Package org.tridas.io.formats.besancon

The Besançon format is used in various forms in a number of laboratories, mostly in France.

See:
Description

Class Summary

BesanconFile
BesanconFile.BesanconSeriesDefaultsPair
BesanconReader
BesanconToTridasDefaults
BesanconWriter
TridasToBesanconDefaults

Enum Summary

BesanconToTridasDefaults.BesanconCambiumType
BesanconToTridasDefaults.DefaultFields

Package org.tridas.io.formats.besancon Description

The Besançon format is used in various forms in a number of laboratories, mostly in France. It contains both data and (some) metadata and also allows for a lot of free text comments inline. In fact, the specification requires that any line within the metadata block that cannot be interpreted as metadata must be ignored by the reading process.

File contents

In Besançon terminology an 'Element block' is equivalent to a series. Each file can have one or more element blocks. Each element block is made up of three parts:

• Header line
• Metadata
• Data block

Header line

The header line denotes the beginning of an element block (~series). Line prior to the header line are therefore ignored. A header line is written as follows:

.

one or more spaces

element name

one or more spaces

ignored characters

The element name must be a string with no spaces.

Metadata

Metadata is provided with a number of keywords:

• Especies (species)
• Longeur (length)
• Position (relative year position)
• Origine (calendar date of first ring)
• Terme (origine + longeur)
• Moelle (pith)
• Cambium
• Aubier (sapwood - relative number of ring where sapwood begins).

In many Besançon files the whole key is given, but only the first three letters of each is required so if some files that is all that is present. The keys are also case insensitive. For boolean fields (Moelle and Cambium) the presence of the key indicates 'true' and the absence of the key indicates 'false'. All other fields are written as follows:

one or more spaces

key

one or more spaces

integer

Each metadata field can be delimited with either a space or a return. In some files all the metadata appears on one line, but more commonly each field is presented on its own line.

Data block

The data block begins with the following line:

val[eurs[:]]

ignored chars

Like the metadata fields, only the first three characters are read, so some files contain 'val' and others 'valeur'. Also like the metadata fields this is case insensitive.

Next comes the actual data. Each value is writen as an integer delimited by a space or a return. Most often this means that data are written in space delimited decadal lines, but a single line of all values is valid, as is one value per line and anything inbetween. Missing measurements are recorded as commas, and following the last data value there should be a space followed by a semicolon.

Example file

. Mensor_measurement
    ESP    QUERC
    MOE    
    CAM      HIV
    LON       39
    POS        1
    ORI     1432
    TER     1470
    AUB       33
VALeur    NAT    
      213   286   233   358   328   265   277   185   170   150 
      211   243   184   156   211   222   191   151   215   255 
      158     ,   184   202   272   200   262   171   208   254 
      214   284   157   187   140   202   107    96   142     ;