NAME

hkunexpand -- Compress an expanded ASCA housekeeping (HK) parameter FITS table.

USAGE

        hkunexpand infile[ext#] outfile

DESCRIPTION

This task generates a compressed ASCA HK table from an uncompressed table. The compressed table just contains 3 column (time, parameter name, and parameter value) which list each HK parameter whenever its value has changed. The input uncompressed HK table has an individual column for the value of each parameter. Values are only written to the compressed table when they have changed from their previous state. The data type of the output value column can be either scalar(integer or real) or character. However, combinations of the scalar columns and string columns (character) are not allowed in the output file. The conversion from scalar columns to string columns or vice versa are also prohibited.

PARAMETERS

infile [filename]

The file name and extension number in square brackets of the input uncompressed HK table.

outfile [filename]

The name of the compressed HK table to be created. This FITS file will contain a null primary array followed by a binary table extension containing the compressed HK parameters.

(name = "name") [string]

The column name in output file to contain the housekeeping parameter names.

(value = "value") [string]

The column name in output file to contain the housekeeping parameter values.

(time = "time") [string]

The column name in input and output tables containing the housekeeping parameter time stamp.

(tnull = " ") [string]

The TNULL keyword value for undefined table values in output file. A blank indicates no TNULL keywords are to be generated. However, for string values (type "A"), the tnull is always " " regardless of what tnull string is given.

(outtype = " ") [string]

The datatype of output columns. The outtype can be "B"(byte), "S"(2 byte short), "I"(4 byte integer), "F" or "E"(single precision real), "R" or "D" (double precision real) and "A" (string with 30 characters). If none of the above is given, for the scalar input file, the outtype will take the highest one in the input columns according to the hierarchy of Byte < short integer < (integer, single precision real) < double precision. For the string input file, the outtype will be "A". (OBSOLETE: The default is integer, unless outtype = "R".)

(copyall = yes) [boolean]

If true, all other extensions are copied to the output file.

EXAMPLES

1. Create a compressed HK file called unxhk.fits from the uncompressed HK FITS file hk.fits:

           ft> hkunexpand hk.fits unxhk.fits

BUGS AND RESTRICTIONS

All columns in the input file must be either all numeric scalars, or all strings. Combinations of the numeric scalar parameters and character parameters are not allowed. This program also can not perform the conversion between the scalar column and string column. The array and complex number are not supported. The extension type (ASCII or binary) of the output table will be the same as that of the input table.

SEE ALSO

hkexpand

CATEGORY