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#### 4.1.1.8 IPAC

CalTech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center use a text-based format for storage of tabular data, defined at http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/DDGEN/Doc/ipac_tbl.html. Tables can store column name, type, units and null values, as well as table parameters.

This format cannot be automatically identified by its content, so in general it is necessary to specify that a table is in IPAC format when reading it. However, if the input file has the extension "`.tbl`" or "`.ipac`" (case insensitive) an attempt will be made to read it using this format.

An example looks like this:

    \Table name = "animals.vot"
    \Description = "Some animals"
    \Author = "Mark Taylor"
    | RECNO | SPECIES   | NAME          | LEGS | HEIGHT | MAMMAL |
    | int   | char      | char          | int  | double | char   |
    |       |           |               |      | m      |        |
    | null  | null      | null          | null | null   | null   |
      1       pig         Pigling Bland   4      0.8      true
      2       cow         Daisy           4      2.0      true
      3       goldfish    Dobbin          null   0.05     false
      4       ant         null            6      0.001    false
      5       ant         null            6      0.001    false
      6       queen ant   Ma'am           6      0.002    false
      7       human       Mark            2      1.8      true

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TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk