Provided by: stilts_3.4.9-5_all 
NAME
stilts-arrayjoin - Adds table-per-row data as array-valued columns
SYNOPSIS
stilts arrayjoin [ifmt=<in-format>] [istream=true|false] [in=<table>] [icmd=<cmds>]
[ocmd=<cmds>]
[omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui]
[out=<out-table>] [ofmt=<out-format>] [atable=<loc-expr>] [afmt=<in-
format>] [astream=true|false] [acmd=<cmds>] [keepall=true|false]
[aparams=<name-list>] [cache=true|false] [fixcols=none|dups|all]
[suffixarray=<label>]
DESCRIPTION
arrayjoin takes an input table and for each row adds the contents of a separate "array"
table. The columns added are the columns from the array table, and the value of each cell
is the value of the whole column from the array table represented as an array. The
assumption is that all the array tables have the same form (the same columns, though not
necessarily the same row counts).
This can be useful for constructing a single table with array-valued columns containing
data that is made available in multiple external files, for instance via the DataLink
protocol; this is illustrated in the Examples subsection below. Note however that this
command does not understand DataLink directly, and cannot itself determine the location of
the external array tables; an expression giving their per-row location (filename or URL)
must be supplied.
OPTIONS
ifmt=<in-format>
Specifies the format of the input table as specified by parameter in. The known
formats are listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know what format your
table is in. If it has the special value (auto) (the default), then an attempt will
be made to detect the format of the table automatically. This cannot always be done
correctly however, in which case the program will exit with an error explaining
which formats were attempted. This parameter is ignored for scheme-specified
tables.
istream=true|false
If set true, the input table specified by the in parameter will be read as a
stream. It is necessary to give the ifmt parameter in this case. Depending on the
required operations and processing mode, this may cause the read to fail (sometimes
it is necessary to read the table more than once). It is not normally necessary to
set this flag; in most cases the data will be streamed automatically if that is the
best thing to do. However it can sometimes result in less resource usage when
processing large files in certain formats (such as VOTable). This parameter is
ignored for scheme-specified tables.
in=<table>
The location of the input table. This may take one of the following forms:
* A filename.
* A URL.
* The special value "-", meaning standard input. In this case the input format
must be given explicitly using the ifmt parameter. Note that not all formats
can be streamed in this way.
* A scheme specification of the form :<scheme-name>:<scheme-args>.
* A system command line with either a "<" character at the start, or a "|"
character at the end ("<syscmd" or "syscmd|"). This executes the given pipeline
and reads from its standard output. This will probably only work on unix-like
systems.
In any case, compressed data in one of the supported compression formats (gzip,
Unix compress or bzip2) will be decompressed transparently.
icmd=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on the input table as specified by parameter
in, before any other processing has taken place. The value of this parameter is one
or more of the filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given,
they must be separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be
repeated multiple times on the same command line to build up a list of processing
steps. The sequence of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline
which is performed on the table.
Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
character '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated by
newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
a '#' character are ignored.
ocmd=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on the output table, after all other
processing has taken place. The value of this parameter is one or more of the
filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given, they must be
separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be repeated multiple
times on the same command line to build up a list of processing steps. The sequence
of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline which is performed on
the table.
Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
character '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated by
newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
a '#' character are ignored.
omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui
The mode in which the result table will be output. The default mode is out, which
means that the result will be written as a new table to disk or elsewhere, as
determined by the out and ofmt parameters. However, there are other possibilities,
which correspond to uses to which a table can be put other than outputting it, such
as displaying metadata, calculating statistics, or populating a table in an SQL
database. For some values of this parameter, additional parameters (<mode-args>)
are required to determine the exact behaviour.
Possible values are
* out
* meta
* stats
* count
* checksum
* cgi
* discard
* topcat
* samp
* tosql
* gui
Use the help=omode flag or see SUN/256 for more information.
out=<out-table>
The location of the output table. This is usually a filename to write to. If it is
equal to the special value "-" (the default) the output table will be written to
standard output.
This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".
ofmt=<out-format>
Specifies the format in which the output table will be written (one of the ones in
SUN/256 - matching is case-insensitive and you can use just the first few letters).
If it has the special value "(auto)" (the default), then the output filename will
be examined to try to guess what sort of file is required usually by looking at the
extension. If it's not obvious from the filename what output format is intended, an
error will result.
This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".
atable=<loc-expr>
Gives the location of the table whose rows will be turned into an array-valued
column. This will generally be an expression giving a URL or filename that is
different for each row of the input table. If table loading fails for the given
location, for instance becase the file is not found or an HTTP 404 response is
received, the array cells in the corresponding row will be blank.
The first non-blank table loaded defines the array columns to be added. If
subsequent tables have a different structure (do not contain similar columns in a
similar sequence) an error may result. If the external array tables are not all
homogenous in this way, the acmd parameter can be used to filter them so that they
are.
afmt=<in-format>
Specifies the format of array tables as specified by parameter atable. The known
formats are listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know what format your
table is in. If it has the special value (auto) (the default), then an attempt will
be made to detect the format of the table automatically. This cannot always be done
correctly however, in which case the program will exit with an error explaining
which formats were attempted. This parameter is ignored for scheme-specified
tables.
astream=true|false
If set true, array tables specified by the atable parameter will be read as a
stream. It is necessary to give the afmt parameter in this case. Depending on the
required operations and processing mode, this may cause the read to fail (sometimes
it is necessary to read the table more than once). It is not normally necessary to
set this flag; in most cases the data will be streamed automatically if that is the
best thing to do. However it can sometimes result in less resource usage when
processing large files in certain formats (such as VOTable). This parameter is
ignored for scheme-specified tables.
acmd=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on array tables as specified by parameter
atable, before any other processing has taken place. The value of this parameter is
one or more of the filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given,
they must be separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be
repeated multiple times on the same command line to build up a list of processing
steps. The sequence of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline
which is performed on the table.
Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
character '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated by
newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
a '#' character are ignored.
keepall=true|false
This parameter determines what happens when the atable parameter does not name a
table that can be loaded. If this parameter is false, the input table row is output
with blank values in the columns supplied by the array tables, so that the output
table has the same number of rows as the input table. If it is true, only rows with
successfully loaded tables are included in the output.
aparams=<name-list>
Lists the table parameters (per-table metadata) that will be read from loaded
tables and turned into scalar-valued columns in the output. By default parameters
are discarded, but you can include them in the output by naming them using this
parameter.
Parameters are supplied as a space- or comma-separated list. Matching against table
names is case-insensitive, and the asterisk character "*" may be used as a wildcard
to match any sequence of characters. The list is interpreted relative to the first
external table which is loaded. Supplying the value "*" therefore will include a
column for each parameter in the first loaded table.
cache=true|false
Determines whether the array data will be cached the first time an array table is
read (true) or re-read from the array table every time the row is accessed (false).
Since the row construction may be an expensive step, especially if the tables are
downloaded, it usually makes sense to set this true (the default). When true it
also enables the metadata to be adjusted to report constant array length where
applicable, which cannot be done before all the rows have been scanned, and which
may enable more efficient file output. However, if you want to stream the data you
can set it false.
fixcols=none|dups|all
Determines how input columns are renamed before use in the output table. The
choices are:
* none: columns are not renamed
* dups: columns which would otherwise have duplicate names in the output will be
renamed to indicate which table they came from
* all: all columns will be renamed to indicate which table they came from
If columns are renamed, the new ones are determined by suffix* parameters.
suffixarray=<label>
If the fixcols parameter is set so that input columns are renamed for insertion
into the output table, this parameter determines how the renaming is done. It gives
a suffix which is appended to all renamed columns from the array tables.
SEE ALSO
stilts(1)
If the package stilts-doc is installed, the full documentation SUN/256 is available in
HTML format:
file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/sun256/index.html
VERSION
STILTS version 3.4.9-debian
This is the Debian version of Stilts, which lack the support of some file formats and
network protocols. For differences see
file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian
AUTHOR
Mark Taylor (Bristol University)
Mar 2017 STILTS-ARRAYJOIN(1)