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### 3.9 Table Schemes

When a string is used to specify a table, it is usually the name of an external resource (file or URL) containing a byte stream. However, STIL also provides a pluggable interface for referencing tables that do not originate from a byte scheme. This is done using the `TableScheme` interface, either directly, or via a `StarTableFactory` that maintains a list of registered schemes.

The form of a scheme specification is:

       :<scheme-name>:<scheme-specific-part>

where `<scheme-name>` is a registered scheme name or the classname of a class that implements `TableScheme` and has a no-arg constructor. So for instance

        StarTable rows10 = new StarTableFactory().makeStarTable( ":loop:10" );

creates a 10-row single-column table, as described by the loop scheme documentation below.

The following subsections describe the schemes provided with STIL. Others can be implemented and installed into the `StarTableFactory` using the `addScheme` method, or at runtime using the `startable.schemes` system property.

- 3.9.1 `jdbc`
- 3.9.2 `loop`
- 3.9.3 `test`
- 3.9.4 `class`

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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