[ferret_users] Reading ASCII data including formatted dates

["William S. Kessler" <william.s.kessler@xxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to read a file consisting of a list of values (first few lines listed below). I've tried with both Ferret 6.94 and PyFerret 7.1 (on a Mac). I want to turn the list into a netcdf file (on a time axis) that I can do subsequent work on.

The hard part is the formatted dates; I am unable to do this with SET DAT/FORMAT=DELIMITED

First there's the problem with the alphabetical months, but even after laboriously changing all of those to numerical, and the separating dashes to slashes, EDATE failed.

I finally kluged this by editing the text to enforce comma-separated values, but this seems like unnecessary work. This is especially true since after having read the edited file on the default X-axis, using the numerical day/month/year to define a time axis, RESHAPEing all variables to that, then writing as cdf, Ferret's listing of the first few values is remarkably like the original!

Namely, I did a bunch of manual editing to make a file that Ferret could read and convert back to much like what I had to start with.

Was there a more straightforward way to do this? Can Ferret make sense of ASCII dates like "05-Sep-2007"? Should have asked the list before I started? 

Billy K

PS - sorry for my mailtool ruining the nice columns in both the original file and the Ferret listing.
-------------------

Original file (first 11 of hundreds of lines):

#sec  central_date  Miss ID  corr   Pmax    Q(0-500m)   Q(0-700m) 
  1   05-Sep-2007   078006a     1   500        18.57       25.19         
  2   06-Dec-2007   07B018a     1   600         5.78        9.63         
  3   15-Jan-2008   07B018b     1   600         3.80        9.62         
  4   08-Apr-2008   082001a     1   600        -3.71        4.87         
  5   16-Jun-2008   082001b     1   600        16.43       16.63         
  6   21-Jul-2008   087006a     1   700        28.64       35.86         
  7   16-Sep-2008   087006b     1   700        14.80       15.31         
  8   01-Dec-2008   08B018a     1   700        16.57       22.62         
  9   23-Jan-2009   08B018b     1   700         4.22        6.70         
 10   02-Aug-2009   097006a     1   700        25.98       28.79         
 11   03-Aug-2009   097001a     1   700        24.83       28.62         

Ferret listing of resulting cdf:

yes? list/l=1:11 secnumt,midt,bott,t500t,t700t
             DATA SET: ./solsea103-tr_v2b.cdf
             TIME: 21-JUL-2007 00:00 to 27-AUG-2009 00:00
 Column  1: SECNUMT is RESHAPE(SECNUM,TTHH)
 Column  2: MIDT is RESHAPE(MID,TTHH)
 Column  3: BOTT is RESHAPE(BOT,TTHH)
 Column  4: T500T is RESHAPE(T500,TTHH)
 Column  5: T700T is RESHAPE(T700,TTHH)
                              SECNUMT     MIDT    BOTT   T500T  T700T
05-SEP-2007 00 /  1:    1.00 "078006a"  500.0  18.57  25.19
06-DEC-2007 00 /  2:    2.00 "07B018a"  600.0   5.78   9.63
15-JAN-2008 00 /  3:    3.00 "07B018b"  600.0   3.80   9.62
08-APR-2008 00 /  4:    4.00 "082001a"  600.0  -3.71   4.87
16-JUN-2008 00 /  5:    5.00 "082001b"  600.0  16.43  16.63
21-JUL-2008 00 /  6:    6.00 "087006a"  700.0  28.64  35.86
16-SEP-2008 00 /  7:    7.00 "087006b"  700.0  14.80  15.31
01-DEC-2008 00 /  8:    8.00 "08B018a"  700.0  16.57  22.62
23-JAN-2009 00 /  9:    9.00 "08B018b"  700.0   4.22   6.70
02-AUG-2009 00 / 10:   10.00 "097006a"  700.0  25.98  28.79
03-AUG-2009 00 / 11:   11.00 "097001a"  700.0  24.83  28.62