ReadDescription: Read a 'description.txt' file

In HYPEtools: Tools for Processing and Analyzing Files from the Hydrological Catchment Model HYPE

Read a 'description.txt' file

Description

Read a 'description.txt' file as list object into R. A 'description.txt' file contains land use, soil, and crop class names of a HYPE set-up, as well as model set-up name and version.

Usage

ReadDescription(
  filename,
  gcl = NULL,
  ps = NULL,
  encoding = c("unknown", "UTF-8", "latin1")
)

Arguments

filename	Path to and file name of the 'description.txt' file to import.
gcl	dataframe, GeoClass.txt file imported with ReadGeoClass to compare class IDs with. A warning will be thrown if not all class IDs in gcl exist in the description file.
ps	dataframe, PointSourceData.txt file imported with ReadPointSourceData to compare point source type IDs with. A warning will be thrown if not all type IDs in ps exist in the description file.
encoding	Character string, encoding of non-ascii characters in imported text file. Particularly relevant when importing files created under Windows (default encoding "Latin-1") in Linux (default encoding "UTF-8") and vice versa. See also argument description in scan.

Details

ReadDescription imports a 'description.txt' into R. This file is not used by HYPE, but is convenient for e.g. plotting legend labels or examining imported GeoClass files. E.g., PlotBasinSummary requires a list as returned from ReadDescription for labeling.

A 'description.txt' file consists of 28 lines, alternating names and semicolon-separated content. Lines with names are not read by the import function, they just make it easier to compose and read the actual text file.

File contents read by ReadDescription:

• HYPE set-up name (line 2)

• HYPE set-up version (line 4)

• Land use class IDs (line 6)

• Land use class names (line 8)

• Land use class short names (line 10)

• Soil class IDs (line 12)

• Soil class names (line 14)

• Soil class short names (line 16)

• Crop class IDs (line 18)

• Crop class names (line 20)

• Crop class short names (line 22)

• Point Source IDs (line 24)

• Point Source type names (line 26)

• Point Source type short names (line 28)

Note that Crop class IDs start from 0, which means no crop, whereas land use and soil IDs start from 1 (or higher).

Formatting example for description.txt files:

# Name
MyHYPE
# Version
0.1
# Land use class IDs
1;2
# Land use class names
Agriculture;Coniferous forest
# Short land use class names
Agric.;Conif. f.
# Soil class IDs
1;2
# Soil class names
Coarse soils;Medium to fine soils
# Short soil class names
Coarse;Medium
# Crop class IDs
0;1;2
# Crop class names
None;Row crops;Autumn-sown cereal
# Short crop class names
None;Row;Aut.-sown
# Point source type IDs
-1;1;2
# Point source type names
Abstraction;Primary;Secondaryl
# Short point source type names
ABS;NP1;NP2

Value

ReadDescription returns a named list with named character elements, corresponding to the imported lines:

Name, Version, lu.id, Landuse, lu (short names), so.id, Soil, so (short names), cr.id, Crop, cr (short names), ps.id, PointSource, ps (short names)

Examples

te <- ReadDescription(filename = system.file("demo_model",
"description.txt", package = "HYPEtools"))
te

HYPEtools documentation built on April 12, 2025, 1:58 a.m.