Derived Datatypes
Christopher Cameron, Brandon Barker, Steve Lantz (original)
Cornell Center for Advanced Computing
Revisions: 5/2022, 10/2014, 5/2011 (original)
This topic discusses MPI's built-in mechanisms to create derived datatypes from existing datatypes. Derived data types are helpful when you need to communicate mixed data types or when your data is not stored in contiguous blocks.
Objectives
After you complete this topic, you should be able to:
- List the two assumptions under which basic datatypes can be used in a message
- Demonstrate creating derived datatypes
- List the constructors for general datatypes
- Distinguish among vector-derived, indexed-derived, and struct-derived datatypes
Prerequisites
- A basic knowledge of parallel programming and MPI.
- Ability to program in a high-level language such as Fortran or C.