IDLSave - a python module to read IDL 'save' files
Introduction
IDLSave is a pure python module to import variables from IDL 'save' files (e.g. .sav) into python, and does not require IDL to work. It has a very simple command-line interface, and converts all IDL variables to python types. Arrays are converted to Numpy arrays, and Structures are converted to Numpy record arrays.
(0.9.2, released 22 November 2009)
This program is distributed with permission from ITT Visual Information Systems. To report bugs and request features, please use the Sourceforge bug and feature request trackers. To contact me directly, please use robitaille at users dot sourceforge dot net.
Installation
To install, simply run
python setup.py install inside
the IDLSave-x.x.x directory.
Alternatively, IDLSave can be installed using easy_install idlsave if you have setuptools installed.The only dependency for IDLSave is Numpy
Quick start
The following example demonstrates how to read a
.sav file into
python. This is done using the idlsave.read method,
which returns an IDLSaveFile instance. The variables
are then accessible as attributes to the IDLSaveFile
instance. Variable names are not case-sensitive. For structures (i.e. recarrays),
variable names can be access either lower or upper case, but not
mixed-case.Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jul 7 2009, 23:51:51)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import idlsave
>>> s = idlsave.read('varsandstructs.sav')
--------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue Sep 22 11:15:11 2009
User: johndoe
Host: hal9000
--------------------------------------------------
Format: 9
Architecture: x86_64
Operating System: linux
IDL Version: 7.0
--------------------------------------------------
Successfully read 11 records of which:
- 7 are of type VARIABLE
- 1 are of type TIMESTAMP
- 1 are of type NOTICE
- 1 are of type VERSION
--------------------------------------------------
Available variables:
- nan [<type 'numpy.ndarray'>]
- nstruct [<class 'numpy.core.records.recarray'>]
- floatarray [<type 'numpy.ndarray'>]
- astruct [<class 'numpy.core.records.recarray'>]
- journalver [<type 'int'>]
- stringarray [<type 'numpy.ndarray'>]
- zstruct [<class 'numpy.core.records.recarray'>]
--------------------------------------------------
>>> s.journalver
800
>>> s.floatarray
array([[ 0.00000000e+00, 1.00000000e+00, 2.00000000e+00, ...,
9.70000000e+01, 9.80000000e+01, 9.90000000e+01],
[ 1.00000000e+02, 1.01000000e+02, 1.02000000e+02, ...,
1.97000000e+02, 1.98000000e+02, 1.99000000e+02],
[ 2.00000000e+02, 2.01000000e+02, 2.02000000e+02, ...,
2.97000000e+02, 2.98000000e+02, 2.99000000e+02],
...,
[ 9.70000000e+03, 9.70100000e+03, 9.70200000e+03, ...,
9.79700000e+03, 9.79800000e+03, 9.79900000e+03],
[ 9.80000000e+03, 9.80100000e+03, 9.80200000e+03, ...,
9.89700000e+03, 9.89800000e+03, 9.89900000e+03],
[ 9.90000000e+03, 9.90100000e+03, 9.90200000e+03, ...,
9.99700000e+03, 9.99800000e+03, 9.99900000e+03]], dtype=float32)
>>> s.nstruct
rec.array([ (array([[ 0.00000000e+00, 1.00000000e+00, 2.00000000e+00, ...,
9.70000000e+01, 9.80000000e+01, 9.90000000e+01],
[ 1.00000000e+02, 1.01000000e+02, 1.02000000e+02, ...,
1.97000000e+02, 1.98000000e+02, 1.99000000e+02],
[ 2.00000000e+02, 2.01000000e+02, 2.02000000e+02, ...,
2.97000000e+02, 2.98000000e+02, 2.99000000e+02],
...,
[ 9.70000000e+03, 9.70100000e+03, 9.70200000e+03, ...,
9.79700000e+03, 9.79800000e+03, 9.79900000e+03],
[ 9.80000000e+03, 9.80100000e+03, 9.80200000e+03, ...,
9.89700000e+03, 9.89800000e+03, 9.89900000e+03],
[ 9.90000000e+03, 9.90100000e+03, 9.90200000e+03, ...,
9.99700000e+03, 9.99800000e+03, 9.99900000e+03]], dtype=float32),
array([[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a],
[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a],
[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a],
...,
[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a],
[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a],
[a, a, a, ..., a, a, a]], dtype=object), 'named structure')],
dtype=[(('floatarray', 'FLOATARRAY'), '|O8'),
(('stringarray', 'STRINGARRAY'), '|O8'),
(('comment', 'COMMENT'), '|O8')])
>>> s.nstruct.stringarray
array([ [[a a a ..., a a a]
[a a a ..., a a a]
[a a a ..., a a a]
...,
[a a a ..., a a a]
[a a a ..., a a a]
[a a a ..., a a a]]], dtype=object)
IDL® is a registered trademark of ITT Visual Information Systems, Inc. for their Interactive Data Language software.