Create a New Collection Using F Part Mask

Data may be gathered from a variety of sources and numbers are often used to identify the uniqueness of the data. For example, if you use a rainfall-runoff model to compute flows for a set of frequency events with a variety of storm centerings, you are likely to use a string identifying both the storm centering and the recurrence interval as a way to identify the output. "Figure: Example Data with Numeric F-parts" shows what these pathnames might look like.

With a bit of adjustment, the datasets shown in "Figure: Example Data with Numeric F-parts" can be grouped into collections labeled with the storm centering and using the recurrence interval as the member ID. The reason for the adjustment is because the utility that will create the collection uses a string mask to locate the member ID number and the remaining collection F-part. This mask relies on the numeric portion of the F-part to either always have the same number of digits or for the digits to be at the end of the F part.

"Figure: Example Data with Numeric F-parts" shows some datasets whose pathnames reflect two storm centerings and eight recurrence intervals. To use these pathnames with an F-part mask, either the recurrence interval strings must all use 3 digits or the "YR" characters at the end must be removed. If you plan ahead when creating the data, you can use the three digits. If not, as in this example, the easiest way to make the adjustment was to rename the records and remove the YRs. The revised pathnames are shown in "Figure: Revised Pathnames Ending in Numeric F-parts".

With the pathnames ready, here are the steps to create a collection using an F-part mask:

• Select the datasets you want to put into a collection

• Select New Collection Using F Part Mask from the Collections menu.

• You will be prompted to "Enter Mask over existing F Part". This means you should type over the original first F-part with a set of characters to build the mask. "Figure: Prompt for F-part Mask - Before and After" shows the prompt dialog with the original F-part and below it the mask we used for he selected datasets shown in "Figure: Revised Pathnames Ending in Numeric F-parts".
  

  Figure: Prompt for F-part Mask - Before and After

  
  
• After entering the F-part mask, click OK.

The New Collection Using F Part Mask function will parse the F-part of the first selected dataset to determine the F part for all members of the new collection. Then, as it copies each selected data set into the collection, this function will parse the F Part of each dataset to identify the collection member's ID number. "Figure: New Collection Pathnames Using F-Part Mask" shows the new collection pathnames created for the example datasets shown in "Figure: Revised Pathnames Ending in Numeric F-parts" using the F-part mask shown in "Figure: Prompt for F-part Mask - Before and After".