Subject: Allowed TFORMnnn values in Binary Tables

From: landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Wayne Landsman (301)-286-3625)
Date: 18 May 92 21:36:00 GMT

What are the allowed characters in the TFORMnnn field of a binary
table?    The NOST manual gives L,X,I,J,A,E,D,B,C,M, or P corresponding
to logical,bit,16-bit integer, 32 bit integer, character, single 
precision, double precision, unsigned bytes, single complex and double
complex, and 64 bit array descriptor.     However, the FITS test file 
f09.fits in fits.cx.nrao.edu includes the character 'F' in the TFORM5 field, 
presumably meaning single precision, and I have seen other binary tables use 
the 'F' format.   Should I go ahead and modify my FITS reader to parse an 
'F' format as an alias for 'E'?

Thanks,

Wayne Landsman
landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov  
(301)-286-3625

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From: pgrosbol at eso.org
Date: Tue, 19 May 1992 10:54:17 GMT

The test files available on anonymous ftp were made in the summer
of 1991 before the final definition of allowed formats was made.
Thus,  the sample 'f09' used the 'F' format for single precision
because it was allowed in the ASCII tables. The 'F' format is not
included for binary tables and I will make a correct test file
available shortly. Whereas it for ASCII table is an actual FORTRAN
format, the BINTABLE extension only use it for the field type.
It is therefore reasonable only to use 'E' in BINTABLEs.

Preben Grosbol
ESO