new_contents: # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
  """
  Created on Thu Apr  2 12:35:40 2015
  
  @author: joris
  """
  
  import os
  import pandas as pd
  
  
  def read_file(filename):
      _, fname = os.path.split(filename)
      station = fname[:7]
      colnames = ['date'] + [item for pair in zip(["{:02d}".format(i) for i in range(24)], ['flag']*24) for item in pair]
      data = pd.read_csv(filename, sep='\t', header=None, index_col=['date'],
                         na_values=[-999, -9999], names=colnames)
  
      # for now, drop the flags
      data = data.drop('flag', axis=1)
  
      data = data.stack()
      data = data.reset_index(name=station)
      data.index = pd.to_datetime(data['date'] + ' ' + data['level_1'])
      data = data.drop(['date', 'level_1'], axis=1)
  
      return data
  
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
  
      
      # test with some files
      
      files = ["data/BETR8010000800100hour.1-1-1990.31-12-2012",
               "data/BETN0290000800100hour.1-1-1990.31-12-2012",
               "data/FR040370000800100hour.1-1-1999.31-12-2012",
               "data/FR040120000800100hour.1-1-1999.31-12-2012"]
  
      data = []
  
      for fname in files:
          df = read_file(fname)
          data.append(df)
  
      data = pd.concat(data, axis=1)
  
subject: Add initial function to read unpacked airbase file