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Collectives

C | FORTRAN-legacy | FORTRAN-2008

MPI_Scatter

Definition

MPI_Scatter dispatches data from a process across all processes in the same communicator. As a blocking operation, the buffer passed can be safely reused as soon as the routine returns. Also, MPI_Scatter is a collective operation; all processes in the communicator must invoke this routine. Other variants of MPI_Scatter are MPI_Scatterv, MPI_Iscatter and MPI_Iscatterv. Refer to MPI_Iscatter to see the non-blocking counterpart of MPI_Scatter.

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int MPI_Scatter(const void* buffer_send,
                int count_send,
                MPI_Datatype datatype_send,
                void* buffer_recv,
                int count_recv,
                MPI_Datatype datatype_recv,
                int root,
                MPI_Comm communicator);

Parameters

buffer_send
The buffer containing the data to disptach from the root process. For non-root processes, the send parameters like this one are ignored.
count_send
The number of elements to send to each process, not the total number of elements in the send buffer. For non-root processes, the send parameters like this one are ignored.
datatype_send
The type of one send buffer element. For non-root processes, the send parameters like this one are ignored.
buffer_recv
The buffer in which store the data dispatched.
count_recv
The number of elements in the receive buffer.
datatype_recv
The type of one receive buffer element.
root
The rank of the root process, which will dispatch the data to scatter.
communicator
The communicator in which the scatter takes place.

Returned value

The error code returned from the scatter.

MPI_SUCCESS
The routine successfully completed.

Example

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <mpi.h>

/**
 * @brief Illustrates how to use a scatter.
 * @details This application is meant to be run with 4 processes. Process 0 is
 * designed as root and begins with a buffer containing all values, and prints
 * them. It then dispatches these values to all the processes in the same
 * communicator. Other processes just receive the dispatched value meant for 
 * them. Finally, everybody prints the value received.
 *
 *                +-----------------------+
 *                |       Process 0       |
 *                +-----+-----+-----+-----+
 *                |  0  | 100 | 200 | 300 |
 *                +-----+-----+-----+-----+
 *                 /      |       |      \
 *                /       |       |       \
 *               /        |       |        \
 *              /         |       |         \
 *             /          |       |          \
 *            /           |       |           \
 * +-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+
 * | Process 0 | | Process 1 | | Process 2 | | Process 3 |
 * +-+-------+-+ +-+-------+-+ +-+-------+-+ +-+-------+-+ 
 *   | Value |     | Value |     | Value |     | Value |   
 *   |   0   |     |  100  |     |  200  |     |  300  |   
 *   +-------+     +-------+     +-------+     +-------+   
 *                
 **/
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);

    // Get number of processes and check that 4 processes are used
    int size;
    MPI_Comm_size(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &size);
    if(size != 4)
    {
        printf("This application is meant to be run with 4 processes.\n");
        MPI_Abort(MPI_COMM_WORLD, EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    // Determine root's rank
    int root_rank = 0;

    // Get my rank
    int my_rank;
    MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &my_rank);

    // Define my value
    int my_value;

    if(my_rank == root_rank)
    {
        int buffer[4] = {0, 100, 200, 300};
        printf("Values to scatter from process %d: %d, %d, %d, %d.\n", my_rank, buffer[0], buffer[1], buffer[2], buffer[3]);
        MPI_Scatter(buffer, 1, MPI_INT, &my_value, 1, MPI_INT, root_rank, MPI_COMM_WORLD);
    }
    else
    {
        MPI_Scatter(NULL, 1, MPI_INT, &my_value, 1, MPI_INT, root_rank, MPI_COMM_WORLD);
    }

    printf("Process %d received value = %d.\n", my_rank, my_value);

    MPI_Finalize();

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}