How to customize the ascii output format?

[Chi Ding <chi@xxxxxxxxx>]

 Hi everybody
        I'm using ferret to extract ascii data out of my netcdf file
upon x/y/z/t selected by users.
       The ferret statements are like
       REPEAT/l=($lmin):($lmax):`lchunk` 
REPEAT/k=($kmin):($kmax):`kchunk` REPEAT/j=($jmin):($jmax):`jchunk` 
(list/append/file($format)/j=`j`:`jtop`/k=`k`:`ktop`/l=`l`:`ltop` 
($theVar); CANC MEM/ALL)
       And the output  format is like
       VARIABLE : WIND_SPEED (m/second)
           FILENAME : sb3.nc
           FILEPATH : /home/local/ferret/go/
           BAD FLAG :  -99999.00                SUBSET   : 145 points 
(TIME)
           LONGITUDE: 30W
           LATITUDE : 40N
           Z (meters): 0
coordinates    30W  28-SEP-2003 00    6.919
28-SEP-2003 01    7.104
28-SEP-2003 02    7.295
28-SEP-2003 03    7.928
28-SEP-2003 04    7.701
28-SEP-2003 05    8.061
28-SEP-2003 06    7.856
28-SEP-2003 07    8.169
28-SEP-2003 08    8.586
28-SEP-2003 09    8.416
28-SEP-2003 10    9.327
28-SEP-2003 11    8.478
28-SEP-2003 12    9.028
28-SEP-2003 13    8.879
28-SEP-2003 14    9.013

       I need to modify the output format   1) customize the header, 
get rid of the Z(meters) information
 2) add some customized words into the header
 3) list the dat using the following format, ideally tab seperated
         Day.Hour(local)   Year_Day   Wind_Speed(m/sec)   
Wind_Direction(deg)
    9/25/03 0:00               131.23                        
4.2                   32
    9/25/03 1:00                   131.27                    
3.8                 30
            
       My questions is
       1) is ferret powerful enough to generate the output I want?
       2)  Right now I'm using a Matlab toolbox to work
on the netcdf file. Any  netcdf tool is able to generate the output or 
extract pure ascii data
without the header information?

       Any information will be highly appreciated.
       Cheers, Ding