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Dayfile.txt: Difference between revisions

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Dayfile.txt (view source)

Revision as of 11:48, 22 May 2020

443 bytes removed ,  22 May 2020
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→‎File specific Editing Rules
#*Although, use of comma or point for separating parts of the date is in some locales, and therefore allowed by Cumulus, those locale settings are not recommended as these date separators can cause issues for subsequent edits.
#* If you move your software to a new device, or you change from Cumulus 1 to Cumulus MX (or back), then you must ensure your dates still use the same separator, so all lines are consistent.
# Each of the fields from date to the end of the line are separated using the list separator (e.g. a comma or semi-colon) defined for your device. After your editing it must still match what your existing dayfile.txt uses.
#* If you wish to use Excel, or to use "Calc" in 'Apache Open Office', "Libre Office", or similar, you may on opening the file need to pre-select the field separator youthat useis being used now (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" (or whatever similar feature name your tool uses) unselected. Again third party packages processing dayfile.txt will need to recognise your field separator, and some may need to specify it. Don't forget to also select it when you save the edited file (you probably need to select "save as" or the equivalent in your tool to see the option).
# Rows can vary in length but only by missing off ''fields at the end''. The minimum number of fields after the date is 14, the maximum varies between different versions.
#Each field has a pre-defined format, and the same format must always be used in that field position.
#* Nulls (2 field separators without something between them ',,') are thus allowed at end of line, but are not allowed within the part of the line with values and time-stamps.
#*If you are editing out rogue values and 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.
**#* Note that Cumulus will stop if your station fails to send what it considers as a vital reading, like pressure or temperature, so the previous point does not apply in all cases.
*# The row terminator for Windows is ''CR LF'', ensure any external editor does not change the two character terminator into a single character. Similar rules apply for single character terminators used by other operating systems, sodon't belet carefulwindows ifchange youa editsingle thecharacter fileterminator oninto aits differentdouble devicecharacter to that running Cumulusterminator.▼
**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). You must never do this in the dayfile.txt that Cumulus processes. My suggestion is use the 'External Program' facility to create a copy of ''dayfile.txt'', make any such changes only on that copy, and set the third-party script to read this copy.
#*Problems with terminating characters are intercepted by operating system, before it reaches the software, but may still stop the software understanding the resulting file, so be careful if you edit the file on a different device to that running Cumulus.
*** Alternatively, do as I do, clean your data as you upload the file into a database. I use a script with validation code checking for rogue values and recognising the -999.9 etc., in all cases my script will store a '''NULL''' value as default in the database table if that validation finds any 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. Similar rules apply for terminators used by other operating systems, so be careful if you edit the file on a different device to that running Cumulus.
* Make sure that any editing does not create any ''blank lines'' in the file. Cumulus assumes an empty line means end of processing.
* Don't add a header line to the file, Cumulus expects all lines to be data lines.
 
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