Simple Data format - Revision history

Dan Tobias at 18:36, 17 November 2012

2012-11-17T18:36:35Z

Dan Tobias at 07:01, 7 November 2012

2012-11-07T07:01:11Z

Dan Tobias at 06:57, 7 November 2012

2012-11-07T06:57:53Z

Crusbridge at 19:44, 6 November 2012

2012-11-06T19:44:38Z

Crusbridge at 19:43, 6 November 2012

2012-11-06T19:43:27Z

Crusbridge: Initial population

2012-11-06T19:09:01Z

Initial population

New page

{|
|[[File Formats]]
| >
|[[Electronic File Formats]]
| >
|[[Scientific Data formats]]
| >
| Simple Data format
|}

== General description ==

This page describes one of several known [[SDF]] file formats. This is the Simple Data Format by George H Fisher, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley. It provides a simple "way of reading and writing output data from numerical simulations that preserves full precision, is simple, easy to use, that supports large (> 2GB) files, works in C, Fortran77, Fortran95, and IDL/GDL, compiles out of the box in the most common operating systems
(Linux, Windows, OS X, Solaris), and is not affected by platform endian-ness".

The format is described in [http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~fisher/public/software/SDF/SDF_MANIFESTO.txt the Manifesto]. That document and [http://swan.gsfc.nasa.gov/RoR_WWW/workshops/2007/presentations/day4/fisher-sdf-ccmc-2007.pdf http://swan.gsfc.nasa.gov/RoR_WWW/workshops/2007/presentations/day4/fisher-sdf-ccmc-2007.pdf] seem to provide its main specification.

Version 0.74 (the latest known) dates from September 2007.

== Other information ==

There is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Data_Format Wikipedia page about this version of the Simple Data Format] but it has very little information.

== Software ==

SDF has been tested on many different platforms including Linux and other UNIX variants, Windows and MacOSX. It can be used from C, different versions of FORTAN, and IDL. The software can be downloaded as a tarball from [http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~fisher/public/software/SDF http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~fisher/public/software/SDF].

== Sample files ==

Not Known.

== Identification ==
Bytes 0-10 of a SDF file contain the string "SDF Format" including null terminator.

The file extension is .sdf and the MIME Type is not known.

== References ==

As noted, the format is described inthe Manifesto at [http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~fisher/public/software/SDF/SDF_MANIFESTO.txt http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~fisher/public/software/SDF/SDF_MANIFESTO.txt].

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+{{FormatInfo
-|[[File Formats]]
+|formattype=electronic
-| >
+|subcat=Scientific Data formats
-|[[Electronic File Formats]]
+|extensions={{ext|sdf}}
-| >
+}}
-|[[Scientific Data formats]]
-| >
-|[[Simple Data format]]
-|}
 == General description ==

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 |[[Scientific Data formats]]
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 |[[SDF]]
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 == General description ==
-This page describes one of several known [[SDF]] file formats. This is the Simple Data Format by George H Fisher, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley. It provides a simple "way of reading and writing output data from numerical simulations that preserves full precision, is simple, easy to use, that supports large (> 2GB) files, works in C, Fortran77, Fortran95, and IDL/GDL, compiles out of the box in the most common operating systems
+This page describes one of several known [[SDF]] file formats, and at least two formats called simple data format. This is the Simple Data Format by George H Fisher, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley. It provides a simple "way of reading and writing output data from numerical simulations that preserves full precision, is simple, easy to use, that supports large (> 2GB) files, works in C, Fortran77, Fortran95, and IDL/GDL, compiles out of the box in the most common operating systems
 (Linux, Windows, OS X, Solaris), and is not affected by platform endian-ness".