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Dayfile.txt: Difference between revisions
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→Viewing or Editing the daily summary log within Cumulus: Moved section re manipulating outside Cumulus before section re editing in Cumulus 1
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*Cumulus MX includes the ability to generate SQL to update a database table version of the log. Using that database table avoids any clash with the Cumulus MX update of the daily summary log.
== Viewing or Editing the daily summary log
=== Editing the file or other Manipulation outside Cumulus ===
The file is <tt>data\dayfile.txt</tt> within the directory holding the Cumulus excutable, it can be viewed in a text editor, imported into various database systems, or imported into spreadsheets, to manipulate as you wish. Just remember that Cumulus updates it as part of the rollover process, so never attempt to work on it either when Cumulus has just been restarted and is checking/updating (and possibly doing a rollover of logs), or around the midnight/9am/10am local rollover time when Cumulus is writing a new row.
'''Tip''': Take a copy of the file before you work on it outside Cumulus, so you can revert to old file.
'''Note''': Since new versions/builds can add to number of fields, Cumulus will accept lines of 15 fields or more (including without the more recent fields at the end). (Additions by versions are indicated below, you can explore details of earlier versions via the official [http://sandaysoft.com/products/cumulus product] page).
'''Important Rules''':
These notes were written for Cumulus 1, see the MX part of the forum for any differences introduced in the future.
* The file must never be edited with a word processor, as they store many control and identification characters that prevent Cumulus correctly reading the values.
* Use either a specialised "Comma Separated Value" file editor or a text editor.
* All rows must ''start with date'' and include some of the parameters listed ''in correct sequence''.
* The file should be saved without "Byte Order Mark", specialised text editors will include a menu where you select the encoding and can select not to include BOM.
* The (meteorological) date format uses ''two digits for the year''. Edit this file using an editor that treats all fields as text (a text editor or a spreadsheet program that can be instructed ''not'' to recognise special field types). For software (e.g. Excel) with default of recognising formats, ensure that such recognition is turned off, as it is likely to change the dates to either a number representing days since e.g. 31 Dec 1899, or to have four figure years, and then Cumulus will no longer be able to use the log file.
* (Remember the month must be the middle figure in the date, USA convention cannot apply within logfiles). The separator between the three parts of the date will be a hyphen or a slash, it cannot be a space.
* The fields are separated using the Windows list separator (e.g. a comma or semi-colon)[[File:Open office (editing cumulus log files).png]] If you wish to use "Calc" in 'Apache Open Office', "Libre Office", or similar, select the field separator you use (in this illustration comma is selected, but your file might use semi-colons between fields, don't select commas if your real numbers use comma between integer and decimal parts) and leave "Detect Special Numbers" unselected.
* Times are in ''format hh:mm'' (Be aware you will have problems if you, or your editing software, add seconds).
* Rows can vary in length but only by missing off ''fields at the end''.
* Shorter lines can have multiple field separators added at end of row (during editing after all available valid parameters inserted, extra field separators may be added at end of shorter lines inserted by 'Create Missing' or by a spreadsheet as these make all lines end up with same number of fields)
* Most value fields are in ''real number format x.y'' using your system decimal notation, a few (e.g. bearings, solar, humidity) are ''integers'' (see [[#List_of_fields_in_the_file]]). Whilst an integer can be used for a real number field, decimals are not allowed in an integer field.
* If you insert a ''lowest or highest value'' for a new day, where there was no record before, insert a ''time-stamp'' too, as a dayfile.txt row is only accepted by the Cumulus editor if each value has any related time-stamp. (Use a time-stamp of your rollovertime 00:00, 09:00 or 10:00 if you have not looked up the precise time). If you are using a 9am or 10am rollover time, create missing in Cumulus inserts 00:00 for null time-stamps, but normally Cumulus uses the rollover time for null time-stamps.
* Nulls (2 field separators without something between them ',,') are not allowed within the part of the line with values and time-stamps, so if you do not know the value for a particular field within the line, then type in a zero or 9999 for nulls in integer format and an extreme with opposite value (e.g. -999.9 for a signed decimal maximum, and 9999.9 for a decimal minimum) for nulls in decimal format (replace the full stops with your decimal separator).
**Beware - if you do insert zero or an obviously wrong extreme value, Cumulus will display those in any editing screen where you wish to update the all-time, monthly-all-time, this month, or this year, extremes. This can make editing by picking values in logs harder.
**Cumulus itself will use zero for any parameters (e.g. solar) not provided by your station, and will repeat the last valid value if the station fails to send a value it should provide, so if a station fails to send a value for more than a day, dayfile.txt may show the same value as the previous day.
**Some third-party scripts read the file to calculate averages or other statistics, and their authors suggest you remove rogue values (creating the ',,' that Cumulus objects to). My suggestion is use the 'External Program' facility to create a copy of ''dayfile.txt'' and make any such changes only on that copy, and set the third-party script to read this copy. Alternatively, do as I do, clean your data as you upload the file into a database, with validation code checking for the -999.9 etc, and store a '''NULL''' value as default in the database if that validation finds such an obviously invalid figure.
* The row terminator for Windows is ''CR LF'', ensure any external editor does not change the two character terminator into a single character.
* Make sure that any editing does not create any ''blank lines'' in the file.
=== Editing daily summary in Cumulus ===▼
'''This section applies to Cumulus 1.x.y only - Cumulus MX v3.0.0 (checked at build 3043) does not provide an editor'''
Click the ''Help'' button for detailed instructions. Cumulus Help is comprehensive.
If a particular day does not exist as a row on the daily summary log, then 'create missing' can search the observations in the relevant monthly log, and calculate approximate highs, lows and totals to insert as an exta row in the daily summary log. These are approximate because the actual highs and lows for that day are quite likely to have
▲=== Editing daily summary in Cumulus ===
If there is an error in ''dayfile.txt'', then it is most likely to be found when you are viewing its data on one of the screens for editing the monthly, annual or all-time extremes. Cumulus will illuminate its ''Error'' light if it finds an error in such cases and tell you the line/row number of the first found error, together with some details of the error it found. For example, if a row is blank, a row is duplicated, a field is corrupted, a field does not have an acceptable value, or a field is missing so subsequent fields are to the left of where they should be.
You can use this editor as follows:
*use '''insert''' key to add one or more missing rows (complete days) manually,
*correct individual values by
*use '''delete''' key to remove an entire day (e.g. if you get a 'duplicate' error message),
*use '''Create missing''' button to insert missing rows (complete days) by reading from [[Monthly_log_files]] and automatically calculating the best approximations for each field for those missing days.
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