Multiple subfields for PatientName tag

[Sui Jiang]

Hi guys, I'm new to the fo-dicom library. I'm working with program that read's patient name.

If I go inside of the Patient Name, it contains several sub fields like FirstName and LastName. In this case I cannot cast it into a string.

What would be a proper data type to cast here?

Or when invoking dicomFile.Dataset.Get<T>(DicomTag.PatientName), what should I put for "T"?



In general, if some value representations are not simple values (when open in MATLAB they're MATLAB struct's), what would be a proper DataType to cast it?

[Anders Gustafsson Cureos AB]

Hi Sui,

if you replace T with string, you will get the original patient name string from the DICOM message (e.g. "Doe^John"), whereas if you replace T with DicomPersonName, you will be able to access the individual name parts from the result. So it is mainly a question of what you prefer.

The Get overrides typically support casts to basic types, so generally it is sufficient to replace T with basic types or arrays such as string, int, double, string[], int[], double[].

Regards,

Anders @ Cureos

[Sui Jiang]

Works like a champ. Thanks Anders.

Is there a way to check what cast types are available for each DicomTag?

I noticed that I have either to see it through exception or look it up by setting up a break point. Does FO developers supply a dictionary about that?

[Anders Gustafsson Cureos AB]

Hi again Sui,

at the moment, there is no detailed information available which casts are supported for which VRs, so looking at the DicomElement code or trial-and-error are currently the only ways forward. But we are continuously trying to add API documentation, and it would also make sense to put up a wiki page with the information you are asking for. Please feel free to post an issue in the Github repository about receiving detailed information about supported Get<T> casts.

Regards,

Anders