jcamp 1.3.0
A set of Python utilities for reading JCAMP-DX files.
Requires Python: >=3.8
Keywords: jcamp, jcamp-dx, spectra

# jcamp

## Overview

A set of Python utilities for reading [JCAMP-DX](http://www.jcamp-dx.org/) files.

The following features are supported:

* JCAMP-DX are parsed
* `x` values are normalized to wavelength values (in microns)
* `y` values are interpreted (optional)

A few example datasets are provided.


## Installation

You can download and install the latest version of this software from the Python package index ([PyPI](https://pypi.org/)) as follows:

```shell
pip install --upgrade jcamp
```


## Parsing a file

The `jcamp_reader()` function takes a filename as input, and returns a dictionary containing the data found in the file.
Specifically, the keys contained in the dictionary are:

1. The field names found in the file's header, with values being int- or float-type if the corresponding field is a numerical type, or a string-type otherwise.
2. Two arrays `x` and `y`, giving the scaled values of the data points (scaled according to the `xfactor` and `yfactor` fields in the header, if they exist).

The units of `x` and `y` are whatever are indicated in the header fields `xunits` and `yunits`, if these exist.

If the input is a compound file, then the returned dictionary will contain a `children` field.
This field is an array of dictionaries that each represent a block.

The `jcamp_calc_xsec()` function is intended to takes as input the result of the `jcamp_reader()` function and to convert the `x` data to wavelength in microns, and the `y` data to cross-section in units of m^2 for gas concentration of 1ppm at standard atmospheric pressure and temperature, across a path length of 1 meter.
The `jcamp_calc_xsec()` function takes as input the data dictionary `jcamp_dict`, and manipulates that dictionary directly without having a separate return value.
Changes to the dictionary may including adding the fields:

* wavelengths: the array of wavelength values (in microns) for each data point
* wavenumbers: the array of wavenumber values (in cm^-1) for each data point
* xsec: the array of cross-section values (in units of m^2 at 1ppm.m)

and modifying the fields:

* xunits: micron
* yunits: m^2 at 1ppm.m

The optional arguments `wavemin`, `wavemax` are used if the user wishes to truncate the data to only a desired spectral range.
For example, setting `wavemin=8.0` and `wavemax=12.0` means that the returned data arrays will only contain data corresponding to those wavlengths.
If the `skip_nonquant` optional input argument is used, then any input spectrum that does not have the complete `path_length` and `partial_pressure` fields in its dictionary will be passed without modification (That is, no conversion to quantitative cross-section will be attempted).
If this option is set to True, then if the code finds missing data, it will attempt to generate a quantitative cross-section by guessing the missing values.
Based upon NIST's infrared database, typical values for guessing here are `partial_pressure = 150.0 mmHg` and `path length = 0.1 m`.

You can view a notebook demo in the doc folder to see how you can produce a series of plots showing spectra.


## jcamp files

The repository comes with four folders containing JCAMP-format files: `infrared_spectra/`, `mass_spectra/`, `raman_spectra/`, and `uvvis_spectra`.
These were downloaded from freely-available internet databases, and can be used as example format files.


## Using jcamp for web queries

In order to use `jcamp` for online queries rather than static text files, we can use the following procedure with the `requests` package:

```python
response = requests.get(something)
content = response.content.splitlines()
content = [line.decode("utf-8") for line in content]
data_dict = jcamp_read(content)
```


## Writing JCAMP-DX format files

The `jcamp_writefile()` function is used to write out a file given an input data dictionary. Note that the dictionary must have two required entries: `x` and `y`, giving the primary data to write. The remainder of the dictionary is written into the file header.

The core of the `jcamp_writefile()` function is the `jcamp_write()` function, which converts the input data dictionary to a long string, while the `jcamp_writefile()` function simply takes that string an writes it to a file. The reason for separating the two here is that it allows one to use the writing functions independent of files, or of directly exporting JCAMP-DX formats to software tools that take such strings as input.

## Contributing

Your contributions and hints are welcome.

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for details.


## License

`jcamp` is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE.txt](./LICENSE.txt) file for details