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Abstract

STIL is a set of Java class libraries which allow input, manipulation and output of tabular data. As well as an abstract and format-independent definition of what constitutes a table, and an extensible framework for "pull-model" table processing, it provides a number of format-specific handlers which know how to serialize/deserialize tables; amongst others handlers are provided for the VOTable and FITS formats. The framework for interaction between the core table manipulation facilities and the format-specific handlers is open and pluggable, so that handlers for new formats can easily be added.

The VOTable handling in particular is provided by classes which perform efficient XML parsing and can read and write VOTables in any of the defined formats (TABLEDATA, BINARY or FITS). It may be used on its own for VOTable I/O without much reference to the format-independent parts of the library.


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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/