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### 2.1 Table Metadata

A few items of the table metadata (name, URL) are available directly as values from the `StarTable` interface. A general parameter mechanism is provided for storing other items, for instance user-defined ones. The `getParameters` method returns a list of `DescribedValue` objects which contain a scalar or array value and some metadata describing it (name, units, Unified Content Descriptor). This list can be read or altered as required.

The `StarTable` interface also contains the methods `getColumnCount` and `getRowCount` to determine the shape of the table. Note however that for tables with sequential-only access, it may not be possible to ascertain the number of rows - in this case `getRowCount` will return -1. Random-access tables (see Section 2.3) will always return a positive row count.

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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