TABLES v3.2 Full Release Notes

CHANGES TO APPLICATIONS:

  TITABLE

  Code in titable.x confuses an array of column selectors (used by
  tcs_*) with an array of column descriptors (the "column pointers"
  used by the generic table I/O routines).  In particular, in
  titable.x, tcs_close was being called for an array of column
  descriptors for the output table, which resulted in a panic error
  when the table was subsequently closed.  This has been replaced by a
  call to mfree.  In tinew.x, a call to tcs_close has been added for
  the array of column selectors that was populated by tcs_open for the
  input table.  This task does not need the row and column selectors;
  these are now handled by the table I/O routines.


  TCALC

  The arithmetic expression parameter was generating bogus queries
  because it wasn't being properly initialized. The initialization
  value was set to an empty string ("") in the poarameter file.

  TQUERY

  If the user specifies tquery.uniq=yes, the unique() function is
  called to discard duplicate rows, based on the list of columns that
  are to be copied to the output table.  Then the select() function is
  called to select the rows that were to be copied to output.  The
  selection of unique rows is based only on output columns, but the
  expression for selecting rows can use other columns.  If there are
  several rows that are the same when considering only the output
  columns, some may be rejected by the row selection criterion while
  others are accepted.  If the one that survives the unique() function
  happens to be rejected by the row selection expression, a row that
  should be copied to the output table will be lost.  The solution is
  to call select() before calling unique().


  TCREATE

  The help file was updated to describe multidimensional arrays, and
  to reflect that the maximum line length is not 1024 characters, but
  8196.
  There is an option to indicate that a column contains arrays, rather
  than scalar elements.  This is specified in the 'cdfile' by putting
  the array length in brackets following the letter that gives the
  datatype, e.g. r[400] for a real array of 400 elements.  It was
  supposed to be possible to specify a multidimensional array by
  giving the axis lengths, separated by commas, within the brackets.
  The only difference is that a TDIMi keyword (column number i) should
  be written that gives the individual axis lengths.  This did not
  work, however.  The total array size was correct, but the TDIMi
  keyword was not written.  The reason is that the call to tbcisa to
  assign the TDIMi keyword was made when the column definitions were
  being read from the 'cdfile', prior to actually opening the table
  file (i.e. after calling tbtopn but before calling tbtcre), so
  tbcisa returned without doing anything.  The solution was to move
  the call to tbcisa to a point after tbtcre has been called.  This is
  done by saving the array dimension information in a structure, and
  returning a pointer to that structure from the function that reads
  the column definitions.