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#### 5.1.2.6 `ascii`

Writes to a simple plain-text format intended to be comprehensible by humans or machines.

The first line is a comment, starting with a "`#`" character, naming the columns, and an attempt is made to line up data in columns using spaces. No metadata apart from column names is written.

The handler behaviour may be modified by specifying one or more comma-separated name=value configuration options in parentheses after the handler name, e.g. "`ascii(maxCell=158,maxParam=160)`". The following options are available:

`maxCell = <int>`
  Maximum width in characters of an output table cell. Cells longer than this will be truncated.
`maxParam = <int>`
  Maximum width in characters of an output table parameter. Parameters with values longer than this will be truncated.
`params = true|false`
  Whether to output table parameters as well as row data.

If no output format is explicitly chosen, writing to a filename with the extension "`.txt`" (case insensitive) will select `ascii` format for output.

An example looks like this:

    # 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

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STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set
Starlink User Note256
STILTS web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk