NAME

tbsort -- sort an APPHOT/DAOPHOT STSDAS table database on one or more columns

USAGE

tbsort table columns

PARAMETERS

table

The list of APPHOT/DAOPHOT table databases to be sorted in-place. All tables are sorted on the same column or columns.

columns

The list of clumns to sort on. A column template consists of a list of either column names, or column patterns containing the usual pattern matching metacharacters. The names or patterns are separated by commas or white space. The list can be placed in a file and the name of the file preceeded by a @ can be given in place of the column template.

ascend = yes

If ascend = yes, the table is sorted in ascending value order, with the first row containing the smallest value of the sorted column. Otherwise, the table is sorted in descending order, with the largest value first.

casesens = yes

If casesens = yes, sorts on character columns are case sensitive, with upper case letters preceding lower case in the sort. Otherwise, the sort is case insensitive.

DESCRIPTION

TBSORT sorts an APPHOT/DAOPHOT STDAS table database. TBSORT operates in place so a copy of the unsorted table must be made with the TABLES package TCOPY task in order to preserve the original table. The column or columns to sort on are specified by the parameter columns , which is a list of column names or column name patterns separated by commas. The most significant column name is the first in the list. Subsequent columns are used to break ties. There are two flags, ascend and casesens . If ascend is yes, the first row in the output table holds the smallest value if the sorted column is numeric or the first string in alpahabetic order if the sorted column is a character string. If casesens is yes, upper case characters precede lower case characters in sort order. Otherwise, case is not significant in determining the sort order. No precedes yes when sorting a boolean column in ascending order. Null table elements always are last in the sort, regardless of whether ascend is yes or no.

TBSORT is identical to the TABLES package sort with the exception that it has its own copy of the default parameter set so that users can modify the parameters independently of the TBSORT task in TABLES.

EXAMPLES

1. Sort the output of the DAOPHOT ALLSTAR task in increasing order of magnitude.

   pt> tbsort m92.al.1 MAG

2. Sort the output of the DAOPHOT task NSTAR in increasing order of the y position.

   pt> tbsort m92.nst.1 YCENTER

BUGS

SEE ALSO

ptools.txsort,ptools.psort,tables.tbsort