====== ras file format definition ======

The ras file format is a human readable ASCII file format to encode spiking activity from a population of numbered neurons. The format is a space separated list containing "time  neuronnumber" pairs, of which time is given in seconds and the neuron id is given as integer:

<code>
5.680800  2120
5.683600  496
5.685500  1936
5.693700  2464
5.700700  1856
5.716600  1464
</code>
The neuron number refers to the [[NeuronID]] within a [[SpikingGroup]]. The suggested file extension "ras" and as it is used for created by the [[SpikeMonitor]].

The format can be easily visualized with gnuplot, matplotlib or another function plotter, by plotting it as scatterplot:
{{ :manual:ras.png |}}

===== Merging ras files from multiple ranks =====

When [[parallel execution|running in parallel]] you will often encounter having to merge the ras files from multiple ranks (e.g. output.X.ras). This can be done efficiently using linux ''sort'' program
<code shell>
sort -g -m output.*.ras > output.ras
</code>