pd2hts 0.1.2

Read and write Pandas objects from/to Hydrognomon timeseries files

===========================================================================
pd2hts - Read and write Pandas objects from/to Hydrognomon timeseries files
===========================================================================

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Requirements
============

Python 3, Pandas

Reference
=========

``pd2hts`` contains the following functions:

* ``read(f)`` reads filelike object ``f`` that contains a time series in
text format, and returns a pandas DataFrame with date index, value,
and flags.

* ``read_file(f)`` reads filelike object ``f`` that contains a time
series in file format, and returns a pandas DataFrame which also has
attributes ``unit``, ``title``, ``comment``, ``time_zone``,
``time_step``, ``timestamp_rounding``, ``timestamp_offset``,
``interval_type``, ``variable``, ``precision`` and ``location``. For
the meaning of these attributes, see section "File format" below. All
these attributes are informational; they aren't otherwise taken into
account in the pandas object.

In particular, ``time_step`` and the other time-step-related
attributes don't necessarily mean that the pandas object will have a
related frequency. In fact, raw time series may be irregular but
actually have a time step. For example, a ten-minute time series might
end in :10, :20, etc., but at some point there might be an
irregularity and it could continue with :31, :41, etc. Strictly
speaking, such a time series has an irregular step. However, when
stored in a database, specifying that its time step is ten minutes
(because that's what it is, ten minutes with irregularities) can help
people who browse or search the database contents.

The ``location`` attribute is a dictionary that has items
``abscissa``, ``ordinate``, ``srid``, ``altitude``, and ``asrid``.

* ``write(pd, f)`` writes pandas DataFrame ``pd``, which should be a
time series with value and flags, to filelike object ``f``, in text
format. In accordance with the :ref:`text format specification
<textformat>`, time series are written using the CR-LF sequence to
terminate lines. In order to produce fully compliant files, care
should be taken that ``f``, or any subsequent operations on ``f``, do
not perform text translation; otherwise, it may result in lines being
terminated with CR-CR-LF. If ``f`` is a file, it should have been
opened in binary mode.

* ``write_file(pd, f, version=4)`` is like ``write()`` but uses file
format. If ``pd`` has any of the extra attributes mentioned in
``read_file()``, these are written to the file.

Formats
=======

There are two formats: the *text format* is generic text format, without
metadata; the *file format* is like the text format, but additionally
contains headers with metadata.

.. _textformat:

Text format
-----------

The text format for a time series is us-ascii, one line per record,
like this:

2006-12-23 18:34,18.2,RANGE

The three fields are comma-separated and must always exist. In the date
field, the time may be missing. The character that separates the date
from the time may be either a space or a lower case ``t``, or a capital
``T`` (this module produces text format using a space as date separator,
but can read text format that uses ``t`` or ``T``). The second field
always uses a dot as the decimal separator and may be empty. The third
field is usually empty but may contain a list of space-separated flags.
The line separator should be the CR-LF sequence used in MS-DOS and
Windows systems. Code that produces text format should always use CR-LF
to end lines, but code that reads text format should be able to also
read lines that end in LF only, as well as CR-CR-LF (for reasons
explained in the ``write()`` function above).

In order to improve performance in file writes, the maximum length of
each time series record line is limited to 255 characters.

Flags should be encoded in ASCII; there must be no characters with
code greater than 127.

.. _fileformat:

File format
-----------

The file format is like this::

Version=2
Title=My timeseries
Unit=°C

2006-12-23 18:34,18.2,RANGE
2006-12-23 18:44,18.3,

In other words, the file format consists of a header that specifies
parameters in the form ``Parameter=Value``, followed by a blank line,
followed by the timeseries in text format. The same conventions for line
terminators apply here as for the text format. The encoding of the
header section is UTF-8.

Client and server software should recognize UTF-8 files with or without
UTF-8 BOM (Byte Order Mark) in the begining of file. Writes may or may
not include the BOM, according OS. (Usually Windows software attaches
the BOM at the beginning of the file).

Parameter names are case insensitive. There may be white space on
either side of the equal sign, which is ignored. Trailing white space on
the line is also ignored. A second equal sign is considered to be part
of the value. The value cannot contain a newline, but there is a way to
have multi-lined parameters explained in the Comment parameter below.
All parameters except Version are optional: either the value can be
blank or the entire ``Parameter=Value`` can be missing; the only
exception is the Comment parameter.

The parameters available are:

**Version**
There are four versions:

* Version 1 files are long obsolete. They did not have a header
section.

* Version 2 files must have ``Version=2`` as the first line of the
file. All other parameters are optional. The file may not contain
unrecognized parameters; software reading files with unrecognized
parameters may raise an error.

* Version 3 files do not have the *Version* parameter. At least one of
the other parameters must be present. Unrecognized parameters are
ignored when reading. The deprecated parameter names
*Nominal_offset* and *Actual_offset* are used instead of the newer
ones *Timestamp_rounding* and *Timestamp_offset*.

* Version 4 files are the same as Version 3, except for the names of
the parameters *Timestamp_rounding* and *Timestamp_offset*.

**Unit**
A symbol for the measurement unit, like ``°C`` or ``mm``.

**Count**
The number of records in the time series. If present, it need not be
exact; it can be an estimate. Its primary purpose is to enable
progress indicators in software that takes time to read large time
series files. In order to determine the actual number of records,
the records need to be counted.

**Title**
A title for the time series.

**Comment**
A multiline comment for the time series. Multiline comments are
stored by specifying multiple adjacent Comment parameters, like
this::

Comment=This timeseries is extremely important
Comment=because the comment that describes it
Comment=spans five lines.
Comment=
Comment=These five lines form two paragraphs.

The Comment parameter is the only parameter where a blank value is
significant and indicates an empty line, as can be seen in the
example above.

**Timezone**
The time zone of the timestamps, in the format :samp:`{XXX}
(UTC{+HHmm})`, where *XXX* is a time zone name and *+HHmm* is the
offset from UTC. Examples are ``EET (UTC+0200)`` and ``VST
(UTC-0430)``.

**Time_step**
A comma-separated pair of integers; the number of minutes and months
in the time step (one of the two mut be zero). If missing, the time
series is without time step.

**Timestamp_rounding**
A comma-separated pair of integers indicating the number of minutes
and months that must be added to a round timestamp to get to the
nominal timestamp. For example, if an hourly time series has
timestamps that end in :13, such as 01:13, 02:13, etc., then its
rounding is 13 minutes, 0 months, i.e., ``(13, 0)``. Monthly time
series normally have a nominal timestamp of ``(0, 0)``, the
timestamps usually being of the form 2008-02-01 00:00, meaning
"February 2008" and usually rendered by application software as "Feb
2008" or "2008-02". Annual timestamps have a nominal timestamp which
normally has 0 minutes, but may have nonzero months; for example, a
common rounding in Greece is 9 months (0=January), which means that
an annual timestamp is of the form 2008-10-01 00:00, normally
rendered by application software as 2008-2009, and denoting the
hydrological year 2008-2009.

``timestamp_rounding`` may be None, meaning that the timestamps can
be irregular.

*Timestamp_rounding* is named differently in older versions. See the
*Version* parameter above for more information.

**Timestamp_offset**
A comma-separated pair of integers indicating the number of minutes
and months that must be added to the nominal timestamp to get to the
actual timestamp. The timestamp offset for small time steps, such as
up to daily, is usually zero, except if the nominal timestamp is the
beginning of an interval, in which case the timestamp offset is
equal to the length of the time step, so that the actual timestamp
is the end of the interval. For monthly and annual time steps, the
timestamp offset is usually 1 and 12 months respectively. For a
monthly time series, a timestamp offset of (-475, 1) means that
2003-11-01 00:00 (often rendered as 2003-11) denotes the interval
2003-10-31 18:05 to 2003-11-30 18:05.

*Timestamp_offset* is named differently in older versions. See the
*Version* parameter above for more information.

**Interval_type**
Has one of the values ``sum``, ``average``, ``maximum``,
``minimum``, and ``vector_average``. If absent it means that the
time series values are instantaneous, they do not refer to
intervals.

**Variable**
A textual description of the variable, such as ``Temperature`` or
``Precipitation``.

**Precision**
The precision of the time series values, in number of decimal digits
after the decimal separator. It can be negative; for example, a
precision of -2 indicates values accurate to the hundred, such as
100, 200, 300 etc.

**Location**, **Altitude**
(Versions 3 and later.) *Location* is three numbers,
space-separated: abscissa, ordinate, and EPSG SRID. *Altitude* is
one or two space-separated numbers: the altitude and the EPSG SRID
for altitude. The altitude SRID may be omitted.

License
=======

Written by Antonis Christofides.

| Copyright (C) 2015-2011 National Technical University of Athens
| Copyright (C) 2013-2014 TEI of Epirus
| Copyright (C) 2016 Antonis Christofides

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.