Python module for common tasks involving the Axon Text File format (ATF) from Molecular Devices

The ATF format module provides very basic Python functions for the reading, writing, and merging of Axon Text Files from Molecular Devices. For reasons of memory-efficiency and compatibility with different experimental setups, the information is stored in a single NumPy array with subarrays representing the format-specific records - individual data is represented as strings by default. If you know that your data records are exclusively numerical, you can easily change the dtype parameters for np.genfromtxt and np.savetxt to a numerical representation (see in-line comments) for futher calculations.

The ATF format unittest module was the basis for the test-driven development (TDD) process.

Save the ATF format module file in the same folder as your main code and import its functions:

import atf_text

Then you can then call the three functions provided by the ATF format module:

# read an ATF file into a NumPy array
axon_data = axon_text.read(in_file='data.atf')

# write a NumPy array into a file
axon_text.write(out_file='copy.atf', out_atf=axon_data)

# merge two NumPy arrays into a single NumPy array
axon_merge = axon_text.merge(in_atf_1=axon_data, in_atf_2=axon_data)

If you want to use the ATF format module you'll need recent versions of Python and NumPy. The latest Windows version of NumPy can be downloaded from Christoph Gohlke's repository. These are my version recommendations:

• Python (>= 3.7.4)
• NumPy (>= 1.17.2)