[ncl-talk] Remove white-spaces from write_table output

Fri Aug 11 08:47:07 MDT 2017

Maybe a better idea would be to just use a setfileoption that would
turn the default blank space into a non-space.
 -dave

On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 8:36 AM, Barry Lynn <barry.h.lynn at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi:
>
> It sounds like you've found a solution, but one should mention that a
> fortran write statement (using WRAPIT) is easy to format.
>
> Barry
>
> On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 5:35 PM, Mary Haley <haley at ucar.edu> wrote:
>>
>> We could certainly do that, but the format string was set up to allow you
>> to enter text in additional to format strings, for example:
>>
>>  i = ispan( 95,105, 1)
>>  j = ispan(905,1005,10)
>>
>>  write_table("example4.txt","w",[/i,j/],"first_%05i second_%05i")
>>
>> which gives you:
>>
>> first_00095 second_00905
>> first_00096 second_00915
>> . . .
>>
>> Like you said, we would have to choose which special character could be
>> used.  I suppose in the case of write_table, you could use setfileoption to
>> set or change the special character.
>>
>> --Mary
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 2:31 PM, David Brown <dbrown at ucar.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> I am wondering if we could provide a special formatting character that
>>> could be part of the format string, maybe at the beginning, and would
>>> signal that no automatic separator character be used. Of course which
>>> character to use might be an issue, but hopefully that could be
>>> solved.
>>>  -dave
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 2:12 PM, Dennis Shea <shea at ucar.edu> wrote:
>>> > Fortran (some other languages too!) has the capability to provide user
>>> > specified granularity in parsing strings of numbers and characters.
>>> >
>>> > fortran:   format(i2,5i5)
>>> >               2999999999999999999999999999999
>>> >
>>> > The problem is someone must tell you the structure. You could read as
>>> > follows:
>>> >               format(i2,i2,i3,i5,i4,i1,.......)
>>> >
>>> > However, any 'automatic' software must have some separator between the
>>> > numbers.
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > NCDC has text files the include letters, numbers, periods (76.5) all
>>> > together.
>>> >
>>> > ====
>>> > fortran:   format(i2,5(1x,i5))
>>> >               2 99999 99999 99999 99999 99999 99999
>>> >
>>> > Just a comment
>>> > D
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 12:02 PM, Rabah Hachelaf <hachelaf at sca.uqam.ca>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi Mary and Karin,
>>> >>
>>> >> Adding white-spaces by default is a limitation if we need to write
>>> >> some
>>> >> data using a FORTRAN format.
>>> >> We could bypass this "issue" by removing one character starting from
>>> >> the
>>> >> 2nd variable but we would have liked to keep the same format between
>>> >> FORTRAN
>>> >> and NCL
>>> >>
>>> >> Regards,
>>> >>
>>> >> Rabah
>>> >>
>>> >> 2017-08-10 13:15 GMT-04:00 Mary Haley <haley at ucar.edu>:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Hi Rabah,
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I see Karin already responded, and had the same response I was just
>>> >>> about
>>> >>> to send!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'll go ahead and include my response here. I've updated the
>>> >>> documentation to indicate this behavior, and also created a ticket
>>> >>> just in
>>> >>> case.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Unfortunately, I think this is a "feature" of write_table. Even if
>>> >>> there's a case for declaring this a bug, we probably couldn't change
>>> >>> the
>>> >>> behavior because we'd likely break a bunch of existing scripts that
>>> >>> depend
>>> >>> on the space being there.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I created a ticket on this (NCL-2646), in case it's an issue for
>>> >>> other
>>> >>> users.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Meanwhile, as Karin pointed out, I think the only way around this is
>>> >>> to
>>> >>> concatenate the strings yourself:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> int1 = 2
>>> >>> int2 = "99999"
>>> >>> int3 = "99999"
>>> >>> int4 = "99999"
>>> >>> int5 = "99999"
>>> >>> int6 = "99999"
>>> >>> int7 = "99999"
>>> >>> int_cat = int2+int3+int4+int5+int6+int7
>>> >>> sounding_check = [/int1,int_cat/]
>>> >>> write_table(outfile,"w",sounding_check,"%2i%s")
>>> >>>
>>> >>> In general, I would caution against writing numbers to a file without
>>> >>> any
>>> >>> spaces, because this makes it potentially very difficult for somebody
>>> >>> else
>>> >>> looking at the file to know how to read it.  However, I do understand
>>> >>> that
>>> >>> some of these files have historically been written this way for other
>>> >>> purposes
>>> >>>
>>> >>> --Mary
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 3:13 PM, Rabah Hachelaf <hachelaf at sca.uqam.ca>
>>> >>> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> Hello,
>>> >>>> I am wounding why there is a systematic white-spaces between values
>>> >>>> although they are removed from the format specifier.
>>> >>>> How can i remove white spaces from in this case.
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> Thank you
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> begin
>>> >>>> outfile = "test.txt"
>>> >>>> sounding_check =
>>> >>>> [/2,"99999","99999","99999","99999","99999","99999"/]
>>> >>>> write_table(outfile,"a",sounding_check,"%2i%s%s%s%s%s%s")
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> end
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> output :
>>> >>>>  2 99999 99999 99999 99999 99999 99999
>>> >>>> --
>>> >>>> ------------------------------
>>> >>>> Best regards,
>>> >>>> Rabah Hachelaf
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>>> ncl-talk mailing list
>>> >>>> ncl-talk at ucar.edu
>>> >>>> List instructions, subscriber options, unsubscribe:
>>> >>>> http://mailman.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/ncl-talk
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> ------------------------------
>>> >> Cordialement,
>>> >> Best regards,
>>> >> Rabah Hachelaf
>>> >>
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> ncl-talk mailing list
>>> >> ncl-talk at ucar.edu
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>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
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>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Barry H. Lynn, Ph.D
> Senior Lecturer,
> The Institute of the Earth Science,
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
> Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
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