, everything is compressed according to the
gzip level 2. If split level is set to 1, all non floating point leaves are
compressed according to the gzip level 2 and the floating point leaves are
compressed according to the gzip level 1 (gzip level -1).
Floating point numbers are compressed differently because the gain when
compressing them is about 20 - 30%. For other data types it is generally better
and around 100%.
Split or not Split
0: only one single branch is created and the complete event is serialized in one
single buffer
1: a branch per variable is created.

Default
400
1

1
(Split)

526
4

20.2.1.1

CHAPTER 20. THE TUTORIALS AND TESTS

Fill
0: read the file
1: write the file, but dont fill the histograms
2: dont write, dont fill the histograms
10: fill the histograms, dont write the file
11: fill the histograms, write the file
20: read the file sequentially
25: read the file at random

1
(Write, no fill)

Effect of Compression on File Size and Write Times

You may have noticed that a ROOT file has up to nine compression level, but here only levels 0, 1, and 2 are described.
Compression levels above 2 are not competitive. They take up to much write time compared to the gain in file space.
Below are three runs of Event on a Pentium III 650 MHz and the resulting file size and write and read times.
No Compression:
> Event 400 0 1 1
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=6.840000 seconds, CpuTime=3.560000 seconds
compression level=0, split=1, arg4=1
You write 2.800173 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You write 5.380107 Mbytes/Cputime seconds
> ls -l Event.root
... 19752171 Feb 23 18:26 Event.root
> Event 400 0 1 20
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=0.790000 seconds, CpuTime=0.790000 seconds
You read 24.244533 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You read 24.244533 Mbytes/Cputime seconds
We see the file size without compression is 19.75 MB, the write time is 6.84 seconds and the read time is 0.79 seconds.
Compression = 1: event is compressed:
> Event 400 1 1 1
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=6.440000 seconds, CpuTime=4.020000 seconds
compression level=1, split=1, arg4=1
You write 2.974096 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You write 4.764473 Mbytes/Cputime seconds
> ls -l Event.root
...
17728188 Feb 23 18:28 Event.root
> Event 400 1 1 20
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=0.900000 seconds, CpuTime=0.900000 seconds
You read 21.281312 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You read 21.281312 Mbytes/Cputime seconds
We see the file size 17.73, the write time was 6.44 seconds and the read time was 0.9 seconds.
Compression = 2: Floating point numbers are compressed with level 1:
> Event 400 2 1 1
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=11.340000 seconds, CpuTime=9.510000 seconds
compression level=2, split=1, arg4=1
You write 1.688993 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You write 2.014004 Mbytes/Cputime seconds

20.2. $ROOTSYS/TEST

527

> ls -l Event.root
...
13783799 Feb 23 18:29 Event.root
> Event 400 2 1 20
400 events and 19153182 bytes processed.
RealTime=2.170000 seconds, CpuTime=2.170000 seconds
You read 8.826351 Mbytes/Realtime seconds
You read 8.826351 Mbytes/Cputime seconds
The file size is 13.78 MB, the write time is 11.34 seconds and the read time is 2.17 seconds.
This table summarizes the findings on the impact of compressions:
Compression
0
1
2

20.2.1.2

File Size
19.75 MB
17.73 MB
13.78 MB

Write Times
6.84 sec.
6.44 sec.
11.34 sec.

Read Times
0.79 sec.
0.90 sec.
2.17 sec.

Setting the Split Level

Split Level = 0:
Now we execute Event with the split parameter set to 0:
> Event 400 1 0 1
> root
root[] TFile f("Event.root")
root[] TBrowser T
We notice that only one branch is visible (event). The individual data members of the Event object are no longer
visible in the browser. They are contained in the event object on the event branch, because we specified no splitting.
Split Level = 1:
Setting the split level to 1 will create a branch for each data member in the Event object. First we execute Event and
set the split level to 1 and start the browser to examine the split tree:
>

Event 400 1 1 1

>
root
root[] TFile f("Event.root")
root[] TBrowser browser

20.2.2

stress - Test and Benchmark

The executable stress is created by compiling stress.cxx. It completes sixteen tests covering the following capabilities
of the ROOT framework.
Functions, Random Numbers, Histogram Fits
Size & compression factor of a ROOT file
Purge, Reuse of gaps in TFile
2D Histograms, Functions, 2D Fits
Graphics & PostScript
Subdirectories in a ROOT file
TNtuple, Selections, TCutG, TEventList
Split and Compression modes for Trees

528

CHAPTER 20. THE TUTORIALS AND TESTS

20.2. $ROOTSYS/TEST

529

530

CHAPTER 20. THE TUTORIALS AND TESTS

Analyze Event.root file of stress 8

Create 10 files starting from Event.root
Test chains of Trees using the 10 files
Compare histograms of test 9 and 11
Merging files of a chain
Check correct rebuilt of Event.root in test 13
Divert Tree branches to separate files
CINT test (3 nested loops) with LHCb trigger
The program stress takes one argument, the number of events to process. The default is 1000 events. Be aware that
executing stress with 1000 eventswill create several files consuming about 100 MB of disk space; running stress with 30
events will consume about 20 MB. The disk space is released once stress is done.
There are two ways to run stress:
From the system prompt or from the ROOT prompt using the interpreter.
> cd $ROOTSYS/test
> stress
> stress 30

// default 1000 events

// test with 30 events

Start ROOT with the batch mode option (-b) to suppress the graphic output.
> root
root[]
root[]
root[]

-b
.L stress.cxx
stress(1000)// test with 1000 events
stress(30)// test with 30 events

The output of stress includes a pass/fail conclusion for each test, the total number of bytes read and written, and the
elapsed real and CPU time. It also calculates a performance index for your machine relative to a reference machine a
DELL Inspiron 7500 (Pentium III 600 MHz) with 256 MB of memory and 18GB IDE disk in ROOTMARKS. Higher
ROOTMARKS means better performance. The reference machine has 200 ROOTMARKS, so the sample run below
with 53.7 ROOTMARKS is about four times slower than the reference machine.
Here is a sample run:
% root -b
root[] .x stress.cxx(30)
Test 1 : Functions, Random Numbers, Histogram Fits............. OK
Test 2 : Check size & compression factor of a Root file........ OK
Test 3 : Purge, Reuse of gaps in TFile......................... OK
Test 4 : Test of 2-d histograms, functions, 2-d fits........... OK
Test 5 : Test graphics & PostScript ............................OK
Test 6 : Test subdirectories in a Root file.................... OK
Test 7 : TNtuple, selections, TCutG, TEventList.......... OK
Test 8 : Trees split and compression modes..................... OK
Test 9 : Analyze Event.root file of stress 8................... OK
Test 10 : Create 10 files starting from Event.root.............. OK
Test 11 : Test chains of Trees using the 10 files............... OK
Test 12 : Compare histograms of test 9 and 11................... OK
Test 13 : Test merging files of a chain......................... OK
Test 14 : Check correct rebuilt of Event.root in test 13........ OK
Test 15 : Divert Tree branches to separate files................ OK
Test 16 : CINT test (3 nested loops) with LHCb trigger.......... OK
******************************************************************
* IRIX64 fnpat1 6.5 01221553 IP27
******************************************************************
stress
: Total I/O =
75.3 Mbytes, I =
59.2, O = 16.1

20.2. $ROOTSYS/TEST

531

stress
: Compr I/O =
75.7 Mbytes, I =
60.0, O = 15.7
stress
: Real Time = 307.61 seconds Cpu Time = 292.82 seconds
******************************************************************
* ROOTMARKS = 53.7
* Root2.25/00
20000710/1022

20.2.3

guitest - A Graphical User Interface

The guitest example, created by compiling guitest.cxx, tests and illustrates the use of the native GUI widgets
such as cascading menus, dialog boxes, sliders and tab panels. It is a very useful example to study when designing a
GUI. Some examples of the output of guitest are shown next. To run it type guitest at the system prompt in the
$ROOTSYS/test directory. We have included an entire chapter on this subject where we explore guitest in detail and
use it to explain how to build our own ROOT application with a GUI. See Writing a Graphical User Interface.

Figure 20.1: Native GUI widgets

532

CHAPTER 20. THE TUTORIALS AND TESTS

Chapter 21

Example Analysis
This chapter is an example of a typical physics analysis. Large data files are chained together and analyzed using the
TSelector class.

21.1

Explanation

This script uses four large data sets from the H1 collaboration at DESY Hamburg. One can access these data sets (277
Mbytes) from the ROOT web site at: ftp://root.cern.ch/root/h1analysis/
The physics plots generated by this example cannot be produced using smaller data sets.
There are several ways to analyze data stored in a ROOT Tree
Using TTree::Draw:
This is very convenient and efficient for small tasks. A TTree::Draw call produces one histogram at the time.
The histogram is automatically generated. The selection expression may be specified in the command line.
Using the TTreeViewer:
This is a graphical interface to TTree::Draw with the same functionality.
Using the code generated by TTree::MakeClass:
In this case, the user creates an instance of the analysis class. He has the control over the event loop and he can
generate an unlimited number of histograms.
Using the code generated by TTree::MakeSelector: Like for the code generated by TTree::MakeClass, the
user can do complex analysis. However, he cannot control the event loop. The event loop is controlled by
TTree::Process called by the user. This solution is illustrated by the code below. The advantage of this method
is that it can be run in a parallel environment using PROOF (the Parallel Root Facility).
A chain of four files (originally converted from PAW ntuples) is used to illustrate the various ways to loop on ROOT data
sets. Each contains a ROOT Tree named h42. The class definition in h1analysis.h has been generated automatically
by the ROOT utility TTree::MakeSelector using one of the files with:
h42->MakeSelector("h1analysis");
This produces two files: h1analysis.h and h1analysis.C. A skeleton of h1analysis.C file is made for you to customize.
The h1analysis class is derived from the ROOT class TSelector. The following members functions of h1analyhsis (i.e.
TSelector) are called by the TTree::Process method.
Begin: This function is called every time a loop over the tree starts. This is a convenient place to create your
histograms.
Notify(): This function is called at the first entry of a new tree in a chain.
ProcessCut: This function is called at the beginning of each entry to return a flag true if the entry must be
analyzed.
533

534

CHAPTER 21. EXAMPLE ANALYSIS

ProcessFill: This function is called in the entry loop for all entries accepted by Select.
Terminate: This function is called at the end of a loop on a TTree. This is a convenient place to draw and fit
your histograms.
To use this program, try the following session.
First, turn the timer on to show the real and CPU time per command.
root[] gROOT->Time();
Step A: create a TChain with the four H1 data files. The chain can be created by executed this short script h1chain.C
below. $H1 is a system symbol pointing to the H1 data directory.
{

TChain chain("h42");
chain.Add("$H1/dstarmb.root");
//21330730 bytes, 21920 events
chain.Add("$H1/dstarp1a.root");
//71464503 bytes, 73243 events
chain.Add("$H1/dstarp1b.root");
//83827959 bytes, 85597 events
chain.Add("$H1/dstarp2.root");
//100675234 bytes, 103053 events

Run the above script from the command line:

root[] .x h1chain.C
Step B: Now we have a directory containing the four data files. Since a TChain is a descendent of TTree we can call
TChain::Process to loop on all events in the chain. The parameter to the TChain::Process method is the name of
the file containing the created TSelector class (h1analysis.C).
root[] chain.Process("h1analysis.C")
Step C : Same as step B, but in addition fill the event list with selected entries. The event list is saved to a file elist.root
by the TSelector::Terminate method. To see the list of selected events, you can do elist->Print("all"). The
selection function has selected 7525 events out of the 283813 events in the chain of files. (2.65 per cent)
root[] chain.Process("h1analysis.C","fillList")
Step D: Process only entries in the event list. The event list is read from the file in elist.root generated by step C.
root[] chain.Process("h1analysis.C","useList")
Step E: The above steps have been executed with the interpreter. You can repeat the steps B, C, and D using ACLiC
by replacing h1analysis.C by h1analysis.C+ or h1analysis.C++.
Step F: If you want to see the differences between the interpreter speed and ACLiC speed start a new session, create
the chain as in step 1, then execute
root[] chain.Process("h1analysis.C+","useList")
The commands executed with the four different methods B, C, D and E produce two canvases shown below:

21.1. EXPLANATION

535

536

CHAPTER 21. EXAMPLE ANALYSIS

21.2

Script

This is the h1analsysis.C file that was generated by TTree::MakeSelector and then modified to perform the analysis.
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

"h1analysis.h"
"TH2.h"
"TF1.h"
"TStyle.h"
"TCanvas.h"
"TLine.h"
"TEventList.h"

const Double_t dxbin = (0.17-0.13)/40;

const Double_t sigma = 0.0012;
TEventList *elist = 0;
Bool_t useList, fillList;
TH1F *hdmd;
TH2F *h2;

// Bin-width

//_________________________________________________________
Double_t fdm5(Double_t *xx, Double_t *par)
{
Double_t x = xx[0];
if (x <= 0.13957) return 0;
Double_t xp3 = (x-par[3])*(x-par[3]);
Double_t res = dxbin*(par[0]*TMath::Power(x-0.13957,par[1])
+ par[2]/2.5066/par[4]*TMath::Exp(-xp3/2/par[4]/par[4]));
return res;
}
//_________________________________________________________
Double_t fdm2(Double_t *xx, Double_t *par)
{
Double_t x = xx[0];
if (x <= 0.13957) return 0;
Double_t xp3 = (x-0.1454)*(x-0.1454);
Double_t res = dxbin*(par[0]*TMath::Power(x-0.13957,0.25)
+ par[1]/2.5066/sigma*TMath::Exp(-xp3/2/sigma/sigma));
return res;
}
//_________________________________________________________
void h1analysis::Begin(TTree *tree)
{
// function called before starting the event loop
// -it performs some cleanup
// -it creates histograms
// -it sets some initialization for the event list
//initialize the Tree branch addresses
Init(tree);
//print the option specified in the Process function
TString option = GetOption();
printf("Starting h1analysis with process option: %sn",option.Data());
//Some cleanup in case this function had already been executed
//Delete any previously generated histograms or functions
gDirectory->Delete("hdmd");
gDirectory->Delete("h2*");
delete gROOT->GetFunction("f5");
delete gROOT->GetFunction("f2");

21.2. SCRIPT
//create histograms
hdmd = new TH1F("hdmd","dm_d",40,0.13,0.17);
h2
= new TH2F("h2","ptD0 vs dm_d",30,0.135,0.165,30,-3,6);
//process cases with event list
fillList = kFALSE;
useList = kFALSE;
fChain->SetEventList(0);
delete gDirectory->GetList()->FindObject("elist");
// case when one creates/fills the event list
if (option.Contains("fillList")) {
fillList = kTRUE;
elist = new TEventList("elist","selection from Cut",5000);
}
// case when one uses the event list generated in a previous call
if (option.Contains("useList")) {
useList = kTRUE;
TFile f("elist.root");
elist = (TEventList*)f.Get("elist");
if (elist) elist->SetDirectory(0);
//otherwise the file destructor will delete elist
fChain->SetEventList(elist);
}

}
//_________________________________________________________
Bool_t h1analysis::ProcessCut(Int_t entry)
{ // Selection function to select D* and D0.
//in case one event list is given in input,
//the selection has already been done.
if (useList) return kTRUE;
// Read only the necessary branches to select entries.
// return as soon as a bad entry is detected
b_md0_d->GetEntry(entry);
if (TMath::Abs(md0_d-1.8646) >= 0.04) return kFALSE;
b_ptds_d->GetEntry(entry);
if (ptds_d <= 2.5) return kFALSE;
b_etads_d->GetEntry(entry);
if (TMath::Abs(etads_d) >= 1.5) return kFALSE;
b_ik->GetEntry(entry); ik--;
//original ik used f77 convention starting at 1
b_ipi->GetEntry(entry);
ipi--;
b_ntracks->GetEntry(entry);
b_nhitrp->GetEntry(entry);
if (nhitrp[ik]*nhitrp[ipi] <= 1) return kFALSE;
b_rend->GetEntry(entry);
b_rstart->GetEntry(entry);
if (rend[ik]-rstart[ik] <= 22)
return kFALSE;
if (rend[ipi]-rstart[ipi] <= 22) return kFALSE;
b_nlhk->GetEntry(entry);
if (nlhk[ik] <= 0.1)
return kFALSE;
b_nlhpi->GetEntry(entry);
if (nlhpi[ipi] <= 0.1) return kFALSE;
b_ipis->GetEntry(entry);
ipis--;
if (nlhpi[ipis] <= 0.1) return kFALSE;
b_njets->GetEntry(entry);
if (njets < 1)
return kFALSE;

// if option fillList, fill the event list

if (fillList) elist->Enter(fChain->GetChainEntryNumber(entry));

537

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CHAPTER 21. EXAMPLE ANALYSIS

return kTRUE;

//_________________________________________________________
void h1analysis::ProcessFill(Int_t entry)
{ // Function called for selected entries only

// read branches not processed in ProcessCut

b_dm_d->GetEntry(entry);
//read branch holding dm_d
b_rpd0_t->GetEntry(entry);
//read branch holding rpd0_t
b_ptd0_d->GetEntry(entry);
//read branch holding ptd0_d
//continued...
//fill some histograms
hdmd->Fill(dm_d);
h2->Fill(dm_d,rpd0_t/0.029979*1.8646/ptd0_d);

//_________________________________________________________
void h1analysis::Terminate()
{ // Function called at the end of the event loop
//create the canvas for the h1analysis fit
gStyle->SetOptFit();
TCanvas *c1 = new TCanvas("c1","h1analysis analysis",10,10,800,600);
c1->SetBottomMargin(0.15);
hdmd->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("m_{K#pi#pi}-m_{K#pi}[GeV/c^{2}]");
hdmd->GetXaxis()->SetTitleOffset(1.4);
//fit histogram hdmd with function f5 using
//the loglikelihood option
TF1 *f5 = new TF1("f5",fdm5,0.139,0.17,5);
f5->SetParameters(1000000,.25,2000,.1454,.001);
hdmd->Fit("f5","lr");
//create the canvas for tau d0
gStyle->SetOptFit(0);
gStyle->SetOptStat(1100);
TCanvas *c2 = new TCanvas("c2","tauD0",100,100,800,600);
c2->SetGrid();
c2->SetBottomMargin(0.15);
//
//
//
//
//

Project slices of 2-d histogram h2 along X ,

then fit each slice with function f2 and make a
histogram for each fit parameter.
Note that the generated histograms are added
to the list of objects in the current directory.

TF1 *f2 = new TF1("f2",fdm2,0.139,0.17,2);

f2->SetParameters(10000,10);
h2->FitSlicesX(f2,0,0,1,"qln");
TH1D *h2_1 = (TH1D*)gDirectory->Get("h2_1");
h2_1->GetXaxis()->SetTitle("#tau[ps]");
h2_1->SetMarkerStyle(21);
h2_1->Draw();
c2->Update();
TLine *line = new TLine(0,0,0,c2->GetUymax());
line->Draw();
// save the event list to a Root file if one was produced
if (fillList) {

21.2. SCRIPT

TFile efile("elist.root","recreate");
elist->Write();

539

540

CHAPTER 21. EXAMPLE ANALYSIS

Chapter 22

Networking
In this chapter, you will learn how to send data over the network using the ROOT socket classes.

22.1

Setting-up a Connection

On the serverside, we create a TServerSocket to wait for a connection request over the network. If the request is
accepted, it returns a full-duplex socket. Once the connection is accepted, we can communicate to the client that we
are ready to go by sending the string go, and we can close the server socket.
{ // server
TServerSocket *ss = new TServerSocket(9090,kTRUE);
TSocket *socket = ss->Accept();
socket->Send("go");
ss->Close();
}
On the clientside, we create a socket and ask the socket to receive input.
{ // client
TSocket *socket = new TSocket("localhost",9090);
Char str[32];
socket->Recv(str,32);
}

22.2

Sending Objects over the Network

We have just established a connection and you just saw how to send and receive a string with the example go. Now
lets send a histogram.
To send an object (in our case on the client side) it has to derive from TObject class because it uses the Streamers to
fill a buffer that is then sent over the connection. On the receiving side, the Streamers are used to read the object
from the message sent via the socket. For network communication, we have a specialized TBuffer, a descendant of
TBuffer called TMessage. In the following example, we create a TMessage with the intention to store an object, hence
the constant kMESS_OBJECT in the constructor. We create and fill the histogram and write it into the message. Then
we call TSocket::Send to send the message with the histogram.
...
// create an object to be sent
TH1F *hpx = new TH1F("hpx","px distribution",100,-4,4);
hpx->FillRandom("gaus",1000);
// create a TMessage to send the object
TMessage message(kMESS_OBJECT);

541

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CHAPTER 22. NETWORKING

// write the histogram into the message buffer

message.WriteObject(hpx);
// send the message
socket->Send(message);
...
On the receiving end (in our case the server side), we write a while loop to wait and receive a message with a histogram.
Once we have a message, we call TMessage::ReadObject, which returns a pointer to TObject. We have to cast it to a
TH1 pointer, and now we have a histogram. At the end of the loop, the message is deleted, and another one is created
at the beginning.
while (1) {
TMessage *message;
socket->Recv(message);
TH1 *h = (TH1*)message->ReadObject(message->GetClass());
delete message;
}

22.3

Closing the Connection

Once we are done sending objects, we close the connection by closing the sockets at both ends.
Socket->Close();
This diagram summarizes the steps we just covered:

Figure 22.1: Server - Client setting-up and closing the connection

22.4

A Server with Multiple Sockets

Chances are that your server has to be able to receive data from multiple clients. The class we need for this is TMonitor.
It lets you add sockets and the TMonitor::Select method returns the socket with data waiting. Sockets can be added,
removed, or enabled and disabled. Here is an example of a server that has a TMonitor to manage multiple sockets:

22.4. A SERVER WITH MULTIPLE SOCKETS

{

TServerSocket *ss = new TServerSocket (9090, kTRUE);

// Accept a connection and return a full-duplex communication socket.
TSocket *s0 = ss->Accept();
TSocket *s1 = ss->Accept();
// tell the clients to start
s0->Send("go 0");
s1->Send("go 1");
// Close the server socket (unless we will use it
// later to wait for another connection).
ss->Close();
TMonitor *mon = new TMonitor;
mon->Add(s0);
mon->Add(s1);

while (1) {
TMessage *mess;
TSocket *s;
s = mon->Select();
s->Recv(mess);
...
}

The full code for the example above is in $ROOTSYS/tutorials/net/hserv.C and

$ROOTSYS/tutorials/net/hclient.C.

543

544

CHAPTER 22. NETWORKING

Chapter 23

Threads
A thread is an independent flow of control that operates within the same address space as other independent flows of
controls within a process. In most UNIX systems, thread and process characteristics are grouped into a single entity
called a process. Sometimes, threads are called lightweight processes.
Note: This introduction is adapted from the AIX 4.3 Programmers Manual.

23.1

Threads and Processes

In traditional single-threaded process systems, a process has a set of properties. In multi-threaded systems, these
properties are divided between processes and threads.

23.1.1

Process Properties

A process in a multi-threaded system is the changeable entity. It must be considered as an execution frame. It has all
traditional process attributes, such as:
Process ID, process group ID, user ID, and group ID
Environment
Working directory
A process also provides a common address space and common system resources:
File descriptors
Signal actions
Shared libraries
Inter-process communication tools (such as message queues, pipes, semaphores, or shared memory)

23.1.2

Thread Properties

A thread is the schedulable entity. It has only those properties that are required to ensure its independent flow of
control. These include the following properties:
Stack
Scheduling properties (such as policy or priority)
Set of pending and blocked signals
Some thread-specific data (TSD)
545

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CHAPTER 23. THREADS

An example of thread-specific data is the error indicator, errno. In multi-threaded systems, errno is no longer a global
variable, but usually a subroutine returning a thread-specific errno value. Some other systems may provide other
implementations of errno. With respect to ROOT, a thread specific data is for example the gPad pointer, which is
treated in a different way, whether it is accessed from any thread or the main thread.
Threads within a process must not be considered as a group of processes (even though in Linux each thread receives an
own process id, so that it can be scheduled by the kernel scheduler). All threads share the same address space. This
means that two pointers having the same value in two threads refer to the same data. Also, if any thread changes one
of the shared system resources, all threads within the process are affected. For example, if a thread closes a file, the file
is closed for all threads.

23.1.3

The Initial Thread

When a process is created, one thread is automatically created. This thread is called the initial thread or the main
thread. The initial thread executes the main routine in multi-threaded programs.
Note: At the end of this chapter is a glossary of thread specific terms

23.2

Implementation of Threads in ROOT

The TThread class has been developed to provide a platform independent interface to threads for ROOT.

23.2.1

Installation

For the time being, it is still necessary to compile a threaded version of ROOT to enable some very special treatments
of the canvas operations. We hope that this will become the default later.
To compile ROOT, just do (for example on a debian Linux):
./configure linuxdeb2 --with-thread=/usr/lib/libpthread.so
gmake depend
gmake
This configures and builds ROOT using /usr/lib/libpthread.so as the Pthread library, and defines R__THREAD.
This enables the thread specific treatment of gPad, and creates $ROOTSYS/lib/libThread.so.
Note: The parameter linuxdeb2 has to be replaced with the appropriate ROOT keyword for your platform.

23.2.2

Classes

TThread class implements threads . The platform dependent implementation is in the TThreadImp class and its
descendant classes (e.g. TPosixThread ).
TMutex class implements mutex locks. A mutex is a mutually exclusive lock. The platform dependent implementation
is in the TMutexImp class and its descendant classes (e.g. TPosixMutex)
TCondition class implements a condition variable. Use a condition variable to signal threads. The platform dependent
implementation is in the TConditionImp and TPosixCondition classes .
TSemaphore class implements a counting semaphore. Use a semaphore to synchronize threads. The platform dependent
implementation is in the TMutexImp and TConditionImp classes.

23.2.3

TThread for Pedestrians

To run a thread in ROOT, follow these steps:

1. Initialization
Add these lines to your rootlogon.C:

23.2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THREADS IN ROOT

{

547

...
// The next line may be unnecessary on some platforms
gSystem->Load("/usr/lib/libpthread.so");
gSystem->Load("$ROOTSYS/lib/libThread.so");
...

This loads the library with the TThread class and the pthread specific implementation file for Posix threads.
2. Coding
Define a function (e.g. void* UserFun(void* UserArgs)) that should run as a thread. The code for the examples is
at the web site of the authors (Jrn Adamczewski, Marc Hemberger). After downloading the code from this site, you
can follow the example below:
http://www-linux.gsi.de/~go4/HOWTOthreads/howtothreadsbody.html
3. Loading
Start an interactive ROOT session. Load the shared library:
root[] gSystem->Load("mhs3.so");
root[] gSystem->Load("CalcPiThread.so");

// or

4. Creating
Create a thread instance (see also example RunMhs3.CorRunPi.C) with:
root[] TThread *th = new TThread(UserFun,UserArgs);
When called from the interpreter, this gives the name UserFun to the thread. This name can be used to retrieve the
thread later. However, when called from compiled code, this method does not give any name to the thread. So give a
name to the thread in compiled use:
root[] TThread *th = new TThread("MyThread", UserFun, UserArgs);
You can pass arguments to the thread function using the UserArgs-pointer. When you want to start a method of a
class as a thread, you have to give the pointer to the class instance as UserArgs.
5. Running
root[] th->Run();
root[] TThread::Ps(); // like UNIX ps c.ommand;
With the mhs3 example, you should be able to see a canvas with two pads on it. Both pads keep histograms updated
and filled by three different threads. With the CalcPi example, you should be able to see two threads calculating Pi
with the given number of intervals as precision.

23.2.4

TThread in More Details

CINT is not thread safe yet, and it will block the execution of the threads until it has finished executing.

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CHAPTER 23. THREADS

23.2.4.1

Asynchronous Actions

Different threads can work simultaneously with the same object. Some actions can be dangerous. For example, when
two threads create a histogram object, ROOT allocates memory and puts them to the same collection. If it happens at
the same time, the results are undetermined. To avoid this problem, the user has to synchronize these actions with:
TThread::Lock()
...
TThread::UnLock()

// Locking the following part of code

// Create an object, etc...
// Unlocking

The code between Lock() and UnLock() will be performed uninterrupted. No other threads can perform actions or
access objects/collections while it is being executed. The methods TThread::Lock()and TThread::UnLock() internally
use a global TMutex instance for locking.
The user may also define his own TMutex MyMutex instance and may locally protect his asynchronous actions by calling
MyMutex.Lock() and MyMutex.UnLock().
23.2.4.2

Synchronous Actions: TCondition

To synchronize the actions of different threads you can use the TCondition class, which provides a signaling mechanism.
The TCondition instance must be accessible by all threads that need to use it, i.e. it should be a global object (or a
member of the class which owns the threaded methods, see below). To create a TCondition object, a TMutex instance
is required for the Wait and TimedWait locking methods. One can pass the address of an external mutex to the
TCondition constructor:
TMutex MyMutex;
TCondition MyCondition(&MyMutex);
If zero is passed, TCondition creates and uses its own internal mutex:
TCondition MyCondition(0);
You can now use the following methods of synchronization:
TCondition::Wait() waits until any thread sends a signal of the same condition instance: MyCondition.Wait()
reacts on MyCondition.Signal() or MyCondition.Broadcast(). MyOtherCondition.Signal() has no effect.
If several threads wait for the signal from the same TCondition MyCondition, at MyCondition.Signal() only
one thread will react; to activate a further thread another MyCondition.Signal() is required, etc.
If several threads wait for the signal from the same TCondition MyCondition, at MyCondition.Broadcast() all
threads waiting for MyCondition are activated at once.
In some tests of MyCondition using an internal mutex, Broadcast() activated only one thread (probably depending
whether MyCondition had been signaled before).
MyCondition.TimedWait(secs,nanosecs) waits for MyCondition until the absolute time in seconds and nanoseconds since beginning of the epoch (January, 1st, 1970) is reached; to use relative timeouts delta, it is required
to calculate the absolute time at the beginning of waiting now; for example:
Ulong_t now,then,delta;
TDatime myTime;
myTime.Set();
now=myTime.Convert();

//
//
//
//

seconds
root daytime class
myTime set to "now"
to seconds since 1970

Return value wait of MyCondition.TimedWait should be 0, if MyCondition.Signal() was received, and should
be nonzero, if timeout was reached.
The conditions example shows how three threaded functions are synchronized using TCondition: a ROOT script
condstart.C starts the threads, which are defined in a shared library (conditions.cxx, conditions.h).

23.2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THREADS IN ROOT

23.2.4.3

549

Xlib Connections

Usually Xlib is not thread safe. This means that calls to the X could fail, when it receives X-messages from different
threads. The actual result depends strongly on which version of Xlib has been installed on your system. The only
thing we can do here within ROOT is calling a special function XInitThreads()(which is part of the Xlib), which
should (!) prepare the Xlib for the usage with threads.
To avoid further problems within ROOT some redefinition of the gPad pointer was done (thats the main reason for the
recompilation). When a thread creates a TCanvas, this object is actually created in the main thread; this should be
transparent to the user. Actions on the canvas are controlled via a function, which returns a pointer to either thread
specific data (TSD) or the main thread pointer. This mechanism works currently only for gPad , gDirectory , gFile
and will be implemented soon for other global Objects as e.g. gVirtualX .
23.2.4.4

Canceling a TThread

Canceling of a thread is a rather dangerous action. In TThread canceling is forbidden by default. The user can change
this default by calling TThread::SetCancelOn(). There are two cancellation modes: deferred and asynchronous.
23.2.4.5

Deferred

Set by TThread::SetCancelDeferred() (default): When the user knows safe places in his code where a thread can
be canceled without risk for the rest of the system, he can define these points by invoking TThread::CancelPoint().
Then, if a thread is canceled, the cancellation is deferred up to the call of TThread::CancelPoint() and then the
thread is canceled safely. There are some default cancel points for pthreads implementation, e.g. any call of the
TCondition::Wait(), TCondition::TimedWait(), TThread::Join().
23.2.4.6

Asynchronous

Set by TThread::SetCancelAsynchronous(): If the user is sure that his application is cancel safe, he could call:
TThread::SetCancelAsynchronous();
TThread::SetCancelOn();
// Now cancelation in any point is allowed.
...
// Return to default
TThread::SetCancelOff();
TThread::SetCancelDeferred();
To cancel a thread TThread* th call:
th->Kill();
To cancel by thread name:
TThread::Kill(name);
To cancel a thread by ID:
TThread::Kill(tid);
To cancel a thread and delete th when cancel finished:
th->Delete();
Deleting of the thread instance by the operator delete is dangerous. Use th->Delete() instead. C++ delete is safe
only if thread is not running. Often during the canceling, some clean up actions must be taken. To define clean up
functions use:

550

CHAPTER 23. THREADS

void UserCleanUp(void *arg) {
// here the user cleanup is done
...
}
TThread::CleanUpPush(&UserCleanUp,arg);
// push user function into cleanup stack"last in, first out"
TThread::CleanUpPop(1); // pop user function out of stack and
// execute it, thread resumes after this call
TThread::CleanUpPop(0); // pop user function out of stack
// _without_ executing it

Note: CleanUpPush and CleanUpPop should be used as corresponding pairs like brackets; unlike pthreads cleanup
stack (which is not implemented here), TThread does not force this usage.

23.2.4.7

Finishing thread

When a thread returns from a user function the thread is finished. It also can be finished by TThread::Exit(). Then,
in case of thread-detached mode, the thread vanishes completely. By default, on finishing TThread executes the most
recent cleanup function (CleanUpPop(1) is called automatically once).

23.3

Advanced TThread: Launching a Method in a Thread

Consider a class Myclass with a member function that shall be launched as a thread.
void* Myclass::Thread0((void* arg)
To start Thread0 as a TThread, class Myclass may provide a method:
Int_t Myclass::Threadstart(){
if(!mTh){
mTh= new TThread("memberfunction",
(void(*)(void *))&Thread0,(void*) this);
mTh->Run();
return 0;
}
return 1;
}
Here mTh is a TThread* pointer which is member of Myclassand should be initialized to 0 in the constructor. The
TThread constructor is called as when we used a plain C function above, except for the following two differences.
First, the member function Thread0 requires an explicit cast to (void(*) (void *)). This may cause an annoying
but harmless compiler warning:
Myclass.cxx:98: warning:
converting from "void (Myclass::*)(void *)"to "void *" )
Strictly speaking, Thread0 must be a static member function to be called from a thread. Some compilers, for example
gcc version 2.95.2, may not allow the (void(*) (void*))s cast and just stop if Thread0 is not static. On the other
hand, if Thread0 is static, no compiler warnings are generated at all. Because the this pointer is passed in arg
in the call to Thread0(void *arg), you have access to the instance of the class even if Thread0 is static. Using the
this pointer, non static members can still be read and written from Thread0, as long as you have provided Getter
and Setter methods for these members. For example:
Bool_t state = arg->GetRunStatus();
arg->SetRunStatus(state);

23.4. THE SIGNALS OF ROOT

551

Second, the pointer to the current instance of Myclass, i.e. (void*) this, has to be passed as first argument of the
threaded function Thread0 (C++ member functions internally expect this pointer as first argument to have access to
class members of the same instance). pthreads are made for simple C functions and do not know about Thread0 being
a member function of a class. Thus, you have to pass this information by hand, if you want to access all members of
the Myclass instance from the Thread0 function.
Note: Method Thread0 cannot be a virtual member function, since the cast of Thread0 to void(*) in the TThread
constructor may raise problems with C++ virtual function table. However, Thread0 may call another virtual member
function virtual void Myclass::Func0() which then can be overridden in a derived class of Myclass. (See example
TMhs3).
Class Myclass may also provide a method to stop the running thread:
Int_t Myclass::Threadstop() {
if (mTh) {
TThread::Delete(mTh);
delete mTh;
mTh=0;
return 0;
}
return 1;
}
Example TMhs3: Class TThreadframe (TThreadframe.h, TThreadframe.cxx) is a simple example of a framework
class managing up to four threaded methods. Class TMhs3 (TMhs3.h, TMhs3.cxx) inherits from this base class, showing
the mhs3 example 8.1 (mhs3.h, mhs3.cxx)within a class. The Makefile of this example builds the shared libraries
libTThreadframe.so and libTMhs3.so. These are either loaded or executed by the ROOT script TMhs3demo.C, or
are linked against an executable: TMhs3run.cxx.

23.3.1

Known Problems

Parts of the ROOT framework, like the interpreter, are not yet thread-safe. Therefore, you should use this package
with caution. If you restrict your threads to distinct and simple duties, you will able to benefit from their use. The
TThread class is available on all platforms, which provide a POSIX compliant thread implementation. On Linux,
Xavier Leroys Linux Threads implementation is widely used, but the TThread implementation should be usable on all
platforms that provide pthread.
Linux Xlib on SMP machines is not yet thread-safe. This may cause crashes during threaded graphics operations;
this problem is independent of ROOT.
Object instantiation: there is no implicit locking mechanism for memory allocation and global ROOT lists. The
user has to explicitly protect his code when using them.

23.4

The Signals of ROOT

The list of default signals handled by ROOT is:

kSigChildkSigPipe
kSigBuskSigAlarm
kSigSegmentationViolationkSigUrgent
kSigIllegalInstructionkSigFloatingException
kSigSystemkSigWindowChanged
The signals kSigFloatingException , kSigSegmentationViolation , kSigIllegalInstruction , and kSigBus cause
the printing of the *** Break *** message and make a long jump back to the ROOT prompt. No other custom
TSignalHandler can be added to these signals.
The kSigAlarm signal handles asynchronous timers. The kSigWindowChanged signal handles the resizing of the terminal
window. The other signals have no other behavior then that to call any registered TSignalHandler::Notify() .
When building in interactive application the use of the TRint object handles the kSigInterrupt signal. It causes the
printing of the message: *** Break *** keyboard interrupt and makes a long jump back to the ROOT command
prompt. If no TRint object is created, there will be no kSigInterrupt handling. All signals can be reset to their default

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CHAPTER 23. THREADS

UNIX behavior via the call of TSytem::ResetSignal(). All signals can be ignored via TSytem::IgnoreSignal().
The TSytem::IgnoreInterrupt() is a method to toggle the handling of the interrupt signal. Typically it is called to
prevent a SIGINT to interrupt some important call (like writing to a ROOT file).
If TRint is used and the default ROOT interrupt handler is not desired, you should use GetSignalHandler() of
TApplication to get the interrupt handler and to remove it by RemoveSignalHandler()of TSystem .

23.5

Glossary

The following glossary is adapted from the description of the Rogue Wave Threads.h++ package.
A process is a program that is loaded into memory and prepared for execution. Each process has a private address
space. Processes begin with a single thread.
A thread is a sequence of instructions being executed in a program. A thread has a program counter and a private
stack to keep track of local variables and return addresses. A multithreaded process is associated with one or more
threads. Threads execute independently. All threads in a given process share the private address space of that process.
Concurrency exists when at least two threads are in progress at the same time. A system with only a single processor
can support concurrency by switching execution contexts among multiple threads.
Parallelism arises when at least two threads are executing simultaneously. This requires a system with multiple
processors. Parallelism implies concurrency, but not vice-versa.
A function is reentrant if it will behave correctly even if a thread of execution enters the function while one or more
threads are already executing within the function. These could be the same thread, in the case of recursion, or different
threads, in the case of concurrency.
Thread-specific data (TSD) is also known as thread-local storage (TLS). Normally, any data that has lifetime beyond
the local variables on the threads private stack are shared among all threads within the process. Thread-specific data
is a form of static or global data that is maintained on a per-thread basis. That is, each thread gets its own private
copy of the data.
Left to their own devices, threads execute independently. Synchronization is the work that must be done when there
are, in fact, interdependencies that require some form of communication among threads. Synchronization tools include
mutexes, semaphores, condition variables, and other variations on locking.
A critical section is a section of code that accesses a non-sharable resource. To ensure correct code, only one
thread at a time may execute in a critical section. In other words, the section is not reentrant.
A mutex, or mutual exclusion lock, is a synchronization object with two states locked and unlocked. A mutex is usually
used to ensure that only one thread at a time executes some critical section of code. Before entering a critical section,
a thread will attempt to lock the mutex, which guards that section. If the mutex is already locked, the thread will
block until the mutex is unlocked, at which time it will lock the mutex, execute the critical section, and unlock the
mutex upon leaving the critical section.
A semaphore is a synchronization mechanism that starts out initialized to some positive value. A thread may ask to
wait on a semaphore in which case the thread blocks until the value of the semaphore is positive. At that time the
semaphore count is decremented and the thread continues. When a thread releases semaphore, the semaphore count is
incremented. Counting semaphores are useful for coordinating access to a limited pool of some resource.
Readers/Writer Lock - a multiple-reader, single-writer lock is one that allows simultaneous read access by many
threads while restricting write access to only one thread at a time. When any thread holds the lock for reading, other
threads can also acquire the lock reading. If one thread holds the lock for writing, or is waiting to acquire the lock for
writing, other threads must wait to acquire the lock for either reading or writing.
Use a condition variable in conjunction with a mutex lock to automatically block threads until a particular condition
is true.
Multithread Safe Levels - a possible classification scheme to describe thread-safety of libraries:
All public and protected functions are reentrant. The library provides protection against multiple threads trying
to modify static and global data used within a library. The developer must explicitly lock access to objects shared
between threads. No other thread can write to a locked object unless it is unlocked. The developer needs to lock
local objects. The spirit, if not the letter of this definition, requires the user of the library only to be familiar with
the semantic content of the objects in use. Locking access to objects that are being shared due to extra-semantic
details of implementation (for example, copy-on-write) should remain the responsibility of the library.

23.5. GLOSSARY

553

All public and protected functions are reentrant. The library provides protection against multiple threads trying
to modify static and global data used within the library. The preferred way of providing this protection is to use
mutex locks. The library also locks an object before writing to it. The developer is not required to explicitly
lock or unlock a class object (static, global or local) to perform a single operation on the object. Note that even
multithread safe level II hardly relieves the user of the library from the burden of locking.
A thread suffers from deadlock if it is blocked waiting for a condition that will never occur. Typically, this occurs
when one thread needs to access a resource that is already locked by another thread, and that other thread is trying to
access a resource that has already been locked by the first thread. In this situation, neither thread is able to progress;
they are deadlocked.
A multiprocessor is a hardware system with multiple processors or multiple, simultaneous execution units.
Examples can be found at http://www-linux.gsi.de/~go4/HOWTOthreads/howtothreadsbody.html (the thread
authors web site - Jrn Adamczewski and Marc Hemberger).

554

CHAPTER 23. THREADS

Chapter 24

PROOF: Parallel Processing

The Parallel ROOT Facility, PROOF, is an extension of ROOT allowing transparent analysis of large sets of ROOT
files in parallel on remote computer clusters or multi-core computers. The main design goals for the PROOF system
are:
Transparency : there should be as little difference as possible between a local ROOT based analysis session and a
remote parallel PROOF session, both being interactive and giving the same results.
Scalability : the basic architecture should not put any implicit limitations on the number of computers that can be
used in parallel.
Adaptability : the system should be able to adapt itself to variations in the remote environment (changing load on the
cluster nodes, network interruptions, etc.).
Being an extension of the ROOT system, PROOF is designed to work on objects in ROOT data stores, though, for the
time being, it mainly addresses the case of TTree based object collections.
PROOF is primarily meant as an interactive alternative to batch systems for Central Analysis Facilities and departmental
workgroups (Tier-2s). However, thanks to a multi-tier architecture allowing multiple levels of masters, it can be easily
adapted to wide range virtual clusters distributed over geographically separated domains and heterogeneous machines
(GRIDs).
While pure interactivity might not always be possible when performing a complicated analysis on a very large data
set, PROOF still tries to give the user the interactive experience with something we call interactive batch. With
interactive batch the user can start very long running queries, disconnect the client and at any time, any location
and from any computer reconnect to the query to monitor its progress or retrieve the results. This feature gives it a
distinct advantage over purely batch based solutions, that only provide an answer once all sub-jobs have been finished.
Details about the PROOF system and the way to use it can be found at
The PROOF development is a joint effort between CERN and MIT.

1 http://root.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ROOT/PROOF

555

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CHAPTER 24. PROOF: PARALLEL PROCESSING

Figure 24.1: The Multi-tier structure of a PROOF cluster

Chapter 25

Writing a Graphical User Interface

The ROOT GUI classes support an extensive and rich set of widgets with the Windows 95 look and feel. The widget
classes interface to the underlying graphics system via a single abstract class. Concrete versions of this abstract class
have been implemented for X11 and Win32, thereby making the ROOT GUI fully cross-platform. Originally the GUI
classes were based on Hector Perazas Xclass95 widget library http://xclass.sourceforge.net/

25.1

The ROOT GUI Classes

Features of the GUI classes in a nutshell:

Originally based on the Xclass95 widget library
A rich and complete set of widgets
Win95 look and feel
All machine dependent graphics calls abstracted via the TVirtualX abstract class
Completely scriptable via the C++ interpreter (fast prototyping)
Supports signal/slot event handling as pioneered by Trolltechs Qt
Full class documentation is generated automatically (as for all ROOT classes)
Code generation for variety of GUIs

25.2

Widgets and Frames

The ROOT GUI classes provide of set of components that allow an easy way to develop cross-platform GUI applications
with a Windows look and feel.
The main widgets are:
Simple widgets: labels, icons, push buttons, either with text or pixmaps, check buttons, radio buttons, menu bars
and popup menus, scroll bars, list boxes, combo boxes, group frames, text entry widgets, tab widgets, progress
bars, sliders, tool tips
Complex widgets: shutter, toolbar, status bar, list view, list tree
Common dialogs: File Open/Save, File Properties, Font Selection, Color Selection, About
The widgets are shown in frames:
frame, composite frame, main frame, transient frame, group frame
Arranged by layout managers:
horizontal layout, vertical layout, row layout, list layout, tile layout, matrix layout
557

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Using a combination of layout hints:

left, right, center x, center y, top, bottom, expand x, expand y, fixed offsets
Event handling by signals/slots and messaging (as opposed to callbacks):
in response to actions widgets send messages and emit signals
associated frames process these messages or the slot methods connected to the signals are executed

25.3

TVirtualX

The GUI classes interface to the platform dependent low level graphics system via the semi-abstract graphics base class
TVirtualX. Currently concrete implementations exist for X11 and Win32 (MacOS X is fully supported via Apples X11
implementation). Thanks to this single graphics interface, porting the ROOT GUI to a new platform requires only the
implementation of TVirtualX.

The TGQt interface is currently still under development.

25.4

A Simple Example

We will start with a simple example that builds a small application containing a canvas and two buttons: Draw and
Exit. Its functionality will be very simple: every time you click on Draw button, the graphics of the function sin(x)/x
will be drawn in randomly chosen interval in the canvas window, if you click on Exit - you close the application. This
example shows the basic concepts for almost any GUI-application in ROOT and it is important to understand how it is
constructed. The example program is written as a named script. See CINT the C++ Interpreter. Remember that
the named script can be executed via
root[] .x example.C
only if the filename (without extension) and the function entry point are both the same.

We need to say a few words about the parent-children relationship between the widgets before going through the real
code. The widgets behaviors are based on this relationship. Every parent widget is responsible for where the children
are and it ensures all properties and behavior for them. For example, if you want to hide several widgets, it will be
enough to hide their parent widget. Later you can show the parent and the children will appear too. Writing your code
you have to specify the parent-child relationship. Usually in a child constructor the address of the parent is passed
as an argument. In general frames are parents of simple widgets. In this example you will see how we organize the
parent-children relationship by using frame widgets in addition to the canvas window and button widgets.

25.4. A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

559

Lets now go through the code of the example.C.

The first lines include ROOT header files. The header file names are almost always as the class names (TApplication,
TF1, TCanvas), but there are cases when similar classes are grouped together in one header file: all frames are declared
in TGFrame.h, all buttons - in TGButton.h, etc. Our small example is based on an object of the class MyMainFrame.
new MyMainFrame(gClient->GetRoot(),200,200);
The first parameter gClient->GetRoot() makes the initial connection to the window server. It is a pointer to the root
window of the screen, which is obtained from gClient . The next two parameters initialize the width and height of the
application window in pixels. Let see what MyMainFrame is. The three arguments pass to the TGMainFrame constructor
when we create the fMain object.
The first thing to note is the inclusion of the RQ_OBJECT macro in the class declaration of MyMainFrame. It is necessary
to provide a standalone class signal/slot capability. The signal/slot communication mechanism is described in a separate
chapter. See Event Processing: Signals and Slots.
// example.C
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

<TGClient.h>
<TCanvas.h>
<TF1.h>
<TRandom.h>
<TGButton.h>
<TGFrame.h>
<TRootEmbeddedCanvas.h>
<RQ_OBJECT.h>

class MyMainFrame {
RQ_OBJECT("MyMainFrame")
private:
TGMainFrame
*fMain;
TRootEmbeddedCanvas *fEcanvas;
public:
MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h);
virtual ~MyMainFrame();
void DoDraw();
};
MyMainFrame::MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h) {
// Create a main frame
fMain = new TGMainFrame(p,w,h);
// Create canvas widget
fEcanvas = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas("Ecanvas",fMain,200,200);
fMain->AddFrame(fEcanvas, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY, 10,10,10,1));
// Create a horizontal frame widget with buttons
TGHorizontalFrame *hframe = new TGHorizontalFrame(fMain,200,40);
TGTextButton *draw = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Draw");
draw->Connect("Clicked()","MyMainFrame",this,"DoDraw()");
hframe->AddFrame(draw, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,
5,5,3,4));
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit",
"gApplication->Terminate(0)");
hframe->AddFrame(exit, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,
5,5,3,4));
fMain->AddFrame(hframe, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,
2,2,2,2));
// Set a name to the main frame
fMain->SetWindowName("Simple Example");
// Map all subwindows of main frame
fMain->MapSubwindows();

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

// Initialize the layout algorithm

fMain->Resize(fMain->GetDefaultSize());
// Map main frame
fMain->MapWindow();

}
void MyMainFrame::DoDraw() {
// Draws function graphics in randomly chosen interval
TF1 *f1 = new TF1("f1","sin(x)/x",0,gRandom->Rndm()*10);
f1->SetLineWidth(3);
f1->Draw();
TCanvas *fCanvas = fEcanvas->GetCanvas();
fCanvas->cd();
fCanvas->Update();
}
MyMainFrame::~MyMainFrame() {
// Clean up used widgets: frames, buttons, layout hints
fMain->Cleanup();
delete fMain;
}
void example() {
// Popup the GUI...
new MyMainFrame(gClient->GetRoot(),200,200);
}
The TGMainFrameclass defines a top level window that interacts with the system window manager. Its method
CloseWindow() is invoked when Alt+F4 are pressed or a window manager close/exit command is used. To terminate the
application when this happens you need to override the CloseWindow() method and call gApplication->Terminate(0).
The main frame can be considered as a container where all widgets of the application are organized with respect to
their parent-child relationship. After the main frame we create fEcanvas - an object of class TRootEmbeddedCanvas.
It is a quite complex widget and we will explain it in detail later. For the moment keep in mind only its main purpose to create a TCanvas - the ROOT basic whiteboard for drawing and editing different graphical objects.
fEcanvas = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas("Ecanvas",fMain,200,200);
In the TRootEmbeddedCanvas constructor we pass the address of the main frame widget fMain as a second parameter.
This pass is important because it makes fMain the parent of the canvas window. The first parameter Ecanvas is the
name of the TCanvas, the last two parameters give the width and height of canvas window in pixels. Next step is to
add fEcanvas to the parent frame defining its appearance inside the parent window. We use the method AddFrame():
fMain->AddFrame(fEcanvas,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY, 10, 10, 10, 1));
It adds the fEcanvas into the list of children widgets of the main frame fMain. The specification of how it
should be placed inside the parent frame is made by the TGLayoutHints object. Setting its first parameter to
kLHintsExpandX|kLHintsExpandYwe define the canvas window as expanded on x and y in the frame. The next four
parameters define amounts of padding in left, right, top and bottom in pixels. This means that the canvas window will
be expanded when the parent window expands, but it will keep around a frame of 10 pixels on left, right, top and 1
pixel on bottom.
The laying out is always made with respect to the parent-children relationship. There is a special chapter presenting
the different layout managers, but we will quickly introduce the concept here. The layout process will apply not to the
embedded canvas window but to its parent - the main frame. A popular layout manager and the one used in this case
is the vertical layout manager which arranges its widgets vertically in a column.
The next widget we create as a child of the main frame is the horizontal frame hframe:
TGHorizontalFrame *hframe=new TGHorizontalFrame(fMain,200,40);
The first parameter of its constructor is again the address of its parent, fMain. The next ones define the frame width
and height in pixels. The name of the class TGHorizontalFrame gives a hint that a horizontal layout will apply on its
children widgets. The Draw and Exit buttons will be laid out horizontally. Here are their constructors:

25.4. A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

561

TGTextButton *draw = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Draw");

hframe ->AddFrame(draw, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,5,5,3,4));
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit",
"gApplication->Terminate(0)");
hframe ->AddFrame(exit,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,5,5,3,4));
They are created as objects of the TGTextButton class that represent the command buttons with a text label. When
you click on a command button it performs the action shown on its label. These buttons are well known as push
buttons or just buttons. The parent address hframe is passed as first parameter. The second one defines the button
label and normally indicates the action to be taken when the button is clicked. It is possible to define a hot key for
the button at that point using the hot string for its label. A hot string is a string with a hot character underlined.
This character we call the button hot key. It shows the assigned keyboard mnemonic for the button choice. Following
our example, this means that you can use Alt+D to click on Draw button and Alt+E to click on Exit. There is a
possibility to specify a command string as third parameter of the button constructor. We use it to assign the command
gApplication->Terminate(0). The application will be terminated when you click on the Exit button.
We call again AddFrame() to add the buttons to their parent widget giving layout hints for each of them. This time we
would like to have centered buttons with an amount of 5 pixels on the left, 5 on the right, 3 on the top and 4 on the
bottom. You can feel already that the same steps are repeated three times: to create a new widget with passing a
parent address as a parameter, to define layout hints for it and to add it in the parent list. The next line is something
new:
draw->Connect("Clicked()","MyMainFrame",this,"DoDraw()");
Here we connect a signal to a slot. Whenever the draw button is clicked, it emits a signal that something has happened
(it is clicked) to whom might be interesting in the outside world. The widget does not know who will use this information.
On the other side of the program world there is some code which should be executed when the button is clicked. This
code is called a slot. Think about slots as normal C++ functions or class methods. The line above specifies that the slot
MyMainFrame::DoDraw() will be executed when the draw button is clicked. Our slot draws the graphics of sin(x)/x
in randomly chosen interval every time the draw button sends a signal I am clicked. The signal/slot communication
mechanism originally featured in Qt by TrollTech(see http://doc.trolltech.com/3.1/signalsandslots.html). ROOT
supports its own version of signals/slots. We will return to that point in details later. We specified all child widgets of
the horizontal frame (the Draw and Exit buttons in our case). Next, we need to add their parent frame to the main
frame:
fMain->AddFrame(hframe,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,2,2,2,2));
The last thing to do is to set the main window title and to make all widgets visible. Commonly in all systems windows
are assigned by name to be identified by users. This name is displayed in the applications title bar and can be set by:
fMain->SetWindowName("Simple Example");
The next lines make the widgets visible. The first one maps all child frames of the top-level frame; the last one - the
main frame itself, i.e. makes it appear on the screen.

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

fMain->MapSubwindows();
fMain->Resize(fMain->GetDefaultSize());
fMain->MapWindow();
The line in between has an important mission - to execute all layout specifications for the widgets before the top-level
window itself is shown on the screen. We can run the named script via the CINT interpreter with the command:
root[].x example.C
The event processing starts. If you change the state of a widget, it emits a signal and the corresponding slot is executed
ensuring the functionality we want for this small example.
The steps we passed can be generalized as follows:
Opening of the connection to the system
Definition of main frame (top level window)
Creation of widgets as children of the top-level frame; assign them desired properties following the steps:
Create a new widget passing its parent in the constructor
Connect widgets signals with desired slots to ensure desired functionality
Define widgets layout and add it to the parent list of children
Set main window attributes
Map all sub windows
Initialize the layout algorithm via Resize(GetDefaultSize()) method
Map the main frame
Execution of the even-processing loop

25.4.1

A Standalone Version

As usual a standalone program in C++ has to contain a main() function - the starting point for the application
execution. In this case it is better to separate the program code creating a program header file example2a.h with
the MyMainFrame class declaration and example2a.cxx- with the class methods implementation. To run our simple
example as a standalone application we need to create in addition an object of class TApplication. It will make a
correct initialization of the dictionaries if it is not yet done. It will be responsible for holding everything together
and to handle all events in the application. Its environment provides an interface to the ROOT graphics system and
by calling the Run() method the event loop starts and the application program is waiting for the user action. The
application exits only if the top level window is not closed. Two header files are used in addition: TApplication.h for the class TApplication and TGClient.h that is used to make initial connection to the graphics system. The class
TApplication must be instantiated only once in any given application. The original list of argument options can be
retrieved via the Argc() and Argv() methods.
Note: to have signals/slots working we need to create a dictionary for the class MyMainFrame, i.e. we create the file
ex2aLinkDef.h containing the line:
#pragma link C++ class MyMainFrame;
We compile the example:
rootcint -f ex2aDict.cxx -c example2a.h ex2aLinkDef.h
g++ -o example2a example2a.cxx ex2aDict.cxx `root-config --cflags --glibs`
example2a.h

25.4. A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

563

#include <TQObject.h>
#include <RQ_OBJECT.h>
class TGWindow;
class TGMainFrame;
class TRootEmbeddedCanvas;
class MyMainFrame {
RQ_OBJECT("MyMainFrame")
private:
TGMainFrame
*fMain;
TRootEmbeddedCanvas *fEcanvas;
public:
MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h);
virtual ~MyMainFrame();
void DoDraw();
};
example2a.cxx
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

<TApplication.h>
<TGClient.h>
<TCanvas.h>
<TF1.h>
<TRandom.h>
<TGButton.h>
<TRootEmbeddedCanvas.h>
"example2a.h"

MyMainFrame::MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h) {...}

MyMainFrame::~MyMainFrame() { ... }
void MyMainFrame::DoDraw() { ... }
void example() { ... }
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
TApplication theApp("App",&argc,argv);
example();
theApp.Run();
return 0;
}
The class MyMainFrame could derive from TGMainFrame. In that case the RQ_OBJECT macro is not needed anymore, since
the functionality it provides is obtained now via inheritance from TGMainFrame. This will reflect in the MyMainFrame
class declaration and in the code of the MyMainFrame::MyMainFrame constructor as follows:
example2b.h
#include <TGFrame.h>
class MyMainFrame : public TGMainFrame {
private:
TRootEmbeddedCanvas *fEcanvas;
public:
MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h);
virtual ~MyMainFrame() { ... }
void DoDraw(){ ... }
ClassDef(MyMainFrame,0)
};
example2b.cxx
#include <TApplication.h>
#include <TGClient.h>

564

CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

<TCanvas.h>
<TF1.h>
<TRandom.h>
<TGButton.h>
<TRootEmbeddedCanvas.h>
"example2b.h"

MyMainFrame::MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h)

: TGMainFrame(p,w,h) {
// Creates widgets of the example
fEcanvas = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas ("Ecanvas",this,200,200);
AddFrame(fEcanvas, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY, 10,10,10,1));
TGHorizontalFrame *hframe=new TGHorizontalFrame(this, 200,40);
TGTextButton *draw = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Draw");
draw->Connect("Clicked()","MyMainFrame",this,"DoDraw()");
hframe->AddFrame(draw, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,
5,5,3,4));
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit ",
"gApplication->Terminate()");
hframe->AddFrame(exit, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,
5,5,3,4));
AddFrame(hframe,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsCenterX,2,2,2,2));

// Sets window name and shows the main frame

SetWindowName("Simple Example");
MapSubwindows();
Resize(GetDefaultSize());
MapWindow();

25.5

Widgets Overview

The word widget is a contraction of windows and gadget. Almost all GUI elements are widgets. A button is a widget,
a menu item is a widget, a scrollbar is a widget, and a complete dialog box is a widget too. Some widgets may have
sub widgets. For example, a dialog box can contain buttons, text fields, a combo-box, etc.
On the screen widgets look like rectangular areas with special behaviors. In terms of the object-oriented programming
we can define a widget in ROOT as an object of a class deriving from TGObject.
This section presents all currently supported widgets in ROOT and their most useful methods. All of them can be considered as building blocks for an application, and most of them can be found in dialogs. Provided snippets of the code will
give you practical guidelines where and how to use certain widgets. The macro $ROOTSYS/tutorials/gui/guitest.C
contains the complete source code.
Any custom widget can be created by sub classing existing widgets. To achieve a better understanding of the widgets
properties they are separated by their type and their inheritance. As all of them inherit from TGObject and most from
TGWidget, these base classes are described first.

25.5.1

TGObject

TGObject is the base class for all ROOT GUI classes. It inherits from TObject. The two data members of this
class contain important information about X11/Win32 window identifier and the connection to the hosts graphics
system. Every GUI element, which derives from TGObject has access to the TGClient via the data member fClient
of TGObject. TGClient creates the connection with the hosts graphics system and sets up the complete graphics
system for all widgets.

25.5.2

TGWidget

The widgets base class TGWidget is typically used as a mix-in class via multiple inheritances. Its properties are
available for all deriving widgets: TGButton, TGComboBox, TGTab, TGColorPalette, TGColorPick, TGDoubleSlider,

25.5. WIDGETS OVERVIEW

565

Figure 25.1: Widgets created by ROOT GUI classes

TGListTree, TGNumberEntry, TGScrollBar, TGShutterItem, TGTextEntry, TGSlider, TGListBox, TGView.
This class has four data members keeping information about the widget id - important for event processing, the
window which handles the widgets events, the widget status flags and the assigned command (if there is any). The
general properties of TGWidget are specified by SetFlags(Int_t flags) and ClearFlags(Int_t flags) methods.
The status flags are: kWidgetWantFocus, kWidgetHasFocus, and kWidgetIsEnabled. The method Associate(const
TGWindow* w) - sets the window which handles the widget events. SetCommand(const char* command) - sets the
command to be executed. The command string can be gathering via GetCommand() method. For example, the third
parameter in TGTextButton constructor can be omitted and set later in your program, i.e. instead of:
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit",
"gApplication->Terminate()");
You will have the following the two lines:
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit");
exit->SetCommand("gApplication->Terminate()");
The method IsEnabled() - returns kTRUE if the widget has flag kWidgetIsEnabled and it accepts user events. This
method is very important for creating a good user interface because it allows you to disable or enable a widget depending
on the situation of your application. As a standard all disabled widgets are displayed grayed out. HasFocus() returns kTRUE if the widget has the input focus (i.e. flag kWidgetHasFocus is set). Remember that only one item in a
complex widget as a dialog can have the value of HasFocus() sets as true. WantFocus() - returns kTRUE if the flag
kWidgetWantFocus is set.

25.5.3

TGWindow

TGWindow is a ROOT GUI window base class. It inherits from TGObject and TGFrame derives from it. The application
does not use it directly. It creates and registers a new window within the system. This window has common
characteristics: existing parent, location, size in height and width (it has a default minimum size 1, 1 under which it
cannot shrink), border with particular view, state, specific attributes. If there are no specified arguments their values
will be taken from the parent. It receives events from the window system and can paint a representation of itself on the
screen.

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25.5.4

CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Frames

Most of the frame classes are mainly created for arranging widgets in a window. The class TGFrame is a subclass of
TGWindow providing additional window characteristics and overriding some methods of TGWindow. It is a base class for
the simple widgets as buttons, labels, etc. Its only purpose is to draw a frame around widgets that do not have a frame
of their own. The main groups of TGFrame member functions are:
Windows functions: DoRedraw(), DeleteWindow(), Activate(), etc.
Geometry functions: Move(), Resize(), SetSize(), etc.
Graphics handlers: ChangeBackground(), ChangeOptions(), etc.
Mouse and keyboard functions: HandleButton(), HandleFocusChange(), HandleKey(), HandleMotion(), etc.
Event handlers:
HandleEvent(),
GetLastClick(), etc.

ProcessEvent(),

GetSender(),

SendMessage(),ProcessMessage(),

Figure 25.2: The GUI classes hierarchy

Ones of TGFrame member functions provide direct functionality; others - will be overridden by TGFrame subclasses to
ensure particular widgets functionality. There are two constructors provided in TGFrame class. One creates a frame
using an externally created window:
TGFrame(TGClient *c,Window_t id,const TGWindow *parent = 0);
For example, it can register the root window (called by TGClient), or a window created via TVirtualX::InitWindow()
(window id is obtained by TVirtualX::GetWindowID() method). The other TGFrame constructor is:
TGFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h,UInt_t options=0,
ULong_t back = GetDefaultBackground());
The options parameter is the bitwise OR between defined frame types. Here is a short description of these types:
Frame Type

Description

25.5. WIDGETS OVERVIEW

kChildFrame
kMainFrame
kTransientFrame
kVerticalFrame
kHorizontalFrame
kSunkenFrame
kRaisedFrame
kFitWidth
kFitHeight
kFixedWidth
kFixedHeight
kFixedSize
kDoubleBorder
kOwnBackground
kTempFrame

567
a frame embedded in a parent
a main frame interacting with the system Window Manager
a top level dialogs frame
a frame that layouts its children in a column
a frame that layouts its children in a row
a frame with a sunken board appearance
a frame with a raised board appearance
a frame with dynamically scaled width
a frame with dynamically scaled height
a frame with fixed width
a frame with fixed height
= kFixedWidth | kFixedHeight
a frame with fixed width and height
a frame having a double line border
a frame having own background
a temporary frame shown in certain circumstances; for example, it is used for
creation of tool tip widget

The method ChangeOpton(UInt_t options) allows you to change frame options. Next example shows you how to
change kVerticalFrame option to kHorizontalFrame:
frame->ChangeOptions((frame->GetOptions()& ~kVerticalFrame) |
kHorizontalFrame);
The class TGCompositeFrame is the base class of all composite widgets as a menu bar, a list box, a combo box, etc.
It subclasses TGFrame and has in addition a layout manager and a list of child frames/widgets. There are two steps
to do the design using a composite frame widget. First you put all widgets you need within this frame and assign
them desired properties using AddFrame(), then you lay them out by the Layout() method according to the assigned
layout manager. The method AddFrame() creates an instance of TGFrameElement class for every child widget of a
composite frame. This class has three public data members: the child pointer, its layout hints, and a status variable
showing if the child is visible or hidden. If no hints are specified, the default layout hints are used. Because the layout
is very important part of any design we include a special section about layout management and layout hints.
You can set a layout manager for the composite frame via:
compFrame->SetLayoutManager(TGLayoutManager *l);
The child widgets cannot be added to different composite frames.
Any child frame can be removed from the parent list by:
compFrame->RemoveFrame(TGFrame *f);
You can hide or show a child frame of a composite frame using the methods: HideFrame(TGFrame *f) or
ShowFrame(TGFrame *f). You should call, for example HideFrame(TGFrame *f), only after the frames have been
laid out and the sub windows of the composite frame have been mapped via method MapSubwindows(), i.e.
frame->AddFrame(hFrame1,fLayout1);
frame->AddFrame(hFrame2,fLayout2);
frame->Resize(frame->GetDefaultSize());
frame->MapSubwindows();
frame->HideFrame(hFrame2);
frame->MapWindow();

//
//
//
//

lays out frames

maps subwindows
hides frame hFrame2
maps main frame

The state information about a child frame can be obtained from the methods GetState(TGframe *f),
IsArranged(TGFrame *f), and IsVisible(TGFrame *f).
The method Cleanup() deletes all objects of the composite frame added via AddFrame(). All TGFrameElement objects
(frames and layout hints) must be unique, i.e. cannot be shared.
We already mentioned that TGMainFrame class defines top level windows interacting with the system window manager.
It handles applications with a menu bar, toolbar, text entry fields and other widgets surrounding a central area (e.g. a
canvas widget). It lays out a set of related widgets and provides the typical application main window behavior. As you

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can see from the Figure above, it inherits from TGCompositeFrame and is inherited by TGTransientFrame and several
ROOT interface classes: TViewerX3D,TRootBrowser, TRootCanvas, TRootControlBar, TTreeViewer.
To fix the size of a top level window you have to use the method TGMainFrame::SetWMSize(). This call tells the
Window Manager that it should not resize the window. The option kFixedSize works only for embedded frames like
TGCompositeFrame and derived classes (in combination with layout hints).
The TGVerticalFrame and TGHorizontalFrame are composite frames that lay out their child frames in vertical or
horizontal way in the same order as they were added and according to their hints preferences.
The TGTransientFrame class defines transient windows that typically are used for dialogs. They extend and complete
an interaction within a limited context. Always transient frames are displayed from another window or another dialog.
They may appear because of a command button being activated or a menu item being selected. They may also present
automatically when an additional input and the user attention are required by a certain condition.
The TGGroupFrame class presents a very convenient frame which surrounds visually a group of logically connected
widgets: radio buttons, related check boxes, two or more functionally related controls.

It is a composite frame with a border and a title. The title explains the purpose of the group and should be a noun or
noun phrase. Here is an example taken from guitest.C:
groupFrame = new TGGroupFrame(tf,"Options",kVerticalFrame);
groupFrame->SetTitlePos(TGGroupFrame::kLeft);
The second line sets the title position on the left. You can change it to be centered or right aligned if you use
TGGroupFrame::kCenter or TGGroupFrame::kRight as a parameter.

Be conservative in the use of borders because of the potential for clutter. Do not place them around single entry fields,
single combo boxes, list boxes and groups of command buttons. The design of these widgets provides them with a
border. The picture above provides kind of borders to avoid.

25.6

Layout Management

The layout process is an integral part of any GUI. When you create a simple message window, laying out its few
buttons and text widgets is quite simple. However, this process becomes increasingly difficult if you have to implement

25.6. LAYOUT MANAGEMENT

569

large GUIs with many widgets that should behave properly when the GUI is resized or uses a different font type or
size. Layout management is the process of determining the size and position of every widget in a container.
A layout manager is an object that performs layout management for the widgets within a container. You already know
that when adding a component (child widget) to a container (parent widget) you can provide alignment hints (or rely
on the default ones). These hints are used by the layout manager to correctly position the widgets in the container.
The TGLayoutManager is an abstract class providing the basic layout functionality.

Figure 25.3: The layout classes hierarchy

The base container class is TGCmpositeFrame.
You can easily change the layout manager using the
SetLayoutManager(TGLayoutManager *l) method. Setting the proper layout manager for each container is
the first step you have to do. The container uses that layout manager to position and size the components before they
are painted. ROOT currently provides the layout managers shown on the picture above.
The next important step is to provide hints about every widget in the container, i.e. to provide positions and right
amount of space between the components. The TGLayoutHints objects set hints by specifying the white space in pixels
around every widget.
Lets see an example with five buttons. First you put them in a container, assign them desired properties, and then
you lay them out according to the layout manager. This process can be repeated: you go back and add, remove or
change some of the widgets and lay them out again.

Once created, you can consider these widgets as elementary objects even though they are compound ones. The pictures
above present four different layouts of five buttons. The first one shows laid out vertically buttons. Almost everywhere
you can find this vertical orientation. Looking at dialogs you see that often they consist of number of rows laid out
below each other. Some of the rows could have an internal vertical structure as well. The second picture shows the
same buttons laid out horizontally - the next common orientation. The other two show different layouts based on
mixed use of the vertical and horizontal orientation. You might recognize their pattern: two (third picture) and three
(last picture) rows that are vertically laid out.
As we already explained the layout process is always applying to a container. It will be enough to define the container
frame with vertical or horizontal layout to have buttons as in the first and second pictures.
To design them in several rows we need to use additional frames as invisible containers: two horizontal frames, children
of a vertical parent frame; or one horizontal frame laid out vertically with the Draw and Exit buttons. For widgets in a
group it is obvious to use a vertical layout.
The layout hints data member of TGLayoutHints is the bit wise OR between the hints:

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Hints
kLHintsNoHints
kLHintsLeft
kLHintsCenterX
kLHintsRight
kLHintsTop
kLHintsCenterY
kLHintsBottom
kLHintsExpandX

kLHintsExpandY

kLHintsNormal

Description
no specified layout hints, the default ones will be used
specifies the frame position to the left of the container frame after other frames with
the same hint into the list
specifies the frame position centered horizontally (with vertical containers only)
specifies the frame position to the right of the container frame before any other laid
out frames with the same hint into the list
specifies the frame position to the top of the container frame, below any laid out
frames with the same hint
specifies the frame position centered vertically (with horizontal containers only)
specifies the frame position to the bottom of the container frame, above any laid out
frames with the same hint
specifies the frame to be expanded up to the width of the container frame. If the
container frame is a vertical frame - it will fit the whole width. If it is a horizontal
frame - after the positioning of all frames the available free width space is shared
between the frames having this hint
specifies the frame to be expanded up to the height of the container frame. If the
container frame is a horizontal frame - it will fit the whole height. If the container
frame is a vertical frame - after the arrangement of all frames the available free
height space is shared between the frames having this hint
= kLHintsLeft | kLHintsTop - default hints

Layout policy:
Child frames never modify their container frame. The container frame can (or cannot) adapt its size in the layout
process. It can show all or a part of its frames. Every TGFrame object has a default minimum size (1, 1) assured by
TGWindow.

25.7

Event Processing: Signals and Slots

Event handling covers the interaction between different objects and between the user and the objects in an application.
There are two general ways for the user to interact with an application: the keyboard and the mouse. The Graphical
User Interface is as a bridge between the user and the program - it provides methods to detect the user actions and
instruments that do something as a reaction of these actions. The user communicates with an application through the
window system. The window system reports interaction events to the application. The application in turn forwards
them to the currently active window. The objects/widgets receive the events and react to them according to the
application functionality.

The signals/slot communication mechanism is an advanced object communication concept; it largely replaces the
concept of callback functions to handle actions in GUIs. Signals and slots are just like any object-oriented methods

25.7. EVENT PROCESSING: SIGNALS AND SLOTS

571

implemented in C++. The objects are the instances of classes that dont know anything about each other. They
interact and allow method calls of other objects methods. The idea is simple: any object can send out (emit) a signal
in certain situations saying that something happened. This is all it does to communicate and it does not know whether
anything is interested in this information. On the other side there might be an object waiting for that signal and ready
to react to it. This object disposes of special instruments to listen to the sent out signals. To have a communication we
need a message transmission between the objects. In this simple example we use signals and slots. The code of the
method TGButton::Clicked() is:
virtual void Clicked()

{ Emit("Clicked()"); }

// *SIGNAL*

I.e. any button emits the signal Clicked() any time someone clicks on it. As you can see this method is virtual and
could be overridden if you need to. In our simple example we call the Connect() method to connect the Clicked()
signal of Draw button with MyMainFrame::DoDraw():
draw->Connect("Clicked()","MyMainFrame",this,"DoDraw()");
In the same way we can connect to the signal Clicked() of the Exit button with the system call gApplication->Terminate(0).
We declare a new slot DoExit(), implement it to invoke the termination call and associate this slot with the signal
Clicked() of the Exit button.
The code of example.C can be changed as follows:
public:
...
void DoExit(); // a new slot is added
}
void MyMainFrame::DoExit() {
gApplication->Terminate(0);
}
MyMainFrame::MyMainFrame(const TGWindow *p,UInt_t w,UInt_t h) {
...
TGTextButton *exit = new TGTextButton(hframe,"&Exit ");
// connects signal Clicked() with slot DoExit()
exit->Connect("Clicked()","MyMainFrame",this,"DoExit()");
...
}
Here is an abstract view of the signal/slots connections in example.C:

To benefit from this mechanism your classes must inherit from TQObject or otherwise the class definition must start
with RQ_OBJECT("ClassName")macro. This macro allows the signals/slots communication mechanism to be applied
between compiled and interpreted classes in an interactive ROOT session without having the class derive from TQObject.
Every signal method declaration is followed by a comment "*SIGNAL*". Only instances of a class that defines a signal
or instances of its subclasses can emit the signal. The ROOT implementation of a popular example presenting signals
and slots is the next. Lets have a minimal class declaration:

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class MyClass {
private:
Int_t fValue;
public:
MyClass() { fValue=0; }
Int_t GetValue() const { return fValue; }
void SetValue(Int_t);
};
It will become the following as interpreted:
class MyClass {
RQ_OBJECT("MyClass")
private:
Int_t fValue;
public:
MyClass() { fValue=0; }
Int_t GetValue() const { return fValue; }
void SetValue(Int_t); // *SIGNAL*
};
Both class declarations have the same data member and public methods to access the value. By placing the
RQ_OBJECT("MyClass") macro inside the MyClass body (MyClass is not inherited from TQObject) we allow this class
to use the signal/slot communication. Any instance of this class can tell the outside world that the state of its data
member has changed by emitting a signal SetValue(Int_t). A possible implementation of MyClass::SetValue()
can be:
void MyClass::SetValue(Int_t v) {
if (v != fValue) {
fValue = v;
Emit("SetValue(Int_t)",v);
}
}
The line Emit("SetValue(Int_t)",v) activates the signal SetValue(Int_t) with argument v. You can use any of the
methods TQObject::Emit("full_method_name",arguments) to emit a signal. We create two instances of MyClass
and connect them together:
MyClass *objA = new MyClass();
MyClass *objB = new MyClass();
objA->Connect("SetValue(Int_t)","MyClass",objB,"SetValue(Int_t)");
objB->SetValue(11);
objA->SetValue(79);
objB->GetValue();
// the value is 79
By calling the method objA->Connect(), objA connects its signal SetValue(Int_t) to the MyClass::SetValue(Int_t)
method (slot) of objB. Next, when you call objA->SetValue(79)object objAemits a signal which objBreceives and
objB->SetValue(79)is invoked.
It is executed immediately, just like a normal function call. objB will emit the same signal in turn, but nobody is
interested in this signal, since no slot has been connected to it. Signals are currently implemented for all ROOT GUI
classes, event handlers (TFileHandler, TSignalHandler, etc.), timers (TTimer) and pads (TPad, TCanvas, etc.). To
find all defined signals you just do: grep *SIGNAL* $ROOTSYS/include/*.h
As a programmer you build the sender-receiver part of object connections using the TQObject::Connect() method.
You can connect one signal to many different slots. The slots will be activated in order they were connected to the
signal. You can change this order using the methods LowPriority() and HightPriority() of TQObject. Also, many
signals can be connected to one slot of a particular object or a slot can be connected to a signal for all objects of
a specific class. It is even possible to connect a signal directly to another signal - this will emit the second signal
immediately after the first one is emitted.
All signals and slots are normal class methods and can take any number of arguments of any type. The common
methods of TQObject that activate a signal with any number and type of parameters are:

25.7. EVENT PROCESSING: SIGNALS AND SLOTS

573

Emit(signal_name,param);
With no parameters param the method will be:
ApplyButton->Emit("Clicked()");
param can be a single parameter or an array of Long_t parameters as it is shown below:
TQObject *processor; // data processor
TH1F
*hist;
// filled with processor results
...
processor->Connect("Evaluated(Float_t, Float_t)", "TH1F", hist,
"Fill(Axis_t x, Axis_t y)");
...
Long_t args[2];
args[0]=(Long_t)processor->GetValue(1);
args[0]=(Long_t)processor->GetValue(2);
...
processor->Emit("Evaluated(Float_t, Float_t)", args);
...
To use signals and slot you need something that brings them together. The class TQObject has several methods creating
sender-receiver connections. Some of them are static and can be called without having an instance of the class. The
ROOT implementation of signals and slots allows connections to any known CINT object. The class name parameter
in the Connect() methods must be a class with a dictionary (interpreted classes have an implicit dictionary).
TGButton *button;
TH2
*hist;
...
TQObject::Connect(button,"Clicked()","TH2",hist,"Draw(Option_t*)");
You can replace it with 0 (zero) and in this case the slot string defines a global or interpreted function name. The
receiver parameter should be zero too. For example:
TQObject::Connect(button, "Clicked()",0,0, "hsimple()");
To make a single connection from all objects of a class you should write:
TQObject::Connect("Channel", "AllarmOn()","HandlerClass",handler,
"HandleAllarm()");
The first argument specifies the class name Channel. The signal AllarmOn() of any object of the class Channel is
connected to the HandleAllarm() method of the handler object of the class HandlerClass.
In example.C we have used the not-static Connect()method:
Bool_t Connect(const char *signal, const char *receiver_class,
void *receiver, const char *slot);
It needs to know four things: the signal that should be connected, the receiver class, the object that will receive the
signal, and the slot that will be connected to the signal. Because this method is non-static we can write this as a
receiver parameter.
In all methods you have to specify the signal and the slot with their names and parameter types. Do not write values
instead of types in that place. It is possible to pass a parameter by value to a slot method in the following way:
Connect(myButton, "Pressed()","TH1",hist, "SetMaximum(=123) ");
Connect(myButton, "Pressed()","TH1",hist, "Draw(="LEGO")");

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As you see the parameters value is preceded by the equation symbol (=).
You have the possibility to destroy a signal/slot connection by using Disconnect() methods. There are three ways to
do this:
1/ to destroy all connections to an objects signals;
2/ to destroy all connections to a particular objects signal; 3/ to detach an object from a specific receiver:
Disconnect(myObgect);
Disconnect(myObgect, "mySignal");
Disconnect(myObgect,0,myReceiver,0);

// case 1
// case 2
// case 3

Three parameters of these methods could be replaced by 0. The meaning in these cases would be any signal, any
receiving object, any slot of the receiving object, i.e. 0 is used as a wildcard. The sender parameter cannot be 0,
because you can disconnect signals from one given object. If the signal parameter is 0, the receiver and the slot are
disconnected from any signal. Giving the name of the signal you disconnect this signal.
In addition to all Qt features the ROOT version of signals/slots gives you the possibility to connect slots to a class.
The slots will be executed every time the specified signal is emitted by any object of this class. A slot can have default
arguments and it can be either a class method or stand-alone function (compiled or interpreted).
The method TQObject::HasConnection(signale_name) checks if there is an object connected to this signal and
returns true if it is the case.
Using TQObject::NumberOfConnections(), TQObject::NumberOfSignals() you can check how many signals or
connections has the object.
The rules for using signals/slots mechanism in a standalone executable program do not differ from what was described
previously. Lets remind that
a slot can be any class method with a generated CINT dictionary
a slot can be a function with a dictionary
Detailed information how to generate a dictionary can be found on http://root.cern.ch/root/CintGenerator.html
The following example demonstrates how to use signals/slots mechanism in a standalone executable program on linux
platform with the gcc compiler.
tst.C
#include <TQObject.h>
#include <RQ_OBJECT.h>
class A {
RQ_OBJECT("A")
private:
Int_t fValue;
public:
A() : fValue(0) { }
~A() { }
void SetValue(Int_t value); // *SIGNAL*
void PrintValue() const
{ printf("value = %d\n", fValue); }
};
void A::SetValue(Int_t value) { // Set new value
// Emit signal "SetValue(Int_t)" with a single parameter
if (value != fValue) {
fValue = value;
Emit("SetValue(Int_t)", fValue);
}
}
// Main program
#ifdef STANDALONE
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
A* a = new A();
A* b = new A();

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

575

a->Connect("SetValue(Int_t)", "A", b, "SetValue(Int_t)");

printf("n******* Test of SetValue(Int_t) signal *******n");
b->SetValue(10);
printf("nt***** b before ******n");
b->PrintValue();
a->SetValue(20);
printf("t***** b after a->SetValue(20) ******n");
b->PrintValue();
return 0;

}
#endif

ACLiC simplifies this procedure and allows the dictionary generation by:
root[] .L tst.C++
It will create the shared library tst_C.so.
The next line will create an executable:
g++ -otst tst.C root-config --cflags --libs ./tst_C.so -DSTANDALONE
The library tst_C.so is a dynamically loaded library and should be located in $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The current working
directory should be added to $LD_LIBRARY_PATH via:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:./
To run it, you just do:
./tst

25.8

Widgets in Detail

25.8.1

Buttons

Buttons are a popular group of widgets designed to provide specific interfaces for user interaction. TGButton is an
abstract class defining the general button behavior: width, height, state, its group, tool tip text, etc.
There are two main groups of buttons: command buttons with a text or graphics inside that indicate the action to be
accomplished and option buttons well known as radio and check buttons that select or change properties. The first
group is presented in ROOT by TGPictureButton and TGTextButton classes. They yield an action as soon as they are
clicked. It can be opening/closing a dialog box or invoking a specific function in an application. Remember the Draw
button from the example. The radio and check buttons from the second group are used to select an option. There is a
visual difference between these two groups: the text buttons appear pressed in only while they are clicked, while the
radio and check buttons change their appearance when they are selected and keep that appearance afterwards.
A text button is represented by the class TGTextButton. We already used its constructor in the example. The button
label indicates the action to be taken when the button is selected or pressed. The text can be a hot string defining a
hot key (known as shortcut key also) for this selection. The hot key is an underlined character in a button label that
shows the assigned keyboard mnemonic for its choice. A button that prompts more information for users has the label
generally followed by ellipsis (. . . ).

As we saw the hot strings &Draw and &Exit define the text labels Draw and Exit and keyboard mnemonics
Alt+D, Alt+E for their selection. The letter D and E appear underlined on the screen. All text buttons should have a
unique shortcut key with the exception of OK and Cancel.
These buttons are usually placed within a window to provide fast access to frequently used or critical commands. They
help in situations where a command is not available through the menu bar. You already know that a command string
can be passed in the text button via the constructor:
TGTextButton(const TGWindow *p, const char *s, const char *cmd,
Int_t id, GContext_t norm, FontStruct_t font,
UInt_t options);

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A button label can be changed by SetText(new_label). There are important guidelines to be followed about a button
label. The text has to provide a meaningful description of the performed action. The single-word label should be used
whenever possible, only two-three words for clarity, if necessary. Do not number labels. Always follow all platform
presentation and usage guidelines for standard button functions. Lets remember a few standard names and definitions
of well known buttons:
OK - any changed information in a window is accepted and the window is closed;
Cancel - closes window without implementing submitted changes;
Reset - resets defaults and cancels any changed information that has not be submitted;
Apply - any changed information is accepted and again displayed in the window that remains open;
Close - closes the window;
Help - opens online Help.
Below are examples of text buttons. Note the two placement methods. The first example should be used when there
are one to three command buttons; the second one when there are more than three buttons.

Picture buttons are usually rectangular in shape with an icon or graphics label. These buttons may appear alone or
placed in a group at the windows top or side. They are most frequently used to quickly access commands, many of
which are normally accessed through the tool bar. For example, the picture buttons below can be used to provide
different styles of a histogram drawing.

Here is the example how to create the first button:

TGPictureButton *fPicture = new TGPictureButton(parent,
gClient->GetPicture("h1_s.xpm"), 11);
The picture of file h1_s.xpm is used in the button. All .xpm files are located in the directory $ROOTSYS/icons. You
can assign a command directly as a parameter of the picture button constructor. The picture of TGPictureButton can
be changed by:
fPicture->SetPicture("h2_s.xpm");
The advantage of command buttons is that they are always visible, providing a reminder of their existence. They
can be inscribed with a meaningful description of what they do by TGToolTip("Some describing text"). Their
activation is much easier and faster than using a two-step menu bar/pull-down sequence. The only disadvantage of
the text and picture buttons is that they consume considerable screen space if they are many. Having no more than
six command buttons per window or dialog box helps to appropriately balance the applications effectiveness, its real
efficiency, and the operational simplicity.
The classes TGRadioButton and TGCheckButton present the option buttons in ROOT. Like the text buttons, they
have text or hot string as a label. Radio buttons are grouped in logical sets of two or more and appear with a text label
to the right. The choices are mutually exclusive and only one setting is permitted at one time. They represent visually
all alternatives and it is easy to access and compare choices. They facilitate the situations where all alternatives cannot
be easily remembered or where displaying the alternatives together helps to understand and select the proper choice. It
is very useful to provide a default setting whenever it is possible. When it is not possible to establish a default setting
because of the nature of the information, it is better to leave all radio buttons blank.

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

577

A columnar orientation is the preferred manner of radio buttons presentation. If the vertical space on the window
is limited, they can be oriented horizontally. Selection choices should be organized logically in groups. Here is the
example that produces the image above:
br = new TGButtonGroup(p,"Coordinate system",kVerticalFrame);
fR[0] = new TGRadioButton(bg,new TGHotString("&Pixel"));
fR[1] = new TGRadioButton(bg,new TGHotString("&NDC "));
fR[2] = new TGRadioButton(bg,new TGHotString("&User "));
fR[1]->SetState(kButtonDown);
br->Show();
It is enough to change kVerticalFrame to kHorizontalFrame in TGButtonGroup constructor and you will have radio
buttons aligned horizontally:

The class TGButtonGroup will help you to organize button widgets in a group. There is no need to call AddFrame()
since the buttons are added automatically with a default layout hint to their parent by TGButtonGroup::Show() as
shown in the previous example. The buttons in the group have assigned identifiers. Any button in a group emits a
Clicked() signal with this identifier when it is clicked. This giving an ideal solution to connect several Clicked()
signals to one slot.
An exclusive button group switches off all toggle buttons except the selected one. The group is by default non-exclusive
but its entire radio buttons will be mutually exclusive.
TGHButtonGroup and TGVButtonGroup are convenience classes that offer you a thin layer on top of TGButtonGroup.
TGHButtonGroup organize button widgets in a group of one horizontal row, TGVButtonGroup in a group of one column.
You can also organize buttons in rows and columns using the provided constructor and TGMatrixLayout.
Do not use a radio button to indicate the presence or absence of a state - use a check box instead.

To have the check button Event Status and to set it as selected we need to write:
TGCheckButton *estat = new TGCheckButton(p, "Event Status",1);
estat->SetState(kButtonDown);
Check boxes show the selected choices and any number of them can be selected, including none. Their proper usage is
for setting attributes, properties or values; also for data or choices that are discrete, small and fixed in number, not
easily remembered. With check boxes all alternatives are visible: it is easy to access and compare choices because they

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can all be seen together. Each option acts as a switch and can be either on or off. It is never changed in contents.
Checkboxes differ from radio buttons in that they permit selection of more than one alternative. Each box can be
switched on or off independently. These buttons can be used alone or grouped in sets. It is good practice to provide
default settings for check boxes whenever it is possible.

This can be done by:

SetState(EButtonState state)
The parameter state can be one of kButtonUp, kButtonDown, kButtonEngaged, kButtonDisabled.
Check boxes can be used to affect other controls. The contents of a list can, for example, be filtered by setting a check
box. In any case, use a check box only when both states of a choice are clearly opposite and unambiguous. If opposite
states are not clear, it is better to use two radio buttons.
Choice description, i.e. check box label, must be clear, meaningful, fully spelled out, and displayed in mixed-type text.
Whenever the use of a given button is inappropriate, for whatever reason, that button should be disabled:
button->SetState(kButtonDisabled);
Never make a button appear and disappear.
In general, option buttons should not offer more than eight choices. If the number of choices exceeds this maximum, it
is better to use a multiple selection list box.
The method IsToggleButton() gives the information whether a radio button or a check button is selected. An option
button can be set or unset via its method PSetState(EButtonState state).
The method HandleKey(event) is called when the defined hotkey is hit for any button. It sets the selected option
button or clicks the selected text button and invokes its defined action.

25.8.2

Text Entries

A TGTextEntry is a one-line text input widget. It contains text that is entered or modified through the keyboard. This
text may be displayed in different way according to the set echo mode. Users can control them bySetEchoMode(),
GetEchoMode() methods.
kNormal - display characters as they are entered (default);
kNoEcho - do not display anything;
kPassword - display asterisks instead of the characters actually entered.
The way in which typed characters are inserted in the text entry is defined by TGTextEntry::EInsertMode and can
be toggled by the Insert key:
kInsert - typed character are inserted (cursor has shape of short line)
kReplace - entered characters substitute already typed ones (cursor has the shape of filled rectangle).

There ate different text alignment modes defined by TGWidget::ETextJustification. They are valid until text fits
the frame width of the text entry field.

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

579

kTextLeft - left-side text alignment

kTextRight - right-side text alignment
kTextCenterX - center text alignment along x direction
kTextTop - top-side text alignment
kTextBottom - bottom-side text alignment
kTextCenterY - center text alignment along y direction

25.8.3

Number Entries

The TGNumberEntry class present number entry widgets. A number entry is a single-line field followed by two small,
vertically arranged up-down buttons. Its purpose is to make a selection by either scrolling through a small set of
meaningful predefined choices or typing numbers. The TGNumberFormat class contains enum types to specify the
numeric format. The number entry widget is based on TGTextEntry. It allows only numerical input. The widget
supports numerous formats including integers, hex numbers, real numbers, fixed fraction real and time/date formats.
It also allows to restrict input values to non-negative or positive numbers and to specify explicit limits.

The following styles are supported:

kNESInteger - integer number
kNESRealOne - real number with one digit (no exponent)
kNESRealTwo - real number with two digits (no exponent)

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

kNESRealThree - real number with three digits (no exponent)

kNESRealFour - real number with four digits (no exponent)
kNESReal - arbitrary real number
kNESDegree - angle in degree:minutes:seconds format
kNESMinSec - time in minutes:seconds format
kNESHourMin - time in hour:minutes format
kNESHourMinSec - time in hour:minutes:seconds format
kNESDayMYear - date in day/month/year format
kNESMDayYear - date in month/day/year format
kNESHex- hexadecimal number
The following attributes can be specified:
kNEAAnyNumber - any number is allowed
kNEANonNegative - only non-negative numbers are allowed
kNEAPositive - only positive numbers are allowed
Explicit limits can be specified individually:
kNELNoLimits - no limits
kNELLimitMin - lower limit only
kNELLimitMax - upper limit only
kNELLimitMinMax - both lower and upper limits
fN1 = new TGNumberEntry(parent, 0.005, 9,
TGNumberFormat::kNESRealThree,
TGNumberFormat::kNEAAnyNumber,
TGNumberFormat::kNELLimitMinMax,
-1.,1.);

kENTRY1,
//style
//input value filter
//specify limits
//limit values

TGNumberEntryField is a number entry input widget.

Nent = new TGNumberEntryField(hgrunf2, kNENT_ID, 0.6,
TGNumberFormat::kNESRealThree,
TGNumberFormat::kNEAAnyNumber);
TGNumberEntryField is a plain vanilla entry field, whereas TGNumberEntry adds two small buttons to increase and
decrease the numerical value in the field. The number entry widgets also support using the up and down cursor keys to
change the numerical values. The step size can be selected with control and shift keys:
small step (1 unit/factor of 3)
Shift medium step (10 units/factor of 10)
Controllarge step (100 units/factor of 30)
Shift+Controlhuge step (1000 units/factor of 100)
The steps are either linear or logarithmic. The default behavior is set when the entry field is created, but it can be
changed by pressing the alt key at the same time.

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

25.8.4

581

Menus

Menus provide a list of commands or options helping the user to select and to perform a task. The menu system classes
are TGMenuBar, TGMenuTitle, TGPopupMenu, and TGMenuEntry.
The TGMenuBar class implements a menu bar widget. It is used to specify and provide access to common and frequently
used application actions described in menu titles, implemented by TGMenuTitle class. The menu bar is the highest-level
of the menu system and it is a starting point for all interactions. Also, it is always visible and allows using the keyboard
equivalents. The geometry of the menu bar is automatically set to the parent widget, i.e. the menu bar automatically
resizes itself so that it has the same width as its parent (typically TGMainFrame).
The menu bar is as a container for its menus - objects of the type TGPopupMenu. Popup menus can appear in a menu
bar. They can be a sub-menu of another popup menu (cascading menus) or can be standalone (as a context menu).
They are made of one or more menu items choices. When displayed, the menu items are arranged in a vertical list.
Usually they correspond to actions (e.g. Open). These items can be labeled with text, graphics or a combination of both.
Each of them should have a character defined as its unique key for access. Grouped logically by their functionality,
they are separated visually by menu separators in groups. For example, The File menu is a common menu title for
tasks that apply to a file, as Open,Save,Close,Print. . .
// a popup menu
fMenuFile = new TGPopupMenu(gClient->GetRoot());
// adding menu entries
fMenuFile->AddEntry("&Open...",M_FILE_OPEN);
fMenuFile->AddEntry("&Save",M_FILE_SAVE);
fMenuFile->AddEntry("S&ave as...",M_FILE_SAVEAS);
fMenuFile->AddEntry("&Close", -1);
// adding separator
fMenuFile->AddSeparator();
// next group of menu entries
fMenuFile->AddEntry("&Print",M_FILE_PRINT);
fMenuFile->AddEntry("P&rint setup...",M_FILE_PRINTSETUP);
. . .
fMenuFile->AddSeparator();
fMenuFile->AddEntry("E&xit",M_FILE_EXIT);
First we create the File menu by creating an object of classTGPopupMenu and adding menu entries with AddEntry
method. Its first parameter is a hot string, the second - a menu ID. The ampersand character (&) denotes shortcut for
each menu entry; you can use the letter after it to manage the menu via keyboard. There are three groups of menu
entries separated visually by two separators.
You can add a sub-menu by using the method TGPopupMenu::AddPopup. Its first parameter is again a string, the
second one - a pointer to a TGPopupMenu object that will appear as a sub-menu when the menu entry will be selected.
The often used visual indicator of a sub- menu is a right-facing arrow to the right of the parent menu item. Generally
only one level of cascading menus is recommended and you should be careful in using more. Next lines show how to
create a menu bar with File,Test and Help menus:
// menu bar item layout hints
fMBItemLayout = new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsLeft,0,4,0,0);
fMBHelpLayout = new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsRight);
// menu bar
fMenuBar = new TGMenuBar(fMain,100,20,kHorizontalFrame);
// adding popup menus
fMenuBar->AddPopup("&File", fMenuFile, fMBItemLayout);
fMenuBar->AddPopup("&Test", fMenuTest, fMBItemLayout);
fMenuBar->AddPopup("&Help", fMenuHelp, fMBHelpLayout);
Using the method TGMenuBar::AddPopup we add three TGPopupMenu objects to the menu bar fMenuBar. The first
parameter is a hot string used by TGMenuTitle object. When you add a popup menu to the menu bar, a TGMenuTitle
object is created by the menu bar. It is the name of the popup menu. A menu title should have a one-word name

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

that reflects the purpose of all items within the corresponding popup menu. It should also have a defined character as
its unique access key. The second parameter is the popup menu we would like to add. The third one is an object of
TGLayoutHints type that defines how the menu title will be laid out in the menu bar. In our example the File and
Test menus will be laid out to the left of the menu bar with 4 pixels distance in between, the Help menu - will be laid
out to the right.
The menu classes provide a very flexible menu system: you can enable, disable, add or remove menu items dynamically.
The method HideEntry(menuID) hides the menu entry (the entry will not be shown in the popup menu). To
enable a hidden entry you should call EnableEntry(menuID) method. By default all entries are enabled. The method
DisableEntry(menuID) helps you to disable a menu entry - it will appear in sunken relieve. The DeleteEntry(menuID)
method will delete the specified entry from the menu.
A few words about the menu design. A menu should be kept consistent and simple. All related items need to be in a
popup menu. The cascade menus should be used judiciously. Try to limit them to one, maximum two levels.
There are some rules for naming the menu objects:
Define unique names within a menu
Use capitalized one-word names allowing the quick scan of the menu
Define unique access key for any menu item
Indicate by ellipsis (. . . ) after the title with no space when a menu item will pop-up a dialog box
The proper kind of graphical menus is a critical point to every application success and depends of three main factors:
number of presented items in the menu
how often the menu is used
how often the menu contents may change

25.8.5

Toolbar

A toolbar (TGToolBar) is a composite frame that contains TGPictureButtonobjects. It provides an easy and fast
access to most frequently used commands or options across multiple application screens. Also, it invokes easily a sub
application within an application. All its functions can be obtained by application menus. It is located horizontally at
the top of the main window just below the menu bar. All other subtask and sub-feature bars are positioned along sides
of window.
// toolbar icon files
const char *xpms[] = {
"x_pic.xpm",
"y_pic.xpm",
"z_pic.xpm",
0
};
// toolbar tool tip text
const char *tips[] = {
"X Settings",
"Y Settings",
"Z Settings",
0
};
// toolbar button separator
int separator = 5;

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

583

// structure containing toolbar button information

ToolBarData_t t[3];
// creation of a toolbar object as a child of main frame
TGToolBar *tb = new TGToolBar(fMain,520,80);
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
// filling the ToolBarData_t with information
t[i].fPixmap
= xpms[i];
// icon file
t[i].fTipText = tips[i];
// tool tip text
t[i].fStayDown = kFALSE;
// button behavior if clicked
t[i].fId = i+1;
// button id
t[i].fButton = NULL;
// button pointer
if (strlen(xpms[i]) == 0) {
separator = 5;
continue;
}
tb->AddButton(fMain,&t[i],separator);
separator = 0;

}
// adding the tool bar to the main frame
fMain->AddFrame(tb, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsExpandX));
// adding a horizontal line as a separator
TGHorizontal3DLine *lh = new TGHorizontal3DLine(fMain);
fMain->AddFrame(lh, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsExpandX));
To have a tool bar in your application you do not need to do anything special - only to create objects: a tool bar and
its picture buttons. This sample code creates the following three toolbar buttons:

First we need to complete a ToolBarData_t structure for each tool bar button before adding it to the tool bar. This
structure contains:
the icon file name filename.xpm
the tool tip text - a short help message explaining the button purpose
the Boolean variable defining the button behavior when is clicked
kFALSE - do not stay down
kTRUE - to stay down
the button ID
the button pointer (TGButton *) - should be NULL
We create an array *xpms[] containing the icon file names that will be used for a picture button creation. If you write
only the file names here ROOT will search these files in $ROOTSYS/icons directory. If the icon files are not there, you
should provide the full path name also. The array *tips[]contains the tool tip texts for buttons. The integer variable
separator is used to set the distance between two groups of toolbar buttons. It defines the amount of pixels to the left
for each button.
We create a tool bar object and add the buttons using the AddButton method. The variable separator helps us to
define no space between the buttons in a group (0), and 5 pixels extra-space before and after. All buttons added via
this method will be deleted by the toolbar. On return the TGButton field of the ToolBarData_t structure is filled in
(if the icon pixmap was valid). The first parameter is the window to which the button messages will be sent. Lastly, we
create an object of class TGHorizontal3DLine - a horizontal 3D line. It will separate the toolbar from the menu bar
because the layout hints we define as kLHintsTop | kLHintsExpandX.
It is user friendly to allow the possibility for the tool bar to be turned on or off (via a menu). If you use a single tool
bar, it should fill the complete width of its parent. When using more than one, you should also think about setting the
bar size to the end of the most right button. This way other bars can be displayed in the same row below the menu bar.

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Tool bar buttons should have equal size, meaningful and unique icons, and short meaningful tool tip text. The related
buttons should be grouped together by frequency or sequence of use, or importance. Potentially destructive buttons
must be separated from them to avoid accidental activation and potentially catastrophic results. Temporarily not
available items should be displayed grayed out.

25.8.6

List Boxes

The purpose of a list box is to display a collection of items from which single or multiple selection can be made. It
is always visible, having a scroll bar when the displayed area is not enough to show all items. The choices may be
mutually exclusive (a list box with single selection) or not mutually exclusive (a list box with multiple selection).

The proper usage of the list boxes is for selecting values, or objects, or setting attributes. You have to create them to
display 4 to 8 choices at one time (3 is a required minimum in case of lack of screen space). The list should contain not
more than 40 items accessible by scrolling view (vertical scroll bar). If more are required, you should provide a method
for using search criteria or scoping the options. The best list boxes use is for textual data or choices. They should be
wide enough to display fully all items. When it is not possible, break the long items with ellipsis and provide tool tip
that displays the full item text.
The list box widget is represented by TGListBox, TGLBContainer, TGLBEntry and TGTextLBEntry classes. Currently
entries are simple text strings (TGTextLBEntry). A TGListBox looks a lot like a TGCanvas. It has a TGViewPort
containing a TGLBContainer which contains the entries and it also has a vertical scrollbar which becomes visible if
there are more items than fit in the visible part of the container. The TGListBox is user callable. The other classes are
service classes of the list box. Here is a sample code showing how to create a list box with ten entries:
// list box widget containing 10 entries
int fFirstEntry = 0, fLastEntry = 10;
char tmp[20];
TGListBox *fListBox = new TGListBox(parent, 90);
for (i = fFirstEntry; i < fLastEntry; i++) {
sprintf(tmp, "Entry %i", i+1);
fListBox->AddEntry(tmp, i);
}
fListBox->Resize(150, 80);
parent->AddFrame(fListBox,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsLeft,
5, 5, 5, 5));
We create the list box widget passing the parent window pointer and giving an ID number. Next we add entries
with specified string and ID to the list box. Before adding the list box to its parent widget, it should be resized via
Resize(width, height) method. The list box width and height are in pixels. The default entry layout hints are
kLHintsExpandX | kLHintsTop. If you want to add entries using different ones, call the method:
TGListBox::AddEntry(TGLBEntry *lbe, TGLayoutHints *lhints);
It adds the specified TGLBEntry and TGLayoutHints to the list box. There are several methods providing a flexible
entry manipulation: you can insert, add or remove list box items dynamically. The list box entry IDs are used in these
methods and also in event processing routines. In our example the integer variables fFirstEntry and fLastEntry
contain the information about the first and last entry IDs. You can add or remove a list box entry using them in the
following way:
// adding an entry
fLastEntry++;
sprintf(tmp, "Entry %i", fLastEntry);
fListBox->AddEntry(tmp, fLastEntry);
fListBox->MapSubwindows();

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

585

fListBox->Layout();
. . .
// removing an entry
if (fFirstEntry < fLastEntry) {
fListBox->RemoveEntry(fFirstEntry);
fListBox->Layout();
fFirstEntry++;
}
A single-selection list box is used for selecting only one item in a list.
A multiple-selection list box permits selection of more than one item. The selected choices should be visible - you have
several choices to do this:
to mark selected choices with a check mark or highlight them
to provide a summary list box to the right of the list box, containing the selected choices
to provide a display-only text control indicating the number of selected choices (its position should be justified
upper-right above the list box)
if the actions Select All or Deselect All must be quickly or frequently performed, use command buttons

25.8.7

Combo Boxes

A combo box is as single-selection list box that shows only the currently selected entry and a prompt button displayed
as a downward arrow. The prompt button provides a visual cue that a list box is hidden. Its main advantage is
consuming of quite a bit of screen space. When the user clicks on it, a list pops up, from which a new choice can be
made. After a new item is chosen the combo box folds again showing the new selection.

The combo box widget is represented by the user callable class TGComboBox. The class TGComboBoxPopup is a service
class. The combo box constructor is very similar to the list box one. The first parameter is a parent widget pointer
again, the second - an integer value that will be used as combo box ID. The method used for adding entries is very
similar to the list box method we used before. The method Select(entryID) sets the current combo box entry.
char tmp[20];
// combo box layout hints
fLcombo = new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop | kLHintsLeft,5,5,5,5);
// combo box widget
TGComboBox *fCombo = new TGComboBox(parent,100);
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
sprintf(tmp, "Entry%i", i+1);
fCombo->AddEntry(tmp, i+1);
}
fCombo->Resize(150, 20);
// Entry3 is selected as current
fCombo->Select(2);
parent->AddFrame(fCombo, fLcombo);
You have the same flexibility to add, insert or remove entries. As with list boxes you can retrieve the information
for currently selected item via GetSelected or GetSelectedEntry methods. The first one returns the entry ID, the
second - the current entry pointer (TGLBEntry *).

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25.8.8

CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

Sliders

A slider is a scale with an indicator (slider) that you can drag to choose a value from a predefined range. It may be
oriented horizontally or vertically. In both cases it provides an excellent indication of where a value exists within a
range of values.

The class TGHSlider represents the horizontal slider; TGVSlider - the vertical one. Both inherit from the base class
TGSlider that creates the main slider parameters: the range of values within a value can be selected; the indicator
type; the tick mark scale. Using its methods SetRange, SetPosition and SetScale you can set these parameters. To
retrieve the set slider value you can call GetPosition method.
Next sample code creates a horizontal slider hslider with a tick mark of type kSlider1. Its width is 150 pixels, and
its scale is placed down (kScaleDownRight). The last parameter in the TGHSlider constructor is the slider ID. It
will be used for event processing. The methods SetRange and SetPosition set the range and the current tick mark
position of the slider.
hslider = new TGHSlider(parent,150,kSlider1|kScaleDownRight,sID);
hslider->SetRange(0,50);
hslider->SetPosition(39);
Slider values can be set by using the mouse to drag the slider across the scale until the desired value is reached. Another
way is to click in the slider trough instead of dragging.

25.8.8.1

Double Slider

Double slider widgets allow easy selection of a min and a max value out of a range. They can be either horizontal or vertical oriented. There is a choice of different types of tick marks: kDoubleScaleNo, kScaleDownRight,
kDoubleScaleBoth.
To change the min value you should press the left mouse button near to the left (TGDoubleHSlider) or bottom
(TGDoubleHSlider) edge of the slider. Alternatively, to change the max value you need to press the mouse near to the
right (TGDoubleHSlider) or top (TGDoubleHSlider) edge of the slider. To change both values simultaneously you
should press the left mouse button near to the center of the slider.

TGDoubleSlider is an abstract base class that creates the main slider parameters. The concrete class to use for a
vertical double slider is TGDoubleVSlider and TGDoubleHSlider for a horizontal one. The double slider constructors
are similar to those of the other sliders. If you set kDoubleScaleNo as a scale parameter no scale will be drawn. Here
is an example:
vDslider = new TGDoubleVSlider(p,100,kDoubleScaleNo,dsliderID);
vDslider->SetRange(-10,10);

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

25.8.9

587

Triple Slider

The new TGTripleHSlider and TGTripleVSlider classes inherit from the double slider widgets and allow easy selection
of a range and a pointer value. The pointer position can be constrained into the selected range or can be relative to it.
To change the slider range value press the left mouse button near to the left/right (top/bottom) edges of the slider. To
change both values simultaneously press the mouse button near to the slider center. To change pointer value press the
mouse on the pointer and drag it to the desired position.
fSlider = new TGTripleHSlider(parent,100,kDoubleScaleBoth,kSLD_ID,
kHorizontalFrame);
parent->AddFrame(fSlider,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX,5,5,5,5));
fSlider->SetConstrained(kTRUE);
fSlider->SetRange(rmin, rmax);
fSlider->SetPosition(pmin, pmax);
fSlider ->SetPointerPosition(pvalue);

25.8.10

Progress Bars

A progress bar is a widget that shows that an operation is in progress and how much time is left. It is a long rectangular
bar, initially empty, that fills with a color as a process is being performed. The filled-in area indicates the percentage
of the process that has been completed. You should use this widget for waits exceeding one minute. For a very time
consuming operation it is better to break the operation into subtasks and provide a progress bar for each of them.

A progress bar may be oriented horizontally or vertically. The horizontally oriented progress bar fills with a color
from left to right; the vertically oriented - from bottom to top. A percent complete message provides an indication of
the completed part of the process. It is a good practice to include some descriptive text of the process to keep users
informed and entertained while they are waiting for process completion.
The picture below shows the progress bars you can create using the classes TGProgressBar, TGHProgressBar, and
TGHProgressBar.
// vertical frame with three horizontal progressive bars
TGVerticalFrame *vframe = new TGVerticalFrame(fMain, 10, 10);
fHProg1 = new TGHProgressBar(vframe,TGProgressBar::kStandard,300);
fHProg1->ShowPosition();
fHProg1->SetBarColor("yellow");
fHProg2 = new TGHProgressBar(vframe,TGProgressBar::kFancy,300);
fHProg2->SetBarColor("lightblue");
fHProg2->ShowPosition(kTRUE,kFALSE,"%.0f events");
fHProg3 = new TGHProgressBar(vframe,TGProgressBar::kStandard,300);
fHProg3->SetFillType(TGProgressBar::kBlockFill);
vframe->AddFrame(fHProg1,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsLeft|
kLHintsExpandX,5,5,5,10));
vframe->AddFrame(fHProg2,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsLeft|
kLHintsExpandX,5,5,5,10));
vframe->AddFrame(fHProg3,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop|kLHintsLeft|

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

vframe->Resize(200, 200);

25.8.11

kLHintsExpandX,5,5,5,10));

Static Widgets

The classes TGLabel and TGIcon show some information - text or graphics. The line below creates a label object. The
syntax is very simple: you specify the parent widget and a string object holding the desired text.
TGLabel *label = new TGLabel(parentWidget, "Label's string");
Next sample creates an icon object. First we create an object of type TGPicture. The TGPicture objects are never
created directly by the application code. We call TGClient telling it the pixmaps file name to create a TGPicture
object and, in turn, it will return a pointer to the created object. If the pixmap file cannot be found the returned
pointer will be NULL. As usual, the first parameter of a TGIcon constructor is the parent frame. The second one is the
TGPicture object holding the pixmap we want to show. Last two parameters define the width and height of pixmap in
pixels. In the end we add the created icon object to its parent.
// icon widget
const TGPicture *ipic=(TGPicture *)gClient->GetPicture("leaf.xpm");
TGIcon *icon = new TGIcon(parent,ipic,40,40);
parent->AddFrame(icon,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft|kLHintsBottom,
1, 15, 1, 1));
The TGPicture objects are cached by TGClient in order to keep the resource usage low and to improve the efficiency
of the client-server windowing systems. TGClient will check whether a pixmap with the same name was already loaded
before to register a new picture object. If it finds it, it will return a pointer to the existing object. Also, it will increase
the usage counter for the object.
All TGPicture objects are managed by the class TGPicturePool. TGClient creates an object of this type upon
initialization. Normally your application program does not deal directly with this class because all manipulations go
through TGClient class.
Once you have finished with using of the TGPicture object, you should call the method TGClient::FreePicture(const
TGPicture *pic) to free it. The usage counter of the picture object will be decreased and when it reaches zero - the
TGPicture object will be deleted.

25.8.12

Status Bar

The status bar widget is used to display some information about the current application state: what is being viewed in
the window, a descriptive message about selected objects, or other no interactive information. It may also be used to
explain highlighted menu and tool bar items.

An application can only have one status bar at a time.

There is nothing special to create a status bar in your application. You should decide how many fields you need to
present the current application state to the user. By default a status bar consists of one part. Multiple parts can be
created by SetParts method. Its first parameter is an array of integers that give the percentage size of each part. The
second parameter gives the number of status bar parts. Using SetText method you can set a text for any part.
// status bar
Int_t parts[] = {33, 10, 10, 47};
fStatusBar = new TGStatusBar(fMain,50,10,kHorizontalFrame);

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

589

fStatusbar->SetParts(parts,4);
fMain->AddFrame(fStatusBar, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsBottom |
kLHintsLeft | kLHintsExpandX, 0, 0, 2, 0));
. . .
// fill status bar fields with information; selected is the object
// below the cursor; atext contains pixel coordinates info
fStatusBar->SetText(selected->GetTitle(),0);
fStatusBar->SetText(selected->GetName(),1);
fStatusBar->SetText(atext,2);
fStatusBar->SetText(selected->GetObjectInfo(px,py),3);

25.8.13

Splitters

A window can be split into two parts (panes) by using a horizontal or a vertical splitter. A horizontal splitter resizes
the frames above and below of it; a vertical splitter resizes the frames left and right of it.

This widget is represented by TGSplitter, TGHSplitter, and TGVSplitter classes. Currently there is no special
graphics representation for splitter widgets; only the cursor changes when crossing a splitter.
There is nothing special to create a splitter - two lines of code only:
TGHSplitter *hsplitter = new TGHSplitter(fVf);
hsplitter->SetFrame(fH1,kTRUE);
You call a horizontal TGHSplitter or a vertical TGVSplitter splitter constructor and after you set the frame to be
resized via SetFrame method. In spite of that, there are rules to be followed when you create a splitter in your
application.
For a horizontal splitter they are:
the parent of a horizontal splitter must inherit from TGCompoziteFrame and must have a vertical layout
the above resized frame must have kFixedHeight option set
use layout hints kLHintsTop | kLHintsExpandX when adding the above resized frame to its parent
use layout hints kLHintsBottom | kLHintsExpandX | kLHintsExpandY when adding the bottom resized frame
to its parent
set the above frame to be resized using SetFrame method; the second parameter should be kTRUE
You can see these rules in the code below:
// Create horizontal splitter
fVf = new TGVerticalFrame(fMain,10,10);
fH1 = new TGHorizontalFrame(fVf,10,10, kFixedHeight);
fH2 = new TGHorizontalFrame(fVf,10,10);
fFtop = new TGCompositeFrame(fH1,10,10, kSunkenFrame);
fFbottom = new TGCompositeFrame(fH2,10,10,kSunkenFrame);
fLtop = new TGLabel(fFtop,"Top Frame");
fLbottom = new TGLabel(fFbottom,"Bottom Frame");

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CHAPTER 25. WRITING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

fFtop->AddFrame(fLtop, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft |

kLHintsCenterY,3,0,0,0));
fFbottom->AddFrame(fLbottom, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft |
kLHintsCenterY,3,0,0,0));
fH1->AddFrame(fFtop, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop |
kLHintsExpandY | kLHintsExpandX,0,0,1,2));
fH2->AddFrame(fFbottom,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop |
kLHintsExpandY | kLHintsExpandX,0,0,1,2));
fH1->Resize(fFtop->GetDefaultWidth(),fH1->GetDefaultHeight()+20);
fH2->Resize(fFbottom->GetDefaultWidth(),fH2->GetDefaultHeight()+20);
fVf->AddFrame(fH1, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop | kLHintsExpandX));
TGHSplitter *hsplitter = new TGHSplitter(fVf);
hsplitter->SetFrame(fH1,kTRUE);
fVf->AddFrame(hsplitter,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop |
kLHintsExpandX));
fVf->AddFrame(fH2, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsBottom |
kLHintsExpandX | kLHintsExpandY));
For a vertical splitter the rules are:
the parent of a vertical splitter must inherit from TGCompoziteFrame and must have a horizontal layout
the left resized frame must have kFixedWidth option set
use layout hints kLHintsLeft | kLHintsExpandY when adding the left resized frame to the parent
use layout hints kLHintsRight|kLHintsExpandX |kLHintsExpandY when adding the right resized frame to the
parent
set the left frame to be resized using SetFrame method; the second parameter should be kTRUE
Next is a sample code for a vertical splitter:
// Create vertical splitter
fHf = new TGHorizontalFrame(fMain, 50, 50);
fV1 = new TGVerticalFrame(fHf, 10, 10, kFixedWidth);
fV2 = new TGVerticalFrame(fHf, 10, 10);
fFleft = new TGCompositeFrame(fV1, 10, 10, kSunkenFrame);
fFright = new TGCompositeFrame(fV2, 10, 10, kSunkenFrame);
fLleft = new TGLabel(fFleft, "Left Frame");
fLright = new TGLabel(fFright, "Right Frame");
fFleft->AddFrame(fLleft, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft |
kLHintsCenterY,3,0,0,0));
fFright->AddFrame(fLright, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft |
kLHintsCenterY,3,0,0,0));
fV1->AddFrame(fFleft,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop |
kLHintsExpandX | kLHintsExpandY,0,0,5,5));
fV2->AddFrame(fFright,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsTop |
kLHintsExpandX | kLHintsExpandY, 0, 0, 5, 5));
fV1->Resize(fFleft->GetDefaultWidth()+20, fV1->GetDefaultHeight());
fV2->Resize(fFright->GetDefaultWidth(), fV1->GetDefaultHeight());
fHf->AddFrame(fV1,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft | kLHintsExpandY));
splitter = new TGVSplitter(fHf,2,30);
splitter->SetFrame(fV1, kTRUE);
fHf->AddFrame(splitter,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsLeft |
kLHintsExpandY));
fHf->AddFrame(fV2,new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsRight | kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY));

25.8. WIDGETS IN DETAIL

25.8.14

591

TGCanvas, ViewPort and Container

When all display information cannot be presented in a window, the additional information must be found and made
visible. A TGCanvas is a frame containing two scrollbars (horizontal and vertical) and a viewport (TGViewPort).
The viewport acts as the window through which we look at the contents of the container frame. A TGContainer
frame manages a content area. It can display and control a hierarchy of multi-column items, and provides the ability
to add new items at any time. By default it doesnt map sub-windows, which are items of the container. In this
case sub-window must provide DrawCopy method, see for example TGLVEntry class. It is also possible to use option
which allows mapping sub-windows. This option has much slower drawing speed in case of more than 1000 items
placed in container. To activate this option the fMapSubwindows data member must be set to kTRUE (for example
TTVLVContainer class).
A scroll bar only is available when scrolling is necessary. It consists of three elements: a slider box and two directional
scroll arrows (buttons).
fCanvas = new TGCanvas(parent, w, h);
fContents = new TGListTree(fCanvas, kHorizontalFrame);
fContents->Associate(parent);
parent->AddFrame(fCanvas, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY));
// or
fCanvas = new TGCanvas(parent, w, h);
fContents = new TGListTree(fCanvas->GetViewPort(),100,100,
kHorizontalFrame);
fContents->SetCanvas(fCanvas);
fContents->Associate(parent);
fCanvas->SetContainer(fContents);
parent->AddFrame(fCanvas, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY));
The TGContainer class can handle the following keys:
F7, Ctnrl-Factivate a search dialog
F3, Ctnrl-Gcontinue to search
Endgo to the last item in container
Homego to the first item in container
PageUpnavigate up
PageDownnavigate down
arrow keysnavigate inside container
Return/Enterequivalent to double click of the mouse button
Contrl-Aselect all items
Spaceinvert selection.

25.8.15

Embedded Canvas

This class creates a TGCanvas in which a well known ROOT TCanvas is embedded. A pointer to the TCanvas can be
obtained via the GetCanvas() member function.
fEc1 = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas("ec1",fParent,100,100);
fParent ->AddFrame(fEc1, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY));
fEc2 = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas("ec2",fParent,100,100);
fParent ->AddFrame(fEc2, new TGLayoutHints(kLHintsExpandX |
kLHintsExpandY));
fEc1->GetCanvas()->SetBorderMode(0);
fEc2->GetCanvas()->SetBorderMode(0);
fEc1->GetCanvas()->SetBit(kNoContextMenu);
fEc1->GetCanvas()->Connect("ProcessedEvent(Int_t,Int_t,Int_t,TObject*)",
"MyClass", this, "HandleMyCanvas(Int_t,Int_t,Int_t,TObject*)");

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To embed a canvas derived from a TCanvas do the following:

TRootEmbeddedCanvas *embed = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas(0, p, w, h);
// note name must be 0, not null string ""
Int_t wid = embed->GetCanvasWindowId();
TCanvas *myc = new TCanvas("myname",10,10,wid);
embed->AdoptCanvas(myc);
// the TCanvas is adopted by the embedded canvas and will be
// destroyed by it

25.9

The ROOT Graphics Editor (GED)

Everything drawn in a ROOT canvas is an object. There are classes for all objects, and they fall into hierarchies. In
addition, the ROOT has fully cross-platform GUI classes and provides all standard components for an application
environment with common look and feel. The object-oriented, event-driven programming model supports the modern
signals/slots communication mechanism. It handles user interface actions and allows total independence of interacting
objects and classes. This mechanism uses the ROOT dictionary information and the CINT the C++ Interpreter to
connect signals to slots methods.
Therefore, all necessary elements for an object-oriented editor design are in place. The editor complexity can be reduced
by splitting it into discrete units of so-called object editors. Any object editor provides an object specific GUI. The
main purpose of the ROOT graphics editor is the organization of the object editors appearance and the task sequence
between them.

25.9.1

Object Editors

Every object editor follows a simple naming convention: to have as a name the object class name concatenated with
Editor (e.g. for TGraph objects the object editor is TGraphEditor). Thanks to the signals/slots communication
mechanism and to the method DistanceToPrimitive() that computes a distanceto an object from the mouse
position, it was possible to implement a signal method of the canvas that says which is the selected object and to which
pad it belongs. Having this information the graphics editor loads the corresponding object editor and the user interface

25.9. THE ROOT GRAPHICS EDITOR (GED)

593

is ready for use. This way after a click on axisthe axis editor is active; a click on a pad activates the pad editor,
etc.
The algorithm in use is simple and is based on the object-oriented relationship and communication. When the user
activates the editor, according to the selected object <obj> in the canvas it looks for a class name <obj>Editor. For
that reason, the correct naming is very important. If a class with this name is found, the editor verifies that this class
derives from the base editor class TGedFrame. If all checks are satisfied, the editor makes an instance of the object
editor. Then, it scans all object base classes searching the corresponding object editors. When it finds one, it makes an
instance of the base class editor too.
Once the object editor is in place, it sets the user interface elements according to the objects status. After that, it is
ready to interact with the object following the user actions.
The graphics editor gives an intuitive way to edit objects in a canvas with immediate feedback. Complexity of some
object editors is reduced by hiding GUI elements and revealing them only on users requests.
An object in the canvas is selected by clicking on it with the left mouse button. Its name is displayed on the top of the
editor frame in red color. If the editor frame needs more space than the canvas window, a vertical scroll bar appears
for easy navigation.

Figure 25.4: Histogram, pad and axis editors

25.9.2

Editor Design Elements

The next rules describe the path to follow when creating your own object editor that will be recognized and loaded by
the graphics editor in ROOT, i.e. it will be included as a part of it.
(a) Derive the code of your object editor from the base editor class TGedFrame.
(b) Keep the correct naming convention: the name of the object editor should be the object class name concatenated
with the word Editor.
(c) Provide a default constructor.
(d) Use the signals/slots communication mechanism for event processing.
(e) Implement the virtual method SetModel(TObject *obj) where all widgets are set with the current objects
attributes. This method is called when the editor receives a signal from the canvas saying that an object is the
selected.
(f) Implement all necessary slots and connect them to appropriate signals that GUI widgets send out. The GUI
classes in ROOT are developed to emit signals whenever they change a state that others might be interested. As
we noted already, the signals/slots communication mechanism allows total independence of the interacting classes.
25.9.2.1

Creation and Destruction

GED-frames are constructed during traversal of class hierarchy of the selected object, executed from method
TGedEditor::SetModel(). When a new object of a different class is selected, the unneeded GED-frames are cached in
memory for potential reuse. The frames are deleted automatically when the editor is closed.

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Note: A deep cleanup is assumed for all frames put into the editor. This implies:
do not share the layout-hints among GUI components;
do not delete child widgets in the destructor as this is done automatically.
25.9.2.2

Using Several Tabs

Sometimes you might need to use several tabs to organize properly your class-editor. Each editor tab is a resource
shared among all the class-editors. Tabs must be created from the constructor of your editor-class by using the method:
TGVerticalFrame* TGedFrame::CreateEditorTabSubFrame(const Text_t *name),
It returns a pointer to a new tab container frame ready for use in your class. If you need to hide/show this frame
depending on the objects status, you should store it in a data member. See for examples: TH1Editor, TH2Editor.
25.9.2.3

Base-Class Editors Control

Full control over base-class editors can be achieved by re-implementing virtual method void TGedFrame::ActivateBaseClassEdito
*cl). It is called during each compound editor rebuild and the default implementation simply offers all base-classes to
the publishing mechanism.
To prevent inclusion of a base-class into the compound editor, call:
void TGedEditor::ExcludeClassEditor(TClass* class, Bool_t recurse)
Pointer to the compound GED-editor is available in TGedFrames data-member:
TGedEditor *fGedEditor
Ordering of base-class editor frames follows the order of the classes in the class hierarchy. This order can be changed
by modifying the value of TGedFrames data member Int_t fPriority. The default value is 50; smaller values move
the frame towards to the top. This priority should be set in the editor constructor.

25.10

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop support is introduced for Linux (via Xdnd - the drag and drop protocol for X window system) and for
Windows (via Clipboard). Users can selects something in ROOT with a mouse press, drags it (moves the mouse while
keeping the mouse button pressed) and releases the mouse button someplace else. When the button is released the
selected data is dropped at that location. This way, a histogram from an opened ROOT file in the browser can be
dragged to any TCanvas.

A script file from the browser can be dropped to a TGTextView or TGTextEdit widget in TGTextEditor.
On Linux, it is possible to drag objects between ROOT and an external application. For example to drag a macro file
from the ROOT browser to the Kate editor. On Windows, drag and drop works only within a single ROOT application
(for the time being), but works also from Windows Explorer to TCanvas ot to TGTextEdit.

25.10. DRAG AND DROP

25.10.1

595

Drag and Drop Data Class

The Drag and Drop Cata class TDNDdata is used to describe and handle the transferred data during an drag and drop
operation. It consists of:
Atom_t fDataType: atom describing the data type.
Atom_t fAction: atom describing the action (copy, move, link); currently, only copy is used.
void *fData: actual data (buffer).
Int_t fDataLength: length (size) of data buffer.
Currently two types are recognized by ROOT: application/root for ROOT objects and text/uri-list for path/filenames
(uri comes from Unique Resource Identifier). A text/uri-list is a standard file listing format for drag and drop that
specifies a list of files (each file per line). Each line ends with a carriage return and newlinern. File names have to be
valid, url-encoded URIs as shown below:
file://localhost/usr/bin/opera or file://localhost/c:/programs/myfile.txt
file://server/data/software.xml or http://root.cern.ch/root/images/ftpstats.gif
The atoms and the drag and drop manager (TGDNDManager), are created at the main application creation time (class
TGMainFrame).
Setting a Drag Source - first, create and fill data:
TH1F *h = new TH1F("h","h",1000,-3,3);
h->FillRandom("gaus",50000);
TDNDdata data;
TBufferFile *buf = new TBufferFile(TBuffer::kWrite);
buf->WriteObject(h);
data.fData = buf->Buffer();
data.fDataLength = buf->Length();
data.fDataType = gVirtualX->InternAtom("application/root");
Then, set a GUI widget as DND Source, and associate the data. Source widget can be any class inheriting from
TGFrame.
SourceWidget=new TGIcon(this,gClient->GetPicture("f1_s.xpm"),32,32);
SourceWidget->SetDNDSource(kTRUE);
SourceWidget->SetDNDdata(&data);
Setting A Drop Target - set the widget as DND Target, and set the DND types it must be aware of: as SourceWidget,
TargetWidget can be any class inheriting from TGFrame.
TargetWidget = new TRootEmbeddedCanvas("Target", this, 700, 400);
TargetWidget->SetDNDTarget(kTRUE);
gVirtualX->SetDNDAware(TargetWidget->GetId(),
gDNDManager->GetTypeList());
gDNDManager->GetTypeList() returns the list of types recognized by ROOT.
Note that the Widget may receive drag and drop messages with drop-data it does not understand, and thus it should
only accept drops of the proper type.

25.10.2

Handling Drag and Drop Events

Once a widget has been set as DND Target, it has to handle Drag and Drop events.
Atom_t HandleDNDenter(Atom_t *typelist) - this method is used to handle a drag operation entering the widget.
The typelist parameter is the list of types the data contains. If the list contains one type the widget understands, it
should return this type to notify the manager that the drop would be accepted, i.e. :

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for (int i = 0; typelist[i] != kNone; ++i) {

if (typelist[i] == gVirtualX->InternAtom("application/root"))
// accept "application/root" DND type
return typelist[i];
}
// other type not accepted
return kNone;
method
Atom_t HandleDNDposition(Int_t x,Int_t y,Atom_t action,Int_t xroot, Int_t yroot)- this
should be used to handle the drag position in widget coordinates (x,y) or in root coordinates (xroot,yroot).
// get the pad over which the cursor is
TPad *pad = fCanvas->Pick(x, y, 0);
if (pad) {
pad->cd();
gROOT->SetSelectedPad(pad);
}
return action;
Bool_t HandleDNDdrop(TDNDdata *data) - this is the place where the widget actually receives the
data. First, check the data format (see description of **TDNDData** - Drag and Drop data class) and
then use it accordingly. In the case of ROOT object, here is an example of how to retrieve it:
if (data->fDataType == gVirtualX->InternAtom("application/root")) {
TBufferFile buf(TBuffer::kRead, data->fDataLength,
(void *)data->fData);
buf.SetReadMode();
TObject *obj = (TObject *)buf.ReadObjectAny(TObject::Class());
if (obj->IsA()->GetMethodAllAny("Draw"))
obj->Draw();
}
In the case of URI/list, the use is:
if (data->fDataType == gVirtualX->InternAtom("text/uri-list")) {
TString sfname((char *)data->fData);
TUrl uri(sfname.Data());
if (sfname.EndsWith(".jpg")
TImage *img = TImage::Open(uri.GetFile());
}
Bool_t HandleDNDleave() is used if a specific action has to be performed when the drag operation leaves the widget.

Chapter 26

ROOT/Qt Integration Interfaces

26.1

Qt-ROOT Implementation of TVirtualX Interface (BNL)

Qt-ROOT implementation of TVirtualX (Qt-layer) is to provide a convenient way of creating the complex end-user
applications that require both Qt GUI and ROOT features. The primary goal is to allow embedding the ROOT
classes like TCanvas and TPad into the arbitrary Qt widgets and using it seamlessly with other Qt-based components
and Qt-based third party libraries. TGQt ROOT class, a Qt-based implementation of TVirtualX interface is an optional
ROOT component. The implementation was developed and is supported by the collaboration at Brookhaven National
Laboratory.

26.1.1

Installation

26.1.1.1

Qt Package Installation and Configuration

ROOT Qt-layer requires a good properly configured Qt package version. To install it, one has to:
1. Make sure the adequate version of Qt system. Even though Qt ROOT implementation theoretically can work with
any Qt release version 3.xx, we found the earlier versions of the package not reliable and recommend installing
the Qt version 3.3 or higher. The package was tested against Qt 4.3 also (Qt 4.3 and higher versions contain
some features introduced by TrollTech to back the ROOT applications).
2. Check the Qt package configuration and its compilation options are consistent with those used to compile and
install ROOT alone. For Qt 3.x, we recommend configuring Qt as follows:
./configure -thread -no-xft -qt-gif -no-exeptions
I.e. one is required to build the Qt version with the thread support and with no exceptions. Generally, you are
free to select the remaining Qt options like the types of the different image formats provided etc. You can check the Qt
installation parameters by looking up the file:
more $QTDIR/config.status
No special flag for Qt 4.3 build and higher have been set yet to make QtRoot working.
3. Attention. The Qt port for 4.3 and above versions should be considered as an experimental one. Most examples
in this manual are for Qt version 3.3 and they need to be adjusted for Qt 4.3.x.

26.1.1.2

Qt-layer Installation

The Qt-layer is included into the ROOT distribution kit. To install it one has to configure ROOT. The installation
does not change any other components of the ROOT package. It produces several extra-shared libraries that may be
dynamically loaded into the ROOT session at start time with the regular ROOT plug-in mechanism to replace the
native GUI interface. To install Qt-layer one should follow the ROOT installation procedure providing the QTDIR
environment variable points to the proper version of Qt system. Many Linux flavors come with the pre-installed Qt.
May sure you are not going to pick the obsolete version.
597

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%
%
%
%

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

cd root
./configure <target> --enable-qt
gmake
gmake install

26.1.1.3

Qt Main C++ Classes CINT Dictionary

The ROOT CINT dictionary allows to call the Qt main classes directly from the ROOT command prompt is an
optional component and it is not created during the Qt-layer installation. To build / re-build the Qt main classes
ROOT dictionary one can invoke the make
% cd root
% gmake qtcint
The dictionary contains so-called Qt main classes as defined by TrollTech on the Web page: http://doc.trolltech.com/3.
3/mainclasses.html. The dictionary is NOT loaded automatically and it should be loaded by the user ROOT macro as
needed.
26.1.1.4

Qt-layer Configuration

Any ROOT-based application should be configured to use Qt-layer using ROOT Environment Setup. The correct
QTDIR environment variable to locate the proper version of Qt package should be provided as well. There are several
ways to customize the ROOT setup environment to activate Qt-layer.
Look up at $ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc. Find there the definition of Gui.Backend and Gui.Factory:
# GUI specific settings
Gui.Backend:
Gui.Factory:

native
native

Now you can either edit the file $ROOTSYS/etc/system.rootrc or provide your own custom .rootrc redefine the
options:
# GUI specific settings
Gui.Backend:
Gui.Factory:

qt
qt

If you need to switch often from native layer to qt one back and force you may find convenient to define the type of
GUI using some external environment variable defining options indirectly:
# GUI specific settings
Gui.Backend:
Gui.Factory:

$(GUI)
$(GUI)

The last step is to make sure your LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable point to the $QTDIR/lib directory. Optionally, you can
define the Qt Widget look and feel using the option Gui.Style option. The number of different styles to choose
from is defined by your local Qt installation. Usually you can choose from window, motif, cde, motifplus,
platinum, sgi, compact, windowsxp, aqua or macintosh. For example, the option defined below will force
the windows look and feel on any platform.
# Qt GUI style setting
Gui.Style:

windows

The default style is so-called native style. That is defined by the current application environment.

26.1.2

Applications

As soon as you customize ROOT Environment Setup to use Qt-layer you can start any ROOT session or stand-alone
ROOT-based applications and . . . even though your applications will be using the Qt package you should not see any
difference. This merely means if the only thing you want to do is just use ROOT or some ROOT-based stand-alone
application as is then you probably do not need to switch to Qt-layer and should skip this section entirely. It is
recommended you communicate the lower graphical layer via the generic TVirtualX interface provided by the global
gVirtualX .

26.1. QT-ROOT IMPLEMENTATION OF TVIRTUALX INTERFACE (BNL)

26.1.2.1

599

Qt-based ROOT Applications

ROOT application is the application that either instantiates the ROOT TApplication / TRint class and enters
the ROOT event loop or is the shared library that can be loaded into the already running ROOT application via
TSystem::Load method or via ROOT plug-in mechanism. You must neither initialize Qt QApplication nor enter the
Qt event loop. Qt-layer takes care about these two steps. What you need is to instantiate the Qt object of your choice
and to keep playing ROOT rules.
#include <TRint.h>
#include <qpushbutton.h>
int main( int argc, char **argv ) {
// Create an interactive ROOT application
TRint *theApp = new TRint("Rint", &argc, argv);
// Create Qt object within ROOT application
QPushButton hello( "Hello world!", 0 );
hello.resize( 100, 30 );
hello.show();
// and enter the ROOT event loop...
theApp->Run();
}
Under UNIX, you can build the stand-alone ROOT HelloWord Qt-based application with the command
g++ `root-config --cflags --glibs` -I$QTDIR/include -L$QTDIR/lib
-lqt-mt HelloWord.cxx -o HelloWord
26.1.2.2

ROOT-based Qt Applications

Qt application is the application that either instantiates the Qt QApplication and enters the Qt event loop or is the
shared library that can be loaded into the already running Qt application via Qt plug-in mechanism. You must neither
initialize ROOT TApplication / TRint nor enter the ROOT event loop. Qt-layer takes care about both of these steps.
What you need is just to instantiate the embedded and regular ROOT objects of your choice and keep playing Qt rules.
ROOT-based Qt applications treat the native style of the ROOT Gui.Backend and Gui.Factory parameters as qt.
For example,
// Minimal ROOT based Qt example
#include <qapplication.h>
#include "TGraph.h"
#include "TQtWidget.h"
#include "TCanvas.h"
int main( int argc, char **argv ) {

QApplication *app = new QApplication(argc, argv);

TQtWidget *MyWidget= new TQtWidget(0,"MyWidget");
// Create any other Qt-widget here
MyWidget->show();
MyWidget->GetCanvas()->cd();
TGraph *mygraph;
float x[3] = {1,2,3};
float y[3] = {1.5, 3.0, 4.5};
mygraph = new TGraph(3,x,y);
mygraph->SetMarkerStyle(20);
mygraph->Draw("AP");
MyWidget->GetCanvas()->Update();
app->exec();
return 0;

The code above can be converted into the running application using qmake, TrollTech provided, build utility. As soon
as you have qmake project file HelloCanvas.pro:

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CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

# Automatically generated by qmake (1.07a) Sun Jun 26 02:03:47 2005

# Adjusted by hand to include $ROOTSYS/include/rootcint.pri file
TEMPLATE = app thread
CONFIG -= moc
INCLUDEPATH += .
# include "by hand" the qmake include file from
# ROOT distribution to define
# 1. include path to the ROOT system header files
# 2. the list of the ROOT shared libraries to link
#
Qt application against of
# 3. qmake rules to generate ROOT/Cint dictionaries
include("$(ROOTSYS)/include/rootcint.pri")
# Input
SOURCES += HelloCanvas.cxx
You can get the running ROOT-based Qt application with the Unix shell commands:
qmake HelloCanvas.pro
make
HelloCanvas
26.1.2.3

Qt Project for Creation of ROOT Shared Libraries with Qt Components and ROOT Dictionaries

It is possible and desirable to create the ROOT-based Qt application with TrollTech provided qmake utility. To do
that one should include one qmake include file, namely, $ROOTSYS/include/rootcint.priwith one extra line in the
project file (as the example above has revealed). The include file defines all necessary components one needs to compile
and link the healthy Qt application against of the ROOT shared libraries. It contains the qmake rules to create the
ROOT/CINT dictionary from the list of the provided header files.
For example, we may convert the stand-alone Qt-based ROOT application above into C++ class with RootCint
dictionary, that one loads into the interactive ROOT session and invokes interactively. This task requires four simple
files.
1. Class dictionary definition file LinkDef.h:
#ifdef __CINT__
#pragma link off all globals;
#pragma link off all classes;
#pragma link off all functions;
#pragma link C++ class TMyQButton;
#endif
2. Class header file TMyQButton.h:
#ifndef ROOT_TMyQButton
#define ROOT_TMyQButton
#include "Rtypes.h"
class QPushButton;
class TVirtualPad;
class TMyQButton {
private:
QPushButton *fMyButton;

26.1. QT-ROOT IMPLEMENTATION OF TVIRTUALX INTERFACE (BNL)

601

public:
TMyQButton(const char*name="");
virtual ~TMyQButton();
void SetSize(UInt_t w, UInt_t h);
void Show(Bool_t show=kTRUE);
void SetText(const char *text);
void SetOn(Bool_t on=kTRUE);
void SetStyle(const char * style);
};
#endif
3. Class implementation file TMyQButton.cxx:
#include "TMyQButton.h"
#include <qpushbutton.h>
// This class allow you to create and manipulate the QPushButton
// interactively
TMyQButton::TMyQButton(const char *name) {
// Create Qt QPushButton interactively
fMyButton = new QPushButton(name,0);
}
TMyQButton::~TMyQButton() { delete fMyButton; }
void TMyQButton::SetSize(UInt_t w, UInt_t h) {
// Resize the Qt button
fMyButton->resize(w,h);
}
void TMyQButton::Show(Bool_t show) {
// Show / hide the button
if (show) fMyButton->show();
else
fMyButton->hide();
}
void TMyQButton::SetText(const char *text) {
// Set / change the button text
fMyButton->setText(text);
}
void TMyQButton::SetOn(Bool_t on) {
fMyButton->setOn(on);
}
void TMyQButton::SetStyle(const char * style) {
// Set button's look and feel
// The possible styles are defined by the local Qt installation.
// For example the possible style can be: "window","motif",
// "cde","sgi","motifplus","platinum","compact","windowsxp",
// "aqua","macintosh"
fMyButton->setStyle(style);
}
4. qmake project file MyQButton.pro:
TEMPLATE = lib dll thread
# Input
HEADERS += TMyQButton.h
SOURCES += TMyQButton.cxx
CREATE_ROOT_DICT_FOR_CLASSES = $$HEADERS LinkDef.h
include("$(ROOTSYS)/include/rootcint.pri")
At this point, you are ready to produce the class-shared library with the ROOT/CINT dictionary by invoking two shell
commands (as above):

602

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

qmake MyQButton.pro
make
In addition, get you class into the interactive Root session:
root[] gSystem->Load("lib
Please, pay your attention that class implementation does not contain any Qt system initialization call. Since
the above example is a ROOT application, do not forget, one needs the .rootrc file to assign qt value for the
optionsGui.Backend and Gui.Factory.
Note: Do not mix the ROOT GUI and Qt GUI API within the same class implementation.
26.1.2.4

Using Qt Designer to Create Qt GUI with Embedded ROOT Objects

Qt package is equipped with Qt designer - a powerful tool to create the high quality, robust GUI interfaces for your
applications. It is possible and desirable to use this utility to create the ROOT-based Qt GUI. To do that one should
add the $ROOTSYS/include/rootcint.pri in the project file generated by designer and configure Qt designer to use
the so-called custom widget defined by $ROOTSYS/include/TQtWidget.cw. The file defines the custom TQtWidget
Qt widget to back the embedded TCanvas objects. To customize your designer start designer and select Edit Custom
Widget menu:

Open Edit Custom Widget dialog and load the TQtWidget (embedded TCanvas) widget definition into the designer.
One should do this at once. Designer will remember the last configuration and will be restoring it for all subsequent
designer sessions.

26.1. QT-ROOT IMPLEMENTATION OF TVIRTUALX INTERFACE (BNL)

603

Now, you can create your shining GUI interface that contains TCanvas / TPad object with all features of these famous
ROOT classes.
We strongly recommend you to read the Quick Start section of the Qt designer manual http://doc.trolltech.com/3.
3/designer-manual.html. One can find further information, the examples of the working ROOT-based Qt projects
including all examples of this section as well as the list of the references and publications on the Qt project Web site
http://root.bnl.gov
26.1.2.5

Using Qt Class Library from the ROOT C++ Interpreter

Since the Qt package is a regular C++ class library to use it within ROOT C++ interpreter environment one should
either load the dedicated RootCint dictionary or apply ACLiC mode.
For example, the following ROOT interactive session is to popup the Open File Qt dialog box and print out the file
name selected by the user via the dialog.
root[] gSystem->Load("qtcint");
root[] cout << QFileDialog::getOpenFileName() << endl;
The ROOT session:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

gSystem->Load("qtcint");
QPrinter p;
p.setup(); // Display the Qt "Setup printer" dialog box
Int_t id = gPad->GetPixmapID();
QPixmap *pix = (QPixmap *)(TGQt::iwid(id));
QPainter pnt(&p);
pnt.drawPixmap(0,0,*pix);

is to display the Qt Setup Printer dialog and use QPrinter object to print the current TPad image to the selected
printer. To use the more complex Qt-related code one is advised to apply ACLiC - Automatic Compiler of Libraries
for CINT (see CINT the C++ Interpreter). For example:
#ifndef __CINT__
# include <qfiledialog.h>
# include <qstringlist.h>
# include <qstring.h>
#endif
void FileDialog() {

604

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

26.1. QT-ROOT IMPLEMENTATION OF TVIRTUALX INTERFACE (BNL)

605

// This is small AClIC wrapper to use Qt 3.3 QFileDialog class

// See: http://doc.trolltech.com/3.3/qfiledialog.html#getOpenFileNames
// To use, invoke ACLiC from the ROOT prompt:
// root [] .x FileDialog .C++
QStringList files = QFileDialog::getOpenFileNames ();
QStringList::Iterator it = files.begin();
while ( it != files.end() ) {
printf ("Next file selected: %sn", (const char *)(*it));
++it;
}

With the ROOT ACLiC session:

root
Info
Next
Next
Next
Next
Next

[0] .x FileDialog.C++
in <TUnixSystem::ACLiC>: creating shared library macros/./FileDialog_C.so
file selected: macros/QtFileDialog.C
file selected: macros/QtMultiFileDialog.C
file selected: macros/QtMultiFileDialog_C.so
file selected: macros/QtPrintDialog.C
file selected: macros/QtPrintDialog_C.so

the Qt generated Open File Dialog pops up and prints out the list of the selected files.

26.1.3

TQtWidget Class, Qt Signals / Slots and TCanvas Interface

TQtWidget is a QWidget with the QPixmap double buffer. It is designed to back the ROOT TCanvasImp class interface
and it can be used as a regular Qt Widget to create Qt-based GUI with the embedded TCanvas objects. It was
mentioned the class can used as a custom widget to create the advanced GUI with the TrollTech designer utility.
To do that TQtWidget class can emit the set of the Qt signals and it is equipped with the collection of the dedicated
Qt slots.
26.1.3.1

TQtWidget Public Qt Slots

TQtWidget class inherits all slots of its base QWidget class (see: http://doc.trolltech.com/3.3/qwidget.html). In
addition, it is in possession of two groups of the dedicated slots.

606

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

virtual void cd();

virtual void cd(int subpadnumber);
Make the associated TCanvas/TPad the current one, the proxy interface to the embedded TCanvas::cd() and
TCanvas::cd(int subpadnumber) methods.
virtual bool Save(const QString &fileName) const
virtual bool Save(const char *fileName) const
virtual bool Save(const QString &fileName,const char *format,
int quality=60) const
virtual bool Save(const char *fileName,const char *format,
int quality=60) const
The slots are to save the double buffer of the TQtWidget object using the default or specified save format. The default
save format is defined either by the known file extension or by the default file format.
The default format can be changed by TQtWidget::SetSaveFormat method and it is set to be PNG at the class
constructor.
26.1.3.2

TQtWidget Qt Signals

The class object emits the different signals that can be used to create the sophisticated GUI applications.
The signal CanvasPainted() is emitted to notify the GUI that the double buffer of the widget has been filled and
buffer has been painted onto the screen. In the other words, this signal means that all TObject objects of the embedded
TCanvas have been visualized on the screen. The signal:
Saved(bool ok)
is emitted to notify the GUI that a TCanvas has been saved into the file:
RootEventProcessed(TObject *selected, unsigned int event, TCanvas *c)
This signal notifies the Qt framework that the Qt mouse/keyboard event has been process by ROOT. The
signal is disabled by default, i.e. the connected slot is not called unless the signal is explicitly enabled with
TQtWidget::EnableSignalEvents method.
For example, to create a custom response to the mouse crossing of a TCanvas, you need to connect the
RootEventProsecced signal with your qt slot. The next piece of the code demonstrates that:
connect(tQtWidget,SIGNAL(RootEventProcessed(TObject *,
unsigned int, TCanvas *)),
this,SLOT(CanvasEvent(TObject *, unsigned int, TCanvas *)));
. . .
void qtrootexample1::CanvasEvent(TObject *obj, unsigned int event,
TCanvas *)
{
TQtWidget *tipped = (TQtWidget *)sender();
const char *objectInfo = obj->GetObjectInfo(tipped->GetEventX(),
tipped->GetEventY());
QString tipText ="You have ";
if (tipped == tQtWidget1)
tipText +="clicked";
else
tipText +="passed";
tipText += " the object <";
tipText += obj->GetName();
tipText += "> of class ";
tipText += obj->ClassName();
tipText += " : ";
tipText += objectInfo;
}

QWhatsThis::display(tipText)

26.2. GSI QTROOT

26.2

607

GSI QtROOT

The Qt Interface developed at Darmstadt GSI is a lightweight interface that enables the user to write a Qt 3 application,
which can use ROOT. The Native Qt 4 support is planned and will be available in the near future. Furthermore,
existing Qt 3 Application can use this interface to have almost full access to the Root functionality (see Create the
Main file for the project below). Using this interface a full access to both ROOT and Qt widgets is possible in one
application.
An Embedded Root canvas can be set inside any Qt widget by C++ calls or using the Qt designer. To use the Qt 3.x
designer to make ROOT applications with Qt GUIs follow the steps described below:

1) Add the TQRootCanvas to the Qt Designer:

Start the designer

In the designer menu choose tools->custom->Edit Custom Widget
In the Edit Custom Widget window choose Load Description
From GSI Qt-Root interface directory load the file TQRootCanvas.cw

Now you will see the TQRootCanvas in the Class field, you will also see all other parameters, signals, slots and properties
of the TQRootCanvas.
Now we are ready use the TQRootCanvas within the Qt 3.x designer.

608

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

26.2. GSI QTROOT

26.2.1

609

Create a New Project in the Designer

1). Choose File->New

2). Select C++ Project
3). Create the Project in a directory of your choice.
4). In the project settings (Project->Setting from the designer main window) select the C++ tab. Add ROOT and
GSI Qt-Root libraries into the Libs entry field. For example:
-L(ROOTSYS)/lib -lCore -lCint -lHist -lGraf -lGraf3d -lGpad -lTree -lRint -lPostscript -lMatrix
-lPhysics -lnsl -lm -ldl -rdynamic -lqtgsi
Add $(ROOTSYS)/include into Includepath entry field.

These setting will be saved in project.pro file and qmake will generate the Makefile according to them.
Now you can create your own widgets in the designer and add them to the project.

26.2.2

main()

The main file should look like:

#include "TQtApplication.h"
#include "TQtRootApplication.h"
#include "MyWidget1.h"
int main( int argc, char ** argv ){
TQRootApplication a( argc, argv, 0);
TQApplication app("uno",&argc,argv);
MyWidget1 *w = new Mywidget1;
w->show();
a.connect(&a, SIGNAL(lastWindowClosed()), &a, SLOT(quit()));
return a.exec();
}

610

CHAPTER 26. ROOT/QT INTEGRATION INTERFACES

Chapter 27

Automatic HTML Documentation

THtml is ROOTs documentation engine. It can be used to document your classes in a reference guide, and to convert
your text or source files to HTML.

27.1

Reference Guide

The Reference Guide for the ROOT classes at http://root.cern.ch/root/html/ has been generated by ROOTs THtml
class. Just as for ROOTs classes, it can generate (and update) a reference guide for your classes, too. You document
your classes using source code comments. All comments will be automatically put into a <pre></pre> environment to
keep the indentation and line length. You can write raw HTML by enclosing comments in the keywords Begin_Html
and End_Html.
To generate documentation for the class TObject you could run the following commands:
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]
root[]

THtml h
h.SetInputDir("$(ROOTSYS)");
h.MakeClass("TObject");
h.CreateJavascript();
h.CreateStylesheet();

The comments following the first comment of the form //____________________, before any method, is
assumed to be the class description. As with any other documentation part, it has to be a continuous block of
comments.
Any documented class will have an class index entry in the ClassIndex.html, showing their name with a link to
their documentation page and a miniature description. This description for e.g. the class MyClass has to be given in
MyClasss header file as documentation.
A method description block starts immediately after { and looks like this:
void TWorld::HelloWorldFunc(string *text)
{
// This is a documentation example of the function TWorld::HelloWorldFunc
helloWorld.Print(text);
}
Like in a class description block, everything until the first non-commented line is considered as a valid member function
description block.
Data members are documented by putting a C++ comment behind their declaration in the header file, e.g.
Int_t fIAmADataMember; // this is a data member
When documenting a class, THtml creates both a beautified version of the source file and a web page containing the
class documentation. The documentation also shows the author and a copyright statement. This information is
extracted from the source file. The author can be in the format
611

612

CHAPTER 27. AUTOMATIC HTML DOCUMENTATION

// Author: Enrico Fermi

for people that have an entry in CERNs XWho database, and for those who have not:
// Author: Enrico Fermi <mailto:enrico@fnal.gov>
The copyright statement is introduced by the string * Copyright inside a comment.
You should read the class reference page at http://root.cern.ch/root/html/THtml.html to learn about all of THtmls
features.

27.1.1

Product and Module Documentation

For THtml, a product like ROOT is a combination of several modules. It can include user-provided document for
both products and modules. The name of the product can be set by calling THtml::SetProductName(). By default,
the documentation is searched for in the doc/ subdirectory of the source tree, and in the ../docdirectory, relative
to the directory of first source file of a module. This can be set by calls to THtml::SetProductDocDir() and
THtml::SetModuleDocPath().
The documentation is generated as an index page with links to further files. This index page includes the file index.txt
converted to HTML (via THtml::Convert()) or the file index.html (without conversion to HTML, of course), if any of
these files exist. The index page will also contain a list of links to all files in the directory that end on .html or .txt.
Files ending on .txt will be converted to HTML before they are copied to the output directory. For each file, the
links text will be the file name without extension, with underscores replaced by spaces.
You can see an example of the module documentation including links, the corresponding index.html, and the module
class index at http://root.cern.ch/root/html/HIST_Index.html.

27.2

Converting Sources (and Other Files) to HTML

THtml can take a file (C++ or text) and convert it to HTML. There are two main use cases:
The output of a macro converted to HTML will almost look like the beautified source file of a class reference. The
Begin_Html/End_Html keywords are supported; comments, strings, and keywords are colored like in THtmls output
for source code.
The macro Event.cxx in $ROOTSYS/test can be seen as an example of documented ROOT macros at http://root.cern.
ch/root/html/examples/Event.cxx.html
THtml::Convert()converts a single text file to HTML. For example, it can be run on a change log. Each known class
name will be linked to its documentation page. An example is ROOTs change log at http://root.cern.ch/root/html/
examples/V5.16.txt.html
To convert the source file MyCode.C to HTML, you can run
root[] THtml h
root[] h.Convert("MyCode.C", "Look At My Code", "htmlout/");
This will create the file htmlout/MyCode.C.html. The HTML page will have the title Look At My Code.

27.3

Special Documentation Elements: Directives

A common documentation problem is the inclusion of images. They are usually generated externally, which poses
problems with where to keep the images, and how to keep them up to date. THtml solves this by offering a few special
documentation elements: macro and latex directives.

27.3. SPECIAL DOCUMENTATION ELEMENTS: DIRECTIVES

27.3.1

613

Latex Directive

Documentation surrounded by the keywords BEGIN_LATEX / END_LATEX will be passed to ROOT Latex engine TLatex.
The keywords can be written with small or capital letters (case insensitive). The output will be stored to an image file,
which gets automatically included in the documentation.
// This function calculates BEGIN_LATEX
//
F(x_{#frac{1}{2}}) = #prod(x < x_{#frac{1}{2}}) = #frac{1}{2}
// END_LATEX
THtml will inject the following picture:

The image file name is generated from the formula and will be unique for all the documentation. It is stored along-side
the documentation, and it will be automatically regenerated when the documentation is updated. The handling of the
Latex directive is done by the class TDocLatexDirective.
The BEGIN_LATEX keyword can take the following parameters:
fontsize: sets the TLatex font size. The default value is 16.
separator: sets a list of characters for which a new column will be started. This allows aligned, multi-line,
multi-column layout, which can be useful for e.g. mathematical derivations. It is unset by default, meaning the
Latex directive will only generate one column.
rseparator: like separator, but a regular expression. Columns start with a match of this regular expression.
Only one of separator or rseparator can be given.
align: defines the alignment of the columns. Note that the column delimiter counts as a column itself!
Example invocation, where the font size is set to 10, new columns are started by the characters = and ,, and the two
columns are left aligned with the separator column centered:
Begin_Latex(fontsize=10, separator==,, align=lcl)

27.3.2

Macro Directive

A more general approach is offered by the Macro directive, enclosed in the keywords BEGIN_MACRO / END_MACRO. The
keywords can be written with small or capital letters (case insensitive). If the text enclosed by these keywords contains
the character { the text is assumed to be source code. Otherwise it is assumed to be a file name relative to the current
files path, and taking into account the paths specified by THtml::AddMacroPath(). The macro file or the C++
source is executed when generating the documentation. It is expected to return a TObject*, which will
be saved to a GIF file, by calling the virtual function TObject::SaveAs().****
The BEGIN_MACRO keyword can take the following parameters:
GUI: will end batch mode. This is needed e.g. for creating screen shots of GUI elements, where the call to
TObject::SaveAs() will invoke TGObject::SaveAs() which needs the graphics system to be initialized.
source: requests the source of the macro to be shown in a second tab on the HTML page. This is useful e.g. for
example macros, showing how the image was generated. Lines that should be executed but not shown in the
source tab can be hidden by ending them with *HIDE* (most probably as a comment). Lines may be hidden
because they are not needed for the understanding of the macro or because they only make sense in the context
of the documentation, like the statement returning the TObject*.
Example invocation, with enabled ROOT graphics system and a source tab:
Begin_Macro(gui, source)

614

27.4

CHAPTER 27. AUTOMATIC HTML DOCUMENTATION

Customizing HTML

THtml allows a vast amount of customizations, from a custom style to custom links, to customized java scripts. By
default, the style sheet is taken from $ROOTSYS/etc/html/ROOT.css when the documentation is generated. The path
for ROOT.css can be changed by calling THtml::SetEtcDir(); it should contain the same CSS classes and entity
IDs as the original ROOT.css. This style sheet is an easy means of customizing the layout and appearance of the
documentation pages. Many of THtml setting can be customized by calls to THtml member functions or by settings in
.rootrc, as documented in the THtml class reference page http://root.cern.ch/root/html/THtml. The following will
enumerate some of the highlights.

27.4.1

Referencing Documentation for other Libraries

When THtml generates documentation for classes it recognizes all class names known to ROOT. If THtml does not
have sources for a class it determines the classs library name. This has to be set by means of rootmap files, see
Library Autoloading of this Users Guide. Given the library name, THtml searches for an entry in its map of libraries to
documentation URLs. If it finds it, it will create a link to the documentation at that URL for all occurrences of a given
class name. One can set the URL ../mylib/ for a library name MyLib by setting Root.Html.MyLib: ../mylib/ or by
calling THtml::SetLibURL("MyLib", "../mylib/"). Occurrences of class MyClass of MyLib will now be referenced
as ../mylib/MyClass.html.

27.4.2

Search Engine

THtml can invoke external search engines. The ROOT reference guide sets Root.Html.Search to http://www.google.
com/search?q=%s+site%3A%u. Calling THtml::SetSearchStemURL() will set the same. If this URL stem is set,
THtml will create search fields in the index pages. It will send the words entered in these search fields as %s in the
URL; %u will be replaced by the current documents path, allowing a site- and directory-specific search.

27.4.3

ViewCVS

Most code is managed in a version control system like CVS. ViewCVS is a WWW reader interface to the versioning
control system that allows e.g. tracking a files changes. THtml will reference these pages automatically if the .rootrc
variable Root.Html.ViewCVS is set to the URL stem of the ViewCVS. installation. Alternatively, one can call
THtml::SetViewCVS().

27.4.4

Wiki Pages

In some contexts it might be desirable to let users comment on classes, e.g. for suggestions of use or alternatives,
details of behavior, and cross references to other relevant classes. A successful example of this is the PHP.net
documentation with its user annotations. THtml can include a link to a classs Wiki page by setting the Wiki base
URL via Root.Html.WikiURL or THtml::SetWikiURL().

27.5

Tutorial

You can run the tutorial htmlex.C to see how THtml converts a script to HTML and how it creates the corresponding
class reference:
root[] .x $(ROOTSYS)/tutorials/htmlex.C+
Have a look at the HTML version of the macro in htmldoc/htmlex.C.html(which should be the same as the one at
http://root.cern.ch/root/html/examples/htmlex.C.html).
It demonstrates how to generate documentation for your classes and for ROOT classes and how to beautify a macro.

Chapter 28

Appendix A: Install and Build ROOT

28.1

License

ROOT is made available under the LGPL v2.1 license. For full details see the file LICENSE in the ROOT distribution.

28.2

Installing ROOT

To install ROOT you will need to go to the ROOT website at: http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/downloading-root
You have a choice to download the binaries or the source. The source is quicker to transfer since it is only 31 MB, but
you will need to compile and link it. The binaries range from 50 MB to 100 MB depending on the target platform.

28.3

Choosing a Version

The ROOT developers follow the principle of release early and release often, however a very large portion of a user
base requires a stable product therefore generally three versions of the system is available for download - new, old and
pro:
The new version evolves quickly, with weekly or bi-weekly releases. Use this to get access to the latest and
greatest, but it may not be stable. By trying out the new version you can help us converge quickly to a stable
version that can then become the new pro version. If you are a new user we would advice you to try the new
version.
The pro (production) version is a version we feel comfortable with to exposing to a large audience for serious
work. The change rate of this version is much lower than for the new version, it is about 3 to 6 months.
The old version is the previous pro version that people might need for some time before switching the new pro
version. The old change rate is the same as for pro.

28.4

Installing Precompiled Binaries

The binaries are available for downloading from http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/downloading-root. Once downloaded you need to unzip and de-tar the file. For example, if you have downloaded ROOT v5.30 for Linux-SLC5:
% gunzip root_v5.30.00.Linux-slc5-gcc4.3.tar.gz
% tar xvf root_v5.30.00.Linux-slc5-gcc4.3.tar
This will create the directory root. Before getting started read the file README/README. Also, read the Introduction
chapter for an explanation of the directory structure.
615

616

28.5

CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

Installing the Source

You have a choice to download a compressed (tar ball) file containing the source, or you can use the Subversion (svn)
source code change control system and check out the most recent source. The compressed file is a one time only choice;
every time you would like to upgrade you will need to download the entire new version. Choosing the CVS option will
allow you to get changes as they are submitted by the developers and you can stay up to date.

28.5.1

Installing and Building the Source from a Compressed File

To install the ROOT source you can download the tar file containing all the source files from the ROOT website. The
first thing you should do is to get the latest version as a tar file. Unpack the source tar file, this creates directory root:
% tar zxvf root_v5.30.xx.source.tar.gz
Type the build commands:
%
%
%
%

cd root
./configure --help
./configure [<arch>]
(g)make

Add bin/ to PATH and lib/ to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. For the sh shell family do:
% . bin/thisroot.sh
and for the csh shell family do:
% source bin/thisroot.csh
Try running root:
% root
It is also possible to setup and build ROOT in a fixed location. Please check README/INSTALL for more a detailed
description of this procedure.
28.5.1.1

Target directory

By default, ROOT will be built in the $ROOTSYS directory. In that case the whole system (binaries, sources, tutorials,
etc.) will be located under the $ROOTSYS directory.
28.5.1.2

Makefile targets

The Makefile is documented in details in the README/BUILDSYSTEM file. It explains the build options and
targets.

28.5.2

More Build Options

To build the library providing thread support you need to define either the environment variable THREAD=-lpthreador
the configure flag --with-thread=-lpthread (it is the default for the linuxegcs architecture). [Note: this
is only tested on Linux for the time being.] To build the library providing CERN RFIO (remote I/O) support you need to define either the environment variable RFIO=<path>/libshift.a or the configure flag
--with-rfio=<path>/libshift.a. For pre-built version of libshift.a see ftp://root.cern.ch/root/shift/
To build the PAW and Geant3 conversion programs h2root and g2root you need to define either the environment
variable CERNLIB=<cernlibpath>or the configure flag --with-cern-libdir=<cernlibpath>.
To build the MySQL interface library you need to install MySQL first. Visit http://www.mysql.com/ for the latest versions.

28.6. FILE SYSTEM.ROOTRC

617

To build the strong authentication module used by rootd, you first have to install the SRP (Secure Remote Password)
system. Visit http://srp.stanford.edu
To use the library you have to define either the environment variable SRP=<srpdir> or the configure flag
--with-srp=<srpdir>.
To build the event generator interfaces for Pythia and Pythia6, you first have to get the Pythia libraries available from
ftp: ftp://root.cern.ch/root/pythia6.tar.gz.
To use the libraries you have to define either PYTHIA=<pythiadir> or the configure flag --with-pythia=<pythiadir>.
The same applies for Pythia6.
28.5.2.1

Installing the Source from Subversion

This paragraph describes how to checkout and build ROOT from Subversion for Unix systems. For description
of a checkout for other platforms, please see ROOT installation web page: http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/
installing-root-source.
%
U
U
%
%
%
%

svn co http://root.cern.ch/svn/root/trunk root

root/...
...
cd root
./configure --help
./configure [<arch>]
(g)make

If you are a part of collaboration, you may need to use setup procedures specific to the particular development
environment prior to running (g)make. For more install instructions and options, see the file README/INSTALL.
28.5.2.2

Subversion for Windows

Although there exists a native version of Subversion for Windows, we only support the build process under the Cygwin
environment. You must have svn version 1.6 or newer. The checkout and build procedure is similar to that for UNIX.
For detailed install instructions, see the file REAMDE/INSTALL.
28.5.2.3

Staying up-to-date

To keep your local ROOT source up-to-date with the Subversion repository you should regularly run the command:
% svn up

28.6

File system.rootrc

ROOT Environment settings are handled via the class TEnv. gEnv->Print()shows which values are active. Any
settings can be obtained by TEnv::GetValue methods that return an integer, double or character value for a named
resource. If the resource is not found, the default value (given as the second parameter) is returned.
fShowEventStatus = gEnv->GetValue("Canvas.ShowEventStatus",kFALSE);
Via the method TEnv::SetValue allows you can set the value of a resource or create a new resource:
gEnv->SetValue("Root.ObjectStat",1);
Path used by dynamic loader to find shared libraries and macros. Paths are different for Unix and Windows. The
example shows the defaults for all ROOT applications for either Unix or Windows:
Unix.*.Root.DynamicPath:
Unix.*.Root.MacroPath:
WinNT.*.Root.DynamicPath:
WinNT.*.Root.MacroPath:

.:$(ROOTSYS)/lib
.:$(ROOTSYS)/macros
.;$(ROOTSYS)/bin;$(PATH)
.;$(ROOTSYS)/macros

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CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

Path where to look for TrueType fonts:

Unix.*.Root.UseTTFonts:
*.*.Root.TTFontPath:

true
$(ROOTSYS)/fonts

Use Net* API functions:

WinNT.UseNetAPI:

true

Use thread library (if exists).

Unix.*.Root.UseThreads:

false

Select the compression algorithm (0=old zlib, 1=new zlib). Setting this to 0 may be a security vulnerability.
Root.ZipMode:

Show where item is found in the specified path:

Root.ShowPath:

false

Activate memory statistics (size and cnt are used to trap allocation of blocks of a certain size after cnt attempts).
Root.MemStat:
Root.MemStat.size:
Root.MemStat.cnt:
Root.ObjectStat:

0
-1
-1
0

Activate memory leak checker (use in conjunction with $ROOTSYS/bin/memprobe). Currently only works on Linux with
gcc.
Root.MemCheck:
Root.MemCheckFile:

0
memcheck.out

Global debug mode. When >0 turns on progressively more details debugging.
Root.Debug:
Root.Stacktrace:

0
yes

Settings for X11 behaviour.

X11.Sync:
X11.FindBestVisual:

no
yes

Default editor in use.

Unix.*.Editor:
WinNT.*.Editor:

vi
notepad

Default 3d Viewer. By default 3-D views are shown in the pad, if the next line is activated, the default viewer will be
OpenGL.
Viewer3D.DefaultDrawOption: ogl
Default Fitter (current choices are Minuit, Minuit2, Fumili and Fumili2).
Root.Fitter:

Minuit

Specify list of file endings which TTabCom (TAB completion) should ignore.
TabCom.FileIgnore:

.cpp:.h:.cmz

28.6. FILE SYSTEM.ROOTRC

28.6.1

619

TCanvas Specific Settings

Opaque move and resize show full pad during the operation instead of only the outline. Especially for resize you will
need serious CPU power. UseScreenFactor=true means to size canvas according to size of screen, so a canvas still
looks good on a low resolution laptop screen without having to change canvas size in macros.
Canvas.MoveOpaque:
Canvas.ResizeOpaque:
Canvas.UseScreenFactor:

false
false
true

Hight color 2 is the red one.

Canvas.HighLightColor:

Next three settings are related to different user interface parts of canvas window. If they are set to true, the corresponding
event status bar, tool bar, graphics editor to beactivated by default.
Canvas.ShowEventStatus:
Canvas.ShowToolBar:
Canvas.ShowEditor:

false
false
false

AutoExec allows TExec objects to be executed on mouse and key events.

Canvas.AutoExec:

true

Canvas print directory is set to the current one by default:

Canvas.PrintDirectory

Printer settings:
WinNT.*.Print.Command:
#Unix.*.Print.Command:
Print.Printer:
Print.Directory:
Print.FileType:

AcroRd32.exe
a2ps -P%p --landscape --columns=2 --margin=30 -rf8.0 %f
32-rb20-hp
.
pdf

Default histogram binnings used by TTree::Draw() method.

Hist.Binning.1D.x:
Hist.Binning.2D.x:
Hist.Binning.2D.y:
Hist.Binning.2D.Prof:
Hist.Binning.3D.x:
Hist.Binning.3D.y:
Hist.Binning.3D.z:
Hist.Binning.3D.Profx:
Hist.Binning.3D.Profy:

100
40
40
100
20
20
20
100
100

Default statistics names used for parameters in TPaveStats:

Hist.Stats.Entries
Hist.Stats.Mean
Hist.Stats.MeanX
Hist.Stats.MeanY
Hist.Stats.RMS
Hist.Stats.RMSX
Hist.Stats.RMSY
Hist.Stats.Underflow

Entries
Mean
Mean x
Mean y
RMS
RMS x
RMS y
Underflow

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CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

Hist.Stats.Overflow
Hist.Stats.Integral
Hist.Stats.Skewness
Hist.Stats.SkewnessX
Hist.Stats.SkewnessY
Hist.Stats.Kurtosis
Hist.Stats.KurtosisX
Hist.Stats.KurtosisY

28.6.2

Overflow
Integral
Skewness
Skewness
Skewness
Kurtosis
Kurtosis
Kurtosis

x
y
x
y

THtml Specific Settings

See the reference guide documentation of THtml class at http://root.cern.ch/root/htmldoc/THtml.html for more
details.
XHTML content charset (see http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801, default: ISO-8859-1) is set by:
Root.Html.Charset:
Stem of a search engine for the documentation, where %s is replaced by the term entered in the search text box
(example: http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aroot.cern.ch%2Froot%2Fhtml, default is "")
Root.Html.Search:
Link to the sites search engine (default: "", example: http://root.cern.ch/root/Search.phtml)
Root.Html.SearchEngine:
String to prepend to TClass::GetImplFileName() names containing directories when looking for source files (default:
"", example: ../root)
Root.Html.SourcePrefix:
Link stem to ViewCVS entry for classes, where a class name is assumed to match a file name (default: "", example:
http://root.cern.ch/viewcvs).
Root.Html.ViewCVS:
Stem of the CERN XWho system (default: http://consult.cern.ch/xwho/people?)
Root.Html.XWho:
If set to Doc++, allow method documentation in front of method even for methods in the source file (default: "")
Root.Html.DescriptionStyle:
Search path for the source and header files with their default settings:
Unix.*.Root.Html.SourceDir: .:src:include
WinNT.*.Root.Html.SourceDir: .;src;include
URL stem for ROOT documentation pages (default is "").
Root.Html.Root:

http://root.cern.ch/root/html

Filesystem output directory for generated web pages (default: htmldoc).

Root.Html.OutputDir:

htmldoc/

28.6. FILE SYSTEM.ROOTRC

621

Address of the packages home page (default: http://root.cern.ch):

Root.Html.HomePage:
Location of user defined header and footer files, see http://root.cern.ch/root/html/THtml#conf:header (defaults are
"", example: ../header.txt, ../footer.txt):
Root.Html.Header:
Root.Html.Footer:
Tag for detecting class description comments (default value is set below).
Root.Html.Description:

//____________________

Tag for detecting Author comment (default value is set below).

Root.Html.Author:

// Author:

Tag for detecting last updated comment. THtml uses the current date if this tag is not found in a class source file
(default value is set below).
Root.Html.LastUpdate:

// @(#)

Tag for detecting Copyright comment (default value is set below).

Root.Html.Copyright:

28.6.3

* Copyright

GUI Specific Settings

Set the native ROOT GUI interface to be used in a ROOT session. If set to qt, the native GUI interface is
replaced with one based on Qt by the regular ROOT plug-in mechanism.
Gui.Backend:
Gui.Factory:

native
native

GUI default fonts in use:

Gui.DefaultFont:
Gui.MenuFont:
Gui.MenuHiFont:
Gui.DocFixedFont:
Gui.DocPropFont:
Gui.IconFont:
Gui.StatusFont:

-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1

Regular background and foreground colors in use:

Gui.BackgroundColor:
Gui.ForegroundColor:

#c0c0c0
black

Selection background and foreground colors in use:

Gui.SelectBackgroundColor:
Gui.SelectForegroundColor:

#000080
white

Document background and foreground colors in use:

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CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

Gui.DocumentBackgroundColor: white
Gui.DocumentForegroundColor: black
Tooltip background and foreground colors in use:
Gui.TooltipBackgroundColor:
Gui.TooltipForegroundColor:

LightYellow
black

Path where all GUI icons in use can be found:

Gui.IconPath:

$(HOME)/icons:$(ROOTSYS)/icons:.

Mime type file setting:

Gui.MimeTypeFile:

$(HOME)/.root.mimes

If $(HOME)/.root.mimes does not exists, defaults to this:

#Gui.MimeTypeFile:

28.6.4

$(ROOTSYS)/etc/root.mimes

TBrowser Settings

Current icon style selection - can be either small, big, list, details:
Browser.IconStyle:

small

Current sorting rule applied on the browser objects - can be name, type, size, date:
Browser.SortBy:

name

Number of items in a group view:

Browser.GroupView:

10000

Show or not hidden items:

Browser.ShowHidden:

no

Create a thumbnail view after executing the macro (default is yes).

Browser.AutoThumbnail:

28.6.5

yes

TRint Specific Settings

Rint (interactive ROOT executable) specific alias, logon and logoff macros.
Rint.Load:
Rint.Logon:
Rint.Logoff:

rootalias.C
rootlogon.C
rootlogoff.C

Record ROOT session commands in a given history file (default is $(HOME)/.root_hist). If set to -, it turn off the
command recording.
Rint.History:

$(HOME)/.root_hist

Next two lines set the history file size handling. Once HistSize is reached, the last HistSave entries are removed.
If HistSize is set to 0, it turns off command recording. Both values can be overridden by environment variable
ROOT_HIST=size[:save], where the :save part is optional.
Rint.HistSize:
Rint.HistSave:

500
400

28.6. FILE SYSTEM.ROOTRC

28.6.6

623

ACLiC Specific Settings

ACLiC.Linkdef specifies the suffix that will be added to the script name to try to locate a custom linkdef file when
generating the dictionary.
ACLiC.Linkdef:

_linkdef

The top directory for storing the libraries produced by ACLiC is set by:
ACLiC.BuildDir:

/where/I/would/like/my/compiled/scripts

The additional include directives for ACLiC compilations are set by:
ACLiC.IncludePaths:

28.6.7

-I/where/the/includes/are

PROOF Related Variables

PROOF debug options.

Proof.DebugLevel: 0
Proof.DebugMask:-1
PROOF GDB hooks allows a debugger to be attached early in the startup phase of proofserv:0 - dont wait; 1 master proofserv enters wait loop; 2 - slave proofserv enters wait loop; 3 - any proofserv enters wait loop
Proof.GdbHook:

On the master to enable the parallel startup of workers using threads set next to yes (default is no):
Proof.ParallelStartup: no
Proof.StatsHist:
no
Proof.StatsTrace:
no
Proof.SlaveStatsTrace: no
Proof.CondorHome:
Proof.CondorConfig:

/opt/condor
/opt/condor/etc/condor_config

PEAC.GmUrl:
PEAC.LmUrl:

http://somewhere:8080/clarens/
http://elsewhere:8080/clarens/

Certificate and key

Clarens.CertFile:
Clarens.KeyFile:
28.6.7.1

$(HOME)/.globus/usercert.pem
$(HOME)/.globus/userkey.pem

Settings Related to Authentication for rootd and proofd

Default authentication method for rootd and proofd. These are supported for backward compatibility but have a
very low priority. System defaults are generated by configure as a list in system.rootauthrc in $ROOTSYS/etc/ or
/etc/root; the file $HOME/.rootauthrc can be used to override the system defaults.
The value meaning: 0=UsrPwd, 1=SRP, 2=Krb5, 3=Globus,4=SSH, 5=UidGid.
Rootd.Authentication:
Proofd.Authentication:

0
0

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CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

Connection is shutdown at timeout expiration. Timeout is in seconds. Negotiation cannot be attempted at low
level (i.e. inside TAuthenticate::Authenticate()) because of synchronization problems with the server. At higher level,
TAuthenticate::HasTimedOut() gives information about timeout: 0 = no timeout; 1 = timeout, no methods left; 2 =
timeout, still methods to be tried. Caller should decide about an additional attempt. Timeout is disabled by default
(< 0). It can be changed on-the-fly with the method TAuthenticate::SetTimeOut(to_value).
Auth.Timeout:

-1

Password dialog box is set to 0 if you do not want a dialog box to be popped-up when a password is requested. Default
setting is 1.
Auth.UsePasswdDialogBox: 0
Set the following to 1 if you want full SRP authentication in PROOF (Client-to-Master and Master-to-Slave).
Proofd.SendSRPPwd:

Set next to 1 to use SSH authentication in PROOF servers (Master-to-Slave or Slaves-to-DataServers). This is switched
off by default because credentials forwarding for SSH is not controlled by the system; however the user may have other
ways to guarantee it, so it may want to switch it on.
ProofServ.UseSSH:

Default login name (if not defined it is taken from $(HOME)).

UsrPwd.Login:
qwerty
SRP.Login:
qwerty
Krb5.Login:
qwerty@LOCAL.DOM.AIN
Globus.Login:
cd:~/.globus cf:usercert.pem
ad:/etc/grid-security/certificates
SSH.Login:
qwerty
UidGid.Login:
qwerty

kf:userkey.pem

To be prompted for login information.

UsrPwd.LoginPrompt:
SRP.LoginPrompt:
Krb5.LoginPrompt:
Globus.LoginPrompt:
SSH.LoginPrompt:
UidGid.LoginPrompt:

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

To reuse established security context.

UsrPwd.ReUse:
SRP.ReUse:
Krb5.ReUse:
Globus.ReUse:
SSH.ReUse:

yes
no
no
yes
yes

Duration validity of the sec context for UsrPwd, SRP and SSH. Format: <hours>:<minutes> (default 24:00)
#UsrPwd.Valid:
#SRP.Valid:
#SSH.Valid:

24:00
24:00
24:00

To control password encryption for UsrPwd authentication.

UsrPwd.Crypt:

yes

28.6. FILE SYSTEM.ROOTRC

625

Globus Miscellaneous - Globus Proxy duration: HH:MM (ex 12:15 for 12 hours and 15 min); default for system
default.
Globus.ProxyDuration:
#Globus.ProxyDuration:

default
12:15

Number of bits for the initial key.

Globus.ProxyKeyBits:

1024

Path to alternative ssh (to override $PATH if ever needed).

SSH.ExecDir:

/usr/bin

In case of error, SSH returns 1 (or 256=0x100). To trap those errors for which one should retry, error printouts must be
parsed; any substring found under the TEnv SSH.ErrorRetry triggers a retry condition; strings can be added here in
the form (including double quotes):
+SSH.ErrorRetry:

"<error_string>"

This is what one usually gets if the server has reached the maximum number of sshd daemons (defined by MaxStartups
in sshd_config); this is a typical case in which one should retry.
SSH.ErrorRetry:

"Connection closed by remote host"

Max number of retries for SSH in case of retry error (see above).
SSH.MaxRetry:

100

Type of key to be used for RSA encryption: 0=local; 1=SSL (default if openssl available).
RSA.KeyType:

In case of RSA.KeyType: 1 this specifies the number of bits to be used for the Blowfish key used to encrypt the
exchanged information: default - 256, minimum - 128, maximum - 15912.
SSL.BFBits:
28.6.7.2

256

Server Authentication in TServerSocket

General setting: file with server access rules

SrvAuth.DaemonRc:

/etc/root/system.daemonrc

Check of host equivalence via /etc/hosts.equiv or $HOME/.rhosts.

SrvAuth.CheckHostsEquivalence: 1
SRP: pass file (default $HOME/.srootdpass).
SrvAuth.SRPpassfile:

$HOME/.srootdpass

Globus/GSI: hostcert configuration file.

SrvAuth.HostCert:
Globus/GSI: gridmap file.

/etc/root/hostcert.conf

626

CHAPTER 28. APPENDIX A: INSTALL AND BUILD ROOT

SrvAuth.GridMap:

/etc/grid-security/grid-mapfile

SSH: port for the sshd daemon.

SrvAuth.SshdPort:

22

Force file opening via TNetFile (TXNetFile) if a hostname is specified in the Url. By default, for local files
TFile::Open() invokes directly TFile.
TFile.ForceRemote:

yes

Special cases for the TUrl parser, where the special cases are parsed in a protocol + file part, like rfio:host:/path/file.root,
castor:/path/file.root or /alien/path/file.root. In case the file namespace descriptor ends with - the namespace is not a
part of the filename. Extend in private .rootrc with a +Url.Special line.
Url.Special:
+Url.Special:
28.6.7.3

file: rfio: hpss: castor: gfal: dcache:

/alien/- /castor/

PROOF XRD Client Variables

Debug level (if <=0 : none, 1 : low, 2 : medium, 3 : high)

XProof.Debug:

Socket read timeout [in secs: default 10 secs]

XProof.ReadTimeout: 10
The following env vars are handled by TXNetFile and related classes (module netx, libNetx.so).
XNet.ConnectTimeout - maximum time to wait before servers response on a connect [10 s]
XNet.RequestTimeout - maximum time to wait before considering a read/write failure [60 s]
XNet.ConnectDomainAllowRE - sequence of TRegexp regular expressions separated by a |. A domain is granted access
to for the first connection if it matches one of these regexps. Example:
slac.stanford.edu|pd.infn.it|fe.infn.it
XNet.ConnectDomainDenyRE - sequence of TRegexp regular expressions separated by a |. A domain is denied access
to for the first connection if it matches one of these regexps.
XNet.RedirDomainAllowRE - sequence of TRegexp regular expressions separated by a |. A domain is granted access
to for a redirection if it matches one of these regexps. Example:
XNet.RedirDomainDenyRE - sequence of TRegexp regular expressions separated by a |. A domain is granted access to
for a redirection if it matches one of these regexps.
XNet.MaxRedirectCount - maximum number of redirections from server [default - 255]
XNet.Debug - log verbosity level (0=nothing,1=messages of interest to the user, 2=messages of interest to the developers
(includes also user messages), 3=dump of all sent/received data buffers (includes also user and developers messages).
[default - 0]
XNet.ReconnectTimeout - sleep-time before going back to the load balancer (or rebouncing to the same failing host)
after a read/write error [default - 10s]
XNet.StartGarbageCollectorThread - for test/development purposes. Normally nonzero (true), but as workaround
for external causes someone could be interested in not having the garbage collector thread around. [experimental!]
XNet.GoAsynchronous - default is 0. When activated, XTNetFile works in async mode, allowing input buffering and
unsolicited responses [experimental!]
XNet.TryConnect - Number of tries connect to a single server before giving up.
XNet.TryConnectServersList - number of connect retries to the whole server list given [default - 240]

28.7. DOCUMENTATION TO DOWNLOAD

627

XNet.PrintTAG - Print a particular string the developers can choose to quickly recognize the version at run time
[default - 0]
Example of custom setting for the Rint application (root.exe). This overrides the default specified above for a generic
application. Color 5 is yellow.
Rint.Canvas.HighLightColor:

28.7

Documentation to Download

The latest ROOT Users Guide

http://root.cern.ch/root/doc/RootDoc.html
ROOT Reference Guide
http://root.cern.ch/root/Reference.html

Index
A
adding a class
ACLiC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
shared library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
B
benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
box-and whisker plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
C
C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
candle plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
candle stick plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
CINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
D
documentation
class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
G
Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .431
Graphical User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
GUI application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
H
histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
rebin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57, 58, 95, 97
I
I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
install ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 615
L
list
entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
P
parallel poordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
parallel processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
PROOF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Q
Qt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
R
Ruby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
T
TPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
transparency
parallel coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
tree
chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
628

friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
MakeClass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
MakeSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335