;+
;Project    :SolarB EIS
;
;Name       :eis_get_as_string_arry
;
;Purpose    :overcomes problem with reading strings from database
;
;Category   :EIS timeline planning
;
;Written    :Chunkey Lepine, RAL, d.r.lepine@rl.ac.uk, 0044-1235-44-6515
;
;Version    :V0 February 2005
;-
;************************************************************************

;return array of strings extracted from database
function eis_get_as_string_array, entry, name
    db_item, name, itnum, ivalnum, idtype,sbyte,nvals,nbytes
    dbrd, entry, record
    r = record[sbyte:sbyte+(nvals*nbytes-1)]
    t = reform(r,nbytes,nvals)
    return, string(t)
end