Determining min and max values in an ASCII raster dataset using Python?

Question

I have a raster dataset in ASCII format. Using Python, I need to determine the min and max values inside the dataset. I've been told that the header information is key, which contains things like number of rows/columns, cell size, and etc.

Can't you simply skip the header information and read the entire dataset to determine the min and max values?

This is what I'm trying to do. I'm skipping the first couple of lines which contain the header information, and trying to determine the values from there on. The following is sort of what I have, but need some guidance as I am new to Python.

raster_file = open('data.asc', 'r') # Open the file
data = raster_file.readlines()[4:] # Read the lines in the file, and skip the first six lines

for lines in data:
    print max(data) # Find the max value in data
    print min(data) # Find hte min value in data

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You can use numpy. See the example below. A numpy masked array can be generated accounting for the no data values. See the numpy help topic for mafromtxt and genfromtxt

Below is a small ascii file with a nodata value of -999

ncols          3
nrows          3
xllcorner      0
yllcorner      0
cellsize       1
NODATA_value   -999
0 1 2
-999 4 5 
6 7 8

>>> import numpy as np
>>> ascii_file = "c:/temp/Ascii_3x3_1nodata.asc"
>>> an_array = np.mafromtxt(ascii_file, 'float', '#', None, 6, None, '-999')

>>> print an_array

[[0.0 1.0 2.0]
 [-- 4.0 5.0]  
 [6.0 7.0 8.0]]

>>>

from there it is simply a matter to determine the statistics you want

>>> print an_array.min()
0.0
>>> print an_array.max()
8.0
>>> print an_array.mean()
4.125
>>> 

Answer 2

You want raster data statistics.
See what you are doing in the gui first (for homework.)

Then you can use a python window or a script.

import arcpy
arcpy.CalculateStatistics_management("c:/data/image.tif", "4", "6", "0;255;21")

Answer 3

import sys

class Ascii_file(object):
    def __init__(self,file):
        self.raster_file = open(file, 'r') # Open the file
        self.max=sys.float_info.min
        self.min=sys.float_info.max
    def __minmax(self,value):
        if value>self.max:self.max=value
        if value<self.min:self.min=value
    def getMinMax(self):
        data = self.raster_file.readlines()
        data_values=data[6:]
        nodata=float(data[5].split()[1])
        for line in data_values:
            values=line.split(" ")
            for value in values:
                value=float(value)
                if value==nodata:continue
                else: self.__minmax(value)
        return self.min, self.max

if __name__=="__main__":
    myfile = Ascii_file('data.asc')
    print myfile.getMinMax()

Answer 4

If you don't want to use numpy (and you really should, it's perfect for this sort of thing), then you will need to:

• initialise your maximum variable to a very large negative number and your minimum variable to a very large positive number
• split each line to get a list of strings and use list comprehension to convert it to a list of floats
• finally use something like maximum = max(maximum, max(myfloatlist)) and an equivalent for the minimum value.

Answer 5

I just did this the other day. I used arcpy.RasterToNumPyArray, converted the numpy array to a list, then iterated through my list via a list comprehension to find the min and max values.

import arcpy
import numpy
myArray = arcpy.RasterToNumPyArray(r"D:\NED_93512417\NED_93512417_3DEM_RPRJ.TIF")
p = myArray.tolist()

max_elev = max([item for sublist in p for item in sublist])
min_elev = min([item for sublist in p for item in sublist])