STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set Version 3.4-1 Starlink User Note256 Mark Taylor 10 June 2021 Abstract STILTS is a set of command-line tools for processing tabular data. It has been designed for, but is not restricted to, use on astronomical data such as source catalogues. It contains both generic (format-independent) table processing tools and tools for processing VOTable documents. Facilities offered include crossmatching, format conversion, format validation, column calculation and rearrangement, row selection, sorting, plotting, statistical calculations and metadata display. Calculations on cell data can be performed using a powerful and extensible expression language. The package is written in pure Java and based on STIL, the Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library. This gives it high portability, support for many data formats (including FITS, VOTable, text-based formats and SQL databases), extensibility and scalability. Where possible the tools are written to accept streamed data so the size of tables which can be processed is not limited by available memory. As well as the tutorial and reference information in this document, detailed on-line help is available from the tools themselves. The STILTS application is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) though most parts of the library code may alternatively be used under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 9 2 The stilts command................................................................................................................. 11 2.1 Stilts flags.................................................................................................................................. 11 2.2 Task Names............................................................................................................................... 12 2.3 Task Arguments........................................................................................................................ 13 2.4 Getting Help.............................................................................................................................. 14 3 Invocation.................................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Class Path.................................................................................................................................. 18 3.2 Java Flags.................................................................................................................................. 18 3.3 System Properties...................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 JDBC Configuration.................................................................................................................. 21 4 JyStilts - STILTS from Python................................................................................................. 24 4.1 Running JyStilts........................................................................................................................ 25 4.2 Table I/O................................................................................................................................... 26 4.3 Table objects............................................................................................................................. 27 4.4 Table filter commands (cmd_*)................................................................................................. 29 4.5 Table output modes (mode_*).................................................................................................... 30 4.6 Tasks.......................................................................................................................................... 30 4.7 Calculation Functions................................................................................................................ 31 5 Table I/O...................................................................................................................................... 32 5.1 Table Formats............................................................................................................................ 32 5.1.1 Input Formats......................................................................................................................... 32 5.1.1.1 fits ..................................................................................................................................... 33 5.1.1.2 colfits ............................................................................................................................... 34 5.1.1.3 votable ............................................................................................................................... 34 5.1.1.4 cdf ....................................................................................................................................... 35 5.1.1.5 csv ....................................................................................................................................... 35 5.1.1.6 ecsv ..................................................................................................................................... 37 5.1.1.7 ascii ................................................................................................................................... 38 5.1.1.8 ipac ..................................................................................................................................... 39 5.1.1.9 mrt ....................................................................................................................................... 40 5.1.1.10 parquet ............................................................................................................................. 41 5.1.1.11 feather ............................................................................................................................. 42 5.1.1.12 gbin ................................................................................................................................... 42 5.1.1.13 tst ..................................................................................................................................... 43 5.1.1.14 wdc ..................................................................................................................................... 44 5.1.2 Output Formats....................................................................................................................... 44 5.1.2.1 fits ..................................................................................................................................... 44 5.1.2.2 colfits ............................................................................................................................... 45 5.1.2.3 votable ............................................................................................................................... 46 5.1.2.4 csv ....................................................................................................................................... 47 5.1.2.5 ecsv ..................................................................................................................................... 47 5.1.2.6 ascii ................................................................................................................................... 48 5.1.2.7 ipac ..................................................................................................................................... 49 5.1.2.8 parquet ............................................................................................................................... 49 5.1.2.9 feather ............................................................................................................................... 50 5.1.2.10 text ................................................................................................................................... 51 5.1.2.11 html ................................................................................................................................... 51 5.1.2.12 latex ................................................................................................................................. 52 5.1.2.13 tst ..................................................................................................................................... 52 5.1.2.14 mirage ............................................................................................................................... 53 5.2 Input Locations.......................................................................................................................... 54 5.3 Input Schemes........................................................................................................................... 55 5.3.1 skysim .................................................................................................................................... 55 5.3.2 attractor ...............................................................................................................................56