read.lobo: Read a lobo File

Description

Read a data file created by a LOBO instrument.

Usage

read.lobo(file, cols = 7, encoding = "latin1", processingLog)

Value

A lobo object.

Arguments

file: a connection or a character string giving the name of the file to load.
cols: number of columns in dataset.
encoding: a character value that indicates the encoding to be used for this data file, if it is textual. The default value for most functions is "latin1", which seems to be suitable for files containing text written in English and French.
processingLog: if provided, the action item to be stored in the log. (Typically only provided for internal calls; the default that it provides is better for normal calls by a user.)

Sample of Usage


library(oce)
uri <- paste("http://lobo.satlantic.com/cgi-bin/nph-data.cgi?",
    "min_date=20070220&max_date=20070305",
    "&x=date&",
    "y=current_across1,current_along1,nitrate,fluorescence,salinity,temperature&",
    "data_format=text", sep="")
lobo <- read.lobo(uri)

Author

Dan Kelley

Details

This version of read.lobo is really quite crude, having been developed mainly for a ``predict the Spring bloom'' contest at Dalhousie University. In particular, the function assumes that the data columns are exactly as specified in the Examples section; if you reorder the columns or add new ones, this function is unlikely to work correctly. Furthermore, it should be noted that the file format was inferred simply by downloading files; the supplier makes no claims that the format will be fixed in time. It is also worth noting that there is no read.oce() equivalent to read.lobo, because the file format has no recognizable header.