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#### 3.7.8 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 v4.3-4

    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`.

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STIL - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library
Starlink User Note252
STIL web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stil/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk