[GRASS-user] v.in.ascii howto

Hi,

How should one import an ASCII file which begins with:

---<---------------cut here---------------start-------------->---
ORGANIZATION:
DIGIT DATE:
DIGIT NAME:
MAP NAME:
MAP DATE:
MAP SCALE: 1
OTHER INFO:
ZONE: 0
WEST EDGE: -360.000000
EAST EDGE: 360.000000
SOUTH EDGE: -90.000000
NORTH EDGE: 90.000000
MAP THRESH: 0.0001
VERTI:
L 1435084 2
XXX.XXXXXX XX.XXXXXX
.......... .........
---<---------------cut here---------------end---------------->---

Essentially example 1a in the man page for v.in.ascii, which
unfortunately doesn't have a command to show how this should be
imported. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Cheers,

--
Seb

Never mind, I was misunderstanding that the "standard mode" in the man
page is actually the standard format, so passing format=standard is
what's needed in this case.

On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:30:37 -0600,
"Sebastian P. Luque" <spluque@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, How should one import an ASCII file which begins with:

ORGANIZATION: DIGIT DATE: DIGIT NAME: MAP NAME: MAP DATE:
MAP SCALE: 1 OTHER INFO: ZONE: 0 WEST EDGE:
-360.000000 EAST EDGE: 360.000000 SOUTH EDGE: -90.000000 NORTH
EDGE: 90.000000 MAP THRESH: 0.0001 VERTI: L 1435084 2 XXX.XXXXXX
XX.XXXXXX .......... .........

Essentially example 1a in the man page for v.in.ascii, which
unfortunately doesn't have a command to show how this should be
imported. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

--
Seb

On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 6:13 AM, Seb <spluque@gmail.com> wrote:

Never mind, I was misunderstanding that the "standard mode" in the man
page is actually the standard format,

Good point. I have changed the docs:

standard mode -> standard format mode

Markus

On Sat, 8 Nov 2008 09:54:16 +0100,
"Markus Neteler" <neteler@osgeo.org> wrote:

On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 6:13 AM, Seb <spluque@gmail.com> wrote:

Never mind, I was misunderstanding that the "standard mode" in the
man page is actually the standard format,

Good point. I have changed the docs:

standard mode -> standard format mode

The page also warns "Note the blank before entering vertex
coordinates". Is this strictly necessary? Thanks.

--
Seb

The page also warns "Note the blank before entering vertex
coordinates". Is this strictly necessary? Thanks.

What version of Grass are you using? I can't this message in
the html help in either 6.4 or 7.0svn.

Regardless, I've updated the examples to show the full command-line
import call. I can import vectors in standard format with or without spaces
on each coordinate line; I'll put a note in the docs saying it isn't
necessary to pad with spaces.

(Aside: does anyone know why spaces were placed on each coordinate line
in v.in.ascii example 1a? Cosmetics?)

~ Eric.

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:06:14 -0500,
"Patton, Eric" <epatton@nrcan.gc.ca> wrote:

The page also warns "Note the blank before entering vertex
coordinates". Is this strictly necessary? Thanks.

What version of Grass are you using? I can't this message in the html
help in either 6.4 or 7.0svn.

This is in the Debian sid release 6.2.3-2.1.

Regardless, I've updated the examples to show the full command-line
import call. I can import vectors in standard format with or without
spaces on each coordinate line; I'll put a note in the docs saying it
isn't necessary to pad with spaces.

(Aside: does anyone know why spaces were placed on each coordinate
line in v.in.ascii example 1a? Cosmetics?)

Thanks!! These issues certainly confused me so I wasn't sure what the
standard format really is.

--
Seb

Seb:

>> The page also warns "Note the blank before entering vertex
>> coordinates". Is this strictly necessary?

Not anymore, but having that extra space helps for clarity and is what
v.out.ascii writes.

Eric:

> What version of Grass are you using? I can't this message in the html
> help in either 6.4 or 7.0svn.

This is in the Debian sid release 6.2.3-2.1.

(so the help page has already had that statement removed)

Eric:

> Regardless, I've updated the examples to show the full command-line
> import call. I can import vectors in standard format with or without
> spaces on each coordinate line;

IMO spaces should be encouraged, but not mandatory.

> I'll put a note in the docs saying it isn't necessary to pad with
> spaces.

I would just say nothing at all about it. At most something along the lines
of excess whitespace will be ignored, but then we have to guarantee that.

I would think it would be better to spend the effort to highlight the -n
flag for standard mode without header (ex. 1b).

> (Aside: does anyone know why spaces were placed on each coordinate
> line in v.in.ascii example 1a? Cosmetics?)

IIRC it was a requirement in GRASS 5 which was removed for GRASS 6 (much
more importantly y,x was changed to x,y then).

Hamish

Hamish:

IMO spaces should be encouraged, but not mandatory.

Eric:

> I'll put a note in the docs saying it isn't necessary to pad with
> spaces.

Hamish:

I would just say nothing at all about it. At most something along the lines
of excess whitespace will be ignored, but then we have to guarantee that.

I would think it would be better to spend the effort to highlight the -n
flag for standard mode without header (ex. 1b).

Done. I've highlighted the function of -z and -n in Ex.1b, and applied a number of other
cleanups, to 6.4 and 7.0 as r34274 and r34273, respectively.

~ Eric.