Class AsciiTableBuilder

Method Details

• getFormatName

  public String getFormatName()

  Description copied from interface: TableBuilder

  Returns the name of the format which can be read by this handler. Matching against this string may be used by callers to identify or select this handler from a list.

  Returns:

  one-word description of this handler's format

• makeStarTable

  public StarTable makeStarTable(uk.ac.starlink.util.DataSource datsrc, boolean wantRandom, StoragePolicy policy) throws TableFormatException, IOException

  Description copied from interface: TableBuilder

  Constructs a StarTable based on a given DataSource. If the source is not recognised or this builder does not know how to construct a table from it, then a TableFormatException should be thrown. If this builder thinks it should be able to handle the source but an error occurs during processing, an IOException can be thrown.

  The wantRandom parameter is used to indicate whether, ideally, a random-access table should be returned. There is no requirement for the builder to honour this request, but if it knows how to make both random and non-random tables, it can use this flag to decide which to return.

  Note: the presence of the wantRandom parameter is somewhat misleading. TableBuilder implementations usually should, and do, ignore it (it would be removed from the interface if it were not for backward compatibility issues). Regardless of the value of this parameter, implementations should return a random-access table only if it is easy for them to do so; in particular they should not use the supplied storagePolicy, or any other resource-expensive measure, to randomise a sequential table just because the wantRandom parameter is true.

  Parameters:

  datsrc - the DataSource containing the table resource

  wantRandom - whether, preferentially, a random access table should be returned

  policy - a StoragePolicy object which may be used to supply scratch storage if the builder needs it

  Returns:

  a StarTable made out of datsrc

  Throws:

  TableFormatException - if the table is not of a kind that can be handled by this handler

  IOException - if an unexpected I/O error occurs during processing

• docIncludesExample

  public boolean docIncludesExample()

  Description copied from interface: DocumentedIOHandler

  Indicates whether the serialization of some (short) example table should be added to the user documentation for this handler. Binary formats, or instances for which the Documented.getXmlDescription() method already includes some example output, should return false.

  Returns:

  true if the user documentation would benefit from the addition of an example serialization

• getXmlDescription

  public String getXmlDescription()

  Description copied from interface: Documented

  Returns user-directed documentation in XML format.

  The output should be a sequence of one or more <P> elements, using XHTML-like XML. Since rendering may be done in a number of contexts however, use of the full range of XHTML elements is discouraged. Where possible, the content should stick to simple markup such as the elements P, A, UL, OL, LI, DL, DT, DD EM, STRONG, I, B, CODE, TT, PRE.

  Returns:

  XML description of this object