Provided by: stilts_3.4.7-4_all bug

NAME

       stilts-tcatn - Concatenates multiple tables

SYNOPSIS

       stilts tcatn [nin=<count>] [ifmtN=<in-format>] [inN=<tableN>] [icmdN=<cmds>] [ocmd=<cmds>]
                    [omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui]
                    [out=<out-table>] [ofmt=<out-format>] [seqcol=<colname>] [loccol=<colname>]
                    [uloccol=<colname>] [countrows=true|false]

DESCRIPTION

       tcatn is a tool for concatenating a number of tables one after the other. Each  table  can
       be  manipulated  separately prior to the concatenatation. If you have two tables T1 and T2
       which contain similar columns, and you want to treat them as a single table, you  can  use
       tcatn  to  produce  a  new table whose metadata (row headings etc) comes from T1 and whose
       data consists of all the rows of T1 followed by all the rows of T2.

       For this concatenation to make sense, each column  of  T1  must  be  compatible  with  the
       corresponding column of T2 - they must have compatible types and, presumably, meanings. If
       this is not the case for the tables that you wish to concatenate, for instance the columns
       are  in  different  orders,  or  the  units differ between a column in T1 and its opposite
       number in T2, you can use the icmd1 and/or icmd2 parameters to manipulate the input tables
       so that the column sequences are compatible. See SUN/256 for some examples.

       If  the  tables  are  similar to each other (same format, same columns, same preprocessing
       stages required if any), you may find it easier to use tcat instead.

OPTIONS

       nin=<count>
              The number of input tables for this task. For each of the input tables N there will
              be associated parameters ifmtN, inN and icmdN.

       ifmtN=<in-format>
              Specifies  the  format  of  input table #N as specified by parameter inN. 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.

       inN=<tableN>
              The location of input table #N. 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 ifmtN 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.

       icmdN=<cmds>
              Specifies  processing  to  be performed on input table #N as specified by parameter
              inN, 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".

       seqcol=<colname>
              Name of a column to be added to the output table which will  contain  the  sequence
              number  of the input table from which each row originated. This column will contain
              1 for the rows from the first concatenated table, 2 for the second, and so on.

       loccol=<colname>
              Name of a column to be added to the output table which will  contain  the  location
              (as  specified  in  the  input parameter(s)) of the input table from which each row
              originated.

       uloccol=<colname>
              Name of a column to be added to the output table which will contain the unique part
              of  the  location  (as specified in the input parameter(s)) of the input table from
              which each row originated. If not null, parameters will also be added to the output
              table giving the pre- and post-fix string common to all the locations. For example,
              if the input tables are "/data/cat_a1.fits" and "/data/cat_b2.fits" then the output
              table  will contain a new column <colname> which takes the value "a1" for rows from
              the  first  table  and  "b2"  for  rows  from  the  second,  and   new   parameters
              "<colname>_prefix" and "<colname>_postfix" with the values "/data/cat_" and ".fits"
              respectively.

       countrows=true|false
              Whether to count the rows  in  the  table  before  starting  the  output.  This  is
              essentially  a tuning parameter - if writing to an output format which requires the
              number of rows up front (such as normal FITS) it may result in skipping the  number
              of  passes  through the input files required for processing. Unless you have a good
              understanding of the internals of the software,  your  best  bet  for  working  out
              whether to set this true or false is to try it both ways

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 3.4.7-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-TCATN(1)