NAVIEDIT

ASCII IMPORTER - HEADER TEMPLATE

Last update: 11/03/2020

Version: 8.5
 Contents

1 Ascii Importer - Header Template ................................................................................. 3

1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3

1.2 Usage ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.2.1 Syntax .................................................................................................................. 5
1.2.2 Example ............................................................................................................... 6

2 Version descriptions ...................................................................................................... 7

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 1 Ascii Importer - Header Template

1.1 Introduction
The Ascii Importer lets you define a template for import of tide, sound velocity, XYZ,
pressure and CTD ascii files.
In this template it is possible to define a Header Template where you by means of regular
expression can specify Date, Time and Position for the ascii file being imported.
This document describes how to use this Header Template.

1.2 Usage
During import of an ascii file you first select the data type to import, then you can either
create a new template or edit an existing template for this data type:

Figure 1 Ascii Interpreter with data type SVP

AsciiImporterHeaderTemplate.docx
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 For a detailed description on hove to configure the other parts of the ascii importer, see
https://eiva.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/43000562498-naviedit-ascii-import-of-
tidal-data

When you select either Edit selected or New template you will get the option to edit the
Header Template:

Figure 2 Ascii Interpreter: Columns

The Header Template lets you specify Date, Time and Position by use of regular
expressions:

Figure 3 Header Information

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 The pre-installed templates are located at c:\Windows\AsciiFileTemplates\

If you want to copy a template form one NaviEdit installation to another you should copy the
relevant file from this directory.

When you select either ‘Edit selected’ or ‘New template’ you will get the option to edit the
Header Template:

1.2.1 Syntax

The syntax used to identify Date, Time and Position is regular expressions. Regular
expressions come in different flavour, NaviEdit uses a perl derived version with a named
group extension.

The named group is the keyword which is used to identify which expression is the Year,
Month and Day part of the Header.

The syntax for a named group is

(?<NamedGroup>(RegularExpression)

The regular expression inside the parenthesis is searching for the first match of the regular
expression.

The following named groups can be used:

• Year
• Month
• Day
• Hour
• Min
• Sec
• Easting
• Northing
• Latitude
• Longitude

Regular expressions are very power full, but the syntax is a bit difficult.
This guide will not at all try to explain the general syntax. The links below describes the
syntax:

AsciiImporterHeaderTemplate.docx
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions
http://www.regular-expressions.info/reference.html
http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/download/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet-v2.pdf

1.2.2 Example

The Date field of the following ASVP Sound Velocity Profile template is used as an
example:

Figure 4 Header Information example

The following sound velocity profile file is used as input:

( SoundVelocity 1.0 0 201005311222 56.87388889 12.30722222 -1 0 0 MVS10_00021 P

0232 )
0 1472.43
1.22 1484.96
1.97 1486.04
...

The regular expression for the Date part consists of 3 named groups:
(?<Year>(\d{4})) (?<Month>(\d{2})) (?<Day>(\d{2}))

The first named group Year will look for the first 4 consecutive digits, and find 2010.

The next named group Month will continue the search just after the first match, and search
for the first occurrence of 2 consecutive digits, and find 05.

The third and last named group Day will continue the search just after the previous match,
and search for the first occurrence of 2 consecutive digits, and find 31.

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 The regular expression in both the Date, Time and Position fields will begin the search from
the very beginning of the ascii file being imported, and search the first million characters in
the ascii file for matches.

This implies that the header part of an ascii file being import does not need to be on a single
line.

In the example above the second run Time of the regular expression search will again begin
searching from the beginning of the ascii file to be imported. It will first search for 8
consecutive digits and find 20100531, which are not ‘remembered’ in any named group – it
is the Year, Month and Date which we have already match in the Date field. Then the
regular expression will search for the first occurrence of consecutive digits and find 12 which
are the named expression Hour.

2 Version descriptions
Version Date Author Description
8.0 10/06/2010 HKP Created

8.5 11/03/2020 ANS Updated to new template.

AsciiImporterHeaderTemplate.docx
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Last update: 11/3/2020