RDB

RDB is a relational database system which uses a flat file ASCII format to store data. It relies heavily upon the UNIX OS to provide linking capabilities between operations (i.e. pipes and filters). Because it uses the UNIX filter paradigm, you can build up complicated manipulations with your favorite UNIX scripting language.

We use an implementation of RDB written in Perl. It is based upon code by Walter Hobbs, but with great changes and extensions.

Overview

RDB A mostly up-to-date overview of this implementation
rdb_expr (almost) everthing you wanted to know about RDB expressions

Database Manipulations

column select columns from an RDB table
headchg replace or change the header of an RDB table
jointbl join two RDB tables. now obsolete. see rdbjoin
lst2tbl convert a list format RDB table to table format
mergetbl merge two RDB tables
rdbcat concatenate RDB tables
rdbflip "flip" an RDB table sideways. used primarily to generate input RDB tables that rdbplt can use
rdbjoin join two RDB tables. a replacement for jointbl
rdb2grid convert an RDB table list of grid points to a grid
rdbtranspose transpose an RDB table (turn columns into rows)
row extract rows from an RDB table
sorttbl sort a table
tbl2lst convert an RDB table to "list" format
uniqtbl determine unique rows in an RDB table

Computations, Statistics, etc.

compute compute data field values. see also rdbeval
rdbaverage average a column, with optional weights
rdbeval compute data fields using Perl expressions
rdbfwhm calculate the FWHM from an RDB table
rdbhist create a histogram table and/or plot from an RDB table
rdbinterp interpolate into an RDB table
rdbrowop perform arithmetic operations on columns across rowsx
rdbrsamp randomly sample rows from an RDB table
rdbstats perform statistics on RDB tables
setfields set fields in an RDB table

Import, Export, Prettifying, Output, Plotting

dataent interactively enter data into an RDB table
fits2rdb convert FITS binary table to an RDB table
fmtcolumn format columns now obsolete. see rdbfmt
funcnts2rdb convert funcnts output to an RDB table
funhist2rdb convert funhist output to an RDB table
html2rdb convert HTML tables to RDB tables
ptbl quick and easy printing of an RDB table
pg2rdb extract a PostgreSQL table into an RDB table
rdbfmt nicely format data replaces fmtcolumn
rdb2html convert an RDB table into an HTML table
rdb2latex convert an RDB table into a LaTeX table
rdb2pg insert an RDB table into a PostgreSQL table
rdb2region convert an RDB table into a DS9 region file
rdbplt plot up RDB database files
repair attempt to repair existing or candidate RDB datafiles
redux2rdb convert synchotron reduced data files, *.red, to RDB datafile
sttbl2rdb convert STSDAS tables to RDB
stsdas2rdb convert STSDAS tables to RDB tables
valid validate the structure of RDB tables

Programming Interfaces

RDB++ A C++ library to read RDB tables
RDB++.ps A postscript version of the docs
mst_rdb A C library to read RDB tables
RDB.pm A Perl5 Object class for easily using RDB files. (Available with the MST Perl installation.)
AXAF MST Simulations and Analysis Software
Diab Jerius
Last modified: Tue Sep 21 10:54:36 EDT 2004