Tab-Separated Table, or TST, is a text-based table format used by a number of astronomical tools including Starlink's GAIA and ESO's SkyCat on which it is based. A definition of the format can be found in Starlink Software Note 75.
If no output format is explicitly chosen,
writing to a filename with
the extension ".tst" (case insensitive)
will select TST format for output.
An example looks like this:
animals.vot # Table parameters Description: Some animals Author: Mark Taylor # Attempted guesses about identity of columns in the table. # These have been inferred from column UCDs and/or names # in the original table data. # The algorithm which identifies these columns is not particularly reliable, # so it is possible that these are incorrect. id_col: 2 ra_col: -1 dec_col: -1 # This TST file generated by STIL v4.2-1 RECNO SPECIES NAME LEGS HEIGHT MAMMAL ----- ------- ---- ---- ------ ------ 1 pig Pigling Bland 4 0.8 true 2 cow Daisy 4 2.0 true 3 goldfish Dobbin 0.05 false 4 ant 6 0.001 false 5 ant 6 0.001 false 6 queen ant Ma'am 6 0.002 false 7 human Mark 2 1.8 true [EOD]
The handler class for this format is
TstTableWriter.