.. _readsequence:

readsequence
************


**Syntax:** :code:`readsequence(image name, filename template)`

Reads an image sequence from disk. Supports any image formats supported by the back end (at least .png).

This command can be used in the distributed processing mode. Use :ref:`distribute` command to change processing mode from local to distributed.

Arguments
---------

image name [input]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Data type:** string

Name of image in the system.

filename template [input]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Data type:** string

Name (and path) template of the sequence to be read. If a directory name is given, all files in the directory will be read. If the a file name is given, it can contain wildcards :math:`*`, :math:`?` and :math:`@`. Wildcard :math:`*` corresponds to any sequence of characters, wildcard :math:`?` corresponds to any character, and wildcard :math:`@` corresponds to sequence of numerical digits. For example, sequence containing files xyz_000.png, xyz_001.png, xyz_002.png, etc. could be read with template xyz_@.png.