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3.3 Generic Table Output

Generic serialization of tables to external storage is done using a StarTableOutput object. This has a similar job to the StarTableFactory described in the previous section; it mediates between code which wants to output a table and a set of format-specific output handler objects. The writeStarTable method is used to write out a StarTable object. When invoking this method, you specify the location to which you want to output the table (usually, but not necessarily, a filename) and a string specifying the format you would like to write in. This is usually a short string like "fits" associated with one of the registered output handlers, but can be other things (see the javadocs for details).

Use is very straightforward:

    void writeTableAsFITS( StarTable table, File file ) throws IOException {
        new StarTableOutput().writeStarTable( table, file.toString(), "fits" );
    }
If, as in this example, you know what format you want to write the table in, you could just as easily use the relevant StarTableWriter object directly (in this case FitsTableWriter). However, doing it with a StarTableOutput allows users to be offered the choice of which format to use.


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STIL - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library
Starlink User Note 252
STIL web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stil/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Starlink: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/