Columnar Format

The columnar format requires the entry of two header lines followed by an unlimited number of observations, one line per record.

Header Block

Line 1: Keyword, File description

Line 2: Column headings defining the fields associated with each column.

Line 1: The keyword that describes the format of this file: COLUMNAR, and the file description is a single line of text used to describe the contents, purpose, and/or origin of the file. It’s contents can be anything defined by the user.

Line 2:  These column headings are used to defined the database fields for each column.

Data Block

The table of daily data appears starting on the 3rd line. Column headings must be one of the following keywords:

• STATION_ID

• DATE_TIME

• DATE_TIME_COMB

• DATE

• TIME

• JULIAN

• PCODE

• LEW_PCT

• DEPTH_M

• CCODE

• RCODE

• RESULT

• VALIDATED

• TRACK_ID

The file must contain STATION_ID, PCODE, AND RESULT columns as well as one of the date/time columns; all other columns are optional and if they don’t appear will be set to a null string (""). DATE_TIME_COMB represents the data format "m/d/yyyy hh:mm". JULIAN represents the real number corresponding to the time elapsed since January 1, 1900 (as date-times are represented in Microsoft Excel). Note that this is a different meaning than the JULIAN keyword under the TABULAR format. VALIDATED can be 0, 1, T, or F.

Note that only limited error checking is performed when importing using the COLUMNAR format, so care should be taken.

See also Example of Tabular Format.