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4.1.2.12 Tab-Separated Table

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 v4.3-1

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]


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TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk