6.1 Writable Table

If you want to store tabular data in memory, possibly to output it using STIL's output facilities, the easiest way to do it is to use a RowListStarTable object. You construct it with information about the kind of value which will be in each column, and then populate it with data by adding rows. Normal read/write access is provided via a number of methods, so you can insert and delete rows, set and get table cells, and so on.

The following code creates and populates a table containing some information about some astronomical objects:

    // Set up information about the columns.
    ColumnInfo[] colInfos = new ColumnInfo[ 3 ];
    colInfos[ 0 ] = new ColumnInfo( "Name", String.class, "Object name" );
    colInfos[ 1 ] = new ColumnInfo( "RA", Double.class, "Right Ascension" );
    colInfos[ 2 ] = new ColumnInfo( "Dec", Double.class, "Declination" );

    // Construct a new, empty table with these columns.
    RowListStarTable astro = new RowListStarTable( colInfos );

    // Populate the rows of the table with actual data.
    astro.addRow( new Object[] { "Owl nebula", 
                                 new Double( 168.63 ), new Double( 55.03 ) } );
    astro.addRow( new Object[] { "Whirlpool galaxy", 
                                 new Double( 202.43 ), new Double( 47.22 ) } );
    astro.addRow( new Object[] { "M108",
                                 new Double( 167.83 ), new Double( 55.68 ) } );