diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 12693432eb239c3273c8f210f1f8481ee64fb2ed..54f12f73d7734b5859b978f2379069144434e6b5 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Package: dataRetrieval
 Type: Package
 Title: Retrieval Functions for USGS and EPA Hydrologic and Water Quality Data
 Version: 2.0.1.9000
-Date: 2014-10-13
+Date: 2014-11-24
 Authors@R: c( person("Robert", "Hirsch", role = c("aut"),
     email = "rhirsch@usgs.gov"),
     person("Laura", "DeCicco", role = c("aut","cre"),
@@ -17,7 +17,11 @@ Description: Collection of functions to help retrieve U.S. Geological Survey
     obtained from the Water Quality Portal found here:
     http://www.waterqualitydata.us/portal.jsp
 License: CC0
-Copyright: 
+Copyright: This software is in the public domain because it contains materials
+    that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of
+    the United States Department of Interior. For more information, see the
+    official USGS copyright policy at
+    http://www.usgs.gov/visual-id/credit_usgs.html#copyright
 Depends:
     R (>= 3.0)
 Imports:
@@ -36,4 +40,3 @@ LazyData: yes
 VignetteBuilder: knitr
 BuildVignettes: true
 URL: https://github.com/USGS-R/dataRetrieval, http://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/04/a10/
-Copyright: This software is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of the United States Department of Interior. For more information, see the official USGS copyright policy at http://www.usgs.gov/visual-id/credit_usgs.html#copyright
diff --git a/R/importRDB1.r b/R/importRDB1.r
index ce2627228d3147f6253007a15d96999783fde12a..7746cab0b59696951973631f0c356b15c92c728b 100644
--- a/R/importRDB1.r
+++ b/R/importRDB1.r
@@ -5,16 +5,39 @@
 #' NWIS site, parameter code, statistic, startdate and enddate. It is not
 #' recommended to use the RDB format for importing multi-site data. 
 #'
-#' @param obs_url string containing the url for the retrieval
+#' @param obs_url character containing the url for the retrieval
 #' @param asDateTime logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date
 #' @param qw logical, if TRUE parses as water quality data (where dates/times are in start and end times)
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
 #' @param convertType logical, defaults to TRUE. If TRUE, the function will convert the data to dates, datetimes,
-#' numerics based on a standard algorithm. If false, everything is returned as a string.
-#' @return data a data frame containing columns agency, site, dateTime (converted to UTC), values, and remark codes for all requested combinations
+#' numerics based on a standard algorithm. If false, everything is returned as a character
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr 
+#' \tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' XD_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+#' }
 #' @export
 #' @import RCurl
 #' @examples
@@ -23,7 +46,7 @@
 #' endDate <- "2012-10-01"
 #' offering <- "00003"
 #' property <- "00060"
-#' \dontrun{
+#' 
 #' obs_url <- constructNWISURL(siteNumber,property,
 #'          startDate,endDate,"dv",format="tsv")
 #' data <- importRDB1(obs_url)
@@ -47,7 +70,7 @@
 #' fileName <- "RDB1Example.txt"
 #' fullPath <- file.path(filePath, fileName)
 #' importUserRDB <- importRDB1(fullPath)
-#' }
+#' 
 importRDB1 <- function(obs_url, asDateTime=FALSE, qw=FALSE, convertType = TRUE, tz=""){
   
   if(tz != ""){
@@ -223,6 +246,8 @@ importRDB1 <- function(obs_url, asDateTime=FALSE, qw=FALSE, convertType = TRUE,
     row.names(data) <- NULL
   }
   
+  names(data) <- make.names(names(data))
+  
   comment(data) <- hdr
   attr(data, "url") <- obs_url
   attr(data, "queryTime") <- Sys.time()
diff --git a/R/importWQP.R b/R/importWQP.R
index 6cd2c41b2b74e61671a432409533f35bc5c32ae7..2602077c5f0298eff7706425a0de51e1a6d18587 100644
--- a/R/importWQP.R
+++ b/R/importWQP.R
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 #'
 #' Imports data from the Water Quality Portal based on a specified url.
 #' 
-#' @param url string URL to Water Quality Portal#' @keywords data import USGS web service
+#' @param url character URL to Water Quality Portal#' @keywords data import USGS web service
 #' @param zip logical used to request the data in a zip format (TRUE)
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
diff --git a/R/importWaterML1.r b/R/importWaterML1.r
index 972750d3fa4d896969518bf590eed0ffbfe866bb..7ebe3676c6652cff82bdfddff5a60146fdeae461 100644
--- a/R/importWaterML1.r
+++ b/R/importWaterML1.r
@@ -3,13 +3,40 @@
 #' This function accepts a url parameter that already contains the desired
 #' NWIS site, parameter code, statistic, startdate and enddate. 
 #'
-#' @param obs_url string containing the url for the retrieval
+#' @param obs_url character containing the url for the retrieval
 #' @param asDateTime logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
-#' @return mergedDF a data frame containing columns agency, site, dateTime, values, and remark codes for all requested combinations
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr 
+#' \tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+#' variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+#' statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' @seealso \code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}
 #' @export
 #' @import XML
 #' @import RCurl
@@ -21,7 +48,7 @@
 #' offering <- '00003'
 #' property <- '00060'
 #' obs_url <- constructNWISURL(siteNumber,property,startDate,endDate,'dv')
-#' \dontrun{
+#' 
 #' data <- importWaterML1(obs_url,TRUE)
 #' 
 #' groundWaterSite <- "431049071324301"
@@ -49,7 +76,14 @@
 #' names(attributes(data))
 #' attr(data, "url")
 #' attr(data, "disclaimer")
-#' }
+#' 
+#' inactiveSite <- "05212700"
+#' inactiveSite <- constructNWISURL(inactiveSite, "00060", "2014-01-01", "2014-01-10",'dv')
+#' inactiveSite <- importWaterML1(inactiveSite)
+#' 
+#' inactiveAndAcitive <- c("07334200","05212700")
+#' inactiveAndAcitive <- constructNWISURL(inactiveAndAcitive, "00060", "2014-01-01", "2014-01-10",'dv')
+#' inactiveAndAcitive <- importWaterML1(inactiveAndAcitive)
 importWaterML1 <- function(obs_url,asDateTime=FALSE, tz=""){
   
   if(url.exists(obs_url)){
@@ -119,7 +153,8 @@ importWaterML1 <- function(obs_url,asDateTime=FALSE, tz=""){
     site <- as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:sourceInfo/ns1:siteCode", namespaces = chunkNS, xmlValue))
     agency <- as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:sourceInfo/ns1:siteCode/@agencyCode", namespaces = chunkNS))
     pCode <-as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:variable/ns1:variableCode", namespaces = chunkNS, xmlValue))
-    statCd <- as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:variable/ns1:options/ns1:option/@optionCode", namespaces = chunkNS))
+    statCd <- as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:variable/ns1:options/ns1:option[@name='Statistic']/@optionCode", namespaces = chunkNS))
+    statName <- as.character(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:variable/ns1:options/ns1:option[@name='Statistic']", namespaces = chunkNS, xmlValue))
     noValue <- as.numeric(xpathApply(chunk, "ns1:variable/ns1:noDataValue", namespaces = chunkNS, xmlValue))
     
     extraSiteData <-  xmlToList(xmlRoot(xmlDoc(chunk[["sourceInfo"]])))
@@ -164,7 +199,7 @@ importWaterML1 <- function(obs_url,asDateTime=FALSE, tz=""){
          
         assign(valueName,value)
         
-        df <- data.frame(agency = rep(agency,length(value)),
+        df <- data.frame(agency_cd = rep(agency,length(value)),
                          site_no = rep(site,length(value)),
                          stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
         
@@ -285,104 +320,135 @@ importWaterML1 <- function(obs_url,asDateTime=FALSE, tz=""){
         
         
         df <- df[,columnsOrderd]
-                  
-        names(extraSiteData) <- make.unique(names(extraSiteData))
-        
-        sitePropertyIndex <- grep("siteProperty",names(extraSiteData))
-        
-        siteInfo <- data.frame(station_nm=extraSiteData$siteName,
-                               site_no=extraSiteData$siteCode$text,
-                               agency=extraSiteData$siteCode$.attrs[["agencyCode"]],
-                               timeZoneOffset=extraSiteData$timeZoneInfo$defaultTimeZone[1],
-                               timeZoneAbbreviation=extraSiteData$timeZoneInfo$defaultTimeZone[2],
-                               dec_lat_va=as.numeric(extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$latitude),
-                               dec_lon_va=as.numeric(extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$longitude),
-                               srs=extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$.attrs[["srs"]],
-                               stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
-
-        properties <- as.character(lapply(extraSiteData[sitePropertyIndex], function(x) {
-          if(".attrs" %in% names(x)){
-            x$.attrs
-          } else {
-            NA
-          }              
-          }))
-    
-        propertyValues <- as.character(lapply(extraSiteData[sitePropertyIndex], function(x) {
-          if("text" %in% names(x)){
-            x$text
-          } else {
-            NA
-          }              
-          }))
-        
-        names(propertyValues) <- properties
-        propertyValues <- propertyValues[propertyValues != "NA"]
-        siteInfo <- cbind(siteInfo, t(propertyValues))            
-        
-        names(extraVariableData) <- make.unique(names(extraVariableData))
-        variableInfo <- data.frame(parameterCd=extraVariableData$variableCode$text,
-                                   parameter_nm=extraVariableData$variableName,
-                                   parameter_desc=extraVariableData$variableDescription,
-                                   valueType=extraVariableData$valueType,
-                                   param_units=extraVariableData$unit$unitCode,
-                                   noDataValue=as.numeric(extraVariableData$noDataValue),
-                                   stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
-        
+                        
         if (1 == i & valuesIndex[1] == j){
-          mergedDF <- df
-          siteInformation <- siteInfo
-          variableInformation <- variableInfo
-          
+          mergedDF <- df          
         } else {
           similarNames <- intersect(names(mergedDF), names(df))
           mergedDF <- merge(mergedDF, df,by=similarNames,all=TRUE)
-          
-          similarSites <- intersect(names(siteInformation), names(siteInfo))
-          siteInformation <- merge(siteInformation, siteInfo, by=similarSites, all=TRUE)
-          
-          similarVariables <- intersect(names(variableInformation),names(variableInfo))
-          variableInformation <- merge(variableInformation, variableInfo, by=similarVariables, all=TRUE)
         }
+        
+      } else {
+        if (1 == i & valuesIndex[1] == j){
+          mergedDF <- NULL
+        } 
       }
+
     }
+
+    ######################
+    names(extraSiteData) <- make.unique(names(extraSiteData))
+    
+    sitePropertyIndex <- grep("siteProperty",names(extraSiteData))
+    
+    siteInfo <- data.frame(station_nm=extraSiteData$siteName,
+                           site_no=extraSiteData$siteCode$text,
+                           agency=extraSiteData$siteCode$.attrs[["agencyCode"]],
+                           timeZoneOffset=extraSiteData$timeZoneInfo$defaultTimeZone[1],
+                           timeZoneAbbreviation=extraSiteData$timeZoneInfo$defaultTimeZone[2],
+                           dec_lat_va=as.numeric(extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$latitude),
+                           dec_lon_va=as.numeric(extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$longitude),
+                           srs=extraSiteData$geoLocation$geogLocation$.attrs[["srs"]],
+                           stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
+    
+    properties <- as.character(lapply(extraSiteData[sitePropertyIndex], function(x) {
+      if(".attrs" %in% names(x)){
+        x$.attrs
+      } else {
+        NA
+      }              
+    }))
+    
+    propertyValues <- as.character(lapply(extraSiteData[sitePropertyIndex], function(x) {
+      if("text" %in% names(x)){
+        x$text
+      } else {
+        NA
+      }              
+    }))
+    
+    names(propertyValues) <- properties
+    propertyValues <- propertyValues[propertyValues != "NA"]
+    siteInfo <- cbind(siteInfo, t(propertyValues))            
+    
+    names(extraVariableData) <- make.unique(names(extraVariableData))
+    variableInfo <- data.frame(parameterCd=extraVariableData$variableCode$text,
+                               parameter_nm=extraVariableData$variableName,
+                               parameter_desc=extraVariableData$variableDescription,
+                               valueType=extraVariableData$valueType,
+                               param_units=extraVariableData$unit$unitCode,
+                               noDataValue=NA, #as.numeric(extraVariableData$noDataValue), since it's already converted
+                               stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
+    
+    statInfo <- data.frame(statisticName=statName,
+                           statisticCd=statCd,
+                           stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
+
+    if (1 == i){
+      siteInformation <- siteInfo
+      variableInformation <- variableInfo
+      statInformation <- statInfo
+      
+    } else {
+      similarSites <- intersect(names(siteInformation), names(siteInfo))
+      siteInformation <- merge(siteInformation, siteInfo, by=similarSites, all=TRUE)
+      
+      similarVariables <- intersect(names(variableInformation),names(variableInfo))
+      variableInformation <- merge(variableInformation, variableInfo, by=similarVariables, all=TRUE)
+      
+      similarStats <- intersect(names(statInformation), names(statInfo))
+      statInformation <- merge(statInformation, statInfo, by=similarStats, all=TRUE)
+    }
+
+    ######################
+
     attList[[uniqueName]] <- list(extraSiteData, extraVariableData)
 
     
   }
+
+  if(!is.null(mergedDF)){
   
-  dataColumns <- unique(dataColumns)
-  qualColumns <- unique(qualColumns)
+    dataColumns <- unique(dataColumns)
+    qualColumns <- unique(qualColumns)
+    
+    
+    
+    sortingColumns <- names(mergedDF)[!(names(mergedDF) %in% c(dataColumns,qualColumns))]
   
-  sortingColumns <- names(mergedDF)[!(names(mergedDF) %in% c(dataColumns,qualColumns))]
-
-  meltedmergedDF  <- melt(mergedDF,id.vars=sortingColumns)
-  meltedmergedDF  <- meltedmergedDF[!is.na(meltedmergedDF$value),] 
-
-  castFormula <- as.formula(paste(paste(sortingColumns, collapse="+"),"variable",sep="~"))
-  mergedDF2 <- dcast(meltedmergedDF, castFormula, drop=FALSE)
-  dataColumns2 <- !(names(mergedDF2) %in% sortingColumns)
-  if(sum(dataColumns2) == 1){
-    mergedDF <- mergedDF2[!is.na(mergedDF2[,dataColumns2]),]
-  } else {
-    mergedDF <- mergedDF2[rowSums(is.na(mergedDF2[,dataColumns2])) != sum(dataColumns2),]
-  }
+    meltedmergedDF  <- melt(mergedDF,id.vars=sortingColumns)
+    meltedmergedDF  <- meltedmergedDF[!is.na(meltedmergedDF$value),] 
   
-  if(length(dataColumns) > 1){
-    mergedDF[,dataColumns] <- lapply(mergedDF[,dataColumns], function(x) as.numeric(x))
+    castFormula <- as.formula(paste(paste(sortingColumns, collapse="+"),"variable",sep="~"))
+    mergedDF2 <- dcast(meltedmergedDF, castFormula, drop=FALSE)
+    dataColumns2 <- !(names(mergedDF2) %in% sortingColumns)
+    if(sum(dataColumns2) == 1){
+      mergedDF <- mergedDF2[!is.na(mergedDF2[,dataColumns2]),]
+    } else {
+      mergedDF <- mergedDF2[rowSums(is.na(mergedDF2[,dataColumns2])) != sum(dataColumns2),]
+    }
+    
+    if(length(dataColumns) > 1){
+      mergedDF[,dataColumns] <- lapply(mergedDF[,dataColumns], function(x) as.numeric(x))
+    } else {
+      mergedDF[,dataColumns] <- as.numeric(mergedDF[,dataColumns])
+    }
+    
+    names(mergedDF) <- make.names(names(mergedDF))
   } else {
-    mergedDF[,dataColumns] <- as.numeric(mergedDF[,dataColumns])
+    mergedDF <- data.frame()
   }
-  
+
   
   row.names(mergedDF) <- NULL
   attr(mergedDF, "url") <- obs_url
-  attr(mergedDF, "attributeList") <- attList
   attr(mergedDF, "siteInfo") <- siteInformation
   attr(mergedDF, "variableInfo") <- variableInformation
   attr(mergedDF, "disclaimer") <- notes["disclaimer"]
-  attr(mergedDF, "queryInfo") <- queryInfo
+  attr(mergedDF, "statisticInfo") <- statInformation
+  # Do we want this?
+  #   attr(mergedDF, "attributeList") <- attList
+  #   attr(mergedDF, "queryInfo") <- queryInfo
   attr(mergedDF, "queryTime") <- Sys.time()
-  
   return (mergedDF)
 }
diff --git a/R/importWaterML2.r b/R/importWaterML2.r
index 6b9e9107ebc0ee9c22820e12fb8b2a0fd40f02e6..fe45e3a08a9b942b33542bc0d5dcbc4d0e5388b2 100644
--- a/R/importWaterML2.r
+++ b/R/importWaterML2.r
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 #'
 #' This function accepts a url parameter for a WaterML2 getObservation 
 #'
-#' @param obs_url string containing the url for the retrieval
+#' @param obs_url character containing the url for the retrieval
 #' @param asDateTime logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
diff --git a/R/readNWISdata.r b/R/readNWISdata.r
index 62587f4f20d8fa87f2e9254ac56289da1cb5eaac..28d2907ef28dfde27c255b6f5ebe190ffdb7e1e7 100644
--- a/R/readNWISdata.r
+++ b/R/readNWISdata.r
@@ -7,7 +7,34 @@
 #' (for groundwater levels), and "qwdata" (for water quality)
 #' @param \dots see \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/Site-Service.html#Service} for a complete list of options
 #' @keywords data import NWIS web service
-#' @return retval dataframe 
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (for unit value data), \cr 
+#' \tab character \tab or raw character string \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+#' variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+#' statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' @seealso \code{\link{renameNWISColumns}},  \code{\link{importWaterML1}}, \code{\link{importRDB1}}
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' \dontrun{
diff --git a/R/readNWISdv.r b/R/readNWISdv.r
index d6e0fd2b189b15e627b647a598d051ad3a2f4344..ff0684bbaa2553e032dcda981495e4c388f2a5f5 100644
--- a/R/readNWISdv.r
+++ b/R/readNWISdv.r
@@ -4,12 +4,38 @@
 #' A list of parameter codes can be found here: \url{http://help.waterdata.usgs.gov/codes-and-parameters/parameters}
 #' A list of statistic codes can be found here: \url{http://help.waterdata.usgs.gov/code/stat_code_query?fmt=html}
 #'
-#' @param siteNumber string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number. Multiple sites can be requested with a string vector.
-#' @param parameterCd string or vector of USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number..
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param statCd string USGS statistic code. This is usually 5 digits.  Daily mean (00003) is the default.
-#' @return data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, value, and code columns
+#' @param siteNumber character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number. Multiple sites can be requested with a character vector.
+#' @param parameterCd character of USGS parameter code(s).  This is usually an 5 digit number.
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param statCd character USGS statistic code. This is usually 5 digits.  Daily mean (00003) is the default.
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab Date \tab The date of the value \cr 
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+#' variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+#' statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' @seealso \code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
 #' @export
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
 #' @examples
@@ -17,7 +43,7 @@
 #' startDate <- '2012-01-01'
 #' endDate <- '2012-06-30'
 #' pCode <- '00060'
-#' \dontrun{
+#' 
 #' rawDailyQ <- readNWISdv(siteNumber,pCode, startDate, endDate)
 #' rawDailyQAndTempMeanMax <- readNWISdv(siteNumber,c('00010','00060'),
 #'        startDate, endDate, statCd=c('00001','00003'))
@@ -29,13 +55,19 @@
 #' names(attributes(x))
 #' attr(x, "siteInfo")
 #' attr(x, "variableInfo")
-#' }
+#' 
+#' site <- "05212700"
+#' notActive <- readNWISdv(site, "00060", "2014-01-01","2014-01-07")
+#' 
 readNWISdv <- function (siteNumber,parameterCd,startDate="",endDate="",statCd="00003"){  
   
   url <- constructNWISURL(siteNumber,parameterCd,startDate,endDate,"dv",statCd=statCd)
 
   data <- importWaterML1(url, asDateTime=FALSE)
-  data$dateTime <- as.Date(data$dateTime)
+  if(nrow(data)>0){
+    data$dateTime <- as.Date(data$dateTime)
+  }
+  
 
   return (data)
 }
diff --git a/R/readNWISpCode.r b/R/readNWISpCode.r
index 1664e17738373ba92e674db51f425604573f7588..73a82ac13cf06c4f555cefa2e990d34021e7e2a7 100644
--- a/R/readNWISpCode.r
+++ b/R/readNWISpCode.r
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #' Imports data from NWIS about meaured parameter based on user-supplied parameter code.
 #' This function gets the data from here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes}
 #'
-#' @param parameterCd vector of USGS parameter codes.  This is usually an 5 digit number.
+#' @param parameterCd character of USGS parameter codes.  This is usually an 5 digit number.
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
 #' @return parameterData dataframe with all information from the USGS about the particular parameter (usually code, name, short name, units, and CAS registry numbers)
 #' @export
diff --git a/R/readNWISqw.r b/R/readNWISqw.r
index 8aab12162ea045f89e556ea648b93f87f48f6c13..50b185aba8dbf68def9b9d8214a7517d503a7bd6 100644
--- a/R/readNWISqw.r
+++ b/R/readNWISqw.r
@@ -4,20 +4,43 @@
 #' A list of parameter codes can be found here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes/}
 #' A list of statistic codes can be found here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/?read_file=stat&format=table}
 #'
-#' @param siteNumber string or vector of of USGS site numbers.  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param pCodes string or vector of USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param siteNumber character of USGS site numbers.  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param pCodes character of USGS parameter code(s).  This is usually an 5 digit number.
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
 #' @param expanded logical defaults to FALSE. If TRUE, retrieves additional information. Expanded data includes
 #' remark_cd (remark code), result_va (result value), val_qual_tx (result value qualifier code), meth_cd (method code),
 #' dqi_cd (data-quality indicator code), rpt_lev_va (reporting level), and rpt_lev_cd (reporting level type).
 #' @param reshape logical. Will reshape the data if TRUE (default)
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
-#' @return data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, value, and code columns
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr 
+#' \tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+#' }
 #' @export
 #' @import reshape2
 #' @seealso \code{\link{readWQPdata}}, \code{\link{whatWQPsites}}, 
@@ -27,13 +50,13 @@
 #' startDate <- '2010-01-01'
 #' endDate <- ''
 #' pCodes <- c('34247','30234','32104','34220')
-#' \dontrun{
+#' 
 #' rawNWISqwData <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,startDate,endDate)
 #' rawNWISqwDataExpandReshaped <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,
 #'           startDate,endDate,expanded=TRUE)
 #' rawNWISqwDataExpand <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,
 #'           startDate,endDate,expanded=TRUE,reshape=FALSE)
-#'           }
+#'           
 readNWISqw <- function (siteNumber,pCodes,startDate="",endDate="",
                         expanded=FALSE,reshape=TRUE,tz=""){  
   
diff --git a/R/readNWISsite.r b/R/readNWISsite.r
index 79f38914a74de2b8135edcfec068afdd529a6705..087182d3fe7ab69a36ef04a010e10906e7490a71 100644
--- a/R/readNWISsite.r
+++ b/R/readNWISsite.r
@@ -2,9 +2,28 @@
 #'
 #' Imports data from USGS site file site. This function gets data from here: \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/}
 #'
-#' @param siteNumbers string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param siteNumbers character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
-#' @return retval dataframe with all information found in the expanded site file
+#' @return A data frame with at least the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' XD_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+#' }
+
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' # These examples require an internet connection to run
diff --git a/R/readNWISunit.r b/R/readNWISunit.r
index 1837a57e5aa86be8f224e56a8291439680c9f48a..dbfe2e913acca7a356aa076e7b36a8f094b8e09e 100644
--- a/R/readNWISunit.r
+++ b/R/readNWISunit.r
@@ -4,16 +4,42 @@
 #' A list of parameter codes can be found here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes/}
 #' A list of statistic codes can be found here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/?read_file=stat&format=table}
 #'
-#' @param siteNumbers string USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param parameterCd string USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param siteNumbers character USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param parameterCd character USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
-#' @return data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, time zone, value, and code columns
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC \cr 
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+#' variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+#' statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' @seealso \code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' siteNumber <- '05114000'
@@ -39,9 +65,33 @@ readNWISuv <- function (siteNumbers,parameterCd,startDate="",endDate="", tz=""){
 #' 
 #' 
 #' 
-#' @param siteNumber string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param siteNumber character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr 
+#' \tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' XD_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+#' }
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' siteNumber <- '01594440'
@@ -60,8 +110,20 @@ readNWISpeak <- function (siteNumber,startDate="",endDate=""){
 #' 
 #' 
 #' 
-#' @param siteNumber string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param type string can be "base", "corr", or "exsa"
+#' @param siteNumber character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param type character can be "base", "corr", or "exsa"
+#' @return A data frame. If \code{type} is "base," then the columns are
+#'INDEP, typically the gage height, in feet; DEP, typically the streamflow,
+#'in cubic feet per second; and STOR, where "*" indicates that the pair are
+#'a fixed point of the rating curve. If \code{type} is "exsa," then an
+#'additional column, SHIFT, is included that indicates the current shift in
+#'the rating for that value of INDEP. If \code{type} is "corr," then the
+#'columns are INDEP, typically the gage height, in feet; CORR, the correction
+#'for that value; and CORRINDEP, the corrected value for CORR.\cr
+#'If \code{type} is "base," then the data frame has an attribute called "RATING"
+#'that describes the rating curve is included.
+#' @note Not all active USGS streamgages have traditional rating curves that
+#'relate flow to stage.
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' siteNumber <- '01594440'
@@ -88,13 +150,28 @@ readNWISrating <- function (siteNumber,type="base"){
 #'
 #'
 #'
-#' @param siteNumber string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param tz string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
+#' @param siteNumber character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param tz character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the 
 #' datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 #' Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 #' "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"
+#' @return A data frame with at least the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+#' }
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' siteNumber <- '01594440'
@@ -118,9 +195,36 @@ readNWISmeas <- function (siteNumber,startDate="",endDate="", tz=""){
 #' Reads groundwater level measurements from NWISweb. Mixed date/times come back from the service 
 #' depending on the year that the data was collected. 
 #'
-#' @param siteNumbers string USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param siteNumbers character USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @return A data frame with the following columns:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+#' site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+#' datetime \tab character \tab The date and time of the value as a character \cr 
+#' tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+#' code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+#' value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+#' }
+#' Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form 
+#' X_D_P_S, where X is literal, 
+#' D is an option description of the parameter, 
+#' P is the parameter code, 
+#' and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+#' 
+#' There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+#' \tabular{lll}{
+#' Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+#' url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+#' siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+#' variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+#' statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+#' queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+#' }
+#' 
+#' @seealso \code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' siteNumber <- "434400121275801"
diff --git a/R/readWQPqw.r b/R/readWQPqw.r
index 75bbf6f559f092b4ca846c932971184d86801362..1bf846566e15b1489913dd7a7831f950ba4e64e2 100644
--- a/R/readWQPqw.r
+++ b/R/readWQPqw.r
@@ -7,11 +7,11 @@
 #' either USGS, or other Water Quality Portal offered sites. It is required to use the 'full'
 #' site name, such as 'USGS-01234567'. 
 #'
-#' @param siteNumber string site number. This needs to include the full agency code prefix.
-#' @param parameterCd vector of USGS 5-digit parameter code or string of characteristicNames. 
+#' @param siteNumber character site number. This needs to include the full agency code prefix.
+#' @param parameterCd vector of USGS 5-digit parameter code or characteristicNames. 
 #' Leaving this blank will return all of the measured values during the specified time period.
-#' @param startDate string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
-#' @param endDate string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param startDate character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
+#' @param endDate character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
 #' @return retval dataframe raw data returned from the Water Quality Portal. Additionally, a POSIXct dateTime column is supplied for 
 #' start and end times.
diff --git a/R/tabbedDataRetrievals.R b/R/tabbedDataRetrievals.R
index 0cdd965e4e4c62e0d905ab6ac8874043138e676a..94aa70f4d18df51a676ad048e78e9c15326b975b 100644
--- a/R/tabbedDataRetrievals.R
+++ b/R/tabbedDataRetrievals.R
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 #' \tabular{ll}{
 #' Package: \tab dataRetrieval\cr
 #' Type: \tab Package\cr
-#' Version: \tab 2.0.0\cr
-#' Date: \tab 2014-11-13\cr
+#' Version: \tab 2.0.1\cr
+#' Date: \tab 2014-11-24\cr
 #' License: \tab Unlimited for this package, dependencies have more restrictive licensing.\cr
 #' Copyright: \tab This software is in the public domain because it contains materials
 #' that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of
diff --git a/R/whatNWISData.r b/R/whatNWISData.r
index 17a72cce3fca9979b2d2f381b15d90935a0bd8f6..933147d95c67ebb2efb707a63a527bbdbc5a57da 100644
--- a/R/whatNWISData.r
+++ b/R/whatNWISData.r
@@ -3,14 +3,14 @@
 #' Imports a table of available parameters, period of record, and count. See \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/Site-Service.html}
 #' for more information.
 #'
-#' @param siteNumbers string vector of USGS site number or multiple sites.
-#' @param service vector string. Options are "all", or one or many of "dv"(daily values),
+#' @param siteNumbers character USGS site number or multiple sites.
+#' @param service character. Options are "all", or one or many of "dv"(daily values),
 #'      "uv","rt", or "iv"(unit values), "qw"(water-quality),"sv"(sites visits),"pk"(peak measurements),
 #'      "gw"(groundwater levels), "ad" (sites included in USGS Annual Water Data Reports External Link), 
 #'      "aw" (sites monitored by the USGS Active Groundwater Level Network External Link), "id" (historical 
 #'      instantaneous values)
-#' @param parameterCd string vector of valid parameter codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.
-#' @param statCd string vector of all statistic codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.
+#' @param parameterCd character vector of valid parameter codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.
+#' @param statCd character vector of all statistic codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
 #' @return retval dataframe with all information found in the expanded site file
 #' @export
diff --git a/R/zeroPad.r b/R/zeroPad.r
index 9aa4d4616df8bf665274f0d539e8d436346e95ae..92b37a0fae8e413fa678f6085fded1962de00abd 100644
--- a/R/zeroPad.r
+++ b/R/zeroPad.r
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 #'
 #' Function to pad a string with leading zeros. Useful for parameter codes and USGS site IDs.
 #'
-#' @param x string 
-#' @param padTo number Final desired length of the string
+#' @param x character 
+#' @param padTo number Final desired length of the character
 #' @keywords data import USGS web service
-#' @return x string returned with leading zeros
+#' @return x character returned with leading zeros
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' pCode <- '10'
diff --git a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf
index 36f7797774d27d37de5bd810a21dc82e05953425..3ea8c0a393d6a97e41448cf2f8d00b99900083da 100644
Binary files a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf and b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf differ
diff --git a/man/dataRetrieval-package.Rd b/man/dataRetrieval-package.Rd
index cb89c066fc36aa91f8b168a0207efaaa8bc2b618..7bd351b33e55274b4874f446cf75427086d93e3c 100644
--- a/man/dataRetrieval-package.Rd
+++ b/man/dataRetrieval-package.Rd
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
 \tabular{ll}{
 Package: \tab dataRetrieval\cr
 Type: \tab Package\cr
-Version: \tab 2.0.0\cr
-Date: \tab 2014-11-13\cr
+Version: \tab 2.0.1\cr
+Date: \tab 2014-11-24\cr
 License: \tab Unlimited for this package, dependencies have more restrictive licensing.\cr
 Copyright: \tab This software is in the public domain because it contains materials
 that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of
diff --git a/man/importRDB1.Rd b/man/importRDB1.Rd
index 44cdbc47b77f56cccc3d765b2b7c93a001246713..0812b312ab375e7dc8e7b76aa0fb00fc195e1ed0 100644
--- a/man/importRDB1.Rd
+++ b/man/importRDB1.Rd
@@ -7,22 +7,45 @@ importRDB1(obs_url, asDateTime = FALSE, qw = FALSE, convertType = TRUE,
   tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{obs_url}{string containing the url for the retrieval}
+\item{obs_url}{character containing the url for the retrieval}
 
 \item{asDateTime}{logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date}
 
 \item{qw}{logical, if TRUE parses as water quality data (where dates/times are in start and end times)}
 
 \item{convertType}{logical, defaults to TRUE. If TRUE, the function will convert the data to dates, datetimes,
-numerics based on a standard algorithm. If false, everything is returned as a string.}
+numerics based on a standard algorithm. If false, everything is returned as a character}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
 }
 \value{
-data a data frame containing columns agency, site, dateTime (converted to UTC), values, and remark codes for all requested combinations
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr
+\tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+XD_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 This function accepts a url parameter that already contains the desired
@@ -35,7 +58,7 @@ startDate <- "2012-09-01"
 endDate <- "2012-10-01"
 offering <- "00003"
 property <- "00060"
-\dontrun{
+
 obs_url <- constructNWISURL(siteNumber,property,
          startDate,endDate,"dv",format="tsv")
 data <- importRDB1(obs_url)
@@ -60,5 +83,4 @@ fileName <- "RDB1Example.txt"
 fullPath <- file.path(filePath, fileName)
 importUserRDB <- importRDB1(fullPath)
 }
-}
 
diff --git a/man/importWQP.Rd b/man/importWQP.Rd
index f5faaee1995217faa03d69dece7c73403b126ffa..c77b43468dbbc11f58f668549c779754687304c4 100644
--- a/man/importWQP.Rd
+++ b/man/importWQP.Rd
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@
 importWQP(url, zip = FALSE, tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{url}{string URL to Water Quality Portal#'}
+\item{url}{character URL to Water Quality Portal#'}
 
 \item{zip}{logical used to request the data in a zip format (TRUE)}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
diff --git a/man/importWaterML1.Rd b/man/importWaterML1.Rd
index ec3a0ba90e0ef83e67dcdd1f227b6b867a22f2c9..6ca6214eefdbb120be851aa291f56ce3077e60b2 100644
--- a/man/importWaterML1.Rd
+++ b/man/importWaterML1.Rd
@@ -6,17 +6,42 @@
 importWaterML1(obs_url, asDateTime = FALSE, tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{obs_url}{string containing the url for the retrieval}
+\item{obs_url}{character containing the url for the retrieval}
 
 \item{asDateTime}{logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
 }
 \value{
-mergedDF a data frame containing columns agency, site, dateTime, values, and remark codes for all requested combinations
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr
+\tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 This function accepts a url parameter that already contains the desired
@@ -29,7 +54,7 @@ endDate <- "2012-10-01"
 offering <- '00003'
 property <- '00060'
 obs_url <- constructNWISURL(siteNumber,property,startDate,endDate,'dv')
-\dontrun{
+
 data <- importWaterML1(obs_url,TRUE)
 
 groundWaterSite <- "431049071324301"
@@ -57,6 +82,16 @@ data <- renameNWISColumns(data)
 names(attributes(data))
 attr(data, "url")
 attr(data, "disclaimer")
+
+inactiveSite <- "05212700"
+inactiveSite <- constructNWISURL(inactiveSite, "00060", "2014-01-01", "2014-01-10",'dv')
+inactiveSite <- importWaterML1(inactiveSite)
+
+inactiveAndAcitive <- c("07334200","05212700")
+inactiveAndAcitive <- constructNWISURL(inactiveAndAcitive, "00060", "2014-01-01", "2014-01-10",'dv')
+inactiveAndAcitive <- importWaterML1(inactiveAndAcitive)
 }
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/importWaterML2.Rd b/man/importWaterML2.Rd
index c8f3bc680cb3d6a7f76932040dffae7ba4148335..8175999b279f93276c7a7ca78776d2977d93407e 100644
--- a/man/importWaterML2.Rd
+++ b/man/importWaterML2.Rd
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@
 importWaterML2(obs_url, asDateTime = FALSE, tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{obs_url}{string containing the url for the retrieval}
+\item{obs_url}{character containing the url for the retrieval}
 
 \item{asDateTime}{logical, if TRUE returns date and time as POSIXct, if FALSE, Date}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
diff --git a/man/readNWISdata.Rd b/man/readNWISdata.Rd
index 2e4381e6981cdda66eb812e7db1e6c5b81bd73d5..bdb0ca86983ea8e5a0bdfee345bcfbc33cd005b6 100644
--- a/man/readNWISdata.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISdata.Rd
@@ -15,7 +15,32 @@ readNWISdata(service = "dv", ...)
 \item{\dots}{see \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/Site-Service.html#Service} for a complete list of options}
 }
 \value{
-retval dataframe
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (for unit value data), \cr
+\tab character \tab or raw character string \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Returns data from the NWIS web service.
@@ -32,6 +57,9 @@ multiSite <- readNWISdata(sites=c("04025000","04072150"), service="iv", paramete
 multiSite <- readNWISdata(sites=c("04025500","040263491"), service="iv", parameterCd="00060")
 }
 }
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{renameNWISColumns}},  \code{\link{importWaterML1}}, \code{\link{importRDB1}}
+}
 \keyword{NWIS}
 \keyword{data}
 \keyword{import}
diff --git a/man/readNWISdv.Rd b/man/readNWISdv.Rd
index 0028fa9200acceca798bf5a7ca6e98a7c2255e78..5d60864b046eb7e2bd7a8ad1c6a32ad89a0d19de 100644
--- a/man/readNWISdv.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISdv.Rd
@@ -11,18 +11,42 @@ readNWISdv(siteNumber, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "",
   statCd = "00003")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number. Multiple sites can be requested with a string vector.}
+\item{siteNumber}{character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number. Multiple sites can be requested with a character vector.}
 
-\item{parameterCd}{string or vector of USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number..}
+\item{parameterCd}{character of USGS parameter code(s).  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{statCd}{string USGS statistic code. This is usually 5 digits.  Daily mean (00003) is the default.}
+\item{statCd}{character USGS statistic code. This is usually 5 digits.  Daily mean (00003) is the default.}
 }
 \value{
-data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, value, and code columns
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab Date \tab The date of the value \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/}
@@ -34,7 +58,7 @@ siteNumber <- '04085427'
 startDate <- '2012-01-01'
 endDate <- '2012-06-30'
 pCode <- '00060'
-\dontrun{
+
 rawDailyQ <- readNWISdv(siteNumber,pCode, startDate, endDate)
 rawDailyQAndTempMeanMax <- readNWISdv(siteNumber,c('00010','00060'),
        startDate, endDate, statCd=c('00001','00003'))
@@ -46,7 +70,12 @@ x <- readNWISdv("10258500","00060", "2014-09-08", "2014-09-14")
 names(attributes(x))
 attr(x, "siteInfo")
 attr(x, "variableInfo")
+
+site <- "05212700"
+notActive <- readNWISdv(site, "00060", "2014-01-01","2014-01-07")
 }
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
 }
 \keyword{USGS}
 \keyword{data}
diff --git a/man/readNWISgwl.Rd b/man/readNWISgwl.Rd
index 4ee53c4e5296deccbc1c2f07365725c32ce8c0f6..f1f571c0fa3a6ec8e0a96520406c2e74e2c76686 100644
--- a/man/readNWISgwl.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISgwl.Rd
@@ -6,11 +6,38 @@
 readNWISgwl(siteNumbers, startDate = "", endDate = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumbers}{string USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumbers}{character USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+}
+\value{
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab character \tab The date and time of the value as a character \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Reads groundwater level measurements from NWISweb. Mixed date/times come back from the service
@@ -22,4 +49,7 @@ data <- readNWISgwl(siteNumber, '','')
 sites <- c("434400121275801", "375907091432201")
 data2 <- readNWISgwl(sites, '','')
 }
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
+}
 
diff --git a/man/readNWISmeas.Rd b/man/readNWISmeas.Rd
index 01e9d9d11edf8aa9cb1fe5efc0ea9a15f1f35d18..da408adea08dad265449fa8617b66be448c8332b 100644
--- a/man/readNWISmeas.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISmeas.Rd
@@ -6,17 +6,34 @@
 readNWISmeas(siteNumber, startDate = "", endDate = "", tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumber}{character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
 }
+\value{
+A data frame with at least the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+}
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+}
+}
 \description{
 Reads surface-water measurement data from NWISweb.
 }
diff --git a/man/readNWISpCode.Rd b/man/readNWISpCode.Rd
index b7d1323e9d32eb2b607e39847dcd6a523e7b8c73..0179c392874a97503f5a470cac62b038081b00ca 100644
--- a/man/readNWISpCode.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISpCode.Rd
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ getNWISPcodeInfo(parameterCd)
 readNWISpCode(parameterCd)
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{parameterCd}{vector of USGS parameter codes.  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
+\item{parameterCd}{character of USGS parameter codes.  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
 }
 \value{
 parameterData dataframe with all information from the USGS about the particular parameter (usually code, name, short name, units, and CAS registry numbers)
diff --git a/man/readNWISpeak.Rd b/man/readNWISpeak.Rd
index df59298c3d2003319e1b7d7e0e804d11b0602534..e171579f41c5686c55899663a97a30d8311e505c 100644
--- a/man/readNWISpeak.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISpeak.Rd
@@ -6,11 +6,37 @@
 readNWISpeak(siteNumber, startDate = "", endDate = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumber}{character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+}
+\value{
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr
+\tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+XD_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Reads peak flow data from NWISweb.
diff --git a/man/readNWISqw.Rd b/man/readNWISqw.Rd
index e1c5a2576d086b243d1102c6e72d61f471938397..effe8cb5a177f24e46086667072b7debe90a4bb5 100644
--- a/man/readNWISqw.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISqw.Rd
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ readNWISqw(siteNumber, pCodes, startDate = "", endDate = "",
   expanded = FALSE, reshape = TRUE, tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string or vector of of USGS site numbers.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumber}{character of USGS site numbers.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{pCodes}{string or vector of USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
+\item{pCodes}{character of USGS parameter code(s).  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
 \item{expanded}{logical defaults to FALSE. If TRUE, retrieves additional information. Expanded data includes
 remark_cd (remark code), result_va (result value), val_qual_tx (result value qualifier code), meth_cd (method code),
@@ -25,13 +25,36 @@ dqi_cd (data-quality indicator code), rpt_lev_va (reporting level), and rpt_lev_
 
 \item{reshape}{logical. Will reshape the data if TRUE (default)}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
 }
 \value{
-data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, value, and code columns
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC (if asDateTime = TRUE), \cr
+\tab character \tab or raw character string (if asDateTime = FALSE) \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: \url{http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qwdata}
@@ -43,13 +66,12 @@ siteNumber <- c('04024430','04024000')
 startDate <- '2010-01-01'
 endDate <- ''
 pCodes <- c('34247','30234','32104','34220')
-\dontrun{
+
 rawNWISqwData <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,startDate,endDate)
 rawNWISqwDataExpandReshaped <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,
           startDate,endDate,expanded=TRUE)
 rawNWISqwDataExpand <- readNWISqw(siteNumber,pCodes,
           startDate,endDate,expanded=TRUE,reshape=FALSE)
-          }
 }
 \seealso{
 \code{\link{readWQPdata}}, \code{\link{whatWQPsites}},
diff --git a/man/readNWISrating.Rd b/man/readNWISrating.Rd
index f335d06d16be5a93aa3086d22ecc8c1d926821c8..fe2e306e38e81c7f0824e883c6d0ec65f8a0c3d6 100644
--- a/man/readNWISrating.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISrating.Rd
@@ -6,13 +6,29 @@
 readNWISrating(siteNumber, type = "base")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumber}{character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{type}{string can be "base", "corr", or "exsa"}
+\item{type}{character can be "base", "corr", or "exsa"}
+}
+\value{
+A data frame. If \code{type} is "base," then the columns are
+INDEP, typically the gage height, in feet; DEP, typically the streamflow,
+in cubic feet per second; and STOR, where "*" indicates that the pair are
+a fixed point of the rating curve. If \code{type} is "exsa," then an
+additional column, SHIFT, is included that indicates the current shift in
+the rating for that value of INDEP. If \code{type} is "corr," then the
+columns are INDEP, typically the gage height, in feet; CORR, the correction
+for that value; and CORRINDEP, the corrected value for CORR.\cr
+If \code{type} is "base," then the data frame has an attribute called "RATING"
+that describes the rating curve is included.
 }
 \description{
 Reads the current rating table for an active USGS streamgage.
 }
+\note{
+Not all active USGS streamgages have traditional rating curves that
+relate flow to stage.
+}
 \examples{
 siteNumber <- '01594440'
 data <- readNWISrating(siteNumber, "base")
diff --git a/man/readNWISsite.Rd b/man/readNWISsite.Rd
index 2db0ac7d276ce887d97c2cb1e156a3a26f760825..b0326ecf028d56b9d919050df5a890ac0bf5a1a5 100644
--- a/man/readNWISsite.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISsite.Rd
@@ -9,10 +9,28 @@ getNWISSiteInfo(siteNumbers)
 readNWISsite(siteNumbers)
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumbers}{string USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumbers}{character USGS site number.  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 }
 \value{
-retval dataframe with all information found in the expanded site file
+A data frame with at least the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency_cd \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site_no \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+XD_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+comment \tab character \tab Header comments from the RDB file \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Imports data from USGS site file site. This function gets data from here: \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/}
diff --git a/man/readNWISuv.Rd b/man/readNWISuv.Rd
index 1244ce3ae0709774e17eef54ccd6e5aa24be0436..fd810547416fa59ba0e9507f9eb0eebfe2f9441c 100644
--- a/man/readNWISuv.Rd
+++ b/man/readNWISuv.Rd
@@ -11,21 +11,45 @@ readNWISuv(siteNumbers, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "",
   tz = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumbers}{string USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number}
+\item{siteNumbers}{character USGS site number (or multiple sites).  This is usually an 8 digit number}
 
-\item{parameterCd}{string USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
+\item{parameterCd}{character USGS parameter code.  This is usually an 5 digit number.}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{tz}{string to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
+\item{tz}{character to set timezone attribute of datetime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the
 datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column).
 Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles",
 "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"}
 }
 \value{
-data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, time zone, value, and code columns
+A data frame with the following columns:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+agency \tab character \tab The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data\cr
+site \tab character \tab The USGS site number \cr
+datetime \tab POSIXct \tab The date and time of the value converted to UTC \cr
+tz_cd \tab character \tab The time zone code for datetime \cr
+code \tab character \tab Any codes that qualify the corresponding value\cr
+value \tab numeric \tab The numeric value for the parameter \cr
+}
+Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form
+X_D_P_S, where X is literal,
+D is an option description of the parameter,
+P is the parameter code,
+and S is the statistic code (if applicable).
+
+There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:
+\tabular{lll}{
+Name \tab Type \tab Description \cr
+url \tab character \tab The url used to generate the data \cr
+siteInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested sites \cr
+variableInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested parameters \cr
+statisticInfo \tab data.frame \tab A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data \cr
+queryTime \tab POSIXct \tab The time the data was returned \cr
+}
 }
 \description{
 Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: \url{http://waterservices.usgs.gov/}
@@ -44,6 +68,9 @@ timeZoneChange <- readNWISuv(c('04024430','04024000'),parameterCd,
          "2013-11-03","2013-11-03")
 firstSite <- timeZoneChange[timeZoneChange$site_no == '04024430',]
 }
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{renameNWISColumns}}, \code{\link{importWaterML1}}
+}
 \keyword{USGS}
 \keyword{data}
 \keyword{import}
diff --git a/man/readWQPqw.Rd b/man/readWQPqw.Rd
index fd7714f49898cdf0086b31115392dca993b10954..5cf0fdfa82d517b29d55af557ef87cc3795b9d26 100644
--- a/man/readWQPqw.Rd
+++ b/man/readWQPqw.Rd
@@ -9,14 +9,14 @@ getWQPqwData(siteNumber, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "")
 readWQPqw(siteNumber, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumber}{string site number. This needs to include the full agency code prefix.}
+\item{siteNumber}{character site number. This needs to include the full agency code prefix.}
 
-\item{parameterCd}{vector of USGS 5-digit parameter code or string of characteristicNames.
+\item{parameterCd}{vector of USGS 5-digit parameter code or characteristicNames.
 Leaving this blank will return all of the measured values during the specified time period.}
 
-\item{startDate}{string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{startDate}{character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 
-\item{endDate}{string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
+\item{endDate}{character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.}
 }
 \value{
 retval dataframe raw data returned from the Water Quality Portal. Additionally, a POSIXct dateTime column is supplied for
diff --git a/man/whatNWISData.Rd b/man/whatNWISData.Rd
index 171a9f27324c7ce323c2ff5ffbcec7796049e42d..577e3e012f0ee6ef17c6d880d4719f8d40981c26 100644
--- a/man/whatNWISData.Rd
+++ b/man/whatNWISData.Rd
@@ -10,17 +10,17 @@ whatNWISdata(siteNumbers, service = "all", parameterCd = "all",
   statCd = "all")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{siteNumbers}{string vector of USGS site number or multiple sites.}
+\item{siteNumbers}{character USGS site number or multiple sites.}
 
-\item{service}{vector string. Options are "all", or one or many of "dv"(daily values),
+\item{service}{character. Options are "all", or one or many of "dv"(daily values),
 "uv","rt", or "iv"(unit values), "qw"(water-quality),"sv"(sites visits),"pk"(peak measurements),
 "gw"(groundwater levels), "ad" (sites included in USGS Annual Water Data Reports External Link),
 "aw" (sites monitored by the USGS Active Groundwater Level Network External Link), "id" (historical
 instantaneous values)}
 
-\item{parameterCd}{string vector of valid parameter codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.}
+\item{parameterCd}{character vector of valid parameter codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.}
 
-\item{statCd}{string vector of all statistic codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.}
+\item{statCd}{character vector of all statistic codes to return. Defaults to "all" which will not perform a filter.}
 }
 \value{
 retval dataframe with all information found in the expanded site file
diff --git a/man/zeroPad.Rd b/man/zeroPad.Rd
index 7aaf059d387821cacbaffc83964d0d57016b2047..a3c5f4290e9b488a9071d68a9a33f83dfba6f604 100644
--- a/man/zeroPad.Rd
+++ b/man/zeroPad.Rd
@@ -6,12 +6,12 @@
 zeroPad(x, padTo)
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{x}{string}
+\item{x}{character}
 
-\item{padTo}{number Final desired length of the string}
+\item{padTo}{number Final desired length of the character}
 }
 \value{
-x string returned with leading zeros
+x character returned with leading zeros
 }
 \description{
 Function to pad a string with leading zeros. Useful for parameter codes and USGS site IDs.
diff --git a/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot-1.pdf b/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot-1.pdf
index e3f6a6ad1be461db191e843900a5882175716579..c568cab28d9f584637bc6c484a8b745c62581fde 100644
Binary files a/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot-1.pdf and b/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot-1.pdf differ