Quick incomplete sample code for extracting CSV and CKAN-flavoured metadata from a TOA5 file

TOA52csv.py

import csv
import StringIO

filestem = "WTC12_Table2_20140831"
in_file = "/Users/pt/Downloads/%s.dat" % filestem
out_file = "/Users/pt/Downloads/%s.csv" % filestem
def TOA52csv(in_file, out_file):
    data = csv.reader(open(in_file))
    writer = csv.writer(open(out_file, "w"))

    print dir(data)
    metadata_row = data.next()
    dataset_dict = {
        "name" : filestem,
        "notes" : filestem,
        "extras" : [{"key": "Sample Interval", "value" : metadata_row[1]}]
        }
    header1 = data.next()
    header2 = data.next()
    header3 = data.next()
    i = 0
    new_header = []
    for field in header1:
        new_header.append("%s :: %s :: %s" % (field, header2[i], header3[i]))
        i = i + 1

    #print new_header
    writer.writerow(new_header)
    for row in data:
        #print row
        writer.writerow(row)
    return dataset_dict

print TOA52csv(in_file, out_file)