R: Retrieve the udunits name or symbol from the database for a...
ud.get.name
R Documentation
Retrieve the udunits name or symbol from the database for a given
units string
Description
Retrieve the udunits name or symbol from the database for a given
units string.
Usage
ud.get.name(unit.string)
Arguments
unit.string
A character string which is parseable into a udunits compatible unit.
Details
This function retrieves the udunits name or symbol from the udunits
database and returns it. It uses the udunits functions ut_get_name
and ut_get_symbol respectively.
Value
Returns a character string stating the udunits's name/symbol for the
given unit, or an empty character string if the unit does not map to a
name/symbol for the default character set.
If the unit is unparseable, the function raises an error.
Note
More often than not units do not have names or symbols that are
returned by the base functions. This depends entirely on what is
defined in the units data base, which is–as of API version 2–an XML
database which ships with the library. See Unidata's website for more
information about the XML database:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/udunits/udunits-2-units.html.
All in all, don't put too much stock in them, for they are for
convenience only. If your application requires certain names
and symbols to be present, the XML database is local and editable.
units.to.display <- c("celsius", # has no name, messed up symbol (maybe a bug in R?)
"kg",
"hr", # has no symbol
"K",
"degrees",
"m",
"ohm")
for (u in units.to.display) {
print(ud.get.name(u))
print(ud.get.symbol(u))
}