Issues: Can't convert a text wave to or from another type.

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Tue, 01/31/2017 - 07:36 pm

Hi everyone,

I am new to Igor Pro, and I have an issue loading data into my wave. I've gone through the tutorials, and have some of the figures I need created. However, I noticed this issue earlier and I don't have a solution.

I am trying to load a CSV file into a wave. The CSV file is delimited by ',' and also has "" around the data. For example...

"oxane-1s3-freeze_pm6-optall_pm6.log","N/A","C5H10O","0","1","N/A","N/A","-0.088142436365"

When I enter the CSV, I am receiving the following error:

Can't convert a text wave to or from another type.

I've tried removing the "" around each entry, but that hasn't fixed the issue either, and checked out the 'explain operation.'

Thanks for the help!

Stephen
If you attach one of your data sets we can take a look at it and figure out what's needed to load the data.

--Jim Prouty
Software Engineer, WaveMetrics, Inc.

January 31, 2017 at 08:39 pm - Permalink

I could read your sample data without any issue with the "Load Delimited Text" operation in a fresh experiment with the quotes and without.
I assume you use a file header with the names of the loaded columns and you choose to overwrite the waves upon a second try to load the data?

If this is the case the error should appear; delete the previously loaded (text) waves and load them again with new options.
Explanation: The quotes around the numbers generate text waves ( There is a difference between 1 and "1" ). The internal structure of text waves differs quite a bit from regular number waves and doesn't allow them to be converted/overwritten.
In a first attempt you generated text waves (due to the "" 's) and could not overwrite them in the second attempt.

If you can skip the quotes in the export function, go with this. Otherwise you have to use a conversion function later on.
HJ

February 1, 2017 at 02:59 am - Permalink

So I went ahead and cleared out the waves I was trying to write over, and then loaded the CSV file without the quotes. Everything is working now!

As you said HJ, loading the wave initially with the quotes meant that all new waves I was attempting to load made Igor unhappy. I saw the wave type change from text to Double Float 64 bit.

Thank you so much for the timely response Jim and HJ!

Have an awesome day,

Stephen

February 1, 2017 at 07:03 am - Permalink