How to Edit Maple DAT Files

Editing DAT files is easy.

Maple is a computer algebra software developed by Symbolic Computation Group in 1988, at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Today, Maple is widely used due to its flexibility and simple interface. Users can use traditional mathematical notations to interact with the software and receive extensive numeric computation support. The output of your calculations can be viewed on the screen but can also be written to a DAT, or data, file. In Maple, the "writedata" function creates a DAT file from the contents of a list, matrix or vector and the "readdata" function reads the data from the DAT file. The DAT file is basically a text file.

Instructions

1. Go to the "Start" menu and type "Wordpad" without the quotes in the "Run" box. Click on the "WordPad" entry that is displayed in the list of results to open WordPad. WordPad is a native Windows text editor that is able to display the formatting of the data file properly.

2. Go to the "File" menu and click on the "Open" option. Alternatively, press the "Ctrl" and "O" keys simultaneously. The Open window pops up.

3. Click once on the drop-down menu next to the "File name" text box and select the "All documents (*.*)" option. Use the built-in file browser to find and select the DAT file.

4. Click on the "Open" button to open the DAT file in WordPad. The file will retain its formatting. You will see the list, matrix and vector elements. Select any element with your cursor and replace it with any other element. You can edit anything and change any values; however, it is not advised to change a value's type (for example, a number with a letter).

5. Click on "File" and select the "Save" option to save the changes. Alternatively, you can press the "Ctrl" and "S" keys simultaneously.

Resources

• The University of Utah: Reading Data Files with Maple
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Maple Lecture 8 - Input/Output Formats and Files