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To aid in quality control of a set of LAS files, I would like to write out all errors/warnings from lascheck(), for each LAS file (i.e. so not the LAScatalog implementation of lascheck(()). I'm looking for any tips to extract lascheck() warnings while looping through the entire list.

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    lascheck returns nothing. It only prints. What you are asking is more a redesign of the function which is a fair feature request.
    – JRR
    Feb 24, 2020 at 17:31

1 Answer 1

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Anwser for lidR version 2.x.y

lascheck() does not return anything. It only prints. It might be seen as a design mistake and it is fair to think that. However we can find a workaround by capturing the standard output. lascheck() prefixes what is considered as a warning with the symbol ⚠ (\u26A0) and what is considered an error with ✗ (\u2717). You can grep these symbols.

library(lidR)
LASfile <- system.file("extdata", "Megaplot.laz", package="lidR")
las = readLAS(LASfile)

las$ReturnNumber[1] <- 0L # Introduce warnings
las@header@PHB$`Point Data Format ID` <- 12L # Introduce errors.

check = capture.output(lascheck(las))

warn_pos = grep("\u26A0", check)
warns = trimws(check[warn_pos])
warns
#> [1] "⚠ Invalid data: 1 points with a return number equal to 0 found."                                     
#> [2] "⚠ 'PointSourceID' attribute is not populated."                                                       
#> [3] "⚠ 'EdgeOfFlightline' attribute is not populated."                                                    
#> [4] "⚠ Invalid file: the header states the file contains 55756 returns numbered '1' but 55755 were found."

err_pos = grep("\u2717", check)
errs = trimws(check[err_pos])
errs
#> [1] "✗ Invalid data: ReturnNumber is not an unsigned integer"                                                     
#> [2] "✗ Invalid header: The point data format 12 is not part of the LAS specifications."                           
#> [3] "✗ Invalid file: the data contains a 'gpstime' attribute but point data format is not set to 1, 3, 6, 7 or 8."

Created on 2020-02-24 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)

Answer for lidR version 3+ (to be released)

las_check() has an option print = FALSE

las_check(las, FALSE)
#> $warnings
#> [1] "Invalid data: 1 points with a return number equal to 0 found."                                     
#> [2] "'PointSourceID' attribute is not populated."                                                       
#> [3] "'EdgeOfFlightline' attribute is not populated."                                                    
#> [4] "Invalid file: the header states the file contains 55756 returns numbered '1' but 55755 were found."
#> 
#> $errors
#> [1] "Invalid data: ReturnNumber is not an unsigned integer"                                                     
#> [2] "Invalid header: The point data format 12 is not part of the LAS specifications."                           
#> [3] "Invalid file: the data contains a 'gpstime' attribute but point data format is not set to 1, 3, 6, 7 or 8."
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    I had to modify the grep search string to: warn_pos = grep("+26A0", check) and err_pos = grep("+2717", check)
    – Ray J
    Feb 24, 2020 at 18:11
  • Maybe it is a windows/mac specific issue? It returns nothing on Linux.
    – JRR
    Feb 24, 2020 at 18:18

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