From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2006-05-04T10:24:27+09:00
Subject: Re: So I got a binary file...


On May 3, 2006, at 3:15 PM, bostonmacosx wrote:

> HI all and thanks for the help.
> After beating around a little.
>
> mydata = String.new
> f = File.open("WesObs_Sumatra_032805.sac","rb")
> newstring =  f.read
>
> newdata = newstring.unpack('f*\n')
> fw = File.open("test.txt","wb")
> fw.write(newdata[0])
>
> Is all I needed to do to extract the floats from the binary data in  
> the
> file.
> Was a lot simpler then I though.
> I didn't know that unpack stuck things in arrays so that was the  
> largest
> problem I was having.
>
> Onto problem #2.
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>

Please don't forget to close your files. Better than that, use the  
block form which takes care of closing the file for you.

newstring = nil

File.open("WesObs_Sumatra_032805.sac","rb") do |f|
   newstring = f.read
end # file is automatically closed at the end of this block, even if  
an exception is raised


also I believe the "\n" in the unpack string is both unnecessary and  
meaningless.