begin

; Read data into a big 1D string array
  fname = "20070708_06.dat"
  data  = asciiread(fname,-1,"string")
	
; Count the number of fields, just to show it can be done.
  nfields = str_fields_count(data(1)," ")
  print("number of fields = " + nfields)
  
;
; Skip first row of "data" because it's just a header line. (optional)
;
; Use a space (" ") as a delimiter in str_get_field. The first
; field is field=1 (unlike str_get_cols, in which the first column
; is column=0).
;
  ;lat = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 2," ")) (optional)
  ;lon = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 3," ")) (optional)
  ;pwv = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 4," ")) (optional)
  
; No skipping first coloumn
  lat = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 2," ")) ; 
  lon = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 1," ")) ; 
  rain = stringtofloat(str_get_field(data(1::), 3," ")) 
  lon@long_name  = "longitude"
  lon@units      = "degrees_east"
  lat@long_name  = "latitude"
  lat@units      = "degrees_north"

;***************************************************
; Open output netcdf file. Remove first just in case.
;***************************************************
   ncdf_out_fname = "20070708_06.nc"
   system("rm -f " + ncdf_out_fname) ; remove any pre-existing file 
   ncdf_out = addfile(ncdf_out_fname,"c")   
 
   ncdf_out->lat =  lat
   ncdf_out->lon =  lon
   ncdf_out->rain =  rain

end