Thanks Jay for this link. This is a most comprehensive system that seems to cover what I need, and a fair bit more as well. It will take me a while to get through the manual but I hope there are nuggets of insight contained within.<div> One thing surprises me though, it seems there are as many different approaches to this problem as there are implementations. There doesn't even seem to be a canonical language for describing multi-dimensional sets (that I've discovered, at any rate). I'll keep at it and post progress to this list. Thanks again,</div> <div>Simon.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div class="gmail_extra"> <div class="gmail_quote">On 6 November 2012 15:29, Jay McCarthy <<a href="mailto:jay.mccarthy@gmail.com" target="_blank">jay.mccarthy@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I would suggest looking into PADS as well: <a href="http://www.padsproj.org/doc.html" target="_blank">http://www.padsproj.org/doc.html</a> <div><div class="h5"> On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 9:22 PM, Simon Haines <<a href="mailto:simon.haines@con-amalgamate.net">simon.haines@con-amalgamate.net</a>> wrote: > As part of my work, I frequently have to 'shape' multi-dimensional datasets. > This is reasonably easy to do in Racket and I'm thinking about pulling > together some of the functions I use into a library. Before I do this > though, I was wondering if there is any similar work I can build upon, or > perhaps use to guide me. > > As an example of what I mean, I'll receive from a colleague a file like > this: > > Date, Site, Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 (mg/L), Carbonate as CaCO3 (mg/L), > 1-Nov-12, BH1, 120, <5 > 1-Nov-12, BH2, 180, <5 > 1-Nov-12, BH3, 160, <5 > 26-Oct-12, BH1, 150, <1 > 26-Oct-12, BH2, 165, 0 > 26-Oct-12, BH3, 180, <5 > > (This is a laboratory analysis of water sampled from bore holes). > > This file is composed of two datasets (a set each of total alkalinity and > carbonate), with shared dimensions of 'date' and 'site'. I'll often deal > with files containing up to 80 datasets. > > More often than not, all I'll need to do is 'shape' these datasets into a > format that can be pulled into a spreadsheet for further analysis/graphing. > One example is: > > "", Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 (mg/L), Carbonate as CaCO3 (mg/L) > BH1 > 1-Nov-12, 120, <5 > 26-Oct-12, 150, <1 > BH2 > 1-Nov-12, 180, <5 > 26-Oct-12, 165, 0 > BH3 > 1-Nov-12, 160, <5 > 26-Oct-12, 180, <5 > > Another example: > > "", BH1, BH2, BH3 > Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 (mg/L) > 1-Nov-12, 120, 180, 160 > 26-Oct-12, 150, 165, 180 > Carbonate as CaCO3 (mg/L) > 1-Nov-12, <5, <5, <5 > 26-Oct-12, <1, 0, <5 > > As you can see, the recursive nature of these reports makes them ideal for > processing with Racket, and although it takes me a little while to get the > format of a report right, I usually can add the report to my toolbox for > whenever it's needed later. > > So I've started drafting what I think a good DSL for doing this type of task > might be, something like: > (define-dataset > (date (date 'dd-MM-yyyy')) > (site (text)) > (parameter (text)) ...) > > (define-report example1 > (columns (parameter ...)) > (rows ((site) date))) > > I haven't worked out the details yet, and I'm not sure the above will work > the way I want it to. But I've had a quick look at Microsoft's Scientific > DataSet (<a href="http://sds.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">http://sds.codeplex.com/</a>), but it lacks the composability I'm used > to with Racket. Is anyone aware of any similar work that does this, or that > I could use as a guide? > > Thanks, > Simon. > </div></div>> ____________________ > Racket Users list: > <a href="http://lists.racket-lang.org/users" target="_blank">http://lists.racket-lang.org/users</a> > -- Jay McCarthy <<a href="mailto:jay@cs.byu.edu">jay@cs.byu.edu</a>> Assistant Professor / Brigham Young University <a href="http://faculty.cs.byu.edu/~jay" target="_blank">http://faculty.cs.byu.edu/~jay</a> "The glory of God is Intelligence" - D&C 93 </blockquote></div> </div>