# EDITFL: help and advice

Consult the reference manual for further details and worked examples.
W.G.Bardsley, University of Manchester, U.K.

This program is designed for use with SIMFIT curve fitting data files with either two columns, i.e. x and y, or three column, i.e. x, y, and s. Such files will usually be created either by program MAKFIL, or by transferring data from a spreadsheet using a macro, or using the clipboard and MAKSIM. It provides many options that only make sense in the context of curve fitting files, e.g., rearranging x into increasing order, checking for extreme signal to noise ratios, calculating weighting factors, replacing replicates by means, generating error bars, etc. This program only works in Save As ... mode, so it does not alter the original data file in any way, it simply creates a new edited data set, a feature that will be greatly appreciated by those who have lost precious data sets using editors that provide Save..., as well as Save As ... functionality. Here are some of the options available.

- Full screen data edit or line swap.
- Insert new data lines (or even complete files) of data.
- Delete lines of data or restore deleted lines (cut/paste).
- Add/subtract constants to/from all x- or y-values or else multiply/divide all x,y,s-values by constants (scaling). The constants are taken from your configured set of arbitrary constants, or the libary of scientific constants.
- Replace x,y,s-values by appropriate functions (transform) f(x), g(y), h(s).
- Check current data for consistency before curve-fitting.
- Rearrange edited data into order of non-decreasing x, then replace s by sample std. deviation estimates (replicates), calculate mean-y/std-dev-mean-y for compressed files to speed up curve-fitting, use t-95% for files with mean y +/- 95% confidence limits for graphs with error bars.
- Change title or trailing lines of text (for expert mode).

Note the following special features of this program.

1. A column of s = 1 is added to files with just x and y
2. A default final section is added to deficient files
3. You will be warned about overwriting original data
4. For any other editing purposes use program EDITMT