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Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik

Abteilung Astronomie

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Table of Contents




Introduction

This subdirectory contains the IDL procedures, mostly written by Don Lindler, (ACC/Goddard) to create and access an IDL database. These database procedures are currently used by the ASTRO-UIT, HST-GHRS, HST-STIS, ALEXIS and SOHO science teams. The LaTex file DATABASE.TEX in the /text directory describes the use of the database procedures with an emphasis on astronomical applications. Further information on the database software is available in Chapter 3 and Appendix J of "A User's Guide to the GHRS Software" available as a postscript file or as .html help

The database procedures require the non-standard system variables !PRIV, !TEXTOUT, and !TEXTUNIT. These can be added to the IDL session using the procedure ASTROLIB.

Sample astronomical catalogs, formatted as IDL databases, are available in the /zdbase directory. These include the Yale Bright Star Catalog, the RC3 Galaxy catalog, and a catalog of HST observations.

Due to a bug in the procedures DB_ENT2EXT and DB_ENT2HOST prior to August 1995, databases created with the /IEEE keyword on non-IEEE machines did not properly format multiple-valued items. A procedure DBREPAIR is available from Wayne Landsman which can fix improperly created databases.



Index of Subroutines

DB_ENT2EXT Convert a database entry to external (IEEE) data format
DB_ENT2HOST Converts a database entry from external data format to host format.
DB_INFO Function to obtain information on opened data base file(s)
DB_ITEM Returns the item numbers and other info. for an item name.
DB_ITEM_INFO routine to return information on selected item(s) in the opened data bases.
DB_OR Combine two vectors of entry numbers, removing duplicate values.
DB_TITLES Print database name and title. Called by DBHELP
DBBUILD Build a database by appending new values for every item.
DBCIRCLE Find sources in a database within specified radius of specified center
DBCLOSE procedure to close a data base file
DBCOMPARE Display two entries in an IDL database side by side in a column format
DBCOMPRESS Compress a .dbf database file after a call to DBDELETE
DBCREATE Create a new data base (.dbf), index (.dbx) or description (.dbh) file
DBDELETE Deletes specified entries from data base
DBEDIT Interactively edit specified fields in a database.
DBEDIT_BASIC Subroutine of DBEDIT_BASIC to edit a database on a dumb terminal.
DBEXT Extract values of up to 12 items from an IDL database
DBEXT_DBF Subroutine of DBEXT to extract values of up to 18 items from a database
DBEXT_IND routine to read a indexed item values from index file
DBFIND() Search data base for entries with specified characteristics
DBFIND_ENTRY Subroutine of DBFIND to perform an entry number search
DBFIND_SORT Subroutine of DBFIND to perform a search using sorted values
DBFPARSE Parse the search string supplied to DBFIND. Not a standalone routine
DBGET Find entry numbers which contain specified values of a given item.
DBHELP List available databases or items in the currently open database
DBINDEX Procedure to create index file for data base (V5.2 or later)
DBINDEX_BLK Subroutine of DBINDEX to create associated variable of correct datatype
DBMATCH Find the entry number in a database for each element of item values
DBOPEN Routine to open an IDL database
DBPRINT Procedure to print specified items from a list of database entries
DBPUT Procedure to place a new value for a specified item into a data base file entry.
DBRD procedure to read an entry from a data base file or from linked multiple databases.
DBSEARCH Subroutine of DBFIND() to search a vector for specified values
DBSORT Routine to sort list of entries in data base
DBTARGET Find sources in a database within specified radius of specified target
DBTITLE function to create title line for routine dbprint
DBUPDATE Update columns of data in a database -- inverse of DBEXT
DBVAL procedure to extract value(s) of the specified item from a data base file entry.
DBWRT procedure to update or add a new entry to a data base
DBXPUT routine to replace value of an item in a data base entry
DBXVAL Quickly return a value of the specified item number
IMDBASE Find the sources in an IDL database that are located on a given image.

Last modified by pro2html on 2008 November 09 at 04:11 UTC

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Jörn Wilms (wilms@astro.uni-tuebingen.de)
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