TABLES Package Organization

The tasks (programs) in TABLES are grouped by function into three packages: fitsio, tbplot and ttools. Loading the tables package makes all the tasks in these three packages available for use.

The fitsio package contains tasks for working with FITS files. For example, catfits displays information about the extensions in a FITS file, optionally including a complete listing of the headers.

The tbplot package contains igi and sgraph, tasks for plotting tables, but they can also plot images or text tables. igi is interactive (but can execute a script) and very flexible. sgraph is simpler to use and the default values can be changed for added versatility.

The ttools package contains of order 50 tasks for working with tables.

The programming interface included with TABLES provides functions for opening and closing tables, and reading or wrtiting header or data values. Supported tables formats are BINTABLE extensions in a FITS file, STSDAS table format, and plain ASCII files in row/column format. FITS table I/O makes use of the CFITSIO interface from HEASARC, a copy of which is included in the TABLES library. The library provides an SPP interface, a programming language specific to IRAF, which was designed for creating IRAF tasks. A Fortran interface library is also provided for most of the I/O functions. In the STSDAS package there is a C interface to TABLES (and to several other packages in IRAF and STSDAS), which can be used for creating either host Unix programs or native IRAF tasks, written in C.

Here is a brief description of all the tasks in the tables package.

catfits	Print contents (a catalog) of FITS files on tape or on disk.
stwfits	Convert tables and/or GEIS files to FITS files.
strfits	Convert FITS files to tables or to GEIS files.
fitscopy	Copy FITS files: disk <-> tape and disk <-> disk.
fits_exampl	Detailed examples of `fitsio' tasks.
geis	Provide background information about GEIS format files.
gftoxdim	Convert a GEIS file to one with extra dimension plus a table.
xdimtogf	Convert a GEIS file with extra dimension plus a table to GEIS.
igi	Interactive Graphics Interpreter.
sgraph	Plot tables, image sections, or text tables.
keypar	Copy an image or table header keyword to an IRAF parameter.
keyselect	Copy selected image header keywords to a table.
keytab	Copy an image or table header keyword to a table element.
parkey	Put an IRAF parameter into an image or table header keyword.
partab	Copy an IRAF parameter to a table element.
tabkey	Copy a table element to an image or table header keyword.
tabpar	Copy a table element to an IRAF parameter.
gtedit	Graphically edit a table.
imtab	Copy an image to a table column.
tabim	Copy a table column to an image.
taextract	Copy an array entry to a column of scalars in another table.
tainsert	Copy a column of scalars to an array entry in another table.
tcalc	Perform arithmetic operations on table columns.
tchcol	Change column name, print format, or units.
tcheck	Check table elements by printing values when a user-specified logical expression is true.
tchsize	Change allocated sizes of various sections of a table.
tcopy	Copy tables.
tcreate	Create a table from an ASCII descriptor table.
tdelete	Delete tables.
tdiffer	Form a table which is the difference of two tables.
tdump	Dump the contents of a table to an ASCII file.
tedit	Edit a table interactively.
texpand	Expand tables according to a set of rules.
thedit	Edit or print table header keywords.
thistogram	Make a histogram of a column in a table.
thselect	Select tables satisfying an expression; print keywords.
tinfo	Display table size information.
tintegrate	Numerically integrate one column with respect to another.
tjoin	Perform a relational join of two tables.
tlcol	List column information for a table.
tlinear	Use linear regression to fit one or two table columns.
tmatch	Find closest match between rows in two tables
tmerge	Either merge or append tables.
tprint	Print tables, either headers or data.
tproduct	Form the Cartesian product of two tables.
tproject	Create new table from selected columns in a table.
tquery	Create a new table from selected rows and columns in a table.
tread	Read a table interactively.
trebin	Resample a table.
tselect	Create a new table from selected rows of a table, based on a user-specified expression.
tsort	Sort a table (in-place) on one or more columns.
tstat	Get mean, standard deviation, median, min, and max for a column.
ttranspose	Transpose or flip a table.
tunits	Convert table column from one set of units to another.
tupar	Interactively edit table header keywords.
tiimage	Insert an image into an array entry in a table.
titable	Insert a table with scalar columns into a table with array columns.
tximage	Extract an image from an array entry in a table.
txtable	Extract array columns from a table into a table with scalar columns.
tscopy	Copy row/column subsets of tables using selectors.