NAME

      gmtconvert - Convert between ASCII and binary 1-D tables

SYNOPSIS

      gmtconvert [ inputfiles] [ -H[nrec] ] [ -M[flag] ] [ -V ] [ -: ] [
      -bi[s]n ] [ -bo[s] ]

DESCRIPTION

      gmtconvert reads its standard input [or inputfiles] and writes out the
      information to standard output.  Its main purpose is to convert
      between binary and ASCII data tables.  Input (and hence output) may
      have multiple subheaders if -M is selected.

      datafile(s)
           ASCII (or binary, see -bi) file(s) holding a number of data
           columns.

OPTIONS

      -H   Input file(s) has Header record(s).  Number of header records can
           be changed by editing your .gmtdefaults file.  If used, GMT
           default is 1 header record.

      -M   Multiple segment file(s).  Segments are separated by a special
           record.  For ASCII files the first character must be flag
           [Default is '>'].  For binary files all fields must be NaN.

      -:   Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude)
           input/output.  [Default is (longitude,latitude)].

      -bi  Selects binary input.  Append s for single precision [Default is
           double].  Append n for the number of columns in the binary
           file(s).

      -bo  Selects binary output.  Append s for single precision [Default is
           double].

EXAMPLES

      To convert the binary file test.b (single precision) with 4 columns to
      ASCII, try

      gmtconvert test.b -bis4 > test.dat

      To convert the multiple segment ASCII table test.d to a double
      precision binary file, try

      gmtconvert test.d -M -bo > test.b

BUGS

      When GMT is installed under a non-UNIX operating system, such as
      Windows 95/98/NT or the Cygnus or DJGPP ports of GNU to Windows,
      binary output to stdout will not work.  This is because stdout is done
      in TEXT mode (instead of BINARY) mode; on Unix systems there is only
      one mode and no problem.  The workaround on Win32 platforms is to
      append :bname to the -bo which forces an internal redirection of
      output to the file bname.  See GMT Technical Reference Appendix L for
      more details.

SEE ALSO

      gmt, minmax