READ_IPAC_TABLE
Name
READ_IPAC_TABLE
Purpose
Read an IPAC ascii table from a file into an IDL structure
Explanation
Reads an IPAC ascii table from a file into an IDL structure. The
definition of an IPAC-format table is currently here:
http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/DDGEN/Doc/ipac_tbl.html
Calling Sequence
info = read_ipac_table(filename, [change_null=change_null, /debug])
Inputs
FILENAME -- string giving the file with the input IPAC ascii table
Optional Input
CHANGE_NULL -- an integer value to be used when the IPAC table
has a non-numeric string for null values in an
integer column. The default is -9999. For
floating-point columns, this is 'NaN'.
DEBUG -- enables some debugging statements
Outputs
info - Anonymous IDL structure containing information on the catalog. The structure
tag names are taken from the column names. The structure will put header
information in tags starting with "HEADER", e.g.
HEADER_TABLE_HEADER, HEADER_DATA_UNITS, and HEADER_NULL_VALUES.
Since the table column names may be altered if they are
not valid IDL variable names, the original column names
are saved as HEADER_COL_NAMES_ORIG. The original data
type names are also saved as HEADER_COL_TYPES_ORIG.
If the table is not valid, or contains no data, the function returns a value of -1
Procedures Used
GET_DATE, VALID_NUM
Modification History
Written by H. Teplitz, IPAC September 2010
Allow long integer, convert blanks in numeric fields to null
value - T. Brooke, IPAC May 2011
Allow 64bit long; use valid_num to check - TB June 2013