Tables

Table files use a number of standard descriptors to define their content. These descriptors must not be modified by the user. They are defined as follows:

[TBLCONTR] Integer Descriptor of 10 elements with the following control information

1	- no. of allocated columns (no. of words per row)
2	- no. of allocated rows
3	- no. of defined columns (NDC)
4	- no. of defined rows
5	- reference column
6	- sorted column
7	- physical table format on disk
8	- table version
9	- items reserved for column descriptors
10	- number of selected rows

[TLABLxxx] Character Descriptor with 41 bytes containing for each column the information : Label (1 to 16), Unit (17 to 32) and Format (33 to 41). `xxx' is the column number in the range 001, ..., NDC

[TBLENGTH] Integer Descriptor with NDC elements which defining for each column its type and its number of items

[TBLOFFST] Integer Descriptor with NDC elements defining the offset in bytes of each column from the beginning of the table.

[TSELTABL] Character Descriptor of 64 characters containing the selection information ("-") if all table selected)

The descriptors TBLENGTH, TBLOFFST, TBLCONTR and TSELTABL are also called the standard descriptors of a table (cf. the SCDCOP and STDCOP interfaces).

In addition these required standard table descriptors, a table may contain a number of other descriptors. The following reserved descriptor names may only be used with the meaning defined here:

[IDENT] Character Descriptor of up to 72 characters, to contain the identifier of the table.

[FILENAME] Character Descriptor with the original file name. This Descriptor may be created by the FITS reader.

[NULLVALUE] Integer Descriptor of 8 elements defining the bit-patterns of the NULL values used. Its value must not be changed. This Descriptor may be created by the FITS reader.

[AUTHOR] Character Descriptor identifying the person who compiled the table information. This Descriptor may be created by the FITS reader.

[REFEREC] Character Descriptor containing a biliographic reference to where the data have been published. This Descriptor may be created by the FITS reader.