Data formats

Measurement data (measured values, their spatial coordinates, and optionally base function values) are read from ascii table or (simplified) GeoEAS table files, from grid map files (see Appendix D) or from Idrisi point (.vec) files. Table (or column) files are ascii files without a header, with each line holding one record, and fields on a line separated by blanks, commas or tabs. The simplified GeoEAS format is a table file with a header. The GeoEAS file header has text information on the first line; $m$, the number of variables in the file on the second line, and $m$ variable names on lines 3 to $m+2$.

Grid map files may have one of the following formats: Arc-Info grid (gridfloat or gridascii), Idrisi image (ascii, real binary, byte), PCRaster (all formats, [25]), ER-Mapper, GMT, Surfer ascii. Output grid maps are written in the same format as the input (mask) map. Files in formats that use two files and assume fixed extensions (idrisi, gridfloat) should be denoted by the file base name only (omit the extension for gstat). A grid map conversion is built in gstat, see section 5.5 Technical information on data and grid map formats supported is found in appendix D. Gstat has a built-in map format conversion utility (convert, Section 5.5).