INTRODUCTION
This program reads standard FITS ASCII tables and allows the user to
browse through them interactively, selectively displaying any field or
record. Users may write all or part of the input table to disk in FITS
or text file format. Copies of the program for MS-DOS and UNIX are
available by anonymous FTP on adc.gsfc.nasa.gov in directory
"/pub/adc/software/browsers/ftb." Version 1 of the program was written
in Turbo Pascal and was released along with the ADC CD-ROM Test Disk.
Version 2 was mainly a rewrite of Version 1 in Turbo C and was limited
to MS-DOS platforms. This version uses the curses screen management
package and has been compiled and run on MS-DOS 4.01 and 5.0, Silicon
Graphics IRIX 4.0.1 (System V), Sun Microsystems SunOS 4.1.2 (BSD),
DECstation 5000 Ultrix 2.4 (BSD), and Linux 0.99pl8 (System V, mostly).
The look and feel is similar to Version 2, being a command-based
interface (loosely modeled on the KEDIT text editor for PCs).
Users can get the file ftb3.zip by anonymous FTP from adc.gsfc.nasa.gov in directory "/pub/adc/software/browsers/ftb," then create a directory on the hard disk called FTB and unzip the contents of this file into that directory. For example (assuming the ftb3.zip is in the root directory of drive C:):
C:\> MKDIR FTB C:\> CD\FTB C:\FTB> PKUNZIP ..\FTB3Source code for FTB 3.0 is contained in the file ftb3src.zip (included inside the main ZIP archive). To compile FTB on an MS-DOS platform, users will need Borland C and a set of curses libraries. The curses libraries are part of the pccurs14.zip file. The libraries used for development are in the file pccurs14.zip in the same directory on ADC where FTB was found. Before running FTB, users should add the FTB directory to their paths by editing the PATH statement in their autoexec.bat file. At startup FTB will look for its help file first in the directory pointed to by an environment variable called "FTB" and then by inspecting the path. To ensure proper operation of FTB users should add the following two lines to the bottom of their autoexec.bat files and reboot the computer:
SET FTB=C:\FTB PATH=%PATH%;%FTB%
First of all, users will need an ANSI C and Gnu C compilers, available for just about any platform from
FTP://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnuUsers can get the file ftb3.tar.Z by anonymous FTP from adc.gsfc.nasa.gov in directory /pub/adc/software/browsers/ftb. The following command will uncompress and untar the source code into a subdirectory called "ftb":
$ zcat ../ftb3.tar | tar xf -Next, users can bring the make file (makefile or makefile.unx) into their favorite editor and examine the definitions for the CC, CFLAGS, and LFLAGS macros. Examples for SGI, Sun, Ultrix, and Linux are given; users can make adjustments as desired. (Users are asked to please disclose any changes so that thay can be incorporated into subsequent releases, especially on the Sun, where some work had to be done with the library and include paths to get to System V curses.) Then, the users can type "make" and see what happens.
If the compile finished successfully, users should set an environment variable to point to the FTB directory and add the FTB directory to their path. Without the environment variable, the ftb executable and the help file ftb.hlp have to be in a directory on the path. An example from a ".login" file under csh and Ultrix 4.2 is as follows:
setenv FTB ~/ftb set path = ($path $FTB)An example from a ".profile" under bash (the Bourne-Again Shell) and Linux is as follows:
set FTB=~/ftb set PATH=$PATH:$FTBNote that in both cases the redefinition of the PATH variable takes place after any other PATH settings. Generally, these statements are last in the startup script.
During tests some problems have been identified with using FTB 3.0 on machines with 64-bit architecture, like the DEC-alpha running under OSF-1 operating system. See section 7.1 for update information.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FITS TABLES
The FITS format is endorsed by the International Astronomical Union as
the standard interchange format for astronomical data. Details of the
format and information about related software can be found at the FITS
Support Office WWW site:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/fits_home.html.
There are several FITS formats. The Fits Table Browser is designed to
read only FITS files with a FITS TABLE extension, not to be confused
with the FITS BINTABLE extension. The FITS TABLE extension includes the
tabular data in ASCII form. A FITS file is partitioned. The first part
is the PRIMARY HEADER, followed possibly by several 2,880-byte-large
blocks of data. If the FITS file has an extension, as will be the case
for FITS files with the FITS TABLE extension, the existence of the
extension is noted in the PRIMARY HEADER, and the FITS TABLE EXTENSION
follows the PRIMARY HEADER. The FITS TABLE EXTENSION starts with its
own header, followed by the data. This header specifies the table format
and its contents and is interpreted by FTB to unpack the data. Multiple
FITS TABLE EXTENSIONS can follow the PRIMARY HEADER. After the last
extension, extra records of 2880-bytes may follow. The total byte count
of a FITS file is a multiple of 2880. The first record in the primary
header identifies the file as FITS by the key "SIMPLE = " in the first
10 bytes and "T" in byte 30.
Once the program is installed, the MS-DOS and UNIX versions operate identically. When the program is executed, the following information will appear on the screen:
============================================================================== Path: /home/leb/ftb Files: 0 Tables: 0 Lines: 1/17 FTB> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8 ADC FITS Table Browser, Version 3.0 Written by Lee E. Brotzman Hughes STX Astronomical Data Center NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Work performed under Contract NAS5-30960 This program is public domain, but no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NASA or the ADC as to the accuracy and functioning of the software. ===============================================================================The top line, also known as the status line, gives the current path, the number of files currently open, the total number of tables contained in those files, and the size of the current screen buffer (17 lines total and the top line is line 1).
FTB commands are blank-delimited, case-insensitive strings. You only have to give enough characters of the command to make it unique; "HELP," 'Help," and "h" are all equivalent to "help," whereas "L" means "LEFT" and "LI" means "LIST." The shorthand may be confusing at first, but it makes typing commands a lot easier once a user is familiar with it.
Passing Commands to the Operating System
Any command that FTB does not understand it simply passes on to the operating system, so "dir" under MS-DOS or "ls" under UNIX can be used to get directory listings, etc. If the name of an OS command conflicts with an FTB command, a user can still execute it with the "SYSTEM" command; for example, "SYSTEM list ftb.hlp" would invoke the "list" program from an OS command shell. The first command you should enter is "HELP." This will show you all the commands available to FTB. The commands "UP," "DOWN," "LEFT," "RIGHT," "TOP," and "BOTTOM" will scroll through the screen text (or you can look at the "HELP SCREEN" below).
FTB has a default command that is executed by just hitting a carriage return. The default command is meaning initially "DOWN HALF," that the display should scroll down half a "page." So a user can scroll through the help text returned by the "HELP" command just by hitting a few carriage returns.
The SET command can be used to reset the default command and a few other options. Entering "help set" or referring to the section in this document dedicated to the SET command will provide a description.
FITS Test File and Opening File for FTB Access
FTB is distributed with a small FITS file to use for testing. This is
the file pln.fit, which is the Strasbourg Planetary Nebulae catalog. A
FITS file is opened by using the command "OPEN
The FTB user should be aware that FTB is tailored to work best with the
FITS tables found on the ADC CD-ROM, Selected Astronomical Catalogs,
Volume 1.
Those tables have overall descriptions of the catalog in COMMENT
keywords in the primary header, hence the behavior of the "OPEN"
command, which lists some of that information. There are some other
features of the CD-ROM FITS tables of which FTB takes advantage, like
the tagged field COMMENT cards in the table headers (i.e., the card
contains the table field name as a tag in each record that is used by
FTB: "COMMENT OBJECT: text " would indicate a comment "text" on the
field "OBJECT" in the table. If FTB acts strangely or crashes while
browsing other tables and if the tables are legal FITS, the ADC would
appreciate a copy of that FITS table so that staff can fix the problems.
Index to On-Line HELP (See section 6.0 On-Line
Help.)
The HELP command gives information about the following FTB commands:
Once the table is open, the LIST command will provide information about
the number and names of active tables, information about individual
tables, and lists of field descriptions. If needed, the output of the
"LIST" command can be redirected to a disk file. An example follows
below:
As a component of the LIST command, LIST HEADER gives the user access to
the header information about the opened FITS table(s). It is very helpful
(although not necessary) to view the header information to get an idea
of the items that are available in the file.
FTB keeps track of tables by setting a pointer to the "current table."
Initially, the current table is set to be the first table of the most
recently opened FITS file. (FTB can open more than one FITS file, and
any file can have more than one table, up to a limit of 20 individual
tables.) The "LIST" command marks the current table with an asterisk.
Most FTB commands have a "TABLE" option that defines to which table the
command should be applied. This will automatically reset the current
table.
The following steps are necessary to change between tables:
The BROWSE command displays the records of the table. This puts FTB into
BROWSE mode, as noted by the change in the prompt from "FTB>" to
"BROWSE>". The UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, and BOTTOM commands work as
normal, but any other command that writes information to the screen
(e.g., "HELP") will clear browse mode. The main difference between
browse and command modes is how the information on the screen is
retrieved. In command mode an entire "internal text file" is built with
all the screen text. In browse mode each record is retrieved
individually from the FITS file and displayed immediately.
The DISPLAY command can be used to set which fields to display. For
instance, for pln.fit
The SELECT command is used to restrict which records to display by placing
constraints on field values. For example,
The operators for the select command have alphabetic equivalents, so
the SELECT command above can also be entered like this:
The EXTRACT command will write to disk all selected records exactly as
they would have been displayed on the screen. For instance, if the
above DISPLAY and SELECT commands are in force,
See "HELP EXTRACT" for more information.
FTB has a "batch mode" that allows putting a sequence of FTB commands
into an ordinary text file and executing them. The "TAKE" command
will accept the name of the batch file, or a user can invoke batch
mode when the program is started up with the "-t" command line
parameter. For example,
Default: Command list
The HELP command gives information about the following FTB commands:
Default: Bottom of current display
The BOTTOM command scrolls immediately to the bottom of the current
display screen. In BROWSE mode and with a SELECT command in force,
the full screen may not be displayed since some (or all) records may
be "selected out."
Command: BROWSE [TABLE table-id] [RANGE start-finish]
Default: Current table; all records in the table
The BROWSE command allows a user to browse through the given table.
The table-id can be either the table number or the table name. If no
table identifier is given, the current table is browsed. (See SET
TABLE.) If the search begins at record "start" and runs through record
"finish" inclusive, the default is to start at record 1 and proceed to
the end of the table.
The fields that are displayed can be controlled with the DISPLAY
command, and constraints can be placed on field values to select only
certain records using the SELECT command. Table record numbers can be
displayed with the SET NUMBER command. (See HELP SET.)
Once the BROWSE command is invoked, FTB goes into "BROWSE mode," and
the prompt changes from "FTB>" to "BROWSE>". The main difference is
that records are pulled in from the FITS table file individually and
displayed immediately rather than being read into memory all at once.
The SET UPDATE command controls when the screen is updated. "SET
UPDATE ON" will update the screen as soon as a record is retrieved
from the FITS file. "SET UPDATE OFF" will delay updating until an
entire screen full of records has been retrieved or the supply of
records is exhausted, whichever comes first. In general, SET UPDATE ON
should be used if a SELECT command is in force that will select only a
few records and the FITS file is being read from a slow device like a
CD-ROM drive. For regular browsing without SELECT, SET UPDATE OFF will
avoid annoying and slow screen updates on graphical devices such as X
terminals.
Default: None
The CD command changes the current working directory for FTB, as given
in the "Path:" portion of the status line at the top of the screen.
Relative path names are allowed.
Command: CLOSE [TABLE table-id]
Default: Current table
The CLOSE command closes the given table and frees all allocated
memory attached to the table. Closing a table affects the ordering of
the table identifiers for other open tables. For example,
Command: DISPLAY [TABLE table-id] [CLEAR] field-id ...
Default: List of current display fields
The DISPLAY command allows the user to specify which fields are
displayed by BROWSE. The table-id can be either the table number or
the table name. If no table identifier is given, the field
specifications apply to the current table.
Note that DISPLAY commands for a table are cumulative; that is, each
DISPLAY command puts the requested fields at the end of the previous
display. The CLEAR option clears memory of all previous field
specifications.
Field specifications may consist of the field number or name followed
by a separator character and perhaps more information. A counter is
maintained that holds the next available screen column for a display.
If a field will not fit because some other field is in the way, it is
moved to the right automatically until a place is found for it or
until there is no more room.
Field separator characters can be one of the following:
For example, if the display counter starts at 1, the left margin, the
following field specifications
If those same six fields are adjacent to each other in the table
(which can be verified with the LIST FIELDS command), then the
following field specification
Command: DOWN [PAGE | HALF | rows]
Default: Scroll down half a page
The DOWN command scrolls the display down by either a full screen
"PAGE," half a page, or by the given number of rows. In BROWSE mode
and with a SELECT command in force, the scrolling may not work as
expected, since records may be "selected out" of the display.
Default: None
The EXIT command terminates FTB, closing all open files and restoring
the original default drive and directory.
Command: EXTRACT [TABLE table-id] [APPEND] [FITS|TEXT|DUMP]
[RANGE start-finish] [filename]
Default: Current table; FITS mode; all selected records; prompt for
file name
The EXTRACT command writes display fields (see DISPLAY) from selected
records (see SELECT) into the named file. The output can be in FITS
mode, which will write a standard FITS ASCII table; TEXT mode, which
will write a text version of the FITS header; and a separate text file
for the data, or DUMP mode, which will dump the selected records with
labeled column headings. The APPEND option in FITS mode will append an
additional ASCII Table extension to the given FITS file and in TEXT or
DUMP mode will append data records to the given output text file.
Note that if the APPEND option is used in TEXT mode and the display
format has changed from a previous invocation of the EXTRACT command,
the text file will have an inconsistent format and will not agree with
the text file version of the FITS header.
The RANGE search begins at record "start" and runs through record
"finish" inclusive; the default is to start at record 1 and proceed to
the end of the table.
File names should be given without extensions, and EXTRACT will append
standard extensions to the output file name(s). In FITS mode the
extension is ".fit". In TEXT mode the extensions are ".hdr" and ".dat"
for the header and table file, respectively.
Example:
Command: LEFT [PAGE | HALF | columns]
Default: Scroll left half a page
The LEFT command scrolls the display left by either a full screen
"PAGE," half a page, or by the given number of columns.
Command: LIST [TABLE table-id] [ FIELDS | HEADER | INFO ]
[SCREEN | [APPEND] FILE [filename]]
Default: List of tables; output to screen
By default the LIST command lists the active tables by number and by
name (if available). It will also print a listing of the field
information, the actual FITS header for a specific table, or a more
human-readable version of the table header information.
Output can be directed to the screen or a disk file. (MS-DOS users can
direct the output to a printer by writing the output to a printer
device file, such as PRN or LPT1.) To send output to a file, the FILE
option should always appear last on the command line. If no file name
is given, the user is prompted for one. The APPEND option will append
the information to the end of the named output file.
Example:
Default: Prompt for file name
The OPEN command opens a FITS file, scans the file for standard ASCII
tables (XTENSION= 'TABLE '), and decodes the table headers to
determine the information needed to browse through the table.
The file must be accessible through the current working directory (as
given following "Path:" in the status line at the top of the screen)
or by explicitly giving the absolute or relative path name.
Default: None
The QUIT command is a synonym for EXIT, which terminates FTB, closing
all open files and restoring the original default drive and directory.
Command: REMARK [comments in any format]
Default: None
The REMARK command is used to include comments in FTB batch files.
(See TAKE.) REMARK can be entered at the FTB command prompt, although
it is not very useful to do so.
Command: RIGHT [PAGE | HALF | columns]
Default: Scroll right half a page
The RIGHT command scrolls the display right by either a full screen
"PAGE," half a page, or by the given number of columns.
Command: SELECT [TABLE table-id] [ CLEAR | conditions ]
Default: List of current selections
The SELECT command specifies which records are displayed by placing
constraints on field values. Only those records meeting the criteria
set down by the conditions will be displayed by the BROWSE command or
written to disk by the EXTRACT command.
Note that, unlike the DISPLAY command, SELECT commands for a table are
NOT cumulative. Each SELECT command introduces an entirely new set of
selection criteria. The CLEAR option clears out all previously defined
conditions. A maximum of 50 operands and operators for one selection
expression is allowed. If an expression is longer than the command
line, use continuation characters to extend the command to additional
command lines. (See SET CONTINUE.)
The conditions are given by a logical expression specifying field
names and test values. Take care that the data type of a field and
its test value are the same; namely character-valued fields ("A"
formats) are compared to strings enclosed in single or double quotes
and numeric fields are compared to numbers. It is also possible to
compare one field against another of the same type.
Relational operators can be alphabetic or symbolic, and both notations
are accepted interchangeably. Alphabetic operators (AND, OR, etc.)
must be separated from their operands by white space. The recognized
operators are given as follows:
For strings the operators EQ, NE, LT, GT, LE, and GE ignore case and
trailing blanks. The operators SE and IN are used only for string
comparisons. For SE, strictly equal to, case, and trailing blanks are
significant; therefore, the comparison value must have the same length
as the field value. IN, for testing substrings, is case insensitive.
The NULL() pseudo-function tests a field against its NULL value (given
in the TNULL record of the FITS header). It returns TRUE if the field
equals the NULL value and FALSE otherwise. The single parameter of
the NULL() pseudo-function is the field name. See the examples given
below.
If the expression is evaluated as FALSE, the record has failed the
test and will not be selected for display or extraction. If the
expression is evaluated as TRUE, then the record is selected.
For example, to display only the records in Table 1 for objects
appearing west of three hours of right ascension, up to and including
six hours of RA, and north of 15 degrees declination, enter the
following:
Command: SET [parameter value]
Default: List current settings
The SET command is used to set certain global operational parameters.
If no parameters are given, a list of the current settings is
displayed.
DEFAULT is a command to execute whenever a blank line is entered (by
hitting a carriage return by itself).
ECHO starts or stops command-line echo in FTB batch files. It has no
effect on commands entered interactively. When ON, every command line
read from a batch file is echoed to the screen before it is executed.
Command-line echo is useful for tracing the execution of an FTB batch
file.
NUMBER displays record numbers in browse mode, useful for finding
which records have been returned by the SELECT command.
TABLE sets the current table. The table-id can be the table name or
the table number.
UPDATE controls screen updates in BROWSE mode. See HELP BROWSE.
WRAP controls word wrap for lines too long to fit on a single screen.
WRAP OFF will write long records out beyond the right-hand edge of the
screen, where they can be brought into view with the RIGHT command.
WRAP ON is useful in BROWSE mode for seeing all of a table record at
once; however, since the record is broken on word boundaries, the
wrapped records may not line up exactly.
Default: Shell
The SYSTEM command allows the user to execute any legal operating
system (OS) command, program, or batch/script file. The user should
note that any command entered at the main FTB prompt that is not
recognized as a valid FTB command is automatically passed on to the
operating system. The explicit SYSTEM command is included to allow the
user to execute a program whose name conflicts with a valid FTB
command, for example LIST, and also to "shell" out to an active OS
command prompt. To reach an OS shell, simply enter "SYSTEM" without
any operands. To return to FTB, enter the OS command "exit" or
"logout", whatever is appropriate.
Default: Prompt for file name
The TAKE command opens a text file containing a series of FTB commands
and executes them one at a time (batch processing). This is a
convenient way of opening a table file and setting up the display for
tables that are used often.
All valid FTB commands are accepted, including those commands that are
passed on to DOS. Comments can appear in the batch file using the
REMARK command. Long commands can be spread out over several lines by
placing the continuation character. (See HELP SET.) at the end of each
line to be continued. No command line can total more than 255
characters in length.
Default: Top of current display
The TOP command scrolls immediately to the top of the current display
screen.
Command: UP [PAGE | HALF | rows]
Default: Scroll up half a page
The UP command scrolls the display up by either a full screen "PAGE,"
half a page, or by the given number of rows. When in BROWSE mode and
if a SELECT command is in force, the scrolling may not work as
expected since records may be "selected out" of the display.
Updates to FTB will be announced in the ADC Electronic Newsletter and
ADC World-Wide-Web pages and will be made available for retrieval
from the ADC ftp-site.
WWW: http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/adc.html
BOTTOM BROWSE CD CLOSE DISPLAY
DOWN EXIT EXTRACT HELP LEFT
LIST OPEN QUIT REMARK RIGHT
SELECT SET SYSTEM TAKE TOP
UP
Basic Operation
---------------
OPEN Open a FITS file, which may contain more than one table
BROWSE Browse through table records
CLOSE Close a table and free its allocated resources
EXIT/QUIT Leave FTB
Manipulate Table Fields and Records
-----------------------------------
DISPLAY Define the fields to display with BROWSE and EXTRACT
SELECT Place constraints on field values to limit searches
EXTRACT Write selected records to a disk file
UP Scroll the display up
DOWN Scroll the display down
LEFT Scroll the display left
RIGHT Scroll the display right
TOP Scroll to the top of the display
BOTTOM Scroll to the bottom of the display
Get Further Information
-----------------------
LIST List information about tables, fields, and headers
HELP Get help on FTB commands
Batch and External Commands
---------------------------
SET Set various operational parameters
TAKE Take commands from a text file (batch processing)
REMARK Ignore the remainder of the input line; used in FTB batch files
SYSTEM Execute an operating system command or shell to an OS prompt
CD Change the current working directory
Opening FITS Files for FTB Access
LIST APPEND FILE [file name]
("LIST" is the command; "APPEND" is the way the file is placed in the
file - appended to end of the file specified; "FILE" is the operator
that tells FTB the user is redirecting to a file; and "[file name]" is
the actual file name the user specifies.)
1. Invoke LIST Command (to see list of available tables in open file).
2. Invoke LIST TABLE [table #] to actually switch table to
user-specified number "[table #]."
FTB> DISPLAY PK RAH RAM DecSign+DecD DecM V
will restrict the display to just the PK number, equatorial coordinates,
and visual magnitude. The "+" between DecSign and DecD tells FTB to
display those two fields right next to each other without an intervening
blank space. It is also possible to put specific fields into specific
screen columns. See "HELP DISPLAY'" for more information.
FTB> SELECT V >= 18
will restrict the display to only those nebulae with visual magnitudes
greater than or equal to 18. It is possible to test a field against
the "null" value in the TNULL record of the FITS header. For example,
using only the following,
FTB> SELECT V < 18
will select records with the visual magnitude less than 18. However,
since the default, that is, TNULL, value of the field is blank,
default fields convert to 0 and will pass this test, which is probably
not what a user would want. Entering the following will get only
those records with valid visual magnitudes less than 18.
FTB> SELECT V < 18 & NOT NULL(V)
This will select visual magnitudes less then 18 that are not equal to
the NULL value. The NULL() "pseudo-function" tests the given field
for exact string equality with the value of the corresponding TNULL
keyword and returns true for a match and false otherwise.
FTB> SELECT V LT 18 AND NOT NULL(V)
Or boolean operations such as the following are allowed:
FTB> SELECT (V LT 18) & (NOT NULL(V))
Note that after entering a SELECT command, "BROWSE" must again be
executed to see the selected records.
FTB> EXTRACT test.fit
will extract the PK number, equatorial coordinates, and non-null
visual magnitudes for all nebulae with V < 18 into the file test.fit,
which is in FITS format. Open test.fit and go into browse mode to
confirm the operation. It is also possible to extract the data into a
plain text file with the command
FTB> EXTRACT TEXT test.txt
EXAMPLE:
By following the procedures below, users can search and extract data.
1. OPEN the desired table. (It MAY already be open.)
2. SELECT data needed by setting desired criteria (using boolean
search).
3. DISPLAY data on the screen (to see if it iss the right data).
4. EXTRACT to disk in the following format:
EXTRACT APPEND DUMP [(full path):\(filename)]
Example: EXTRACT APPEND DUMP [c:\temp\fits\fitsfile.txt]
(EXTRACT is the command; APPEND is the way the file is placed in the
file - appended to end of the file specified; DUMP is the operator
that tells FTB to write the specified data to the file with labeled
column headings; "[(full path):\(filename)]" is the actual path and
file name the user specifies.)
$ ftb -t pln.ftb
will start up FTB and execute the commands in file "pln.ftb," which is
included in the standard distribution. The most important command is
"EXIT," which has an alias of "QUIT."
BOTTOM BROWSE CD CLOSE DISPLAY DOWN EXIT EXTRACT
HELP LEFT LIST OPEN QUIT REMARK RIGHT SELECT
SET SYSTEM TAKE TOP UP
CLOSE TABLE 2
will free all resources for table 2 and delete it from the list.
Subsequent LIST commands would show that item 2 is no longer on the
list of tables, but tables 3, 4, ... are left intact and have been
renumbered as tables 2, 3, ...
1. One or more blanks to indicate that a blank column should appear
after the field.
2. A plus sign (+) to indicate that the next field should be placed
adjacent to this field.
3. A comma (,) to indicate a range of fields to display, each
separated by a single blank.
4. A slash (/) followed by a column number to indicate that the field
should be placed in that column.
In cases (1), (2), and (3) above the display counter is incremented to
point to the next available display position. In case (4) the display
counter is not changed.
DISPLAY RAH RAM DecSign+DecD DecM Mag/30
will result in field RAH displayed starting in column 1 and field RAM
following, separated by a blank column. DecSign and DecD will be
displayed together without any intervening blank column. DecM will be
separated from Decd by a blank column, and Mag will be displayed
starting in column 30. The display counter is set to point to the
column following DecM.
DISPLAY RAH,Mag
will display all six fields, each separated by a single blank.
EXTRACT TABLE 2 RANGE 200-550 savedata
This will extract the records in table 2 into the FITS file
"savedata.fit". The search begins at record 200 and proceeds through
record 550. The number of records extracted depends on the criteria
set by the SELECT command.
LIST TABLE 2 HEADER FILE tabinfo.hdr
This will generate a listing of the FITS header for TABLE 2 in the
TEXT FILE "tabinfo.hdr" in the current working directory.
Operator Meaning Operator Meaning
------------------------------- ----------------------------------
AND && & logical and OR || | logical or
EQ == = equal to NE != < > not equal to
LT < less than GT > greater than
LE < = less than or equal to GE >= greater than or equal to
SE strictly equal to IN contains substring
NOT ! unary not NULL() test against null value
Use of parentheses to group logical operations is allowed. Operator
precedence is the same as C and Fortran.
SELECT Table 1 RAH gt 3 and RAH le 6 and DecSign eq '+' and DecD gt 15
To select all stars with visual magnitude brighter than 7 and B-V
greater than U-B, enter the following:
SELECT (V < 7) && (B_V > U_B)
To select all stars that have B-V equal to zero but that are not blank
(which is the null value), enter the following:
SELECT B_V = 0 && !null(B-V)
To eliminate the selection criteria and display all records, enter the
following:
SELECT CLEAR
Parameter Value Initially Description
---------+----------+---------------------------------------------------
CONTINUE | char | \ | Command line continuation character
DEFAULT | command | DOWN HALF | Default command
ECHO | ON|OFF | OFF | Batch file command echo
NUMBER | ON|OFF | OFF | Display record numbers in browse mode
TABLE | table-id | undefined | Current table identifier
UPDATE | ON|OFF | OFF | Control screen updating in browse mode
WRAP | ON|OFF | OFF | Word wrap
---------+----------+---------------------------------------------------
CONTINUE is a character to place at the end of a command line to
indicate that additional parameters are following on the next line.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For further information or questions, contact
Astronomical Data Center
Code 631
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A.
Internet: help@adc.gsfc.nasa.gov
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/software/browsers/ftb
BUG REPORT FORM
Please use the following form for reporting bugs.
-------------------------------< Cut Here >---------------------------------
FTB 3.0 BUG REPORT
Return to: (One or both of the addresses in this file.)
Name:
E-Mail:
Platform:
(e.g., IBM-PC, Sun, Indigo)
Op. Sys.:
(e.g., MS-DOS 5.0, Ultrix 4.2A)
Compiler (for UNIX systems):
(e.g., GCC 4.3.3)
Shell (for UNIX systems):
(e.g., ksh)
FITS File:
(By name if on ADC CD-ROM or else describe the file and its source)
FTB Command(s):
(If possible, give the sequence that generates the error.)
Description of error -- please be as specific as possible: