Support passing string type numbers, geographic coordinates and datetimes

doc/api/index.rst

@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ Low level access (these are mostly used by the :mod:`pygmt.clib` package):
     clib.Session.get_default
     clib.Session.create_data
     clib.Session.put_matrix
+    clib.Session.put_strings
     clib.Session.put_vector
     clib.Session.write_data
     clib.Session.open_virtual_file

pygmt/clib/session.py

@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
     np.uint64: "GMT_ULONG",
     np.uint32: "GMT_UINT",
     np.datetime64: "GMT_DATETIME",
+    np.str_: "GMT_TEXT",
 }
 
 
@@ -718,9 +719,7 @@ def _check_dtype_and_dim(self, array, ndim):
         """
         # check the array has the given dimension
         if array.ndim != ndim:
-            raise GMTInvalidInput(
-                "Expected a numpy 1d array, got {}d.".format(array.ndim)
-            )
+            raise GMTInvalidInput(f"Expected a numpy 1d array, got {array.ndim}d.")
 
         # check the array has a valid/known data type
         if array.dtype.type not in DTYPES:
@@ -744,7 +743,7 @@ def put_vector(self, dataset, column, vector):
         first. Use ``family='GMT_IS_DATASET|GMT_VIA_VECTOR'``.
 
         Not at all numpy dtypes are supported, only: float64, float32, int64,
-        int32, uint64, and uint32.
+        int32, uint64, uint32, datetime64 and str_.
 
         .. warning::
             The numpy array must be C contiguous in memory. If it comes from a
@@ -776,23 +775,24 @@ def put_vector(self, dataset, column, vector):
         )
 
         gmt_type = self._check_dtype_and_dim(vector, ndim=1)
-        if gmt_type == self["GMT_DATETIME"]:
+        if gmt_type in (self["GMT_TEXT"], self["GMT_DATETIME"]):
             vector_pointer = (ctp.c_char_p * len(vector))()
-            vector_pointer[:] = np.char.encode(
-                np.datetime_as_string(array_to_datetime(vector))
-            )
+            if gmt_type == self["GMT_DATETIME"]:
+                vector_pointer[:] = np.char.encode(
+                    np.datetime_as_string(array_to_datetime(vector))
+                )
+            else:
+                vector_pointer[:] = np.char.encode(vector)
         else:
             vector_pointer = vector.ctypes.data_as(ctp.c_void_p)
         status = c_put_vector(
             self.session_pointer, dataset, column, gmt_type, vector_pointer
         )
         if status != 0:
             raise GMTCLibError(
-                " ".join(
-                    [
-                        "Failed to put vector of type {}".format(vector.dtype),
-                        "in column {} of dataset.".format(column),
-                    ]
+                (
+                    f"Failed to put vector of type {vector.dtype} "
+                    f"in column {column} of dataset."
                 )
             )
 

pygmt/tests/test_clib_put_vector.py

@@ -90,6 +90,62 @@ def test_put_vector_mixed_dtypes():
                 npt.assert_allclose(newy, y)
 
 
+def test_put_vector_string_dtype():
+    """
+    Passing string type data to a dataset.
+    """
+    vectors = np.array(
+        [
+            ["10", "20.0", "-30.0", "3.5e1"],  # numbers
+            ["10W", "30.50E", "30:30W", "40:30:30.500E"],  # longitudes
+            ["10N", "30.50S", "30:30N", "40:30:30.500S"],  # latitudes
+            # datetimes
+            ["2021-02-03", "2021-02-03T04", "2021-02-03T04:05:06.700", "T04:50:06.700"],
+        ]
+    )
+
+    expected_vectors = [
+        [10.0, 20.0, -30.0, 35],  # numbers
+        [-10, 30.5, -30.5, 40.508472],  # longitudes
+        [10, -30.50, 30.5, -40.508472],  # latitudes
+        # datetimes
+        ["2021-02-03", "2021-02-03T04", "2021-02-03T04:05:06.700", "T04:50:06.700"],
+    ]
+
+    expected_dtypes = [np.double, np.double, np.double, np.str_]
+
+    for i, j in itertools.combinations_with_replacement(range(3), r=2):
+        # TODO: Change range(3) to range(4)
+        with clib.Session() as lib:
+            dataset = lib.create_data(
+                family="GMT_IS_DATASET|GMT_VIA_VECTOR",
+                geometry="GMT_IS_POINT",
+                mode="GMT_CONTAINER_ONLY",
+                dim=[2, 4, 1, 0],  # columns, rows, layers, dtype
+            )
+            lib.put_vector(dataset, column=lib["GMT_X"], vector=vectors[i])
+            lib.put_vector(dataset, column=lib["GMT_Y"], vector=vectors[j])
+            # Turns out wesn doesn't matter for Datasets
+            wesn = [0] * 6
+            # Save the data to a file to see if it's being accessed correctly
+            with GMTTempFile() as tmp_file:
+                lib.write_data(
+                    "GMT_IS_VECTOR",
+                    "GMT_IS_POINT",
+                    "GMT_WRITE_SET",
+                    wesn,
+                    tmp_file.name,
+                    dataset,
+                )
+                # Load the data and check that it's correct
+                newx, newy = tmp_file.loadtxt(
+                    unpack=True,
+                    dtype=[("x", expected_dtypes[i]), ("y", expected_dtypes[j])],
+                )
+                npt.assert_allclose(newx, expected_vectors[i])
+                npt.assert_allclose(newy, expected_vectors[j])
+
+
 def test_put_vector_invalid_dtype():
     """
     Check that it fails with an exception for invalid data types.