SFA Project On-line Documentation: data file

The data files are used to store the actual data assosiated with a DataSet. For each time step and each dimension we need a seperate data file. Currently the data file has a .dat suffix. This is not a hard and fast rule. It may have any suffix as long as it has the correct syntax. The data file is a binary file.

The syntax of a data file

 -length-  -minimum value-  -maximum value-   -data- 

  4 bytes    4 bytes         4 bytes        4 * length bytes 

length         :  4 byte int.
minimum value  :  minimum value of data as a 4 byte float.
maximum value  :  maximum value of data as a 4 byte float.
data           :  the actual data as 4 byte floats.

Example of a data file

This is what the octal dump of a data file looks like. This is a file 
with lenght of dimension is 10. Minimum value is 19.5 and maximum 
value is 29.5. Data values are increasing by 1.0.

columbia[103] od -d file11.dat
0000000 00000 00010 16796 00000 16876 00000 16796 00000
0000020 16804 00000 16812 00000 16820 00000 16828 00000
0000040 16836 00000 16844 00000 16852 00000 16860 00000
0000060 16868 00000
0000064


columbia[104] od -f file11.dat
0000000  1.4012985e-44  1.9500000e+01  2.9500000e+01  1.9500000e+01
0000020  2.0500000e+01  2.1500000e+01  2.2500000e+01  2.3500000e+01
0000040  2.4500000e+01  2.5500000e+01  2.6500000e+01  2.7500000e+01
0000060  2.8500000e+01
0000064

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