There are a number of buttons on the Control Window's toolbar;
these are the most convenient way of invoking most of TOPCAT's
functions. They are grouped as follows:
-
Import and export
-
-
Load Table
- Pops up the Load Table dialogue
which allows you to load a table into TOPCAT.
If a table is loaded it becomes the new current table.
-
Save Table
- Pops up the Save Table dialogue
which allows you to write out the current
Apparent Table.
-
Duplicate Table
- Adds a new copy of the current
Apparent Table to the list of known tables.
This is like loading in the current table again, except that
its apparent characteristics become the basic characteristics
of the copied one, so for instance whatever is the current
row order becomes the natural order of the new one.
-
Broadcast Table
- Broadcasts the current Apparent Table to any
applications registered using the PLASTIC protocol.
See Section 8.
-
Send Table
- Sends the current Apparent Table to a single
selected application registered using the PLASTIC protocol.
See Section 8.
-
Table views (see Appendix A.3)
-
-
Data Window
- Displays the table rows and columns in a scrollable viewer so you
can see the cell contents themselves.
-
Parameters Window
- Displays table "parameters", that is metadata which applies to the
whole table.
-
Columns Window
- Displays metadata about each column such as data type, units,
description, UCDs etc.
-
Subsets Window
- Displays the currently defined
row subsets
and enables new ones to be defined.
-
Statistics Window
- Displays a window for calculating
statistical quantities for the values in each
column of the table.
-
Graphics windows
-
-
Histogram
- Displays a window for plotting 1-d histograms.
-
2d Scatter Plot
- Displays a window for plotting 2-d scatter plots.
-
3D Scatter Plot
- Displays a window for plotting 3-d scatter plots on Cartesian axes.
-
Spherical Scatter Plot
- Displays a window for plotting 3-d scatter plots on spherical
polar axes, with or without a radial coordinate.
-
Stacked Line Plot
- Displays a window for plotting multiple stacked line plots
against a single X coordinate
-
Density Map
- Displays a window for plotting 2-d density maps
(image-like histograms on a 2-d grid of bins).
-
Matching and joining (see Section 5)
-
-
Concatenation Window
- Displays a dialog for joining tables top-to-bottom.
-
Internal Match Window
- Displays a dialog for finding internal matches between the rows
of a table.
-
Pair Match Window
- Displays a dialog for joining tables side-by-side by locating
rows which match between them.
Note that matches involving more than two tables can be done using
the options in the Joins menu.
-
Miscellaneous
-
-
Available Functions
- Displays a window containing all the functions which can be used
for writing algebraic expressions (see Section 6).
-
Help
- Displays the help browser, open at the entry on the
Control Window.
-
Exit
- Queries for confirmation, then exits the application.