Wiki Testing/fmtconv: Difference between revisions

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The <font color='green'>newform</font> command has the following form:
The <font color='green'>newform</font> command has the following form:


<font color='green'>newform</font> \var{input_file} [\dashf] [\dashif] [\dashof]
<font color='green'>newform</font> ''input_file'' [-f format_file] [-if-if input_format_file] [-of output_format_file]
[\dashft] [\dashift] [\dashoft] [\dashb] [\dashc] [\dashvv] [\dashq]
[\dasho]


For descriptions of the arguments, see ([http://www <cite> ff,convs,argument</cite>]).
[-ft "title"] [-ift "title"] [-oft "title"] [-b local_buffer_size] [-c count] [-v var_file] [-q query_file] [-o output_file]
 
For descriptions of the arguments, see ([[Wiki_Testing/convs|Section 9.3]]).


If you want to convert an ASCII file to a binary file, and you follow
If you want to convert an ASCII file to a binary file, and you follow
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or you can use the <font color='green'>readfile</font> program, described in
or you can use the <font color='green'>readfile</font> program, described in
([[Wiki_Testing/convs|Section 8.6]]).
([[Wiki_Testing/fmtconv|Section 9.3]]).


==<font color='green'>chkform</font>==
==<font color='green'>chkform</font>==

Revision as of 16:49, 6 February 2008

Format Conversion

The FreeForm ND utility program newform lets you convert data from one format to another. This allows you to pass data to applications in the format they require. You may also want to create binary archives for efficient data storage and access. With newform, conversion of ASCII data to binary format is straightforward. If you wish to read the data in a binary file, you can convert it to ASCII with newform, or use the interactive program readfile. You can also convert data from one ASCII format to another ASCII format with newform.

newform

The FreeForm ND-based program newform(4) is a general tool for changing the format ofa data file. The only required command line argument, if you use FreeForm ND naming conventions, is the name of the input data file. The reformatted data is written to standard output (the screen) unless you specify an output file. If you reformat to binary, you will generally want to store the output in a file.

You must create a format description file (or files) with format descriptions for the data files involved in a conversion before you can use newform to perform the conversion. The standard extension for format description files is .fmt. If you do not explicitly specify the format description file on the command line, which is unnecessary if you use FreeForm ND naming conventions, newform follows the FreeForm ND search sequence to find a format file.

For details about FreeForm ND naming conventions and the search sequence, see (Chapter 8).

The newform command has the following form:

newform input_file [-f format_file] [-if-if input_format_file] [-of output_format_file]

[-ft "title"] [-ift "title"] [-oft "title"] [-b local_buffer_size] [-c count] [-v var_file] [-q query_file] [-o output_file]

For descriptions of the arguments, see (Section 9.3).

If you want to convert an ASCII file to a binary file, and you follow the FreeForm ND naming conventions, the command is simply:

newform datafile.dat -o datafile.bin

where datafile is the file name of your choosing.

If data files and format files are not in the current directory or in the same directory, you can specify the appropriate path name. For example, if the input data file is not in the current directory, you can enter:

newform /path/datafile.dat -o datafile.bin


To read the data in the resulting binary file, you can reformat back to ASCII using the command:

newform datafile.bin -o datafile.ext

or you can use the readfile program, described in (Section 9.3).

chkform

Though newform is useful for checking data formats, it is limited by requiring a format file to specify an output format. Since some OPeNDAP FreeForm ND applications (such as the OPeNDAP FreeForm handler) do not require an output format, this is extra work for the dataset administrator. For these occasions, OPeNDAP FreeForm ND provides a simpler format-checking program, called chkform.

The chkform program attempts to read an ASCII file, using the specified input format. If the format allows the file to be read

properly, chkform says so. However, if the input format contains errors, or does not accurately reflect the contents of the given data file, chkform delivers an error message, and attempts to provide a rudimentary diagnosis of the problem.

You must create a format description file (or files) with format descriptions for the data files involved before you can use chkform to chack the format. As with newform, the standard extension for format description files is .fmt. If you do not explicitly specify the format description file on the command line (unnecessary if you use FreeForm ND naming conventions) chkform follows the FreeForm ND search sequence to find a format file.

For details about FreeForm ND naming conventions and the search sequence, see ( ff,convs).

The chkform command has the following form:

chkform input_file [-if input_format_file] [-ift "title"] [-b local_buffer_size]
[-c count] [-q query_file] [-ol log_file] [-el error_log_file] [-ep]

Most of the arguments are described in ( ff,convs,argument). The following are specific to chkform:

\dashol
Puts a log of processing information into the specified

\var{log_file}.

\dashel
Creates an error log file that contains whatever error

messages are issued by chkform.

\dashep
In normal operation, chkform asks you to manually

acknowledge each important error by typing something on the keyboard. If you use this option, chkform will not stop to prompt, but will continue processing until either the file is procesed, or there is an error preventing more processing.

As in the above examples, if you have an ASCII data file called datafile.dat, supposedly described in a format file called datafile.fmt, you can use chkform like this:

chkform datafile.dat

If processing is successful, you will see something like the following:


Welcome to Chkform release 4.2.3 -- an NGDC FreeForm ND application


(llmaxmin.fmt) ASCII_input_file_header  "Latitude/Longitude Limits"
File llmaxmin.dat contains 1 header record (71 bytes)
Each record contains 6 fields and is 71 characters long.

(llmaxmin.fmt) ASCII_input_data "lat/lon"
File llmaxmin.dat contains 10 data records (230 bytes)
Each record contains 3 fields and is 23 characters long.

100

No errors found (11 lines checked)


readfile

FreeForm ND includes readfile, a simple interactive binary file reader. The program has one required command line argument, the name of the file to be read. You do not have to write format descriptions to use readfile.

The readfile command has the following form:

readfile \var{binary_data_file}

When the program starts, it shows the available options, shown in \tableref{ff,tab,readfileopts}. At the readfile prompt, type these option codes to view binary encoded values. (Pressing return repeats the last option.)


\caption{The readfile program options}

p || Set new file position
c char --- 1 byte character
s short --- 2 byte signed integer
l long --- 4 byte signed integer
f float --- 4 byte single-precision floating point
d double --- 8 byte double-precision floating point
uc uchar --- 1 byte unsigned integer
us ushort --- 2 byte unsigned integer
ul ulong --- 4 byte unsigned integer
b Toggle between "big-endian" and your machine's native byte

order

P Show present file position and length
h Display this help screen
q Quit


The options let you interactively read your way through the specified binary file. The first position in the file is 0. You must type the character(s) indicating variable type (e.g., us for unsigned short) to view each value, so you need to know the data types of variables in the file and the order in which they occur. If successive variables are of the same type, you can press Return to view each value after the first of that type.

You can toggle the byte-order switch on and off by typing \inp{b}. The byte-order option is used to read a binary data file that requires byte swapping. This is the case when you need cross-platform access to a file that is not byte-swapped, for example, if you are on a Unix machine reading data from a CD-ROM formatted for a PC. When the switch is on, type \inp{s} or \inp{l} to swap short or long integers respectively, or type \inp{f} or \inp{d} to swap floats or doubles. The readfile program does not byte swap the file itself (the file is unchanged) but byte swaps the data values internally for display purposes only.

To go to another position in the file, type \inp{p}. You are prompted to enter the new file position in bytes. If, for example, each value in the file is 4 bytes long and you type 16, you will be positioned at the first byte of the fifth value. If you split fields (by not repositioning at the beginning of a field), the results will probably be garbage. Type \inp{P} to find out your current position in the file and total file length in bytes. Type \inp{q} to exit from readfile.

You can also use an input command file rather than entering commands directly. In that case, the readfile command has the following form:

readfile binary_data_file < input_command_file


Creating a Binary Archive

By storing data files in binary, you save disk space and make access by applications more efficient. An ASCII data file can take two to five times the disk space of a comparable binary data file. Not only is there less information in each byte, but extra bytes are needed for decimal points, delimiters, and end-of-line markers.

It is very easy to create a binary archive using newform as the following examples show. The input data for these examples are in the ASCII file latlon.dat (shown below). They consist of 20 random latitude and longitude values. The size of the file on a Unix system is 460 bytes.

Here is the latlon.dat file:

-47.303545 -176.161101
-0.928001    0.777265
-28.286662   35.591879
12.588231  149.408117
-83.223548   55.319598
54.118314 -136.940570
38.818812   91.411330
-34.577065   30.172129
27.331551 -155.233735
11.624981 -113.660611
77.652742  -79.177679
77.883119  -77.505502
-65.864879  -55.441896
-63.211962  134.124014
35.130219 -153.543091
29.918847  144.804390
-69.273601   38.875778
-63.002874   36.356024
35.086084  -21.643402
-12.966961   62.152266


Simple ASCII to Binary Conversion

In this example, you will use newform to convert the ASCII data file latlon.dat into the binary file latlon.bin. The input and output data formats are described in latlon.fmt.

Here is the latlon.fmt file:

/ This is the format description file for data files latlon.bin
/ and latlon.dat. Each record in both files contains two fields,
/ latitude and longitude.

binary_data "binary format"
latitude 1 8 double 6
longitude 9 16 double 6

ASCII_data "ASCII format"
latitude 1 10 double 6
longitude 12 22 double 6

The binary and ASCII variables both have the same names. The binary variable latitude occupies positions 1 to 8 and longitude occupies positions 9-16. The corresponding ASCII variables occupy positions 1-10 and 12-22. Both the binary and ASCII variables are stored as doubles and have a precision of 6.

Converting to Binary

To convert from an ASCII representation of the numbers in latlon.dat to a binary representation:


  1. Change to the directory that contains the FreeForm ND example files.
  2. Enter the following command:
 newform latlon.dat -o latlon.bin  

Because FreeForm ND filenaming conventions have been used, newform will locate and use latlon.fmt for the translation. The newform program creates a new data file (effectively a binary archive) called latlon.bin. The size of the archive file is 2/3 the size of latlon.dat. Additionally, the data do not have to be converted to machine-readable representation by applications.

There are two methods for checking the data in latlon.bin to make sure they converted correctly. You can reformat back to ASCII and view the resulting file, or use readfile to read latlon.bin.

Reconverting to Native Format

Use the following newform command to reformat the binary data in latlon.bin to its native ASCII format:

newform latlon.bin -o latlon.rf

The ASCII file latlon.rf matches (but does not overwrite) the original input file latlon.dat. You can confirm this by using a file comparison utility. The diff command is generally available on Unix platforms.

To use diff to compare the latlon ASCII files, enter the command:

diff latlon.dat latlon.rf

The output should be something along these lines:

Files are effectively identical.

Several implementations of the diff utility don't print anything if the two input files are identical.


NOTE: The diff utility may detect a difference in other similar

cases because FreeForm ND adds a leading zero in front of a decimal and interprets a blank as a zero if the field is described as a number. (A blank described as a character is interpreted as a

blank.)


Reading the Binary File

To use readfile to read the data in latlon.bin:


  1. Enter the following command:
     readfile latlon.bin  
  2. The data are stored as doubles, so enter \inp{d} to view each value (or press Return to view each value after the first).
  3. Enter \inp{q} to quit readfile.

Conversion to a More Portable Binary

In this example, you will use newform to reformat the latitude and longitude values in the ASCII data file latlon.dat into binary longs in the binary file latlon2.bin. The input and output data formats are described in latlon2.fmt.

This is what's in latlon2.fmt:

/ This is the format description file for data files latlon.dat
/ and latlon2.bin. Each record in both files contains two fields,
/ latitude and longitude.

ASCII_data "ASCII format"
latitude 1 10 double 6
longitude 12 22 double 6

binary_data "binary format"
latitude 1 4 long 6
longitude 5 8 long 6

The ASCII and binary variables both have the same names. The ASCII variable latitude occupies positions 1-10 and longitude occupies positions 12-22. The ASCII variables are defined to be of type double. The binary variables occupy four bytes each (positions 1-4 and 5-8) and are of type long. The precision for all is 6.

Converting to Binary Long

In the previous example, both the ASCII and binary variables were defined to be doubles. Binary longs, which are 4-byte integers, may be more portable across different platforms than binary doubles or floats.

To convert the ASCII data in latlon.dat to binary longs:


  1. Change to the directory that contains the FreeForm ND example

files.

  1. Enter the following command:
     newform latlon.dat -f latlon2.fmt -o latlon2.bin  

It creates the binary archive file latlon2.bin with the 20 latitude and longitude values in latlon.dat stored as binary longs.

This example duplicates one in chapter 2. If you completed that example, an error message will indicate that latlon2.bin exists. You can rename, move, or delete the existing file.

The size of the archive file latlon2.bin is about 1/3 the size of latlon.dat. Also, the data do not have to be converted to machine representation by applications. The main tradeoff in achieving savings in space and access time is that although binary longs are more portable than binary doubles or floats, any binary representation is less portable than ASCII.

CAUTION: There may be a loss of precision when input data of type double is converted to long.


Reading the Binary File

Once again, you can use readfile to check the data in the binary archive you created.


  1. Enter the following command:
     readfile latlon2.bin  
  2. The data are stored as longs, so enter \inp{l} to view each

value (or press Return to view each value after the first).

  1. Enter \inp{q} to quit readfile.

If desired, you can enter the commands to readfile from an input command file rather than directly from the command line. The example command file latlon.in is shown next.

Here is latlon.in:

llllllp0 llPq

The 6 l's (l for long) cause the first 6 values in the file to be displayed. The sequence p0 causes a return to the top (position 0) of the file. A position number (0) must be followed by a blank space. The 2 l's display the first two values again. The \inp{P} displays the current file position and length, and \inp{q} closes readfile.

If you enter the following command:

readfile latlon2.bin < latlon.in

you should see the following output on the screen:

long:  -47303545
long: -176161101
long:    -928001
long:     777265
long:  -28286662
long:   35591879
New File Position = 0
long:  -47303545
long: -176161101
File Position: 8       File Length: 160

The floating point numbers have been multiplied by 106, the precision of the long variables in latlon2.fmt.

Including a Query

You can use the query option (-q \var{query_file}) to specify exactly which records in the data file newform should process. The query file contains query criteria. Query syntax is summarized in Appendix C.

In this example, you will specify a query so that newform will reformat only those value pairs in latlon.dat where latitude is positive and longitude is negative into the binary file llposneg.bin. The input and output data formats are described in latlon2.fmt.

The query criteria are specified in the following file, called llposneg.qry:

[latitude] > 0 & [longitude] < 0

To convert the desired data in latlon.dat to binary and then view the results:


  1. Enter the following command:
     newform latlon.dat -f latlon2.fmt -q llposneg.qry

-o llposneg.bin The llposneg.bin file now contains the positive/negative latitude/longitude pairs in binary form.

  1. To view the data, first convert the data in llposneg.bin

back to ASCII format: newform llposneg.bin -f latlon2.fmt -o llposneg.dat

  1. Enter the appropriate command to display the data in

llposneg.dat, e.g. more:

The following output appears on the screen:

 54.118314 -136.940570 27.331551 -155.233735 11.624981 -113.660611 77.652742  -79.177679 77.883119  -77.505502 35.130219 -153.543091 35.086084  -21.643402 

NOTE: As demonstrated in the examples above, you can check the data in

a binary file either by using readfile or by converting the

data back to ASCII using newform and then viewing it.


File Names and Context

In the preceding examples, the read/write type (input or output) was not included in the format descriptors (ASCII_data and binary_data). FreeForm ND naming conventions were used, so newform can determine from the context which format should be used for input and which for output. Consider the command:

newform latlon.dat -o latlon.bin

The input file extension is .dat and the output file extension is .bin. These extensions provide context indicating that ASCII should be used as the input format and binary should be used as the output format. The format description file that newform will look for is the file with the same name as the input file and the extension .fmt, i.e., latlon.fmt.

If you use the following command:

newform latlon.bin

to translate the binary archive latlon.bin back to ASCII, newform identifies the input format as binary and uses the ASCII format for output. The ASCII data is written to the screen because an output file was not specified.

For information about FreeForm ND file name conventions, see ( ff,convs).

"Nonstandard" Data File Names

If you are working with data files that do not use FreeForm ND naming conventions, you need to more explicitly define the context. For example, the files lldat1.ll, lldat2.ll, lldat3.ll, lldat4.ll, and lldat5.ll all have latitude and longitude values in the ASCII format given in the format description file lldat.fmt. If you wanted to archive these files in binary format, you could not use a command of the form used in the previous examples, i.e., newform datafile.dat -o datafile.bin with datafile.fmt as the default format description file.

First, the ASCII data files do not have the extension .dat, which identifies them as ASCII files. Second, you would need five separate format description files, all with the same content: lldat1.fmt, lldat2.fmt, lldat3.fmt, lldat4.fmt, and lldat5.fmt. Creating the format description file ll.fmt solves both problems.

Here is the ll.fmt file:

/ This is the format description file that describes latlon
/ data in files with the extension .ll

ASCII_input_data "ASCII format for .ll latlon data"
latitude 1 10 double 6
longitude 12 22 double 6

binary_output_data "binary format for .ll latlon data"
latitude 1 4 long 6
longitude 5 8 long 6

The name used for the format description file, ll.fmt, follows the FreeForm ND convention that one format description file can be utilized for multiple data files, all with the same extension, if the format description file is named ext.fmt. Also, the read/write type (input or output) is made explicit by including it in the format descriptors ASCII_input_data and binary_output_data. This provides the context needed for FreeForm ND programs to determine which format to use for input and which for output.

Use the following commands to produce binary versions of the ASCII input files:

newform lldat1.ll -o llbin1.ll
newform lldat2.ll -o llbin2.ll
newform lldat3.ll -o llbin3.ll
newform lldat4.ll -o llbin4.ll
newform lldat5.ll -o llbin5.ll

If you want to convert back to ASCII, you can switch the words input and output in the format description file ll.fmt. You could then use the following commands to convert back to native ASCII format with output written to the screen:

newform llbin1.ll
newform llbin2.ll
newform llbin3.ll
newform llbin4.ll
newform llbin5.ll

It is also possible to convert back to ASCII without switching the read/write types input and output in ll.fmt. You can specify input and output formats by title instead. In this case, you want to use the output format in ll.fmt as the input format and the input format in ll.fmt as the output format. Use the following command to convert llbin1.ll back to ASCII:

newform <font color='green'>llbin1.ll</font> -ift "binary format for .ll latlon data"

-oft "ASCII format for .ll latlon data"

Notice that newform reports back the read/write type actually used. Since ASCII_input_data was used as the output format, newform reports it as ASCII_output_data.

Now assume that you want to convert the ASCII data file llvals.asc (not included in the example file set) to the binary file latlon3.bin, and the input and output data formats are described in latlon.fmt. The data file names do not provide the context allowing newform to find latlon.fmt by default, so you must include all file names on the command line:

newform llvals.asc -f latlon.fmt -o latlon3.bin

"Nonstandard" Format Description File Names

If you are using a format description file that does not follow FreeForm ND file naming conventions, you must include its name on the command line. Assume that you want to convert the ASCII data file latlon.dat to the binary file latlon.bin, and the input and output data formats are both described in llvals.frm (not included in the example file set). The data file names follow FreeForm ND conventions, but the name of the format description file does not, so it will not be located through the default search sequence. Use the following command to convert to binary:

newform latlon.dat -f llvals.frm -o latlon.bin


Suppose now that the input format is described in latlon.fmt and the output format in llvals.frm. You do not need to explicitly specify the input format description file because it will be located by default, but you must specify the output format description file name. In this case, the command would be:

newform latlon.dat -of llvals.frm -o latlon.bin

You can always unambiguously specify the names of format description files and data files, whether or not their names follow FreeForm ND conventions. Assume you want to look only at longitude values in latlon.bin and that you want them defined as integers (longs) which are right-justified at column 30. You will reformat the specified binary data in latlon.bin into ASCII data in longonly.dat and then view it. The input format is found in latlon.fmt, the output format in longonly.fmt.

Here is longonly.fmt:

/ This is the format description file for viewing longitude as an
/ integer value right-justified at column 30.

ASCII_data "ASCII output format, right-justified at 30"
longitude 20 30 long 6

In this case, you have decided to look at the first 5 longitude values. Use the following command to unambiguously designate all files involved:

newform latlon.bin -if latlon.fmt -of longonly.fmt -c 5
-o longonly.dat

When you view longonly.dat, you should see the following 5 values:


1         2         3         4
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890

-176161101
777265
35591879
149408117
55319598

Changing ASCII Formats

You may encounter situations where a specific ASCII format is required, and your data cannot be used in its native ASCII format. With newform, you can easily reformat one ASCII format to another. In this example, you will reformat California earthquake data from one ASCII format to three other ASCII formats commonly used for such data.The file calif.tap contains data about earthquakes in California with magnitudes > 5.0 since 1980. The data were initially distributed by NGDC on tape, hence the .tap extension. The data format is described in eqtape.fmt:

Here is the eqtape.fmt file:

/ This is the format description file for the NGDC .tap format,
/ which is used for data distributed on floppy disks or tapes.

ASCII_data ".tap format"
source_code 1 3 char 0
century 4 6 short 0
year 7 8 short 0
month 9 10 short 0
day 11 12 short 0
hour 13 14 short 0
minute 15 16 short 0
second 17 19 short 1
latitude_abs 20 24 long 3
latitude_ns 25 25 char 0
longitude_abs 26 31 long 3
longitude_ew 32 32 char 0
depth 33 35 short 0
magnitude_mb 36 38 short 2
MB 39 40 constant 0
isoseismal 41 43 char 0
intensity 44 44 char 0

/ The NGDC record check format includes
/ six flags in characters 45 to 50. These
/ can be treated as one variable to allow
/ multiple flags to be set in a single pass,
/ or each can be set by itself.

ngdc_flags 45 50 char 0
diastrophic 45 45 char 0
tsunami 46 46 char 0
seiche 47 47 char 0
volcanism 48 48 char 0
non_tectonic 49 49 char 0
infrasonic 50 50 char 0

fe_region 51 53 short 0
magnitude_ms 54 55 short 1
MS 56 57 char 0
z_h 58 58 char 0
cultural 59 59 char 0
other 60 60 char 0
magnitude_other 61 63 short 2
other_authority 64 66 char 0
ide 67 67 char 0
depth_control 68 68 char 0
number_stations_qual 69 71 char 0
time_authority 72 72 char 0
magnitude_local 73 75 short 2
local_scale 76 77 char 0
local_authority 78 80 char 0


Three other formats used for California earthquake data are hypoellipse, hypoinverse, and hypo71. Subsets of these formats are described in the format description file hypo.fmt. The format descriptions include the parameters required by the AcroSpin program that is distributed as part of the IASPEI Software Library (Volume 2). AcroSpin shows 3D views of earthquake point data.

Here is the hypo.fmt file:

/ This format description file describes subsets of the
/ hypoellipse, hypoinverse, and hypo71 formats.

ASCII_data "hypoellipse format"

year 1 2 uchar 0
month 3 4 uchar 0
day 5 6 uchar 0
hour 7 8 uchar 0
minute 9 10 uchar 0
second 11 14 ushort 2
latitude_deg_abs 15 16 uchar 0
latitude_ns 17 17 char 0
latitude_min 18 21 ushort 2
longitude_deg_abs 22 24 uchar 0
longitude_ew 25 25 char 0
longitude_min 26 29 ushort 2
depth 30 34 short 2
magnitude_local 35 36 uchar 1

ASCII_data "hypoinverse format"
year 1 2 uchar 0
month 3 4 uchar 0
day 5 6 uchar 0
hour 7 8 uchar 0
minute 9 10 uchar 0
second 11 14 ushort 2
latitude_deg_abs 15 16 uchar 0
latitude_ns 17 17 char 0
latitude_min 18 21 ushort 2
longitude_deg_abs 22 24 uchar 0
longitude_ew 25 25 char 0
longitude_min 26 29 ushort 2
depth 30 34 short 2
magnitude_local 35 36 uchar 1
number_of_times 37 39 short 0
maximum_azimuthal_gap 40 42 short 0
nearest_station 43 45 short 1
rms_travel_time_residual 46 49 short 2

ASCII_data "hypo71 format"
year 1 2 uchar 0
month 3 4 uchar 0
day 5 6 uchar 0
hour 8 9 uchar 0
minute 10 11 uchar 0
second 12 17 float 2
latitude_deg_abs 18 20 uchar 0
latitude_ns 21 21 char 0
latitude_min 22 26 float 2
longitude_deg_abs 27 30 uchar 0
longitude_ew 31 31 char 0
longitude_min 32 36 float 2
depth 37 43 float 2
magnitude_local 44 50 float 2
number_of_times 51 53 short 0
maximum_azimuthal_gap 54 57 float 0
nearest_station 58 62 short 1
rms_travel_time_residual 63 67 float 2
error_horizontal 68 72 float 1
error_vertical 73 77 float 1
s_waves_used 79 79 char 0


The parameters from the California earthquake data in the NGDC format needed for use with the AcroSpin program can be extracted and converted using the following commands:

newform calif.tap -if eqtape.fmt -of hypo.fmt

-oft "hypoellipse format" -o calif.he
newform calif.tap -if eqtape.fmt -of hypo.fmt

-oft "hypoinverse format" -o calif.hi
newform calif.tap -if eqtape.fmt -of hypo.fmt

-oft "hypo71 format" -o calif.h71

If you develop an application that accesses seismicity data in a particular ASCII format, you need only to write an appropriate format description file in order to convert NGDC data into the format used by the application. This lets you make use of the data that NGDC provides in a format that works for you.